Dell Inspiron 6400 Review (pics, specs)

Dell Inspiron 6400 Review (Canada)

The Dell Inspiron 6400 (also sold as the Inspirone1505 via Dell Home) is a laptop that meets you in the middle'. It's pretty light and portable (like the Inspiron e1405) and offers high performance and great media options (like the Inspiron e1705). Basically, you get the best of both worlds, at a reasonable price. Before we begin reviewing anything, here are the specs of my system:

• Intel Core Duo T2400 / 2 Mb Cache / 1.83 GHz / 667 MHZ FSB
• 15.4" Wide-screen XGA Display with Truelife
• 120 Gb 5400 rpm Sata Hard Drive
• 1 Gb DDR2 SDRAM / 553 MHZ
• 256 Mb ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 Hyper memory
• Windows XP Media Center
• 9 - Cell Battery

Reasons for Buying

The Dell Inspiron 6400 really interested me because it had everything I needed for the price that I wanted. It's small and light enough to carry (even with the 9-cell) and is powerful enough for my needs. I chose Dell because of their quality, in my mind. I've only bought one Desktop, the Dell Dimension 8200. 6 years later, it's still running incredibly well with Windows XP (designed for Windows ME). Anyways, I was confident that the laptop I was about to purchase will last me a long time, and I have plenty reasons.

Where & How it Was Purchased

I ordered my laptop on Dell's Canadian website. I found that the site was fairly easy to navigate and didn't get lost too often. Dell's main advantage over their competitors is that laptops they sell are always highly configurable. Unfortunately, I had some credit card problems that were beyond my control, so my order was delayed. The sales representative was very polite and assisted me throughout the process. I got my laptop in 15 days. It would normally take about 10 days. Overall, I was pleased with the order process and order tracking is very helpful.

Build & Design

The Inspiron 6400 feels very sturdy. It doesn't feel flimsy, and doesn't look like things are going to get loose anytime soon. Opening and closing of the screen is not too loose or too tight. One hand is sufficient enough to move the screen, provided the notebook itself on a stable surface.

The notebook design itself is slightly above average. The silver paint looks very appealing, but not when combined with the white bumpers. I didn't really like the bumpers, but I guess it looks decent. Overall this laptop can't compare to the XPS series, but its design is good enough to catch some eyes.

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Display

I chose the lowest option, and I am still very impressed. The 15.4" monitor is great for playing games and watching movies. The wide-screen is very nice and is everything that I expected. The screen is good enough so people can gather around and watch a movie with no problems. Something to watch out for is fingerprints. They drive me up the wall so keeping it clean is definitely a priority.

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I have noticed some light leakage at the bottom. As you can see in the screenshot below, its noticeable. It doesn't bother me too much because I plan to use this laptop for University so it isn't much of a problem.

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Speakers & Sound Quality

I was very surprised with the quality of the sound and the loudness of the speakers. If you are not a professional DJ, I doubt that you would need external speakers. With volume set at half and variable external sounds, its loud enough to fill the general area of the laptop. At full, it can fill a whole room and enables you to have a group watch a DVD with no trouble hearing what's going on.

Processor & General Performance

If you are a multi-tasker, you will love the Core Duo. For example, I was installing software, playing a video, and chatting on Windows Live Messenger at the same time with no troubles. Considering I didn't get the highest processor, I was quite impressed. With 1 Gb of RAM, I had no problems. Start-up time is very quick once you get rid of the annoying stuff Dell includes. My start-up usually averages a minute.

I was surprised in terms of gaming performance. Users on various forums gave me the impression that it would be disappointing. I was pleased to see that games such as NFS Most Wanted and Battlefront 2 ran with maximum settings. In general I'm sure that high performance games should run great with medium to high settings.

Benchmarks

SuperPi:

Notebook	Time
Dell Inspiron 6400 (1.83GHz Core Duo)	1m 22s
Asus W3H760DD (2.0 GHz Pentium M)	1m 33s
Dell Inspiron e1505 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 16s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
Toshiba Satellite M100 (2.00GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
Samsung X60 (1.66GHz Core Duo)	1m 29s
Dell XPS M140 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 41s
Sony VAIO FS680 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 53s
IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s

