- Average user rating:
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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9 out of 9 people found this review helpful
3.5 stars
"Happy for now - Time will tell"
Pros: Coupon deals let you get a great price
Cons: Customize with care - screen choice is critical
Summary: Have had my Dell 6000(d) for about three weeks now. I have the 1.6 Pentium M Centrino model with 128 ATI PCI-E Graphics. The rest of my config is 40 gig hd, 9 cell battery, xp pro, dvd writer, and wsxga display, 2 year warranty (cost $1250). Except for the usual windows bugs, the machine has worked fine. Perhaps I expect too much but it's frustrating to have to deal with fine tuning on a brand new machine. It is what it is, if you're a pc user you know that you will have driver issues, hardware issues, and the general tweaking issues to get your machine exactly how you like it.
Most people know by now that dell runs periodic deals that allow you to get their machines for well under $1000. However, if you want to add options, you'll pay a bit more. Still, after configuring my machine, I checked hp.com, ibm.com, sony.com, etc., and the same machine from any of those manufacturers was more expensive.
The most critical decisions to make on this machine are a) getting the ati graphics card, and b) choosing the proper screen. The ati graphics card is vastly superior to the intel motherboard graphics option. If you don't get the ATI version, you'll never be able to upgrade later. Peformance with the ATI is leaps and bounds superior.
AS for the screen, Dell offers three resolutions. If you've never had a laptop before or don't know much about lcd displays, know this, lcd's are designed to perform best when used at their native resolution. Higher resolution means that more information can be displayed on the screen which is great if you do a lot of graphics work, it's not so great when surfing the web and the text is microscopically small. If you have a home pc, play around with the screen resolution to find out what resolution works best for you. It makes no sense to get a high resolution screen to then use it at a lower resolution . Not only will you be "wasting" a feature you've paid for but you'll also be getting inferior graphics quality. For most people the base screen is the best choice.
All the other options are a matter of personal need and choice. Most people think it looks good. It feels solid but then again, it's brand new. So far so good, I hope I can say the same in a couple of years. Time will tell. My 7 rating is simply a hedged bet that this machine, being budget oriented, will be good but not quite up there with the cost is not an issue feature leaders.
