I think I'm gonna order an I9300

Is the light leaks and sparkles a big problem for people? I have bad eyes sometimes. Does anyone know any coupons for us Canadians?

 

I can't decide on whether to get an WXGA+ (1440 x 900) or WUXGA with TrueLife(1920 x 1200). Which one of these has the least sparkles?

 

as for resolution I would go for WUXGA...

 

I have the high res display and can tell you this

1) The size of the fonts as delivered is not small. They set the thing to 120 I think it is instead of 96. This does have a small to moderate effect on some sites. Not this one though for instance.

2) I see no sparkling of any kind.

3) setting Cleartype made a noticable difference. the recommended program is kind of like goingto the eye doctor. It displays a couple of text samples and asks you to pick the best.

4) the high res display is glossy. This seems to make any kind of video / photos look very good as compared to the mat finish screens though I have not seen the lo res 9300 screen side by side. I have had this thing on my desk at work and running the Acquarium screen saver (I got Media Center which comes with a bunch of this kind of thing) people walking by in the hallway actually stop come back into my office and just stare at it, they can't believe the quality of the thing.

5) Glossy would be out if you are outside alot. It reflects bright things and this is more pronounced when on battery power and have the screen turned down. It does not reflect the walls etc in a well lit room at least for me, but if you face away from an outside window and work with the curtains open you probably will be able to see at least traces of the outside. It's 5pm here and broad daylight in a room which is mosly windows on 3 sides. If I stare and try to see reflections I can see them some but not much.

By the way media center comes with a bunch of neet stuff and seems to be built on xp pro so it is worth looking into if you are considering pro. For 40 bucks or so it is a nice home even. The notebook makes an unbelievable tv! (A little expensive but nice none the less)

I9300 2.0ghz 1.0gb ram 100gb disk 256MB NVIDIA 6800 dvd rw UXGA Bluetooth Intel WiFi Media Center

 

I have the WUXGA+ TrueLife display, and I have had to change some of the settings. I don't have bad vision, or anything, but I am not a kid, either. Perhaps I'm just getting old... [ ]

I've lower my resolution a little; changed the dpi setting to 120; and made some changes in the nVIDIA Display Control menus.

If you have any vision problems or you're a little older, you will probably find that the fonts are REALLY small. I had never owned a laptop, or a 17" screen, and had no idea what I was getting when I ordered. If you play a lot of games and watch movies on your computer, you may want the WUXGA+. If you're just doing work on it, surfing the internet, etc., I wouldn't spend the extra money on the enhanced screens.



Inspiron 9300, Pentium M 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM, 256MB NVIDIA 6800 Go, 17" LPL WUXGA+ TrueLife,60GB HD, CD-+RW/DVD-+RW, Dell Wireless

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by phatcow

 

Well being no spring chicken myself I worried about it myself. I use the thing primarily for program development. I find the wide screen helpful as it allows more stuff to be placed on the screen at one time without using multiple monitors (nice on a desk top not too useful here)

The thing to remember (I did this experiment) is that the lcd screen in it's native resolution is much sharper than the standard monitor so I find that using the thing as shipped (120 dpi I think) my already almost blind eyes can read this dialog box from about 4' away, glasses on of course.

Running the clear type wizard (not just turning on the setting) does seem to make the fonts thicker somehow. The screen appears to me about what 800x600 or 1024x768 on a 17" tube looks like at 96dpi or what ever it is. If it was tiny like what 1280x whatever it is looks like on a 17" monitor or worse I think I would have had to do something about that. My old eyes wouldn't have stood that for very long. Also remember that the LCD panel doesn't have the flickering like the tubes do depending on the refresh rate. I think that also helps

The biggest change is the width. most web pages look a little odd in full screen as they seem to be made for NTSC geometry (4x3) not this wide thing. Also I lose the mouse sometimes. I am actually thinking of turning on the tails, I always hated those somehow.

All in all I am very happy. All of the problems I have had so far were some form of pilot problem. The manuals for some of the more obscure things could be better especially BlueTooth. It works it is just understanding what it is saying.

I9300 2.0ghz 1.0gb ram 100gb disk 256MB NVIDIA 6800 dvd rw UXGA Bluetooth Intel WiFi Media Center

 

I cant see ANY fonts because I am playing Call of Duty all of the time while I should be working on mine.

 

Well all I meant by the 4' is that if I squint I can still read it so to me that means that the fonts were about normal in size not that I HAVE to sit back 4'. Beyond 4' I switch to brail(sp?)!

When I finally install the new development tools on here I may switch to 96 I'll have to see. The MS tool uses alot of width or it can at least. The next beta should be out around the end of the week and I decided not to "soil" my new machine with the tripe they put out in december, but I can tell you Word (we are in the design phase again right now anyway) is wery nice like this. You can show toolbars and the text at the same time very nice. Here at work with all the lights on in my office I see no reflections to speak of.

Also took a survey of sorts here with that program which computes PI and this machine was #2 of all of the desktops etc we tried. Only a AMD 64 beat it by a tiny amount. It really is quite nice. I have imported video from my camcorder with no problems either. I never managed that with any other notebook before.

If you bought BlueTooth get the MS Bluetooth mouse, works great! No dongle needed. Also got my ipaq to work with it too. The trick is to setup activesync and use BlueTooth as the interface. If you do everything works including the internet and no cable needed. It is reasonably fast but doesn't scream. Nice not to have any wires though.

Anyone else tried the sd slot yet? I didn't do anything scientific but it seems MUCH faster than usb.

I9300 2.0ghz 1.0gb ram 100gb disk 256MB NVIDIA 6800 dvd rw UXGA Bluetooth Intel WiFi Media Center

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by JustJimDelany

 

Just to clarify - I returned my 9300 because I found a Dell coupon a week after delivery - and I saved over $300 by returning it. I paid $2307 originally and returned it - then bought it back for $1957 with an upgraded hard drive ( to 80gig ).

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by oracledba

 

I had ( a new 9300 is coming to me next week ) the 9300 with the samsumg wuxga and it was very nice.
I had lasik the other year and two enhancements since, and it is the way to go. But it's not for everyone. My screen did sparkle a bit, but it was not bad at all to say the least.
The cleartype or whatever, did me no good. I liked the fonts thin and sharp. the cleartype setting fattened and blurred the font a bit IMHO.
I think I am alone in that opinion - I left it at the native 1920 or whatever - and I just said "WOW" when I applied that first setting ...

Dell 9300 * 2.0ghz sonoma * 1gig ram * 256mg nvidia wuxga * xp media center * dvd dual layer * 80gig 5400 * bluetooth * wireless a/b/g *

 

For those of you who are wanting to adjust the resolution of an LCD screen:
LCD's only operate well at their native resolution or precisely half of the value for your native resolution, for example, an LCD screen with 1600 by 1200 will operate just fine at 800 by 600 and so on.
If you do not like your native resolution you can reduce it in half with no ill effects, Unfortunately, Dell doesnt offer a 1600 by 1200 resolution which means cutting your native resolution in half will most likely be too small a screen area as to be a useful adjustment.