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3D Mark 05 Results

Notebook	3D Mark 05 Results
Dell Inspiron 6400 (1.83GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 256MB)	1,7633D Marks
Asus W3J (1.86Ghz Core Duo, ATI X1600 256MB)	3,925 3D Marks
Sony VAIO SZ2 (2.16GHz Core Duo, nVidia GeForce 7400)	1,851 3D Marks
Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 256MB)	4,236 3DMarks
Alienware Aurora M-7700(AMD Dual Core FX-60, ATI X1600 256MB)	7,078 3D Marks
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,092 3D Marks
Asus V6Va (2.13 GHz Pentium M, ATI x700 128 MB)	2,530 3D Marks
Fujitsu n6410 (1.66 GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,273 3DMarks
HP Pavilion dv4000 (1.86 GHz Pentium M, ATI X700 128MB)	2,536 3D Marks
Dell XPS M1210 (2.16 GHz Core Duo, nVidia Go 7400 256MB)	2,090 3D Marks

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HD Tune Results:

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Noise & Heat

For the most part, the laptop is very quiet. When doing normal tasks such as word processing, email and Internet you don't hear it at all. Believe it or not, I can hear my Desktop PC in the other room and not the laptop sitting in front of me. When doing more intensive tasks or prolonged use, the fan kicks in. This fan isn't loud, but it isn't quiet either. It's not loud enough to bother you though (at least it doesn't bother me).

Heat is a small issue for me. After a while, the laptop gets noticeably warm. I can't back up this claim, but I think the bigger battery may have something to do with it. I haven't tried yet, but maybe accessing the fans and having them run more frequently may solve the problem. It's worth a try.

Wireless

The Intel Wireless card (Intel Pro Wireless) is very good using my standards. Dropped connections were limited and it was easy to use. You can easily shut it off when you are not using it by pressing Fn + F2. For this card, you can use the software Intel provides or the one Windows has, Windows Zero. I personally prefer Zero because it's easier to use.

Battery

Battery life on the 6400 is very respectable. I wasn't expecting much and I almost ordered an extra to go with it. Under normal tasks (WiFi on, 75% brightness, Windows Media Visualizations), the battery lasted about 3 hours and 15 minutes. With WiFi off, and playing games with low brightness, I was able to get about 3 hours and 34 minutes. I bet that you can squeeze 4 hours if you really wanted.

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Keyboard & Touchpad

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The keyboard is very user friendly and I have no problems with it. There is very little keyboard flex, which is good. Also laptop-oriented buttons, such as Standby and WiFi, are placed conveniently. The touchpad is very responsive and is good enough to use if you don't have a mouse nearby. The scroll feature on the right and bottom side of the touchpad is very useful. They replicate the scroll wheel most standard mice have.

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Also, there is a MediaDirect button (to boot into Media Center without Windows), Power, and

Status Lights (Num, Caps, Scroll Lock, and WiFi)

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Ports/Buttons

This laptop carries most of the standard ports. There are 4 USB 2.0 ports split between the back and the right side. This is very useful to plug in devices such as Mice and Presentation Pointers. There is an S-Video port and VGA for external display. Ethernet and Model port is also at the back, when close to a Router/High Speed Modem. When discussing Ports/Buttons, the feature I love the most are the media buttons in the front. You can close the laptop and have the ability to change songs. The next best thing is the TV Tuner w/ remote!

Left Side:

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Back:

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Right Side:

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Front:

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Operating System and Software

Windows XP Media Center is what came with my laptop. It's basically the same thing as XP Pro, but with great multimedia functions. If you plan to watch a lot of movies, listen to music, and use a TV Tuner than I recommend you get Media Center. Backup disks cost $10 when you order and its worth the investment. My 6400 came with the XP Recovery Disk, Drivers and Utilities, Sound Blaster Software, and a few others I can't remember.

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Dell had to cut corners somewhere. The laptop comes with a lot of pre-loaded applications that many find bloat' their system. McAfee is one of the main trouble makers. Startup time doubled and general performance was decreased. If you can, I would recommend looking for another. I personally use Avant and Trendmicro. Not all the software was bad though. Some useful Applications I found were PowerDVD, Sonic Digital Media, and Word Perfect.

Customer Support

Dell Sales Representatives were very helpful and understanding, even when I bogged them with obvious questions. They helped me throughout the ordering process. Overall, I was quite pleased here.

Conclusion

The Dell Inspiron 6400 is a very good notebook with decent options at a reasonable price. The Core Duo 1.86 is perfect for multitasking. Gaming on the 6400 with the x1400 should be fine for the occasional gamer, not for hardcore gamers. The lowest option for the screen was impressive, which means higher options should be excellent. Battery life is decent, but could be better. I may be looking into buying a spare battery soon. The layout of the keyboard is perfect for typing and should fit your lifestyle. Overall, I recommend this notebook for anyone looking for a great performing laptop for a reasonable price.

