Dell Inspiron 8200 : Dell's current top of the line (Updated 10/22/02)
by yusakugo - Written: Mar 07 '02 (Updated Oct 24 '02)
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Pros: powerful, options galore, P4 Mobile processor, excellent screen
Cons: Style getting old and bland, Weight, Sound, less powerful than current competition
The Bottom Line: Same popular design... a good and bad decision. Overall, solid notebook but aging design and features. Price is extremely competitive making a good to excellent overall value!
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| yusakugo's Full Review: Dell Inspiron 8200 (8TWORH) PC Notebook |
With this update, the Inspiron 8200 is one of the best selling notebooks currently available. This update involves a second Inspiron 8200 notebook purchased in early October.
For whatever inexplicable reason, my father wanted to upgrade his notebook (a Inspiron 4100 which is now in my possession) so with the past experience our family has had with Dell computers, it was natural for us to stick with Dell. The Inspiron 8200 was just released and the prices were very reasonable (especially with a mail-in rebate, coupon, free shipping, and free DVD/CD-RW upgrade!). I was looking to upgrade my desktop to a permanent home notebook solution and went with the Toshiba Satellite 5105-S607 instead. So my major points of reference are from the ownership of a Dell Inspiron 4100, Inspiron 8000, Toshiba Satellite 2805, and a Satellite 5105-S607 as well as all the notebooks I troubleshoot for friends and co-workers. This first Inspiron was purchased in March 2002.
The second Inspiron 8200 was purchased in early October 2002.
Short Take
The Inspiron 8200 is a great value overall with most of the features needs to make it a desktop replacement. It features some of the latest technology in computers such as DDR memory with a 400MHz Front Side Bus and the latest in power saving technologies from Intel. Although the Pentium 4 chip pales against the raw power of a similarly powered AMD Athlon XP Mobile chipset, the majority of users are unlikely to notice this. Dell has kept this model fresh by updating the options available on the notebook... improved video cards, improved screens, and the such make large differences in the overall performance of the notebook. With the promotions that Dell often has and the long warranty options for the notebook (although Dell customer service is just average these days), the Inspiron can even be bought at almost budget prices. I will note both Inspiron 8200s in my possession...
Pros:
1) Options galore
2) Various Promotions by Dell can make the notebook extremely cheap
3) Excellent screen options... all the way to UXGA Ultrasharp option
4) Powerful graphic card options
5) Dual battery options
6) Long battery life with dual battery options (up to 6 hours depending on use and configuration of notebook)
7) Versatile 2nd drive bay (can accept second battery)
8) Good number of ports included and 2 USB
9) Network and Modem ports built in
10) Long warranty options
Cons:
1) Weight is a factor
2) Dell notebook quality has worsened a bit... case feels a bit cheaper from the 2nd Inspiron 8200 from my first one.
3) lack of high speed ports like USB 2.0 (has FireWire/IE1394 port but the mini-connector end)
4) Other companies offer extras like built in memory stick, Secure Digital/MMC card, or SmartMedia reader
5) Pentium 4-M processor overall is weaker/slower than Pentium 3-M and Athlon XP Mobile in many applications. 1.6GHz P4-M is slower than 1.2GHz P3-M except for applications made specifically with the P4 architecture in mind (there isn't alot out there yet). Athlon XP 1600 definitely outperforms the P4-M 1.6GHz.
6) Dell customer service is hit or miss. Overall, the customer service is just average these days.
Same old, Same old... First Impressions out of the box
I had a basic idea what the notebook would look like... I mean, I just had to look at my Inspiron 8000 and then I knew what the 8200 would look like. So no surprises there... the 8200 looks like every other notebook in the 8000 series lineup. You can barely tell the difference... in that way, the notebook looks a bit bland now. Sure you can customize the handrests and the top part of the notebook with colored plates... but big deals these days.
The nice thing about having the similar design is that you can interchange parts between the 8000, 8100, and 8200 notebooks. Batteries, drives, and the such. So if you have a few accessories from an older 8000 or 8100, it is extremely likely to be compatible with the 8200. At least it saves costs in upgrading from an older Inspiron 8x00 series notebook.
