Dell Inspiron 6000 Notebook Computer for Business user reviews

Pros Great Design; Lots of Ports; Fantastic Keyboard; Clear, Crisp Display

Cons Small Mouse Pad; Short Battery Life

Summary MY CONFIGURATION:
Intel Pentium M Processor 715 (1.50 GHz/2MB Cache/400MHz FSB)
Display 15.4 inch WXGA LCD Panel
Memory 512MB DDR2 SDRAM 2 Dimms
Video Card 64MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY™ RADEON X300 PCI Express x16 Graphics
Hard Drive 80GB Hard Drive
Network Card Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
Combo/DVD+RW Drives 24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
Wireless Networking Cards Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps)
Battery 6-cell Lithium Ion Battery

I have had this notebook for about 2 weeks and I am extremely happy with it. I started hearing about display issues with this model after I had already ordered mine and I was a bit nervous that I had made a mistake, but so far, I am extremely pleased with the quality of the display and I opted for the standard WXGA screen. It is crisp, clear and I can easily see it even if I am not looking straight at the display. Prior LCD's that I have owned could only be viewed from straight on. The display does dim considerably when using the battery, but you can adjust the setting so that does not happen if it really bothers you. I prefer to let it dim to squeeze some more life out of the battery.

Definitely spend the money to upgrade the battery. Other people who have done so have said they get 5+ hours on a charge. I did not upgrade the battery when I bought the machine, but I will be buying one in the next few days. I am only getting a little over 2 hours on a charge with the standard battery.

The mouse pad is a little small for such a large display and is a little slow to respond. I prefer a USB optical mouse anyway, so I don't mind carrying the extra piece of equipment.

The wireless card is fantastic! I have never lost a connection, and it finds wireless networks around my neighborhood that my PC has never located. The built in speakers are a bit weak and tinny sounding, but it is a notebook. I didn't expect to get Bose quality sound from it. If I want or need that kind of quality sound then I use my Bose headphones.

If you want or need a machine that can handle a lot of multi-media tasks and software, but you are on a budget, this is definitely the machine to get.

Pros Very good display, great sound, and excellent speed

Cons Apart from deteriorating customer service, not much else..One gripe though, shortly after it was delivered they introduced dedicated graphics.

Summary I like this laptop v. much. After I purchased and it got delivered, I saw that dell was offering dedicated graphics. I have integrated graphics. I was pissed at the fact that they didn't offer it in the 1st place. Also, when I ordered in 2nd week of march, the fastest speed available was 1.6 Ghz. So I ordered that.

The 15" wide display I have with UXGA is beautiful, but hard to get used to, because lots of stuff at high resolution looks weird. Many websites look tiny and centered. So I am not a fan of wide display yet. But unfortunately you can't get to choose between wide and regular display.

Having said all that, the laptop performs great because of the 7200 RPM 60 GB Harddrive. DVD RW is noisy, and in hindsight, I would prefer to just get an external dvd rw and thus have two drives for the price of one. But this one has its own advantages. So they weigh against each other.

The sound is great, and work is much easier to complete now since its a much much faster performing machine, even compared to my older 1.7 Ghz Pentium 4 Dell Laptop. Not sure, how can that be.. Probably due to faster hard drive and other technicalities, I don't like to know the details about.

So, if you are a home user and may end up taking it to work or travel with it occassionally, then this is the one for you. I would caution you against upgrading to 9-cell battery though. Unless you really need the extra juice dont get it. Apart from extra dough that you pay, you will carry the extra weight as well. At 6-cell, I feel like its relatively light. With 9-cell (i ordered both batteries), it feels slightly heavy on one side, so I wouldn't prefer it (mine will goto ebay for sale shortly, since i haven't used it for more than 2 hours so far). Get it if you are a student and need it at class for 4 hours, but otherwise, for moderate commuting, or for home use, 3-4 hours of juice is sufficient which can be had from 6-cell.

Hope this review is helpful to you.

Pros it worked for a week and a half

Cons it broke after a week and a half and the replacement was broke as well

Summary Please Read:
Here is the short review of what I have gone through with Dell in the past month and a half. I have a computer engineering degree and these are only the facts and leave nothing to opinion. I ordered a Dell Inspiron 6000 notebook. A week and a half after having the PC there was a short either in or around the hard drive; this was on a Thur night. I called Dell and they verified the problem through a diagnostic check of the HD. I was told that I would have a replacement PC on Mon or Tues, which was 3-5 days. Instead of taking 3-5 days, Dell took exactly 13 days to replace the PC. One day after receiving the new PC I noticed dead pixels on the screen. When I told Dell that they sent me two bad computers and all I wanted was a full refund, I was told that I was over the 21 day limit and had to pay a 15% restocking fee. Considering the fact that if I would have received the replacement in 3-5 days, as I was told, I would have been under the 21 day limit so I found this to be Dell’s problem and not mine. I had to go as far as disputing the charge with the credit card company to attempt to get my money back. Finally Dell decided that if I paid the money to ship the computer and the DC adapter back to Dell they would give me full refund. This is where I stand now. I had to bite the bullet and pay the $40 to send the two packages back and I have a phone bill over $200 for talking to Dell’s “first rate” customer service for over 16 hours in the past month to get this issue resolved, including both what took so long for the PC to be replaced and the problem with the pixels when it was. I can honestly say that I have talked to over 100 customer service representatives at Dell and only got to talk to two managers, one of whom I was hung up by, in all the time I was talking to customer service. I found out that every time I asked for a manager I was either hung up on or transferred to the previous menu. If you don’t believe this, just try it for yourself. For all those skeptics that still want to buy a Dell, I’m not trying to talk you out of it, but you may want to search online for all the customer service representatives that have quit Dell recently because Dell has switched from “Do right for the customer” to “Do right for Dell”.

Pros Great battery life, bright clear WSXGA screen, very good keyboard and excellent wifi

Cons Mouse pad is touchy, no parallel port , no docking station option

Summary This fits the bill for large screen traveling business needs and desktop replacement. It is fairly light weight for a 15.4" screen model. The 1.6 GHz processor is fast and runs fairly cool and quiet. The screen is crisp, clear and bright in the WSXGA model I bought. The battery life for the 9 cell-80Whr unit is over 5 hours with all power saving options enabled. The onboard Intel graphics are fine for presentations, spreadsheets or even DVD play, but if your a gamer, you may need to look elsewhere. The newer 6000d model has faster processor options and the newer ATI X300 with 128 mb DDR card if you need more punch.

The built in Intel PRO WIFI 2915 has excellent range and is very fast. I am picking up WiFi systems in my office building, I never new were there and sveral floor away with good reception.

I have had 2 other Dell laptops, plus a Toshiba and Gateway. I liked them all, but the I6000 is best laptop yet for my needs.