Dell Inspiron 9300

Overview

A lot of laptop gaming enthusiasts are familiar with the high performance machines from Alienware, Voodoo, and other 'boutique' laptop companies. Dell, in an attempt to enter the boutique laptop market, released their XPS Gen 2 laptop. This machine combines the powerful GeForce Go 6800 Ultra graphics card with the popular Pentium M CPU in a relatively lightweight 17" widescreen frame. The XPS is faster, lighter, and even cooler with a longer battery life than its Pentium 4 based competitors. The only catch here is that the starting price of the XPS Gen 2 is an astounding $2,749. For those who can't afford the XPS yet still desire similar performance, Dell also offers the Inspiron 9300. Using a similar chassis and offering 'lower performance' options, the Inspiron 9300 is an incredible value. The best part is that users still have the option to select many powerful components, including the TrueLife WUXGA 17" LCD and the powerful 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 graphics card, which only lacks some clock speed from the Go 6800 Ultra available in the XPS Gen 2.

After upgrades, the Inspiron 9300 offers a lot of features for the money. The base model includes a Pentium M 730 (1.6 GHz), 256MB DDR2 533 RAM, 17' WXGA screen, 40GB hard drive, 64MB ATI MOBILITY RADEON X300 graphics, and CD-RW/DVD-ROM for $1499 before any discounts. However, after a few upgrades, the Inspiron 9300 really starts to shine. For a mere $150, you can exchange the low performance X300 graphics for the high-end NVIDIA Go 6800. For another $125, you can upgrade the midrange WXGA+ LCD to an amazing WUXGA TrueLife display. Combined with an integrated TV tuner upgrade for $160, the Dell Inspiron 9300 suddenly becomes a powerful and versatile desktop replacement laptop at an amazing price. Our particular configuration cost just over $2000 before any Dell discounts and you can see the full configuration on the next page. However, users on a budget should be aware that Dell frequently offers promotions that can truly make the Dell 9300 even more affordable.

Design

Portability
Classified as a DTR laptop with a 17" widescreen and weighing in a bit over 8 lbs, the Dell 9300 is not intended to be carried around. Although it is lighter than most 17" laptops, the sheer size of its chassis renders transportation a hassle. The 9300 is far from petite, measuring 15.5-inches wide x 11.3-inches long and 1.6-inches thick. With the 6-cell battery in our machine, the weight came to about 7.8 lbs with the optical drive. As a side note, most laptop bags do not support 17" models, so be sure to check before purchasing a case. Some companies have special "XL" case models designed specifically for 17" laptops. Of course, those weigh more than their standard counterparts, and are often considerably more expensive.

Case and Design
The Dell 9300 laptop casing is constructed out of sturdy magnesium alloy and reinforced plastic. It has a matte finish, covered with a shiny silver paint. The hinges are made of the same material, which definitely makes it solid enough for long term use. When the laptop is closed, there is a slight gap between the lid and the body of the laptop.

The status lights next to the power button denote Num Lock, Caps Lock, Scroll Lock, Wi-Fi on/off, and Bluetooth on/off. The lights glow green when the corresponding function is on. Note that the base model does not include Bluetooth, which requires a $49 upgrade.

The multimedia function keys are built into the front side of the laptop, and are very convenient for watching movies or listening to music. They include volume control, play, pause, fast forward, reverse, and stop. As shown in the picture, the buttons glow light blue when depressed.

Play, Pause, Fast Forward, Reverse & Stop.

There are also status lights located on the hinge, which displays whether your laptop is on/off, hard drive activity, and if your laptop battery is currently being charged. These lights glow green when active.

This placement for this indicator can be seen even when the lid is closed.

Keyboard
The Dell 9300 has the standard laptop keyboard with no keys missing, except for the separate numeric pad. Instead, a "virtual" numeric pad can be accessed by pressing certain keys while holding down the Function key. Considering that this is a 17" laptop, having a numeric pad is very important, which is a major negative in its design. Of course, you can always just purchase a separate USB numeric pad to offset this inconvenience. The keys are a bit small for a 17" laptop, but depress a satisfying amount. They produce a clicking noise when depressed, which can become annoying. The Function key is between the Left Control and Windows key, which could take some getting used to.

There is plenty of space to rest your arms when typing. You will also find a lot of empty space surrounding the keyboard, which could have been used either for enlarging the laptop keys, or to integrate a numeric pad. The function keys are impressively plentiful: standby, hibernate, wireless/bluetooth enable, Dell QuickSet Battery Meter display, Task Manager window open, CD/DVD tray eject, increase/decrease screen brightness, power management mode activation, volume control, and speaker enable/disable.

Touchpad
The touchpad feels annoyingly coarse and is too small, especially given the size of the laptop. Even most 12" laptops have larger touchpads than the one on the 9300! This especially becomes a nuisance when doing photo editing and other related tasks. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the touchpad is amazingly unresponsive, which makes even simple mouse movements a chore. Thankfully, since the Dell 9300 is not an on-the-go laptop, you can just use a normal USB mouse most of the time instead of the touchpad.

There is also a horizontal and vertical touch scroll built in. Strangely, they do not function without being specifically enabled by the user.

Design Continued

Connectivity Options
As a 17" DTR laptop marketed directly towards the multimedia segment, the Dell Inspiron 9300 has an incredible array of connectivity options, including 6 USB 2.0 ports, DVI, S-Video, Firewire, and more. There are a few complaints, though. The Inspiron 9300 is missing a few legacy ports, such as the printer port and a serial port. This is acceptable, because they are called legacy ports for a reason, but it never hurts to have them available. People who still have older hardware need to keep this in mind. In addition, for a laptop of this size, I wish Dell added an additional FireWire port for a total of two. Another noticeable complaint is that there is no Compact Flash reader: the laptop only supports SD cards. Other than that, the Dell Inspiron 9300 has a good array of connectivity options with proper placement.

