The Polygon Crusher

Where entertainment on a notebook is concerned, audio and video capabilities are two essential aspects for those pursuing such performance machines. "Multimedia Delivery" is the key point here and what best to bring this to life than a striking combination of inspiring industrial design, seamless integration of intuitive software and performance components. The class of notebooks in discussion here is none other than the absolute top of the line, seriously powerful desktop replacement notebooks. Performance wise, these expensive juggernauts are unquestionably the leader of the pack and it's easy to see why this is so. Desktop replacements have a larger build than all the other classes of notebooks, thereby allowing them to house bigger and more powerful cooling systems. In addition to that, they are designed with better ventilation properties and are well suited to cope with the thermal dissipation of cutting edge components.

Recently released and perched right at the upper end of the performance envelope is the Inspiron 9300 desktop replacement from Dell. It is a considerably mightier version of the recently reviewed Inspiron 6000, which from our tests was not quite the master juggler of multimedia as initially expected. For now and from the technical standpoint at least, the Inspiron 9300 is certainly well poised in filling the disappointing the voids left by its smaller sibling. We'll find out soon enough if the newer Inspiron 9300 delivers the mantle as it is positioned.

Dell Inspiron 9300

Design wise, the bigger and meaner Inspiron 9300 isn't very far off from that of the smaller and comparatively more humble Inspiron 6000. In fact, the two look so alike that the only sure and quick way to differentiate the two is a measure of their dimensions. Be it depth, height, width or mass, the Inspiron 9300 is a size larger (and heavier) in all areas. Build quality is identical as well and it goes right down to even the wobbly touchpad keys, multimedia and power buttons encountered on the Inspiron 6000. Looks like this particular notebook design from Dell is stuck with this blotch.

Front View – (Stereo speakers and multimedia controls)

Left Profile – (left to right: Kensington slot, 2 x USB 2.0 ports and DVD Rewriter drive)

Right Profile – (left to right: PCMCIA slot, earphone jack, MIC-in jack, SDIO memory reader and mini-DV FireWire 400 port)

Rear View – (left to right: S-Video out, RJ-45 Ethernet jack, RJ-11 modem phone jack, 4 x USB 2.0 ports, DVI connector, Analog RGB port and power jack)

 

Taking A Portside Look

Spotting major differences in expansion port and connector options of one notebook from the other is almost impossible these days as manufacturers have more or less settled on some very similar templates for various notebook categories that they unload into the retail channel. Having said this, the Inspiron 9300, with the help of the Intel 915PM chipset is one notebook that has finally managed to pack six high-speed USB 2.0 ports and that's two more than the norm. Though the Intel 915PM chipset supports a maximum number of eight USB 2.0 ports, space constraint is the most probable explanation as to why 'only' six were featured on the notebook. Nevertheless, it is very encouraging to witness the differences between notebooks and desktops systems diminishing as notebook technology advances bringing about better performance, form factor, battery life and in this scenario, connectivity options too. We do hope to see more notebook designs (such as the Dell Inspiron 9300) tapping into the immensely capable Intel 915 Express chipset and deliver its fullest potential where possible.

Among the many video outputs available on the Dell Inspiron 9300, the DVI-D connector is perhaps the most pertinent and appreciated by folks with high-end video displays such as a Plasma TV. Now you can view movies in big screen with the most accurate reproduction via the best possible output median from a notebook.

Optical storage is taken care of by an NEC ND-6500A with 8x DVD±R, 4x DVD±RW, 2.4x DVD+R DL, 24x CD-R and 16x CD-RW burn speeds.

Fancy a notebook with six USB 2.0 ports instead of the usual four? Dell Inspiron 9300 has just answered your prayers with four of them at the rear and two more at the side as depicted in the photo above.

The Inspiron 9300 offers a total of seven high bandwidth connection ports if we were to tally in the FireWire 400 port.

Inclusive of the battery pack, there are four removable panels on the chassis of the Inspiron 9300.

The modem module, WiFi module, memory, battery and hard disk drive are components serviceable by owners of the Dell notebook.

A close-up of the wireless networking component reveals an Intel PRO/Wireless 2200bg network connection WiFi card.

Primary storage is provided by a 60GB Hitachi Travelstar hard disk drive.

Infineon DDR2 memory modules are used.

 

The Multimedia Is Decent With This One

For any desktop replacement notebook to fully demonstrate its stature as a multimedia machine, competence would have to be shown through visual, audio, controls and increasingly software as well. Many top-end desktop replacement notebooks that boast entertainment as its key selling point no longer just have its marketing efforts making mere mentions of large display and loud audio any more. With everyone talking about convergence, it really was a matter of time before entertainment notebooks were given a dab of consumer electronics design to ultimately deliver the 10-foot user interface experience. For the benefit of all readers, the 10-foot user interface is an easy to navigate multimedia interface designed specifically for distance use with a remote, such as media playback from the notebook and output to your A/V equipment from the comfort of your couch.