Pros

• Fast processor for multi-tasking
• Good battery life
• Excellent Keyboard (Good for typing over long periods of time)
• Mostly quiet
• Very good speakers

Cons

• Pre-loaded applications slow down computer
• Gets a little warmer than normal under prolonged use (at the bottom)
• Slight light-leakage at the bottom
• Not for the Hard-core gamer

I hope this review has been helpful. I hope that you will be able to find the laptop that fits you best! Good Luck!

 

Nice review VCMAN, but theres one thing..

Theres no light leakage at the bottom in that picture. It's looks absolutely perfect to me.

 

Great Review! One slight correction... Shouldn’t this:

"Intel Core Duo T2400 / 5 Mb Cache / 1.86 GHz / 667 MHZ FSB"
Be.... this...
"Intel Core Duo T2400 / 2 Mb Cache / 1.83 Ghz / 667 MHz FSB"

 

Excellent review. I am surprised to hear about the Dell customer service. I never had good experiences with them.

 

Oh wow, you are right! I didn't even realize! I took that spec from my head and didnt double check

If someone could fix that please

 

I think if you click on the edit button, you can make the changes. Also in the Super Pi, the Processor speed is off too. Excellent review either way, and this will be the notebook of college students I believe(great to be different ya!

 

I'll edit that...

 

I wonder if I could get away with ordering a 6400, and then get it sent back like I didn't like it, with my 6000 in the box instead. =P

 

Haha ... its worth a try.

By the way, I plan on formatting my drive soon. How much of a difference does it make? I will use SG's guide.

Thanks for the responses guys.

 

Well you will not have 60 different little processes running the background... It should speed up your boot up times, and just make things in general run faster... Dell loads a lot of crapware so its best to get rid of that…

 

Great review! for the price it's a good notebook. Here in spain this notebook at dell's web site is priced at 1100€ aprox.

 

You're from Canada, right?
I've been eyeing this laptop for almost a month now. And it's never had the MCE as the default offered OS.

Anyways, I'm just very curious as to how much it cost you in total including the taxes in CDN dollars.

Also, did you completely reformat the drive to get rid of all the garbage? I'm hesitant to do this if I get the 6400. I don't wanna deal with all the drivers issues.

 

You probably could. Just replace that one plastic piece above the keyboard that says Inspiron 6000 with the E1505 panel.

And remove the stickers on the laptop. I wouldn't be suprised if you could get away with it.

 

With tax, the notebook cost $1500 CAD. At the time, there were no discounts and didn't use any coupons. I bet that if you look for discounts, you can get a great deal. Either way, you are getting a quality ntebook.

 

i was looking EVERYWHERE for Dell.ca coupons and i couldn't find a single one.
i don't even think they have any coupons for Canadians... but now you're saying there are...
so where did you find and and what exactly were they? anything like the $750 off for US customers???

 

Can someone please explain what are the real differences between the E1505 and 6400? I don't understand their marketing and if I had to choose, which one I would take for what I need it for.

 

From what I know, the e1505 and the 6400 are identical. In Canada, the 6400 is for Home and e1505 fr Small Business. It's reversed for US.

As for coupons, I don't know if they exist. I was just assuming there was.

 

I was wondering how heavy you felt the 6400 to be.
I have an HP that was listed as ~3kg.. Turned out
to be >4kg. I'm considering the 6400, the only thing
that makes me hesitate is the weight.

 

I find that it is very light. I am able to hold the laptop with one hand no problem. It seems that the upgraded battery didn't add additional weight.

 

Talking about the lag due to the preloaded software, can the drive be formatted just like the way of formatting a pc? I read a forum mentioning about a thread about that -- Guide of formatting Dell... Yet i was unable to find it..

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=67545

I think that is what you are looking for.

 

Yup.. It is indeed.. Yet it seems like more troublesome to format it.. Could I just insert my window xp and reboot. Then start the reformat straight away like what I always did to my desktop? Aren't XP has all the drivers?
Well if you don't mind, I would also enquire information regarding to Merom, will 6400 be able to run Merom? Heard that the socket is different yet there are groups of people claiming that it can!!
What's more? I heard people claiming that he got his notebook after 2 months.. That will freaks me away from Dell to Toshiba (I'm actually planning to get one soon -- 6400 of course).. And Merom is coming soon, I'm wondering if I should wait for it and buy Yonah then due to the price will definitely fall by then. I'd be stupid for buying it weeks earlier with much higher price.. I don't need 64bit yet but I need a notebook now.. Kinda headache to make such a decision..
What do you think? And how you feel about Dell? Worth buying a Dell than a Toshiba? Actually I'm quite budget tight as well, Dell can offer cheaper than Toshiba.. Ohh.. one important thing i need to know as well, does the 6400 has the Roadready technology (anti-spilt, shock absorber, anti-drop things like that) like 640m does?