The left side of the laptop houses the CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive, as well as 2 of the 6 total USB 2.0 ports and a ventilation opening. Many laptops have the CD drive on the right side, which could interfere with the mouse, so this is a terrific choice by Dell.

The right side of the laptop contains the PCMCIA card slot, SD slot, Firewire port, headphone jack, and microphone jack. It is disappointing to see a new Sonoma-based laptop without an Express Card slot. Express Cards will use the high bandwidth of the PCI Express bus and eventually replace PC Cards. In all reality, new notebook purchasers today should consider the PC Card a legacy connection and aim to have both of these slots on their machine.

On the front, you will find the stereo speakers and multimedia buttons.

The back of the Dell 9300 is heavily populated, containing 2 exhaust ports, S-Video, LAN, modem, 4 x USB 2.0 ports, VGA, DVI, and the power connector. DVI and S-Video are not typically offered in value laptops, so this again is a great choice by Dell.

Heat and Noise
Surprisingly, the Dell 9300 is a very quiet, especially for a desktop replacement laptop. During normal usage, such as web browsing or word processing, you can't hear the fans unless you put your ear right down by them. Even when playing the latest games, the Dell 9300 remained silent. In 2D mode browsing web pages, the laptop would be warm at most. However, when playing 3D games for long periods of time, the laptop would become fairly hot, requiring you to place it on a desk instead of your lap.

Upgrading and Expansion
Like most laptops, the Dell 9300 only offers a few user upgradeable components: the integrated wireless, RAM, and hard drive. These components are accessed by unscrewing panels on the back. Even though the graphics card is PCI-E, which is touted to be upgradeable, the Dell 9300 does not offer an easy way to do it! Unfortunately, the same also is true for the CPU. A nice feature is that both of the RAM slots are on the bottom of the machine. A lot of laptops today come with one slot under the keyboard, making RAM upgrades painstaking at times.

Features

CPU
The Dell 9300 supports all Pentium M CPUs up to 2 GHz. Our Dell 9300 configuration uses the Pentium M 730 1.6 GHz ( Dothan) with 2MB L2 cache. Following the standard rule of thumb, the 1.6 GHz processor is roughly equal to a (1.6 x 1.6) 2.6 GHz Pentium 4, or an AMD 64 2700+ (1.6 GHz). Therefore, we can expect performance is about equal to a modern low end desktop machine. However, this is compensated by a longer battery life, due to the low power consumption (27W TDP) inherent in the Pentium M 'Dothan' processor.

This is a newer Sonoma-based Pentium M CPU, meaning it supports newer features like dual-channel DDR2 533 RAM. However, don't expect performance to increase by much, due to the lackluster latency timings of the DDR2 RAM with our model. Unfortunately, with the new features comes an increase in power consumption: the Sonoma Pentium M CPUs have a 27W TDP, up from 21W. Since it is a mobile CPU, the Pentium M has a special feature to further save power: Enhanced Intel SpeedStep. This technology clocks the CPU down to 800 MHz when idle, saving considerable battery life when performing mundane tasks like browsing the web or reading e-mail.

RAM
Since the Dell 9300 uses the latest Sonoma chipset, it can support dual channel DDR2 RAM. Even though it's running at 266 MHz (266MHz x 2 = 533MHz effective), with higher latencies comes less performance. In fact, DDR2 533 performance is still at or below that of high quality DDR 400. Fortunately, the RAM is upgradeable up to 2GB.

GPU
Dell offers its customers to select the powerful NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 graphics card with the 9300 model. However, in an effort to minimize heat and power consumption, Dell underclocked (lowered) the speeds from the recommended 375 MHz core speeds to 290 MHz. The video RAM clock speed was also underclocked from 300 MHz to 295 MHz. Even with this seemingly drastic reduction in speed, we can still expect the Dell 9300 to dominate in all 3D areas. The Go 6800 GPU is a derivative of NVIDIA's desktop 6800 product, inheriting its 256bit memory bus, 12 pixel pipelines, and 5 vertex shaders. Unlike the desktop NVIDIA 6800 graphics card, it is made on a 110nm process instead of 130nm to lower heat and power consumption, and is (unfortunately) not unlockable to 16 pipes and 6 vertex shaders like some of the desktop cards. The NVIDIA Go 6800 also features battery saving technology that turns off parts of the GPU when they are not in use. In 2D mode, the graphics card lowers its own voltage and clock speeds to further save power.

NVIDIA's approach on its Go 6800 product is that it favors high core frequencies over pipeline count. The result is a GPU that excels mainly at lower resolutions (1280x1024 or below), with low AA and AF filtering. Therefore, the combination of this GPU with the ultra high UXGA resolution screen makes little sense. However, a 12 pipeline card is still the second most a laptop graphics card has at the moment: the ATI MOBILITY RADEON X800XT with 16 pipelines has just come out, available only in the super high end gaming machines. Games like Half Life 2 easily run on max graphics settings, with 4xAA and 8xAF, at a screen resolution of 1440x900. However, running at the native UXGA resolution in Half Life 2 resulted in a drastic reduction in FPS to around 20-40fps, making gameplay difficult. Doom 3 at High image quality and 1280x1024 resolution looked amazing and it produced bearable FPS, although it may still be a bit slow for the hardcore gamers. For most users, the NVIDIA Go 6800 will run most current games seamlessly, even at above average game settings.

