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I was looking for the dell X1 but didn't know the model number and I did not see it while browsing their site. I found it now by searching but it also doesn't have PCMCIA. The X1 however is only 1250 so I am tempted to compromise.



Some usage notes on the Dell X1 (Samsung Q30):

The widescreen display is 1280x768, which is good for this size of notebook.

Battery life is around 2.4 hours or so for the 3-cell battery, and presumably double that if one gets a 6-cell battery. I like the 3-cell, and now have two of that size.

Built-in WiFi(G) is excellent -- no range issues with it so far.

The SD card slot is about the same speed as most USB2 SD readers; the CF card slot seems a lot slower, around typical ISA speeds. That's with Linux, of course. Dunno about windows.

The built-in GigE works painlessly, the USB2 is good, and the firewire is fast.

No built-in floppy or optical drive. The included external optical drive (mine is CDRW/DVDR) works fine, and is powered completely from the notebook with a special plug. I used it maybe twice, to get Kubuntu installed, and then packed it away on a shelf somewhere.

Some people have complained in the past about the touchpad, but I really don't know what they would have been complaining about. It works very well for me, and I'm quite fussy about such things. Kubuntu set it up with a vertical scroll bar and it "just works" fine.

I have upgraded the memory to the full 1.2GB -- there's 256MB soldered to the mainboard, and one DDR2-400 SO-DIMM slot for extra, which is where I put the 1024MB upgrade.

It gets warm/hot on the underside during heavy use -- no fans in this device.

The 1.8" "iPod" disk (the 60GB hard drive in mine) is about half the physical dimensions of a normal 2.5" drive, and shows a read throughput of about 20MBytes/sec, compared with 37MBytes/sec for the 100GB 2.5" drive in my i9300 deskbook.

Cheers


Edited by mlord (13/06/2006 14:27)