Heavy Artillery of the laptop world. (Dell Inspiron 8200)

Member Name: Hag42

Product:	Dell Inspiron 8200
Date:	30/12/05 (442 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Way dang powerful

Disadvantages: Weigh dang heavy

I'm rating my personal 8200 here, and here are some small specs of what I'm running.

Windows XP Professoinal.
2.o GHz Processor,
40 GB Hard drive
CDRW/DVD Rom
1 Battery Bay
1 Interchangable Bay
Lateral Port
IR Port
10/100 Ethernet LAN
Firewire
Modem
Monitor out
S-Video out
Serial Port
Lateral Port
PCMCIA Slot
Audio In (Dual Channel)
Audio out (Dual Channel)
Microphone in (Mono)
1600 x 1200 LCD Display (most resolution are 1024 x 768)
Built in Microphone,
and last but not least 2 of the best speakers I've ever seen on a laptop

This is a great computer, and should you get one for under $700 (US) then it's even better. All components inside are pretty hardy, and easily replaceable. The dell website is not very helpful in most cases and if you have no waranty don't bother calling them. The computer is a workhorse. It's a little old however, and weighs about 12 lbs with 2 batteries inside it. It's BIOS is loaded with enabling all the functionality so if something seems to not be working and you cant find it in the control panel, press F2 on boot up and you'll proabably find it there.

The only other thing I could wish out of this computer than it being lighter is if it could have USB 2.0. It does not. As well there are some small problems with having such a large chasis it kind of bends a little, and this can wreak havoc with internal componennts never grab one side and support it horozontaly this way as it will bend. In mine the charger board actually popped out of the motherboard and it caused a lot of problems till I tore the entire thing apart and plugged it back in.

Bottom line, if you need a powerful desktop replacement and you don't intend to be hefting it in and out of the office and around the world every day, or if you don't mind taking a heavy laptop. This is the one for you.

Ok just a small thing about the other criteria that I rate here. This computer is aging, but it still has kick to it. it's still better than about 60% of the computers out there in its processor. Hardware reliabilty is dependent on how much you beat it up. I beat mine up and except for the charger board popping out it's performed flawlessly.

Ease of use? What does that mean. That depends mostly on your software. Dell's website is a maze to navigate, but you must be up to date on your drivers or you will have problems. Once set up I would recomend you get familiar with what everything does and where it is. Great functionality does not come without a little knowhow of how to use the functionality and thus some may find it complicated to set up. Once set up though, everything is relatively plug and play under the Windows XP operating system, and hence easy to use.

Installation. Again a software thing. If you have all the drivers and all your sofware it's very straitforward and very simple to install.

Battery time. I once got 5 hours on two batteries. It uses up a lot of power but on a good battery will still last about 2 hours.

Summary: Powerful laptop that's kind of heavy and connects to everything.

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