Display
Our Dell 9300 laptop uses the high resolution transflective (Dell calls this feature TrueLife) WUXGA screen. In both 2D and 3D mode, the picture is amazingly sharp and the color is vibrant, especially at its full resolution of 1920x1200! Screen quality is completely satisfactory no matter what the task. Brightness and contrast are excellent. The maximum brightness is too bright to be used indoors, and should be used outdoors for amazing results. Movies are reproduced in brilliant colors, and gaming is a delight with no image ghosting. Even text at the maximum resolution was easily readable, due to the sharpness of the display. Many people have complained about the quality of Dell's UXGA screens, such a sparkling effect, but we did not encounter this problem with our screen.

Both the viewing angle, brightness, and the response rate are excellent. There is a "sweet spot" in the viewing angle, but the LCD is very forgiving so the image looks relatively sharp and bright even from the side.

Features Continued

Sound
Aside from the standard integrated stereo speakers on the side of the keyboard, there is a subwoofer on the bottom of the laptop, which improves bass considerably. The result is a great stereo sound experience with above average bass. Still, nothing still beats a good pair of headphones. Although Sonoma platform supports Intel's High Definition Audio, the Dell Inspiron 9300 does not.

Wireless
The Dell 9300 uses the standard Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG (802.11b/g) card, which should be suitable for most needs. The card can be turned off when not needed to save power by simply pressing a function button. Wireless speed and strength, like mody laptops with this card, was never an issue. Dell uses the standard Windows wireless connection software to manage connections, which works well overall.

Optical Drive
The Dell 9300 uses a CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive, suitable for watching movies and listening to music. Although there are no DVD burning capabilities in the standard model, the base model does offer CD-RW support. Although DVD playback speed is a bit lacking, the drive still performs adequately. Dell allows you to upgrade to a DVD +/- RW/R Combo drive if you are in need of DVD writing and faster DVD reading capabilities.

The disk drive speeds are as follows:

• CD Read 24x
• CD Write 24x
• DVD Read 8

Hard Drive
Dell offers a limited range of hard drives in terms of performance. Although the customer can choose between hard drives with 40GB, 60GB, 80GB, and even 100GB capacities, there is little to no choice with the hard drive RPM. Dell doesn't even display the RPM, merely describing them based on their capacity. The sole exception is the 60GB 7200RPM model, which will improve load times considerably, but you can expect all other drives to be the slowest hard drives available: 4200RPM hard drives. Note: It appears that a number of 9300 owners have received 5400RPM drives in lieu of 4200RPM models. It appears that Dell substitutes what model is readily available in a given instance, but the actual spindle speed of the 40GB drive that is supposed to ship with the 9300 is 4200RPM. If you want to see real world numbers on the differences in drive performance, check out our RPM Guide.

Our model included a Toshiba 80GB with a slow 4200RPM. The noise from the hard drive was not noticeable unless I put my ear right next to the laptop. The area around the hard drive did not get noticeably hot.

Battery
Even though the Dell Inspiron 9300 utilizes the low power Pentium M CPU, battery life is still low due to the large LCD and the powerful graphics card. The supplied battery is a 53 WHr 4400 mAh standard 6 cell laptop battery, which is barely enough for a short movie, or for an hour or two of simple web browsing, word editing, and other simple tasks. However, it will only last an hour or less of intense gaming. Our tests showed that even when performing simple tasks such as word processing or web surfing, battery life will not go over a mere 2 hours. Obviously, the Dell Inspiron is meant to be constantly plugged in. If you need additional battery life, try our Advanced Battery Optimization Guide, or you can purchase a spare battery from Dell's website.

AC Adapter
The included power brick is small and compact for a DTR laptop, with dimensions of 1.1" x 2.3" x 5.25" and weighs a mere 0.9lbs. The cable length is sufficient for most requirements; fully extended, it's almost 11 feet long! Unlike almost all other laptops, a rubber cable management device is included.

Software
Dell pre-installed numerous pieces of software onto the Dell Inspiron 9300. The minimum software is as follow:

• Musicmatch Jukebox Basic
• Photo Album SE Basic
• Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0
• QuickBooks trial

You can also configure the laptop to have other useful software pre-installed, such as Norton Antivirus.

In the basic package, Dell only includes a few basic CDs.

• Windows XP Home Edition SP2
• CyberLink PowerDVD 5.3.1012
• Sonic RecordNow 7.3 LE
• WordPerfect Productivity Pack

Setup Method

The Dell Inspiron 9300 was set to run at full performance by setting the power scheme set to 'Home/Office Desk', meaning that the CPU will not underclock while running the tests. For the battery performance test, the power scheme was set to 'Portable/Laptop'. This activates Cool&Quiet technology, which lowers CPU speed when not needed, thus increasing battery life. Screen brightness and audio were both set to 50% and Wi-Fi was turned on. Each test was repeated 3 times to ensure accuracy. Before each test was run, the laptop was rebooted and its hard drive defragmented.

Business Winstone 2004 runs business related applications through a series of scripted activities and uses the time a PC takes to complete those activities to produce its performance scores. Each application runs 5 tests through a series of demos and activities. Business applications include:

• Microsoft Access 2002
• Microsoft Excel 2002
• Microsoft Frontpage 2002
• Microsoft Outlook 2002
• Microsoft PowerPoint 2002
• Microsoft Project 2002
• Microsoft Word 2002
• Norton AntiVirus Professional Edition 2003
• Winzip 8.1

Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2004 is a single large test that runs multimedia applications through a series of scripted activities and returns a single score. Applications include:

• Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1
• Adobe Premiere 6.50
• Macromedia Director MX 9.0
• Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 6.1
• Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 9 Version 9.00.00.2980
• NewTek's LightWave 3D 7.5b
• Steinberg WaveLab 4.0f

Business Winstone 2004 Batterymark measures a laptop computer's battery life by simulating real-world usage. The program measures the time it takes to drain the battery by running applications such as Microsoft Office XP, Norton AntiVirus, and WinZip through a series of scripted activities to drain the battery in a realistic way.