The beast inside... (Some technical details)
However, the similarities between the 8200 and 8100 and 8000 end there since the 8200 innards are an entirely different beast! The 8200 sports the Pentium 4 Mobile processor. This badboy processor starts with numbers of 1.7 GHz now. The RAM is based on PC266 DDR SODIMM RAM boards on a 400MHz FSB so you have much faster memory than the older Inspiron 8000/8100s. Video options include the 64MB GeForce4 440 Go chipsets and the latest Radeon 9000 Mobile chip. There is a newer control chipset (815MP as per Dell website... PCMagazine.com says it's the 845MP chipset) inside the 8200 that helps unlock the true potential of the P4 Mobile SpeedStep (what helps the P4 Mobile conserve battery power)... to even gain a bit of battery life over the 8000 and 8100 notebooks despite a more powerful processor and graphics chip.
The purchased configuration
First Notebook
Pentium 4-M 1.6 GHz processor
128 MB of PC266 DDR SoDIMMs (upgradable to 1 GB)
nVidia GeForce4 440 Go 64MB graphics chip
15 inch UltraSharp UXGA monitor (1600x1400 with brighter screen than original UXGA screen)
30 GB 4200rpm Hard Drive
DVD/CD-RW combo drive (8x DVD and 8x/4x/24x CD-RW)
Integrated 56k modem and 10/100 Ethernet port
Windows XP Home and MS Works
1 year Mail-In customer support(the cheapest option!)
Cost: $2200 in March 2002
Second notebook
Pentium 4-M 1.8GHz processor
384 MB of RAM
40GB 5400rpm Hard Drive (higher rpms the better... 5400 is max for notebooks)
ATI Radeon 9000 graphics chip (better than GeForce4 Go 440 and 460 in my opinion)
15 inch UXGA screen (not UltraSharp option)
DVD/CD-RW drive (8x DVD 24x/8x/24x CD-RW)
56K modem and 10/100 Ethernet port built in
Extra battery and nylon case
Win XP home and MS Works
3 yr Mail-In customer support with Complete Care protection
Cost: $1952 bought in October 2002
The 8200 Inspiron is a three spindle design notebook. You can have up to three drives on this computer. A hard drive and two optical drives. One optical drive can be swapped with a second battery to extend battery life to about 5 even up to 6 hours. Nice part about this design is that you still have an optical drive installed on the notebook for portable DVD viewing :)
Performance
What do you expect? The 8200 as a whole blows away any PIII-M notebook out there quite easily. You will approach desktop Pentium 4 performance... but not quite reach it. Adding the GeForce4 440 Go 64MB graphics chip helps a great deal as well. The new Radeon 9000 graphics chip absolutely makes this computer rock. You're not going to worry when you play graphically intensive games and should have few problems with PhotoShop and CAD programs as well. The GeForce4 440 chip seems stable with Windows XP unlike the reports of GeForce2Go and Windows XP having difficulties working together. The ATI has been perfectly stable so far... I would dare say even more stable than the GeForce4 440 Go chip. There is no surprise in the performance increase considering the faster processor, the faster memory, and the faster 400MHz bus on the motherboard (i.e. how fast components of the computer can transmit data to each other). All of these factors have been significantly increased in the 8200 from the 8100, and you'll notice the difference! Note that if you compare a Pentium III-M processor against the Pentium-4 processor, the 1.2GHz P3-M will beat the 1.6GHz and even 1.7GHz P4-M processor. The other enhancements to the 8200 notebook account for the superiority against most other Pentium 3-M notebooks.
The GeForce4 440 Go chipset is blazingly fast against desktop standards. I would say that it performed as good as the original desktop GeForce3 card in a desktop computer. Games like Quake and Max Payne ran at extremely high framerates (when connected to a regular computer monitor). Graphics were crisp, clean, and detailed. High resolutions were handled rather easily by the GeForce4 Go chip. It may have beat out my ATI Radeon Mobility 7500 chip on my Inspiron 4100 notebook... but this isn't a fair comparison. The Radeon 9000 chipset seems more on par with the low and medium end desktop GeForce 4 chipsets... talk about power!