Available on the Inspiron 9300 is a 17-inch widescreen glare-type LCD featuring Dell's TrueLife technology (optional) for up to 10% higher contrast ratio than a similarly sized LCD with anti-glare coating. You can expect a more vivid color reproduction, darker blacks, and better image definition. From what we observed from our DVD movie playback tests, Dell's TrueLife does indeed provide a truer-to-life visual display than its anti-glare counterparts.

Another part of the overall entertainment equation is audio, which in our opinion is just as pivotal as the display on the Dell Inspiron 9300. Packing a pair of speakers at the front grille and with the assistance of a subwoofer hidden within the chassis, the Dell notebook had no problems in reproducing a thunderous audio atmosphere to bring out the loud ambience of a few action movies tested with the unit. The areas that fell short of our expectations for a machine that has so much to offer are a remote control and the design. Without a remote control, a wireless 10-foot user experience is unlikely to take place on the Dell machine and it's a real pity that it didn't feature this important link. Then there's the nibbling issue with its overall rudimentary industrial styling that is all too plain and uninspiring when compared to similarly classed models from other players such as ASUS, BenQ, Fujitsu and Toshiba. These vendors have multimedia notebooks that are purposefully and appropriately styled that live up to their classification and provides satisfaction to consumers for the sizeable investment forked out.

Power button and secondary status LEDs are lined up horizontally above the keyboard.

Keyboard layout and touchpad are exactly identical to the Inspiron 6000.

A closer look at the touchpad.

A closer inspection of the multimedia controls.

Making full use of this set of keys at night has been made possible by a blue backlight.

Dell offers a series of quick snap-ons for users to instantly change the appearance and attitude of the Inspiron 9300.

Dell's Media Experience by CyberLink provides a single, integrated easy-to-use interface for digital entertainment on your notebook.

Adding to its list of multimedia functions is Dell's very own MediaDirect technology. Starting with the Inspiron 9300, MediaDirect is the company's first stab in offering users instant access to a media browser for viewing digital photos, music listening and movie watching without ever booting into a Windows' environment to realize these capabilities. A simple press and hold of the "play" key is all it takes to invoke MediaDirect and this works in both a power off state and within Windows desktop where complete compatibility is maintained with Dell's Media Experience and Microsoft's Windows XP Media Centre Edition 2005. Popular media files such as MP3, WMA, WMV, JPEG and more are supported by MediaDirect and files bearing these extensions can be retrieved and played back from any local storage device, ranging from USB thumb drives, optical drives and internal hard disk drives. Again our gripe is the lack of a remote control unit.

 

Benchmarks (Part I)

As Dell's top of the line performance machine that is all out to entertain, hardware is obviously the least the company would want to scrooge on. As per the review unit sent to us from Dell, the Inspiron 9300 we had was a fully decked out computing machine featuring an Intel Pentium M processor 760 (2.0GHz), 1GB DDR2 system memory, a Hitachi 60GB, 7,200RPM hard drive with 8MB buffer and an absolute first-rate discrete graphics solution with an NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800. Currently the fastest graphics processor for notebooks, it is coupled with 256MB of DDR graphics memory. Take note though, the GeForce 6800 is not integrated to the notebook via NVIDIA's MXM interface and design spec and is at the mercy of the notebook's thermal design power envelope. As such, the GeForce Go 6800 on the Dell Inspiron 9300 operates at a slower 290MHz for the core and 590MHz DDR. A full speed variant has much higher clock speeds of 375/700 using standard DDR memory and there are even faster versions using DDR3 memory. Still, this is by no means a humble list of components for a notebook. By and large, the Inspiron 9300 should easily match or even outpace the level of performance one would get from many desktop computers.

While the 2.0GHz Pentium M in the Inspiron 9300 is a fast processor in its own right, it is still some 120MHz slower than the 2.13GHz Pentium M processor found in both the Acer and Fujitsu models in comparison. This consequently, places the Inspiron 9300 and Inspiron 6000 at third and fourth places respectively. It is actually a little disappointing in fact as the Inspiron 9300's fast 7,200 RPM hard drive wasn't sufficient enough to close the performance gap.


Over here at MobileMark2002, the leader of the group is still the Fujitsu LifeBook E8020. Even though the Acer TravelMate 8100 has components that are similar to the Fujitsu notebook, the PATA hard disk drive it uses is a shade inferior to the SATA variant in the Fujitsu as it has the assistance of NCQ technology to help it nick a top spot in overall performance. Granted both the Dell notebooks are slower than the Acer and Fujitsu notebooks, it really isn't hard to fathom their lower positions amongst the four notebooks in comparison.

Power capacity provided by the thick battery pack of the Inspiron 9300 is at 80Wh. In comparison, the battery packs in the TravelMate 8100 and LifeBook E8020 are at 71.04Wh and 69.12Wh respectively.