3DMark 2001 SE PRO build 3.3.0 measures graphics performance by benchmarking the CPU, memory, and graphics through a series of 21 tests, including simulated games, theoretical tests, DX8 feature tests, and image quality tests. Resolution was set to 1024x768 with all default settings.

3DMark 2003 build 3.6.0 measures DX9 performance through a series of 3D game based sound, graphics, and CPU tests. Resolution was set to 1024x768 with all default settings.

PCMark 2004 build 1.3.0 uses real life application tests to generate a combined score by running specific tasks like application loading, game tests, 3D rendering, multimedia encoding, and more. Resolution was set to 1024x768 with all default settings.

Doom 3 (Version 1.1) using the built-in time-demo, initiated with the console command 'timedemo demo1 precache'.

Test1:

• 800x600 resolution
• Quality Setting: Medium
• 0xAA
• V-Sync disabled
• High quality special effects enabled
• Shadows enabled
• Specular enabled
• Bump Maps enabled

Test2:

• 1024x768 resolution
• Quality Settings: High
• 4xAA
• VSynch Disabled
• High quality special effects enabled
• Shadows enabled
• Specular enabled
• Bump Maps enabled

Half Life 2 (Source Engine 7) timedemos Coast 05 and Canals 08 from Anandtech.com with the following tests and graphic settings:

Test1:

• 1024x768 resolution
• Medium model detail
• Medium texture detail
• Simple Reflection water detail
• Low shadow detail
• 0xAA
• Trilinear filtering
• Low shader detail
• V Sync disabled

Test2:

• 1024x768 resolution
• High model detail
• High texture detail
• Reflect All water detail
• High shadow detail
• 4xAA
• Anisotropic 8X
• High shader detail
• V Sync disabled

Configurations
The Dell Inspiron 9300 was compared against our previously benchmarked DTR and performance laptops around the same price range.

System	Inspiron 9300	Acer 8103WLMi	Battalion S-Turbo
OS	Windows XP Home w/SP2	Windows XP Pro w/SP2	Windows XP Pro w/SP2
CPU	Pentium M 730 1.60GHz	Pentium M 750 1.86GHz	AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Bus	533 MHz	533MHz	1600 MHz
RAM	2x512MB DDR2 533 Dual Channel CL4	2x512MB DDR2 533 Single Channel CL4	2x512MB DDR400 Single Channel CL3
Hard Drive	Fujitsu 80GB 8MB cache 4200RPM	Seagate 100GB 8MB cache 5400RPM	Hitachi 60GB 7200RPM
Video	NVIDIA Go 6800 256MB DDR	ATI Radeon X700 128MB DDR	ATI Radeon 9700 128MB DDR
Battery	4,400 mAh	4,800 mAh	4,400 mAh

Performance

General Usage (Business Winstone 2004)

Due to its slow hard drive, CPU, and RAM, the Dell 9300 loses by a large margin.

Multimedia Content Creation (Business Winstone 2004)

The Multimedia benchmark is more dependent on CPU speed and RAM bandwidth. Since the Dell 9300 is lacking in both areas, it is thoroughly defeated in this benchmark. The AMD64 powered Ibuypower Battalion laptop easily wins.

PCMark04
PCMark 2004 is a good way to determine the strengths and weaknesses of a computer. PCMark runs many tests, such as application loading and video encoding, and comes up with a final score, with many different subscores. By comparing the subscore, it is easy to see the strengths and weaknesses of your laptop.

With a slow hard drive, RAM, and CPU selection, it's no wonder the Dell 9300 loses overall in PC Mark.

With its 1.6 GHz Pentium M processor, the Dell 9300 has the lowest performing CPU out of the three.

Laptops with similar CPUs also have similar memory bandwidth, as shown above. Dell's dual channel RAM, running at 533 MHz with loose CL4 timings. The AMD64 powered Battalion easily wins this matchup, with its integrated memory controller.

As expected, with an amazing 12 pixel pipelines, the NVIDIA Go 6800 powered Dell 9300 easily sweeps the Acer and Battalion laptops, both with 8 and 4 pipelines respectively.

Again, the Dell 9300 loses, this time due to its slow 4200rpm hard drive.

3D Performance

3DMark 2001 SE

This test is pretty much CPU and RAM limited. The Dell 9300 only wins by a little, even with its powerful graphics card.

3DMark 2003
3DMark 2003 is a popular DX9 test which focuses on graphics card performance.

The Dell 9300 handily wins this test, more than doubling the score of the Mobility 9700 found in the Ibuypower Battalion laptop.

3DMark 2005
3DMark 2005 is the latest DX9.0c benchmark, heavily taxing even the most powerful graphics card.

Again, another clear win by the Dell 9300. However, note how poorly both laptops perform keeping in mind that high end desktop cards should score around 5000 in this test. The Radeon 9700 Mobility does not support some DirectX 9.0c features, so it couldn't complete the test.

Gaming Performance

Doom 3
Doom 3 is the latest game in the famous Doom franchise, released by Id Software. Doom 3 uses the latest in graphics technology, and is famous for its use of shadows. This game uses OpenGL, and heavily stresses even the toughest graphics card. Doom 3 is playable on the Dell Inspiron 9300 at 1024x768 resolutions with high image quality, or at slightly higher resolutions with medium image quality.

As expected, the NVIDIA Go 6800 leads by a healthy margin.

The Dell 9300 is the only laptop that can still play Doom 3
at these settings.

