On receiving this unit, we were impressed by the mammoth 15.4in widescreen display. Although sceptical of its ability to perform given its monster display size, we were proven wrong at every turn, with the 8600 performing similarly to the more expensive Toshiba Tecra S1 Notebook (July 2003 page 40). Absolutely bursting at the gills with features, this Notebook boasts an array of connectivity options including side mounted FireWire and IrDA, while on the rear of the unit we find two USB and legacy serial, parallel and S-Video ports.
A credible attempt at a portable 'widebook', the Inspiron 8600 isn't the epitome of small form factor, but we think the trade-off for the excellent widescreen WUXGA display is worth it. It makes it ideal as a desktop replacement or well kitted-out gaming/entertainment Notebook.
It comes with half a GB of RAM and its 128MB graphics will have you up and gaming comfortably if you're so inclined. With other entertainment in mind, Dell has mounted four single-press shortcut buttons on the right hand side of the keyboard, allowing you to control Windows Media Player by single button press, giving you full functionality over play, pause stop and forward/back skip options. Despite being unable to play audio CDs without powering the unit like some of the recent Notebooks we've seen, the integrated front mounted speakers make for decent audio playback -- important while watching DVDs on the supplied combo drive and luscious LCD.
Unfortunately, the speakers are mounted on the front of the chassis, which results in lap-bound playback becoming muffled as you cover the speaker outputs with your clothing or body.
The unit's build quality is solid and comes in the form of sturdy ABS plastic housing, meaning occasional knocks to the body and back of the display will result in minimal damage.
Falling just one component short of Centrino branding, the Dell 8600 ups Centrino's ante by using a non-Intel wireless device that offers more than Centrino's 802.11b wireless standard, with 802.11a, b and g tri-band capabilities.
If you're in the market for a mid to high range Notebook with plenty of functions and grunt, this is well worth a look-in. Just shy of three hours of full power battery operation makes this ideal for road warriors or budget conscious business users not wanting to compromise on functionality at the sake of mobility.