Overall, Nice machine!
Written: Apr 23 '04 (Updated Apr 26 '04)
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Pros: Very light, very fast,
Cons: none really.
The Bottom Line: Good unit, haven't had a need for support.
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| rscowboy's Full Review: Dell Latitude D600 (221-2640) PC Notebook |
Although my spare bedroom looks as though it might be the datacenter or a mutlinational company, with desktops, servers and routers piled here and there, I have had the same laptop for about the last 5 years. It was heavy, slow, and about to die a painful death. But I loved that machine. It had done everything I needed to do remotely. It had never failed me and everything was built in. The only thing external I had to keep up with was the power cord. No AC adapter, just the AC cord, the adapter was built in. Anyway, the time had come, I was faced with the inevitable departure of my mobile brain. I settled on the Latitude D600 simply due to a good deal I was able to get on it. Had the unit about 5 months now and other than the heat it generates I have no complaints. It does get warm, but I've never seen one that doesn't. I have heard of touchpad problems, but the unit comes with a trackpoint as well and that is what I am using. I turned off my touchpad as soon as I got it because I kept touching it as I was typing. Only thing I can realy say bad about this unit is that it's so light compared to my old laptop that I keep checking in my laptop bag wondering what I have lost to make it so light. I do miss having my floppy drive built in, but with a CDRW built in, who needs floppies!
As stated above, heat hasn't really been a problem, but then again, I would think that this would depend a lot on the individual. I have spent 2-2.5 hours with this machine in my lap with shorts on and although it does get pretty warm, it didn't burn, the plastic againt my skin was more irritating than the heat.
I use this machine for business apps, not gaming, so I really couldn't give a breakdown on how it would handle really graphics intensive applications. However, the graphics are clear and creating visios and long documents hasn't been a problem.
The internal wireless is really nice. I'm using a DLink AP900+ in for the WLAN at the house, and it connects and runs very smoothly. Even setting up the WEP was a breeze.
Battery life is good, I have sat out on the deck and worked for as long as 2-2.5 hours. However, your battery life is GREATLY impacted by what you are doing with the machine. If you are playing a music CD and doing something that requires a lot of HDD access, then your batery life will be shorter.
Unit has 2 USB 2.0 ports, printer port, 1 9pin serial, VGA, and a video out (haven't played with this, but I understand that it requires an optional cable), one thing to keep in mind is that there is on PS2 ports on the laptop itself. The optional port replicator allows for all the ports above, plus PS2, additional USB2, and a composite video out port. The port replicator comes with it's own AC adapter so you can leave the one that comes with the laptop in your bag for travel.
The combination DVD Player/CDRW is very handy and fast, although it comes with Roxio CD Creator. I'm not a fan of Roxio, but it works so I shouldn't complain.
Unit only has one PCMCIA slot, but with built in modem and NIC, one should be plenty for the average user.
No built in firewire, but I have used a Firewire card in the PCMCIA slot and it worked fine.
Whole machine weighs in at 4.68lbs according to Dell site, although I have to admit I haven't weighed it myself.
System Specs:
Pentium® M Processor 1.60GHz with 14.1in SXGA+ Display
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional, SP1
512MB, DDR SDRAM
40GB,HD,9.5MM,4200RPM
8-24-24-24X SWDVD/CDRW Combo Drive
Dell TrueMobile 1400 WLAN (802.11a/b/g,54Mbps) miniPCI Card
Internal 10/100/1G NIC
Internal 56K Modem
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2000
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 14 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
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Epinions.com ID:
rscowboy
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Reviews written: 34
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