Half Life 2
Half Life 2 is no doubt the most famous DirectX title released this year. It is also incredibly scalable, claiming support for graphics cards all the way to DirectX 7. After testing, we determined that even the highest resolution of 1920x1200 is (somewhat) playable! However, testing was done at 1024x768, as not all laptops can support such extreme resolutions.

At such low resolutions and graphics quality, the test is mostly CPU and RAM limited. The Acer's faster CPU and ATI graphics card allow it to take the win, as Half Life 2 heavily favors ATI graphics cards.

The same is true for this test.

With higher graphics settings, the superiority of the NVIDIA Go 6800 becomes apparent.

This test involves rendering large amounts of water, which easily becomes the most strenuous HL2 benchmark in our testing suite. The NVIDIA Go 6800 -powered Dell 9300 is more than twice as fast as the slow Radeon 9700 powered Ibuypower Battalion.

Battery Performance

Batterymark is a test for battery longevity. It consists of two tests: the Conditioning and the Life run. The Conditioning test is basically a looped Business Winstone test. The Life run is different; it consists of the Business Winstone test, with an added twist: before performing each step, the test will idle for a couple minutes, to simulate the user reading the material, etc. Therefore, the Life run is a light use battery test, while the Conditioning run tests the battery at maximum CPU usage.

Even with its 27W Pentium M CPU, the vast size of the 17" widescreen LCD, and the high power consumption of the NVIDIA Go 6800 GPU causes its battery life to be even worse than the 81.5W AMD64 Ibuypower Battalion. Still, compared to the other DTR laptops using the latest high end GPUs, the battery life is far from horrible.

Again, the 17" widescreen LCD and the NVIDIA 6800 go make short work of the Dell 9300's battery life. Still, 2:01 is quite good for a laptop of this size.

Overclocking

CPU
Since the Dell 9300 uses the new Intel 915PM chipset, overclocking was not possible, since the required software has not been released yet.

GPU
The NVIDIA Go 6800 has tremendous overclocking headroom. I was able to overclock it to 401 MHz core speed and 405 MHz memory speed (810 MHz effective) with the RivaTuner software. There were no heat problems at all. However, even after overclocking, the non-Ultra version is still much slower than the NVIDIA Go 6800 Ultra, which runs at an astounding 450 MHz core speed and 550 MHz (1100 MHz after doubling) memory speed. This is not that big of a deal, since the Go 6800 still performs very well for a laptop.

Results
Many benchmarks did not show much improvement after overclocking. This is due to the immense power of the NVIDIA Go 6800 GPU and the lack of performance in the RAM and hard drive. This causes the system to be bottlenecked by the CPU and RAM rather than the graphics card. On the more intensive benchmarks, overclocking did show a great improvement over the regular stock settings.

Conclusion

Pros

• Extremely powerful GPU option
• Pentium M processor
• Beautiful transflective widescreen UXGA 17" LCD
• Lightweight for a 17" laptop
• Inexpensive after Dell promotions
• Good quality sound with decent bass
• Option for integrated TV tuner with remote control
• Magnesium alloy casing

Cons

• No 5400RPM hard drive option
• Small and grainy touchpad
• Loud keyboard with below average key size
• No numeric keypad
• Low battery life
• Bulky chassis

Recommendation
The Dell Inspiron 9300 is one of the most powerful laptops that has ever been in our labs. Coupled with a high quality WUXGA LCD screen and an incredible price, this machine is an awesome bang for the buck. With such a powerful graphics card, strong performing CPU options, and a brilliant LCD screen the Dell Inspiron 9300 is the budget gamer's dream laptop. Multimedia users will also appreciate the number of connectivity options and optional TV tuner. Of course such versatility and performance comes at a price: the Dell Inspiron 9300 has arguably the shortest battery life we've seen from a Pentium M notebook, due to the power hungry graphics card and massive LCD screen. Of course, this machine is meant to stay on your desk.

While our machine was quite a bargain after the Dell coupon, adding larger/faster hard drives or faster CPU's will quickly destroy any bargain present. To keep the laptop inexpensive a low end CPU, RAM, and hard drive would be needed, which can present a serious performance bottleneck. Unfortunately, even the most expensive upgrades will not cure the Inspiron 9300 of its design problems: a tiny keyboard with no numeric keypad, an incredibly small touchpad, and 5400RPM hard drive option. Since the Inspiron 9300 is likely to spend most of its life on a desk, these problems can be worked around with a USB mouse and keyboard. Despite the design shortcomings, Dell's Inspiron 9300 is one of the best value and best performing DTR laptops currently available. Users who prefer a better keyboard and touchpad at the sacrifice of high heat output and gaming performance should take a look at Hewlett Packard's zd8000 series.

Availability/Warranty
The Dell Inspiron 9300 is available online at www.dell.com, with a starting price of $1,499. Dell frequently offers coupons to drop the price, so bargain hunters keep your eyes out in our hot deals forum. Dell offers 1 Year standard warranty and 1 Year Technical Support. You can extend your warranty to 2 or 3 Years.

Dell Inspiron Mini 9

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Review

It took some time, but Dell has finally come out with a netbook of its own in the form of the Dell Inspiron Mini 9. The 8.9", 2.3lb subnotebook carries a 1.6GHz Intel® Atom Processor® N270, and our model came with 1GB RAM and an 8GB SSD. Despite having so little space to work with, Dell gave their Mini an integrated webcam and a decent amount of connectivity ports. While Dell couldn’t solve everything - the keyboard is still scrunched and the Atom powered unit does run warm. If you’re looking for an extremely portable computer that still has a little kick, look no further than the Dell Inspiron Mini 9.

