Dell Introduces Laptop With WUXGA 532
Cutie Pi writes "Dell has just released the Inspiron 8500, a new 15.4" widescreen notebook with a WUXGA screen--thats 1920x1200, high enough resolution to watch HDTV quality movies. Couple that with the new nVidia 64MB GeForce4 4200 Go (much faster than the ATI Radeon 9000), and you've got quite a notebook!! Can't wait to get my hands on one!"
Notebook != Laptop (Score:5, Insightful)
If I had to do it all over again... (Score:5, Insightful)
In other words, I cant do a whole lot with it, and it's really heavy and awkward. My dad on the other hand, has a super small Sony Vaio that can go about 6 hours on a battery and still do everything I do, even though it's more underpowered.
Resolution in Games (Score:5, Insightful)
Neat and cool, but . . . (Score:4, Insightful)
This is a neat laptop, and I'm sure it would make a great desktop replacement, or even a good gaming laptop. That said, though, I can't bring myself to buy another Dell machine until they re-earn my trust.
The short version of the story is that I bought a laptop from them and tried to get it fixed under warranty. They failed to fix all of the problems when I sent it back, and failed to note the problems as unfixed. When I got it back, outside of warranty, with the problems unfixed, I called Dell, and Dell refused to fix them, saying that it was out of warranty. They did, however, fix the problems they caused while it was being repaired. When I got it back from the second repair, there was an additional problem, a cracked access panel. It took a good half-hour of arguing to get them to replace the panel. I did finally get them to fix the original problem, but it took a sternly-worded letter to senior management [barefootclown.net] to make it happen. That letter details several of the problems I've had with Dell over the years; it also contains the full version of this story.
Short answer is that I have lost my faith in Dell, and until they prove themselves to me again, I won't buy their products, and I advise other people to do the same, no matter now nifty-cool they may be.
retarded resolution names (Score:3, Insightful)
*bangs head against wall*
wouldn't you rather talk about 1600x1200 and the like?
Not quite (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm a huge apple fan but some of the most critical things I need to do for my company are either not available for Mac or are exponentially more expensive. BTW I develop software for Linux (2.2+), Windows (win32), Mac (OS X) and Solaris (7+). I have seen the 17" AlBooks at the Apple Store and while impressive it doesn't do much more for me than the old 15.2. If the 15.4 comes available for a decent price (see note) I'll get one as soon as they are available (not the lovely preannouncements Apple has been giving). Otherwise, I'll just get an old TiBook 1GHz for 2550 or so.
Note: the Dell with 2.4GHz proc, 512MB 1 DIMM, GF4 4200, 60GB, 1920x1200, Extra Battery,
Re:Just for movies? (Score:2, Insightful)
Increase the font size on the other machine. A higher resolution gives you easier to read text. Period.
Pushing 1600x1200, especially with Cleartype really strains your CPU though.
Re:Neat and cool, but . . .BUT what will it take (Score:5, Insightful)
And just how do they prove themselves to you again if you won't deal with them?
I note that we have 5 Dells in our immediate family, including the 5 year old Dimension I'm typing this on. I've also worked closely with another dozen, and never had any problem with Dell service or support. I submit that your experience is not universal to all Dell owners.
Re:A great display (Score:5, Insightful)
Who needs 1920x1200 on a 15" screen? yet we have to put up with 1280x1024 on 19" screens on the desktop...
Re:GeForce4 Go, faster than what? (Score:3, Insightful)
The GF4 4200 go is simply the desktop chip with lowered clockspeeds. It's comparable to the Geforce FX, puts out way too much heat for the application, and introduced just for the purpose of taking the performance lead from a 6 month old design from ATI. I'm surprised that someone actually used this chip...
In a matter of days, ATI will release the M10, and nVidia will release nv31, both of which will offer better performance, support for directx 9.0 and have much lower power consumption...
Anyone who buys this will be stuck with a battery draining, hot running card that held the performance lead for a total of 1 month before superior designs appeared
Re:WUXGA = Wide Ultra eXtended Graphics Adapter (Score:4, Insightful)
Unfortutaly, in 3 years time, we will probably be seeing screen with XWDSUXGA (Extra-wide Double Super Ultra eXtended Graphics Adapter) etc.
Worse than that... (Score:1, Insightful)
is the way that so many ads for laptops think
it's sufficient to say "TFT", and they never mention
the actual resolution at all.
Re:A great display (Score:3, Insightful)
I really don't understand why anyone would use a flat panel on the desktop. The cost per square foot saved doesn't come close yet to the cost of a square foot in an average home. And you can currently get 19" monitors capable of 2048x1536 for under $300. I have 3 such 19" monitors running at 1600x1200 each on my machine and can't see why anyone would settle for less. My 3 monitors + video cards cost less than a single 19" flat panel. And Ghost Recon at 2048x1536 is really cool :o)
By the way, I've found the trick to happiness with 19" monitors at high resolution is a horizontal dot pitch of around 0.22. Anything higher causes letters to have fuzzy edges. Its this that causes eyestrain, not the size of the text. The secret to easier reading is greater sharpness, not larger size. In fact, making the size larger greatly slows the reading because there is less text in the region of sharpest focus. Most of us read at least phrases if not sentences or paragraphs, not letters and words. If you can't see a whole phrase at once in focus, you have to revert to a more primitive word by word reading pattern.
Re:Ram Prices (Score:3, Insightful)