The latest screen technology (the UltraSharp UXGA TFT screen) gives the same resolution as the older UXGA 15inch screen but the brightness of the screen is extremely noticable. You can see the screen at all types of crazy angles and never have to strain your eyes. Fine details are maintained throughout with excellent colour reproduction and vivid colour displays. This is easily the best notebook screen I've seen to date. I have no complaints about the UltraSharp UXGA screen on the 8200. The regular UXGA screen is no slouch either... it is not as bright and the angle of viewing the screen is considerably smaller (at best 120 degrees from side to side versus 160-180 on the UltraSharp). If you're going to be directly infront of the notebook at all times (and other people aren't looking over your shoulder or from the side) the UXGA screen is just fine. The least expensive screen is the SXGA screen. The difference can be up to $150 from SXGA to Enhanced UXGA!
DVD playback was also very good. DVD playback of the first 8200 notebook is worse than my Dell Inspiron 4100 with the ATI Radeon 7500 graphics chip. DVD playback of the Radeon 9000 equiped 8200 is as good or better than my 4100 notebook. Gone are the days of separation of colors (like flesh tones) that I noticed with the GeForce2Go equipped notebooks. Playback is displayed in vivid and accurate color although some scenes seem a bit darker than they should be. No dropped frames... no stutters... no stoppage of playback. The excellent graphics transferred to monitors and TVs unblemished through the monitor port or the S-Video port. The Radeon 9000 equiped notebook was an excellent DVD playback solution.
Battery life on the 8200 is decent. The first notebook runs about 2 1/2 hours without difficulty. Installing the second battery gave me 5-5 1/2 hours of uptime. That's not bad at all and the 8200 seemed to squeak out just a little more uptime than the 8000 notebook in the house. CNet reports that the 8200 beats out the 8100 notebook in battery tests as well... I can't verify that though. The increased battery life is likely due to the P4-M processor, the 845MP control chipset, and the enhancements to the GeForce4 Go ability to monitor and limit its own power use. Now believe it or not... my second 8200 system achieved better battery times than the first 8200! I actually got closer to 3 hours on one battery and nearly 6 hour on two! Heck, you're getting a more powerful system on the same battery power running the Inspiron 8000 and 8100. That's pretty good!
Other Details
The 8200 is a bulky notebook... not surprising considering where the basic design originated from. The notebook has dimensions of 1.75(H) x 13.03(W) x 10.8(D) with a base weight of 7.9lbs (and that assumes both bays are occupied).
At least you get lots of ports on this notebook. You get a parallel port, serial port, infrared transmitter and receiver, external monitor connection, S-Video port, microphone jack, headphone/line out jack, line in jack, PS/2 port, 2 USB 1.1 ports, 1 Firewire port, S/PDIF jack, and a connection for the advanced port replicator. You also get 1 Type III PCMCIA slot (or 2 Type II PCMCIA slots). I do wish that the notebook had some USB 2.0 ports and/or Firewire ports.
Like all of Dell's notebooks, you have tons of options when you are purchasing your notebook. I'd be careful to know what you can install yourself since Dell charges full retail price on these components. If you can install the item yourself, buy it yourself at a reputable and cheaper store. Memory is a prime example of this... a 128MB upgrade to a total of 256MB of memory will cost you $75! A 266MHz 256MB SoDIMM board in the open market costs about $80! Heck, Dell sells the 256MB SoDIMM board on their own website for $90-100... getting you a total of 384MB of RAM on your computer (you have to put 128MB of memory on the notebook... that's the lowest option). I used to recommend Crucial memory since it is reliable, but it is fairly expensive... shop around first.
Dell's notebooks have always had solid keyboards... the 8200 sticks to this tradition. I can type quickly and easily on the 8200 keyboard... there is a good tactile feel and good resistance.
Again, like all recent Dell's notebooks, there are two pointing devices. A touchpad and the tiny eraser point in the middle of the keyboard. Both are very responsive and accurate.
Sound is still a weak point in the 8200. The Toshiba laptop still mops up the floor in the sound department with their notebooks' subwoofer setup. The 8200 has tinny sound like many laptops do. Get external speakers if you want quality sound or look into the Extigy solution by Creative.