Design

The first word that comes to mind when you look at the Inspiron Mini is glossy. The screen is glossy, the lid is glossy, and even the plam rest and the silver border surrounding the keyboard and screen on either side is glossy. While this all looks very nice, it means just about the only things that won’t track fingerprints within the first ten minutes of use are the keyboard and the trackpad (although the silver borders don’t track nearly as much as the lid, which is entirely black but for a grey Dell logo at its center). In addition to the glossy rim of silver, the LCD has an interior border of black in which the integrated webcam is housed above and two speaker bays on either side of a shiny Dell logo are housed below. The keyboard is standard black matte and the trackpad and buttons are the same silver as the palm rest, blending nicely.

Size and Weight

It wouldn’t be a netbook without a miniscule size and weight, and the Inspiron Mini fits right in with the rest of the class. With a weight of 2.3lbs and dimensions of just 9.1"x6.8"x1.3", the Mini feels comfortable on your lap, and as long as the warm underbody doesn’t bother you the laptop will never be a distraction there. Placing both hands on either side of the laptop’s keyboard we were able to balance it conveniently on one knee, although for obvious reasons we recommend scrunching those legs together to balance it on both legs when not typing. The AC adapter doesn’t add much weight either, for a combined weight of 2.6lbs that’s easy to throw into a small bag or case.

Keyboard

If the size and weight are the main attraction of a netbook, the keyboard is almost by necessity one of the main minuses. Dell actually does an very decent job of fitting as much of a keyboard as it can into such a small area, but it is far from perfect. All keys above the numbers have been removed, with F1-F10 still accessible by pressing function and the middle row of keys. But some keys are just gone, such as F11, F12, and scroll/num lock. We don’t really miss scroll lock and we can understand not having a number pad or num lock, but F11 is a useful key for putting browser windows into full screen. More frustrating than the occasional missing key, however, is the fraction of an inch allowed to such keys as tab, right shift, the period and the comma, and others. The keyboard is sufficiently crowded that touch typing is nearly impossible, and we found ourselves looking down and jabbing the keyboard with one or two fingers in order to avoid making mistakes. We had to expect this out of a netbook, but that doesn’t mean we have to like it, and if you’re thinking about making this a primary computer we highly recommend an external keyboard.

The trackpad leaves less to complain about. The left-click is about the same size as the right-click and neither make an annoying sound when you press them, which is nice. The trackpad itself is a decent size, and our only complaint is that the horizontal scroll is a bit sensitive. We found ourselves pressing from right to left almost halfway up the trackpad and instead of moving the mouse, our window attempted to scroll. While the trackpad is serviceable, we also recommend an external mouse for everyday use.

Display Quality

With an 8.9" LCD and a resolution of 1024x600, the Dell Mini has a reasonable amount of screen real estate for such a small unit, with just enough room to view the webpages or documents you need. The glossy finish makes the colors sharp, but adds glare, and viewing the screen outdoors was difficult. Indoors, however, there was no problem at all, and with minimal horizontal distortion the viewing angles are good enough that more than one person could crowd around to watch a video. The vertical angles are not as good, but viewing from underneath is noticeably better than viewing from above.

Connectivity

The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 actually features a good amount of connectivity for a unit so small, although you won’t find any HD ports such as DisplayPort or HDMI. Like with most netbooks, you also won’t find an optical drive. Still, it’s as much as you can expect from a netbook, if not a little bit more.

The LCD pivots not just above but behind the keyboard, which means the power cord, usually located on the back, is pushed to the left side instead. Also on the left side are 2 USB ports as well as a multicard reader.

The right side contains headphone/microphone jacks, a third USB port, VGA out and Ethernet. There is a tiny and relatively ineffective exhaust between the microphone jack and the USB port.

No ports on the front, although we do have a power indicator light as well as a battery indicator light.

Upgrading

Dell has actually made this unit fairly upgradable. As always with a Dell there is a reasonable amount of customization available through their website, and you can choose between Linux and Windows XP, 512MB RAM or 1GB, 4GB, 8GB or 16GB SSD, webcam or no webcam, and even a choice of color between alpine white (which might track fewer prints) and obsidian black. It’s also easier to manually upgrade than most other netbooks, with most of the upgradable parts grouped together directly underneath a simple access panel in front of the battery.

The Inspiron Mini doesn’t really have room for too many surprise features, but it does have a few nice touches. First is the optional integrated Bluetooth, which is in a lot of notebooks but not everywhere and certainly comes in handy on a portable unit like this. It also has the optional integrated webcam, with options of .3MP or 1.3MP, and a multicard reader. Most interesting, however, is the internal mobile broadband antennae. Vodaphone recently announced it would offer a mobile broadband plan for Dell Mini users in the UK, and it is expected that more information for US users will surface soon.

Performance and Conclusion

WorldBench: The testing didn't complete and kept throwing a faiilure message.

WPrime: 32M 124.125sec

Battery Life:
General Usage: 187 minutes
Recharge Time: 122 minutes

Real-life usage

Not having seen one in a while, having a netbook readily at hand again was certainly convenient. The Dell Mini is small and light enough to pretty much travel with anywhere, whether you’re putting it down on the coffee table, on your lap, or next to the old CRT monitor your desktop is still plugged into on your desk (where you can marvel that a whole computer takes up just a fraction of the space that hulking mass of hardware does). After the novelty of having a computer we could pick up and put down casually with one hand wore off, the limitations of the unit began to shine through. The keyboard is too cramped to touch type, and if you’re used to that, pretty much everything you do becomes slower when you have to hunt-and-peck. The hard drive, at 8GB, can house a few movies and music albums but can hardly store a collection. The base of the unit also ran fairly warm, not to the point where we had to shift it from leg to leg, but to the point where we could feel it. Eventually, we realized it is what it is - an economical ultraportable notebook designed for secondary use on undemanding tasks such as surfing the internet, light word processing, and viewing the occasional movie on the road (albeit without an optical drive). Viewed in that light it was easy to accept the shortcomings with the strengths and really appreciate the Mini.

