Not very Inspirin', Dell
Dell on Monday introduced a new "gaming" laptop called the Inspiron XPS. It's a premium-priced, premium-featured portable with some neat capabilities, but the drawbacks make it not worth it.
The $2,900 laptop gets a 3.4GHz P4 or P4 "Extreme Edition" processor, along with ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics. What's more, the laptop sports an upgradeable graphics subsystem -- something that hardware buffs have wanted for a long time but most portable makers haven't been able to deliver on.
The system also gets a "QuickSnap" kit to customize the top (who cares?) and all the requisite bells and whistles you'd expect. But here's where I had to do a double take: It weighs 9 pounds and runs about an hour, maybe an hour and a half on a single charge. Part of the reason why it's so power-hungry is because the system needs three fans to stay cool.
We're always hearing about how PCs are cheaper than Macs, and what surprised me the most is how mediocre Dell's offering is compared to Apple's latest 15-inch PowerBook. A comparably equipped 1.25GHz Powerbook costs about $300 less and weighs about 2 pounds less. Anyone who thinks that 2 pounds isn't a big deal has never gone sprinting across Terminals B and C at O'Hare in search of their connecting flight with a laptop bag on their shoulder.
The big difference between the two -- beside the weight and the upgradable graphics, which I'm not convinced is really going to be worth it, long-term -- is Dell's use of the admittedly better Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics chip. Apple will get this into their next revision, I'm sure.
Comments
"Anyone who thinks that 2 pounds isn't a big deal has never gone sprinting across Terminals B and C at O'Hare in search of their connecting flight with a laptop bag on their shoulder."
...A-Fucking-Men.
Posted by: Corey Tamas | February 17, 2004 09:13 PM
Well, of course, Dell makes shit. try comparing against a good machine.
emachines actually makes great laptops now.
http://www.emachines.com/products/products.html?prod=eMachines_M6805
Athlon 64 3000+, Radeon 9600, and only 7.5 lbs. Only $1300 at best buy after rebate.
Posted by: James | February 18, 2004 01:33 AM
Do you know that the company E-Machines gets their hard drives from (the name escapes me at the moment) recently had a big celebration because they got their product returns down to 50%?
Posted by: Corey Tamas | February 18, 2004 09:18 AM
Lol, Corey, now that is pretty pathetic.
Posted by: Andrew Ian Dodge | February 18, 2004 09:54 AM
With all due respect to James, above, who was posting his comments about the E-Machine laptop in order to be helpful, I have to say that there's a reason E-Machines are so cheap. I'd rather burn money on my front lawn than reward them for the terrible job they do by buying their products. No offense intended.
Posted by: Corey Tamas | February 18, 2004 12:19 PM
My theory on it is simple: Any PC maker who sells their computers at Wal-Mart = poop.
The fact that eMachines is being subsumed by Gateway is the liquishit icing on the poop cake, as far as I'm concerned.
Posted by: flargh | February 18, 2004 01:13 PM
Ugh, now that's a disgusting turn of phrase...
Posted by: Alphax | February 18, 2004 05:13 PM
Nah.
I find it positively yummy.
Makes me think of bacon.
Posted by: chocolate-covered treat | February 19, 2004 04:56 AM