New i8600 owner with some Questions

Never had a notebook before, just took the plunge with the $500 off coupon. came to $1136. it's kind of outside my budget right now but the dang coupon made me do it[ ]

I have a few questions since I know little about Dell's laptops, I hope it's not real slow compared to my main desktop, I only plan to use it as a second computer for the road or just outside the house.

Can I and should I reformat, partition, and do a clean XP install without some of the other dell stuff I don't want?
How is the screen outside?
How long of a battery life am I looking at?
Oh and can I recharge the battery at any time or do I need to wait until it's spent.

Inspiron 8600 Intel® Pentium®M Processor 725(1.60A GHz/400MHz FSB)
15.4 WSXGA+
512MB DDR SDRAM 2 Dimms
128MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY® RADEON™ 9600 PROTURBO
30GB Hard Drive
CD ROM/DVD ROM 8X Max DVD ROM
Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps)

I'm waiting to get this thing and appreciate any help while wait.

 

1)I would highly recommend doing a clean install. It is easy to do and will speed up your computer nicely.
2)Screen is pretty good outside, but you do need to turn up the brightness a bit
3) 3 to 4.5 hours depending on what you are doing
4)you can recharge the battery at any time.

Hope that helps.

 

Great pricing! The I8600 is a very good notebook, which will afford you many tasks. It has become my primary machine over 2 PC desktops and 2 mac (17" G4 Powerbook, 14" G4 IBook) products and 1 other older pc laptop. Enjoy!

 

Thanks for the answers nesbo, 4 hours would be awesome, Does it recharge the battery while you use it on the AC? and would that hurt the battery if I use the AC a lot?

Thanks andy, looks like my impulse buy was good[8D]
hopefully it will arrive in a week or so.

Any suggestions on a cool backpack?
I guess I have to be careful to get one the widescreen fits in, I guess I'll check on ebay.

 

Yes, your battery is in a charge state while on AC power. I have my i8600 pluggeg in about half of the time. That hasn't decreased the batteries effectiveness, thus far. Perhaps someone can expand on that.

4 hours is the normal battery life i get, while performing normal tasks.

With regard to a backpack, check out www.timbuk2.com They are messenger styled bags. Very roomy and great for commuting and trips. I use their Commute XL for my i8600 and 17" G4 PowerBook and their regular Commute bag for my Toshiba Tecra and iBook G4.

Enjoy!