Best laptop, hands-down. If you're thinking of picking one up, do it without hesitation. This the the laptop that will make Vista act the way it's supposed to. Forget what naysayers say about OS. None of that is present in this laptop. It's got hardware to spare. Everything. Just. Plain. Works. The way Microsoft and Bill Gates intended.
Pros:
Itunes doesn't lag anymore. Firefox can handle a bazillion tabs (which is crucial for me, mine has 3GB of ram). All graphics intense games looks the way there were meant to (like Max Payne 2). Opt for the Nvidia Geforce 8400M GS 128MB video card.
The size of the system is perfect. Not to big and not too small. It's hard to grasp how accurately this cliche phrase fits here. You'll just have to pick one up to understand.
Cons:
I've never understood why pc makers decide to play the darn 3.5mm audio jack on the front of the keyboard. It gets in the way when you're typing on your lap (which essentially negates the utility of a "lap" top. Also, when you're listing to some tunes on your headphones or to your speaker system (esp. the later), the cord just gets in the way. It's not like my speakers are directly in front of the laptop. What gives, Dell?
Also, Dell's included remote that, frankly, is quite handy and portable (fits right into the traditionally lesser used PCMIA card slot). However! It seems to only work with Microsoft's Media Player and Windows Media Center. A real downer for someone like myself who likes to use Itunes, VLC, and Winamp as well. I'd like to see Dell update the remote's functionality to include other media applications as well (I.e., play, pause, forward, reverse, etc.). Another drawback of the infrared remote, probably because it's powered by a small watch battery, is how it needs the user to point it directly at the infrared port (and I mean really target the thing!).
Here's an in-depth review by Notebook Check. Here's Youtube (I can capitalize the Y, right?) video review.