Summary

Overall, we found we enjoyed the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, so long as we viewed it realistically. The 8.9" screen size and 1024x600 resolution was adequate for viewing websites and video clips and had some pretty awesome color reproduction. Combined with the 2.3lb weight it was extremely easy to move the unit around. As long as we were performing light tasks the 1GB RAM and 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor served perfectly well, and the 8GB SSD was very quiet. You won’t be watching Blu-Ray on the Mini and if you need to type more than a few lines in a row it becomes tedious, but for a lightly used secondary computer it serves just fine. We wish it didn’t run so warm, but with Linux models starting at only $349, we can accept a few limitations. The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 is perfect for travelers who want to check their email on the road, desktop users who want to be able to access the internet anywhere in the house, and even as a primary computer for people who really don’t use a computer very often but want internet access to be available when they need it. As long as you know you want a netbook, the Dell Mini is an excellent choice for anyone.

Dell Adamo

Dell Adamo Review

The Adamo is more of a fashion statement than a laptop, which Dell has proven through its mysterious (until now) adamobydell.com teaser website and the short glimpse we got of it at CES.

Not for Gamers

From looking at the specs we understand that it’s not a performance laptop by any means – the base model has an ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo processor, integrated Intel graphics, 2GB of 800MHz DDR3 RAM and a 128GB SSD. The latter will certainly contribute to making it a little faster than the average 1.2GHz laptop, but it’s still a slow machine.

The starting price for this thing of beauty is $1,999, but if you feel like splurging you can upgrade to a 1.4GHz processor and two more gigs or RAM for $700 more. Obviously it’s not performance you’re paying for with the Adamo, but its incredibly thin build and eye-pleasing exterior.

Quality Time with the Adamo

Holding the Adamo actually makes you feel that you’re holding an expensive laptop – its aluminum build is very solid including the keyboard, and the brushed-metal touchpad is surprisingly pleasant to use. It has a very nice-looking edge-to-edge glass display with a 1,366x768 resolution and to save additional space Dell has removed the optical drive, opting for a matching external one (not included) which uses the Adamo’s built-in eSATA port. You may choose between a slot-loading DVD-RW drive for $120 and a Blu-ray drive for $350.

DellBook Air

While we were playing with the Adamo, close by Dell staff took the opportunity (several times) to point out that it’s thinner than the MacBook Air. It is thinner than the MBA at its thickest point, but you would hardly know that from looking at it as the MacBook Air has a tapered chassis. It’s also half a pound heavier.

Unlike the Air, the Adamo comes with a 64-bit copy of Windows Vista installed. Unfortunately Vista does not run all that well on low-end systems, and there’s no option to customize the Adamo with an XP downgrade or Linux. Potential buyers might want to wait until Windows 7 is released, which will work better with slower systems and even netbooks. On the other hand, the Adamo seems to run Vista fairly smoothly, partly thanks to the quick solid state drive.

We will add some benchmarks to this page when we’ve had some extended quality time with a review sample.

Dell Studio 1537

Dell Studio 1537 Review

The Dell Studio 1537 is a sight for sore eyes, with our model coming with a red lid to round out its overall smooth appearance. It also comes with some decent firepower behind that standard Studio beauty, packing a latest generation Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26 GHz to go along with 4GB RAM, a 320GB HDD and a dedicated 256MB ATI Radeon HD 3450 GPU. When you consider that you can get all this for a cost that won’t exceed three digits, the Studio looks like a solid value.

Design

Case look and feel

Like most Studios, the look and feel of the case is very nice. The red lid and silver Dell logo in its center looks stylish and the texture is smooth to the touch. Opening the lid you’ll see a silver frame around the wide, glossy screen, with a tiny webcam peering out at you from above and unfortunately some thin strips of rubber padding for when the lid closes (it’s useful and discreet, but other laptops manage to close fine without them). There is a Dell logo on the bottom of the display, but you’ll hardly notice it as its on a level with the hinge. The silver border extends around the black speakers and backlit keyboard, which is a nice effect, and the trackpad is simply a slight depression in the palmrest. The front of the laptop is tapered slightly so that the back is deeper than the front, avoiding the boxy look. When considering the overall look, the word smooth comes to mind again and again.

Size & Weight

If only it were lighter it might actually be as smooth as it looks, but at 6.11 lbs (more with the 9-cell battery) you won’t be casually lifting up the studio with one hand to show it off (not that we recommend that anyway). With dimensions of 14”x10.3”x1”/1.3” (front/back), the Studio isn’t exactly thin either. Our version came with the extended 9-cell battery, which props up the back at an angle that is not uncomfortable for typing but adds about another .75” to the depth in the back. The Studio isn’t so thick that it looks bad at all, so don’t worry about those style points. It’s just clearly not competing in the thin-and-light laptop category.

Keyboard and Trackpad

First and foremost, the backlit keyboard (optional) looks nice, it really does. It powers up gradually when typing and fades away after about 60 seconds without typing, and can be turned off or dimmed to save power. Overall the keyboard is full sized and comfortable to type on, with a limited but acceptable array of function keys and no dedicated number pad. There is a set of multimedia touch buttons above which light up the same white of the keyboard, as well as a few status lights in the top right corner beneath the speaker bay. The trackpad as well is comfortable to use, set slightly to the left and decently sized.