Keeping track of the energy reserve of your Inspiron 9300 is easy with a power meter.

Interestingly, all four 'Sonoma' notebooks to head our way were considerably large models and all were powered by discrete graphics solutions. From the power calculations we have made so far, an educated guess on power consumption for notebooks of this classes ranges between 20 – 31Watts and is very likely linked to the type of LCD panel and graphics chip configuration used. Still, if we were to line up power consumption ratings according to the type of discrete graphics used, they sort of correspond with the graphics chip's capability. For example, the highest power draw goes to the Dell Inspiron 9300 using the NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 GPU (and is also the only notebook in the comparison to use a 7,200 RPM hard drive). However, this is just our observation based on our current findings and until we have more comparisons, it is not conclusive enough.

 

Benchmarks (Part II)

Underneath the basic looking plastic housing of the Inspiron 9300 is a GPU that is anything but elementary. One of the top graphics processors for notebooks, the GeForce Go 6800 presents unrivalled 3D gaming experience for anyone with a strong intent to secure a highly competent mobile gaming platform.




The results relayed in the graphs are more than adequate to paint the picture. Just an additional note for results obtained with Futuremark's 3DMark05, since we have no other notebook competent enough do run this benchmark to date, the graph has a comparison score from NVIDIA's reference notebook boasting slightly more powerful system components, but most importantly, the results are that of the much faster GeForce Go 6800 variant operating at 350/1000 MHz. Hence the reason for the huge difference in scores despite the use of the same mobile graphics processor. This is just an indication of how much more powerful the current bleeding edge GPU can be in its full potential, but you do have to contend with a heavier premium for that with (and it's not available from Dell either).


Battery Life to Weight Ratio

After running through the physical attributes of the Inspiron 9300 and with a good understanding of its performance, portability is what we'll want to look at. At 3.49KG, lugging the notebook frequently for meetings is pretty much out of the question. Nevertheless, mass is just one of many factors we consider with regards to mobility. Battery life and volume are other important considerations as well. By dividing the battery life of a notebook (uptime taken from MobileMark 2002) over the multiplication of mass (in kilograms) and volume (m²), we'll be able to derive a simple ratio of just how well balanced a given notebook is in terms of weight, volume and battery life.

*Do take note that this section does not factor in the performance figures for notebooks benchmarked with power saving features disabled while running off the abundant AC power supply. Battery saving modes and associated technologies such as Intel SpeedStep would kick in when a notebook is in portable mode where battery stamina is of paramount importance than maximum performance.


If you are unable to judge the portability of the Inspiron 9300 based on first impression of dimension and mass, our calculated ratio of 0.160 for the Dell notebook should help to draw a clear line on where the unit stands in terms of portability. With its mass and dimensions, it should be pointed out that the Dell Inspiron 9300 was never meant to be a true portable notebook for on the go mobile computing. By all means you could if you wanted to, but it is just too bulky for such frequent shuffling.

 

Wrapping Up

Starting at an affordable price of S$2,664 and climbing to a staggering S$4,483 if you were to exploit Dell's impressive system customization to piece together a lethal gaming machine that is as powerful as our review unit. Designed to be highly customizable, the Dell Inspiron 9300 is basically a raw computing box awaiting the additional configuration to truly be converted into a credible entertainment notebook. As reported by our suite of benchmarks, the Inspiron 9300 was as much a notebook as any other Centrino model, if not better, where office productivity and internet applications were concerned. Granted the system is using a powerful combination of a 2.0GHz Pentium M processor with 1,024MB worth of DDR2 system memory, we would have accepted nothing less than excellent scores from Dell's newest flagship heavyweight.


On the multimedia side of things, we feel the Inspiron 9300 is more of an unpolished diamond than a notebook with convincing multimedia and entertainment credentials. No doubt it does pack the right formula of hardware components and has the proper multimedia software integrated, a proper entertainment notebook is definitely much more than just an impressive listing of hardware components. In this aspect, the Dell unit is somehow lacking the conviction in design, packaging and identity to come across as a convincing entertainment notebook. Even the important remote control was overlooked by Dell, robbing users that prized 10-foot UI experience presently offered as a standard feature by similarly classed offerings from BenQ, Fujitsu and Toshiba, just to name a few.

Don't get us wrong though, the Dell Inspiron 9300 is certainly a fine performer when it comes to a regular computing experience you would get from any good notebook. It has plenty of horsepower to propel the most demanding of games and applications as we've seen in our test runs. In addition to that, it also ensures a very immersive movie session, but it is not a refined and highly polished mobile media centre which even your peers can discern at one swift glance. The presence, excitement and frills expected from a purposefully built entertainment notebook are just not there. For that, the Dell Inspiron 9300 is, in our opinion, a conventional notebook that is well worth of our 4-stars award, but not the most compelling choice around for your money when compared to competing offerings.