 

About the light leakage... How bad is the light leakage and is it the green dots on the black screen or is that just the green status leds for the computer. I sure hope it isn't the green spots. Thanks!

 

About light leakage, it isn't bad at all. As for the 'green dots', they are status lights.

@VOng, I don't know too much about Merom possibility. I read somewhere that it can be done, but you need a BIOS hack.

Its up to what you need your laptop. If you feel you need 64-bit then go for it. I believe that Dell gives you a pretty good deal and the quality is good too.

Good luck with your decision!

 

nice review, makes me feel glad.
I ordered a Dell Inspiron 6400, from Sweden.
but with:
Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2300E (1,66 GHz)
1024 Ram
X1400 ATI
9-cell battery
15.4" W Screen XGA + TrueLife
80 Gb
DvD/CD burner

for 9500 kr which is like 1300 US dollars

 

That's a similar setup to mine. All the best to you

 

Got the same setup 3 weeks ago, it's a great laptop!

Paid $1255 CAD with 1 year warranty and Dell Nylon carrying case (Including taxes)

 

I must miss some setting here. I found a lot of web pages were 'narrowed' and they were displayed in the center or left hand side of the screen. The font is extremely small! I hardly able to see them. I hope someone can help.

Thanks.

 

hey nice review. VERY helpful !

@pcuser go to 'view' on top of your browser and scroll down to text size and fiddle with that.

I was wondering if the 'Ultrasharp' upgrade makes any improvements at all or is it all BS

any replies would be appreciated! thx

 

M2, I got the lowest screen and its fine for the 'regular people' lol. Unless its something you absolutley need to have, it isnt nessesary.

Hope this helps.

 

I see GTA SA at yout screen

how works it??, at very high??

I wanna bay A notebook that can run games like that

(looking for, 6400, C2D, 2GB ati X1400 )

 

hi VCman,
ur review of 6400 was excellent, quite exhaustive analysis!! thanx a lot for the info..

actually i want to buy a laptop, but since my knowledge in the hardware field is very limited, i'm not able to decide, which laptop i should go for.. as in there are certain very basic questions that i confront, would you please throw some light on them:

1.) what is the purpose of L2 cache and video memory, are those necessary for gaming purposes, ie for the likes AOE, GTA San Andreas, NFS, etc. has it anything to do with the gaming thing at all?
2.) what kind of graphics card are to be taken, considering i would like to watch lots of movies and would definitely be what u called an 'occasional gamer'.. may be more so..
Moreover, what are the differences between Radeon and NVidia, etc...
3.) what are the differences bet'n core duo and cor2duo, does core2duo really helps when there are big applications running...simultaneously..
4.) Finally, for following requirements, what config wud you consider ok/ideal:
(i) LCD display should be gr8 for movies and good gaming graphics
(ii) Surfing offcourse
(iii) Photoshop, etc

kindly help me out here!! and if possible can you tell me what links to surf to find info on such issues?

Thanks a tonne!!

 

Also which processor should be enough for these requirements?
and what should be the processor speed?

waiting for reply!!
thanx!!

 

"The keyboard layout is perfect and should suit your lifestyle"?

I really do not know, what a keyboard layout has to do with lifestyle instead of usability, and this layout really sucks. All function keys are way up, so you have to move the right hand far (and at least I cannot do that blind) and cannot use them fast in conjunction with the arrow keys.

There are two free spots next to the arrow keys, couldn't they at least just have put the page up/down keys there (as is the standard)?

 

Great review but how do you decide which programs running in the background you can get rid of or to put it another way which programs should be left because they are needed

 

Hey I'd like to know if this laptop is able to run Premiere and Photoshop CS2?

 

Since Premiere/CS2 do not require a powerful GPU to run, its performance will matter on the rest of the specification of the laptop(like the CPU, ram, and Hard drive).

Since this thread is old, please make a new thread in the Windows or <noparse>Dell</noparse> section of the forum(make sure you include complete specifications of your laptop).

Thx
Kdawgca
NBR Mod

 

Hi, I am new here, can anyone help me as the Dell team don't seem to want to as i bought the Dell inspiron 640m off ebay and have no registration details.
when i try and boot up the notebook, there are 2 flashing padlocks in the top left hand side, one is a flashing A, the other a flashing downarrow.
it sounds as if the systems wants to boot up, but after a few seconds it just closes down. i can't even get to a screen.
help somone please.......