The overall quality of the casing feels cheaper than the earlier Inspirons like the 8000 and 4000 series notebooks. The 8200 casing doesn't give you the confidence that it could survive a good blow... my second 8200s actually feels cheaper than the first (Thank goodness I got the CompleteCare warranty!). Get a good case for this thing... I rather not take the risk.
Another problem is Dell's declining Customer Service... it can range from good to downright horrible at any given time of the day. However, I doubt that the other major notebook manufacturers are much better than Dell in this department. At least you have the option on the length of the warranty and options. Read my latest notebook reviews (Inspiron 4150 and 2650 reviews for details on customer service issues). You can get a warranty for up to 4 years worth. The CompleteCare option allows you to put more abuse on the notebook with a guarantee of repair for certain types of damage... falls, coffee spills, and the such are now covered with the CompleteCare option. Hitting the computer with a hammer or running it over with a car are still not covered.
I feel this notebook is a bit noisier than others. There are multiple fans running to keep the system and components cool. These same fans are loud enough to drown out low sounds from the integrated speakers.
Heat production is an issue with this computer, but it doesn't seem to run extremely hot. It was somewhat comfortable on my lap for two hours or so. The smaller Pentium 4 chips don't release the massive amount of heat the P3-Ms did.
Final Thoughts
The 8200 is a solid and dependable notebook... but it isn't the best value or the best performer. It even doesn't offer the most features possible on a notebook. You kind of get the feeling that the 8200 is 8100 with a few new parts. Regardless, the notebook is worth considering if you want a dependable notebook. I'd recommend the notebook but warn that you can find just as good or better notebooks from other companies as well. We'll see where Dell ends up with the Pentium 4 Mobile processor.
There are other options to consider as well. There are mobile Athlon 4 processors as well which deliver good performance for a better price. On top of that, a Pentium III-M notebook will cost somewhat less and offer plenty of power for the average user... if a Pentium 3-M notebook had the same options and motherboard architecture, I would recommend the P3-M notebook over the P4-M notebook! So you have to figure out what you want from your notebook computer. The 8200 is a solid performer but there are plenty of options out there and there are better performing Pentium 4-M notebooks going against Dell's 8200. I also want to note that I also bought a HP ZE1201 notebook for $650 that contained a Mobile Athlon XP 1500 processor (1.3GHz processor) with 512MB PC133 SoDIMM memory, 20GB 4200rpm Hard Drive, integrated graphics card, and SXGA 14 inch screen... the performance of this notebook was excellent and shows the differences in processors and the overall architecture of the notebook. The Mobile Athlon XP is extremely powerful but the motherboard and graphic options available to Pentium 4-M notebooks give certain advantages than even the Mobile Athlon XP can't overcome... yet!
Something to note is the upcoming Banias processor in 2003. The Banias is Intel's mobile power saving chipsets I believe based off a radically modified Pentium 4 core. Whether this will affect the P4-M since the Banias is supposedly slated for an early 2003 release. Note that the Banias will be released at slower speeds than the P4-M chips but will use significantly less power... supposedly only a Watt of power by some reports! I'll believe it when I see it!
If you've been reading my notebook reviews... I got rid of the KDS Valiant notebook and the Toshiba Satellite S507 for this Radeon 9000 equiped Inspiron 8200 notebook. The Toshiba went to my brother and th KDS to a friend as a present. I currently have 3 notebooks at this time... the HP ZE1201 notebook (because of the price I paid for it... this is my abuse notebook... or it gets taken by girlfriend for her stuff), the Dell Inspiron 4100 notebook (I love this one), and the Inspiron 8200 with Radeon 9000 graphics chip. My parents still have the Inspiron 8200 with GeForce4 440 Go chipset from March 2002.
Read my other reviews through the menus on my profile page
These include the following notebooks:
Dell Inspiron 4100
Dell Inspiron 8100
Dell Inspiron 4000
Dell Inspiron 8000
Toshiba Satellite 5005-S504
Toshiba Satellite 5005-S507
KDS PIII notebook
Happy Notebook Shopping!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1952
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
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