Display quality

The display quality is great, with the only shortfall being a rather average WXGA 1280x800 resolution. However, the display is LED backlit and extremely bright, making outdoor use a possible even in direct sunlight (the display is glossy, but we were able to see the words on a document clearly through our own reflection). Viewing angles are almost perfect, with a wide sweet spot and very little washout from the sides or below even at extreme angles (from above there is a good but lesser range).

Connectivity description

The Studio 1537 has a capable assortment of connectivity options, including HDMI, eSATA, and mini FireWire. The front and back are virtually barren, leaving just about everything to be handed by the left and right sides.

Starting with the most interesting, on the left side you’ll find a multicard reader, a remote control slot, 2 audio out jacks as well as audio in, Ethernet, 1USB and 1USB/eSATA, VGA, HDMI, a wireless on/off switch and a unique button for Dell’s “Wi-Fi Catcher” software. Not a bad haul.

On the right side the mini FireWire, 2 more USB ports and the slot loading DVD player are found, as well as the power jack and power button. The power button lights up when it’s on, but for some reason the Wi-Fi Catcher button which is symmetrically opposite it doesn’t light up, even when you’re using it, disturbing the symmetry.

The only thing on the front is the infrared sensor for the remote, and the only thing on the back is an exhaust fan. Frighteningly, due to the hinge design of the Studio, when the display is extended backwards about half this fan is covered up, the other half potentially blasting hot air onto the frame of your LCD. Barring some unusual circumstances this situation shouldn’t come up much though.

Upgrading possible?

Upgrading is always possible with Dell, which offers a wide assortment of Studio colors and designs. Beyond that, processors are available from the T4200 to the T9550, HDDs up to 500GB, WUXGA (1920x1200) resolution, and more. Unfortunately for potential gamers the 256MB GPU is as good as it gets, although that should be enough for the optional Blu-ray player to run smoothly. You can also get Vista Ultimate if you want, or at least some 64bit version of Vista, because it’s wasteful that our model came with Home Premium 32bit and 4GB RAM (32-bit operating systems can only utilize 3GB).

Features

The Studio 1537 comes with a few interesting features, some of which make the machine easier to look at and others which make it easier to use. The backlit keyboard and lighted touch-buttons garner obvious style points, and even the power cord itself has a glowing blue ring around it when it’s plugged into the wall. HDMI, eSATA, a biometric fingerprint reader and (optional) Blu-ray, Bluetooth and remote control help round out the feature set. The integrated webcam and accompanying software for easily making videos and other media is nice, and the dual headphone jack is a nice touch so that you and a friend can both listen to audio without disturbing those around you. There’s also a very Mac-like dock installed by default at the top of the screen for links and favorites, which we found to be a little too large and gaudy for our tastes (but fortunately can be easily closed).

Performance & Conclusion

Performance

The 1537, although unable to utilize 1GB of its 4GB RAM, is packed with a powerful processor, a dedicated GPU and ample RAM for most tasks. Although the specs fall short of the top notch, we expected the unit to perform well in testing. For more information on our testing procedures, see here: (http://www.laptoplogic.com/about/test/)

Windows Vista Experience Score

Processor: 5.2

RAM: 5.9

Graphics: 4.0

Gaming Graphics: 4.1

Primary HD: 5.5

An overall score of 4.0 isn’t bad, and it’s clear the GPU is what’s keeping the score from being higher. We expected a little better from a dedicated GPU, but then again, it’s only 256MB.

PCMarkvantage

Lenovo T400 3746

HP HDX16 3320

ThinkPad X301 3308

VAIO FW270j 3235

Lenovo Y530 2872

Dell Studio 1537: 2845

The Studio again performed a little under our expectations here, falling behind multimedia laptops such as the HDX and FW270j as well as the business ultraportable X301. It compared decently to the Y530, although that computer has inferior specs aside from the Nvidia 9300M, also 256MB.

WorldBench 6

Lenovo T400 91

Toshiba E-105 83

HP HDX 16 80

Dell Studio 1537 79

VAIO FW270j 74

Lenovo Y530 70

In everyday task performance the 1537 looks a little better. Here it outperforms the Y530 and is equal or better to the aforementioned multimedia laptops.

Battery Performance, General Use

Dell Studio 1537 357

ThinkPad T400 (Integrated) 334

Toshiba Satellite E-105 260

ThinkPad X301 235

VAIO FW270j 181

HP HDX 16 156

With the 9-cell battery, battery life was exceptional, clocking in at almost 6 hours before turning off. This was at 60% brightness and with WiFi and backlit keyboard enabled… if you really squeeze, you could probably approach 7 hours on this battery.

Battery Performance, DVD Use

Toshiba Satellite E-105 210

Dell Studio 1537 206

Lenovo X301 117

VAIO FW270j 101

HP HDX 16 80

Asus G50 80

Again, the battery life proved excellent here, easily surpassing three hours. That’s enough time to watch two average movies (as we did), or for the adventurous of you out there, one viewing of Lord of the Rings.

Real-life usage

In usage the laptop was fairly comfortable to use, although it has some flaws. The 9-cell battery pokes out narrowly from the bottom of the laptop, which does tilt the machine at a decent angle for typing, but unfortunately makes it very uncomfortable for actually placing on your lap. It also runs fairly warm, in particular in the front under the palmrest (it is less noticeable in the back because of the tilting). The laptop runs very quietly though even when playing Cds, and the sound quality is good.

Conclusion

Overall the Dell Studio 1537 is a stylish machine that is powerful enough to handle your media without breaking the bank. The modern Intel Core 2 Duo CPU along with 4GB RAM and a 320GB HDD go a long way when combined with a dedicated GPU, although not quite as far as we were hoping. Still, the colorful lid, extremely bright display and attractive overall design make the Studio a desirable laptop at a desirable price.