My Travelling Companion (Dell Inspiron 8100)

Member Name: andycharger

Product:	Dell Inspiron 8100
Date:	24/06/02 (902 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great performance

Disadvantages: Price

When you work for a web design company that deals with major European automotive companies, you need to be able to take your wares off to the continent and show them what you have got.
Sensitive material that cannot be opened up to the outside world has to be shown over secure networks which can cause a problem when offsite. That is where my Inspiron comes into its own as my own little office in a bag.

My Inspiron is made by Dell.
Reknowned for their reliabilty and build quality on the desktop, Dell manage to port their technology into their laptops too. This means you get superior reliability along with the customised, tailored machine that you want and require.

Specifications.
Straight out of the box only one month ago, my high powered Laptop will take some beating. Boasting a powerful Pentium 4 processor clocking in at 2 Gigahertz, it is state of the art.
The applications I use on my laptop are very memory and performance hungry and even make my desktop machine struggle. However, the laptop sails through with even a slight moan or groan.
The fact that it is packing 512Mb of RAM might help here. This is what is performing all of that storage of temporary data for those of you that dont know. You can have up to a Gigabyte of Memory (1000Mb) so that will never be a problem.

The Display is massive and crystal clear. Using state of the art design, the screen loses much of its "Black Screen Angles". This is when Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screens are at a different angle to the user. The display appears to be gone but it is just that the Crystals do not show to our eyes at this angle. Most of this is eliminated with their new UltraSharp XGA 15 inch diplays. OK,it is not as big as your desktop monitor at home or work but it is plenty big enough for even graphic work.

Performance
The redesign of the achitecture inside the Inspiron means it now offers A much quieter and smoother performance
than ever before. The revised cooling system means it will also operate at a lower temperature. Those that have used one for long periods of time will know they have a habit of overheating. Not anymore.
The Battery life has been extended thanks to less power being required by the unit.

Peripherals.
Coming with this laptop are removable CD and Floppy Drives. Easy to pull in and push out if needed. It has 2 optical drive bays which means there is less swapping over of devices as you can have 2 instead of 1.
Easy connection through USB ports means hooking up to printers,scanners and even external mice and keyboards has never been simpler. A built in mousepad and buttons exists here for those who prefer it and the use of the pad is much better than those annoying joystick type buttons in the middle of the keyboard.


Size and weight.
At only 1.7 inches thick, it is not the most slimline Laptop on the market but this is due to the extra drivebays and peripherals that are allowed for on this model and the features it has to pack inside its relatively small casing. It also weighs in at 7lbs (just under 2Kgs) so it is quite light to carry.

Overall
Price lets it down badly as do all laptops. You do pay slightly higher prices with Dell anyway. However, you are garaunteed superior quality and performance. I would buy one any day of the week.

Summary: