Inspiron 9400 review

Hi folks,

These are my thoughts and impressions of my new Inspiron 9400.

This review has been typed exclusively on my i9400 as an ultimate test of how good the keyboard is.

Whilst the production status of my new laptop stayed in pre-production on Dell's website, I was anticipating a long delay in delivery as parts, especially the new Core Duo processors, are possibly in short supply.

I needn't have worried. After a few days, it went from pre-production to shipped in about 16 hours.

Now for delivery. My previous two Dell laptops were delivered by a complete bunch of muppets, I think eventually winding up with Interlink here in the UK.

Not this time. Dell shipped mine with UPS. Whilst the tracking wasn't perfect - there was a few hours lag between a tracking point and the info getting on the web site - I was able to see the laptop make its way from Dell in Ireland. The tracking said the box was shipped using the "express saver" method so delivery should be next day. I got a bit worried when the tracking showed the package as having arrived in Köln (Cologne), Germany at 23:55. Again no worries as by the time I'd got home from work (nightshift) the tracking said it was out for delivery. Excellent! It turned up just before midday. That's pretty good going as I only ordered the laptop 6 days before on the Saturday.

The box almost looked too small to contain a 17" laptop, hovever, there she was hiding underneath the "bits and pieces" box.

First impression - WOW! Its a good looking laptop. I don't know how much input Samsung had in the design of this particular model (Other models have been complete Samsung rebrands), but the design is very reminiscent of the X30 and M40 Samsung models.

Ok, I open the baby up. The latch is great and is more like the latch on my old I7000 than the latch on my I8500 though both were good. Hinges seem robust too. Everything inside is nicely protected for shipping with a piece of thin foam between the keyboard and the screen, and some thin plastic clingy sheeting round the palmrest. I take a quick opportunity to see what the keyboard feels like. Seems firm and well supported and should be good.

Ok, time for some power. Excellent, Dell look to have reverted to a bog standard figure-of-eight lead from socket to power brick, though their own cable goes about it in a slightly strange way. I've just tried a standard "8" lead and it fits perfectly.

Right, I power on for the first time. BIOS and Windows XP starting logos are normal and after a short delay, I am able to start the minimal setup required.

During this setup I use the touchpad for the first time and find it is going to need setting up - I am an experienced touchpad user and like a fair amount of on-screen movement for the amount of movement I make on the pad. The touchpad does have a nice large usable area even when you discount the "scroll zones". The buttons are very positive and have a useful amount of travel.

Minimal setup done, the machine reboots and I notice just how much junk is installed by Dell and is running already. A quick dive into "Regedit" shows 29 items set to run on startup. A full re-install from scratch (not a restore) looks likely.

First impressions of the screen are good. I can't find any dead pixels either. As has already been noted by others, there is a bit of light bleed at the bottom of the screen, though it is very even and shouldn't disturb viewing pleasure on even dark movies. I'm guessing that the panel is made by Samsung.

OK, what brands are the rest of the hardware. The 100gb 7200rpm hard-drive is a Hitachi. The DVD burner is an NEC ND-6550A, which from what I've read, is the preferred drive over the other shipping drive, a Sony.

Right, whilst I'm checking things out, I'll play a little music. The CD is Jenny Lewis's first solo album, Rabbit Fur Coat (I love her group Rilo Kiley). The CD fits onto the spindle nicely and the tray slides in nicely. Media Centre is offered as the application to play the CD so I select this and find I have to spend a few minutes setting it up.

Initial playing in digital mode left me slighlty unimpressed. OK, i'll try to play the CD in analogue mode. I change the setting in device manager and reboot. Media Centre/Media player ignores the setting and always plays digitally, so I download the latest version of Winamp and install it. When I start playing I find that Dell have turned off the analogue link - they first did this with the i8500 to cure a popping sound with the speakers.

I also prefer analogue playback as the CD/DVD drive run at their normal (1x) speed and are thus quiet. Disappointed, I turn digital back on and without really thinking, start playback of the CD again in Winamp.

I am delighted to find that not only does the DVD drive run slowly without the whooshing noise that Media Centre/player (still) produces, the playback seems better too. Mental note - get the Winamp plug-in to enable me to use the i9400's media buttons.

You may have spotted that I had internet access when I downloaded Winamp. I set up the wireless connection very easily and had Winamp downloaded within a few minutes.

Now for the biggest test! My biggest disappointment with my i8500 was that the USB ports didn't supply enough power to run my 2.5" external harddrive. My i7000 had run it fine. I am heartened by a posting on Dell's forums where the user went from an i8600 (with the same issue as the i8500) to an i9400. He reported that his drive worked on the i9400 where it hadn't on the i8600.

The moment of truth arrives. I plug it in and wait with bated breath. Goal! Back of the net! Go on my son! The drive is recognised immediately with no barfing and XP pops up the box asking me what to do with the contents of the drive. I might just change my avatar to a happy bunny.

At this point sleep beckons (I'm on nights remember) so I have one final test to do before bedtime. Will the i9400 fit in my Crumpler "Very Busy Man") laptop bag.

Pooh, the answer is no. Ah well, minor problem really. And so to bed.

After playing for a couple of days with the installed stuff, I make the decision to go with a fresh install. None of the junk are real keepers as I have functional (and free) equivalents that I use already on my desktop and previous laptops.

The install goes boringly easily, though there is a different bit at the end where Dell's own script does some stuff - I haven't found out what yet. Note that if after doing your own manual install you still want access to Media Direct, you will need to run Dell's utility to repair the master boot record to restore the capability. The button acts like the normal power button otherwise.

Re-installing the drivers for all the kit goes fine too (I had ordered the drivers and resources CD along with the OS media with my order).

A curio I notice on one of the reboots is the Intel Centrino logo on the BIOS splash screen is the old logo - it is not the "Duo" version of the logo.

Right, that just about wraps up this review. I might add some battery tests at some point and I need to play a DVD and see what that's like so keep your eyes peeled. If you think I've missed anything important then let me know.

BTW the keyboard is very decent. I've not made more typing errors than normal on it.

Hope this helps people decide on this laptop.

Tony.