Inspiron 8600 - WIDE aspect display

Hi all!
Im new to laptops and notebooks and hope you guys can help me out here. Im seriously considering DELL and have narrowed the choice to 5150 or 8600.

i am an avid gamer. Dont really require that much of mobility. Id be using the notebook with plugged powers most of the time. So battery lifetime should not be a great deal of concern for me.

I am particularly curious with the Wide aspect display that 8600 sports. If this display gives a width to height ratio of 16:10 as opposed to regular 4:3, I am wondering how would it affect games? would i be seeing black empty screen at the sides of the display?

I dont mind the 5150 with 15" SXGA display. But wud really want to know more about the 8600 15.4" w-aspect display. How would it affect my work?

since we are all too much used to 4:3 ratio, wud this bother me by too much details on the screen?

Thanks!

*--kv--*

 

I love widescreen displays and would not buy anything else. The 8600 screen is great I came close to buying one myself to replace my Inspiron 8200. Most programs simply auto-adjust to fit the screen size. I haven't noticed any smashing of graphics or anything else of the like. The other benefit is that DVDs look great on widescreens. If you're not going far from an AC power supply, the 8600 seems like a good fit.

Brian

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

Thanks Brian!

After much reading, I do find the 8600 more appealing to me.

U say there is no smashing for game applications. How about movies formatted for regular screen display (4:3 ratio). Wud I be seeing black bars at the sides of the wide screen display when viewing these?

Im a die-hard fan of old games like Diablo II. Hope they look good in the 8600. Planning to revisit golden old days!! [8D]

*--kv--*

 

Hmm, I'm kinda in the same wagon as you are. What Video card are you gonna get for the 8600?

 

If you plan on gaming, get the 128MB card. As for movies that are not widescreen, usually you'll get two black bars on the sides.

B

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

Waylander,

Just a bit of a warning...a lot of users have been giving the 8600 negative reviews (one site I was reading out of 100 users, 64 of them gave it a negative rating), mainly that certain things weren't working, or certain parts were malfunctioning. Sounds like a quality issue.This seems to becoming a trend with newly released notebooks from Dell from everything that I have been reading.

One of my classmates just purchased an 8600 and had to return it 3 days later because it didn't work.

Also, I have a 5150 (bought it right when it was released) and in 4 months time have had to have the CD drive replaced and the LCD screen replaced!

Anyway, just my two cents...what I've learned about Dell is to wait several months after a new model is released so they work out the bugs.