Nice little laptop!
Written: Oct 31 '03 (Updated Oct 31 '03)
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Pros: Size, battery life, screen, price
Cons: The speakers, some construction aspects
The Bottom Line: An especially good value when Dell is running multiple coupons and rebates. A Computer you can comfortably travel with.
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| andykay's Full Review: Dell Inspiron 600M (600MSAP) PC Notebook |
First a little background. Though we have had many desktop computers over the years and I have built all our pc’s for the past 10 years or so, this is only our second laptop. The first, a HP ze1110, was purchased for my wife who at the time was bedridden due to a difficult pregnancy. At the time, it was the least expensive new laptop I could find. Along with a WiFi access point, the HP served its purpose well. Having used the HP extensively, we found it lacking in several key areas. The battery life was abysmal, the fan noise could be intrusive, it was a bit heavy and the bottom of the machine could get uncomfortably warm. When my now 16 month old son pulled the computer off our bed breaking our new 802.11g WiFi card and breaking the power connector off the motherboard (fixed poorly with crazy glue and solder), it was time for an upgrade.
I set a price ceiling of $1500 and decided that I would sacrifice some performance for battery life and portability. Intel Centrino seemed to fit the bill. I considered models from IBM, Gateway, Acer, Toshiba, Fujitsu, and Compaq/HP but found none that matched Dells performance/price at the time. I ended up with a Dell 600M.
I custom configured the machine and was given a 2 ½ week delivery estimate. The included free router was delivered 2 days after the order, the system 5 days later. Not bad for free delivery!
The system – I opted for a 1.6 processor, 64mb ATI Radeon 9000/ SXGA+ screen, 256MB, 40GB HD, Dell Truemobile 1400 802.11a/b/g mini card, DVD and XP home.
It arrives - The computer was packaged securely in a non flashy multipart cardboard box. Included were a quick start page, manual, original software disks, some customer agreements, charger with extension cord, and a phone cord. The system arrived fully charged and ready to use.
Set up- Though I eventually formatted the drive and re installed windows to clean off all the extra included software, I did run the initial Dell Quickset setup program. Setup was a breeze, the program set up windows for use and I was connected with my router in a matter of minutes. I have yet to even glance at the manual.
The goods- Moderately light at around 6lbs, it’s less bulky then the HP. The case is an attractive silver color with a blue strip surrounding the key board and touch pad. All the required ports are there with the conscious absence of a Firewire port. If you want to import video or sync an ipod, you’ll need a PCMIA adapter. Since I already have a DVD burner/ Firewire equipped desktop, not a problem. I also chose a DVD player over the more costly combo drive or DVD burner because my desktop duplicates these functions. There few additional keys beyond the usual compact keyboard, just a volume control and mute button. My HP had a whole row of specialized buttons for e-mail, web, ECT that I never used. The keyboard has moderate feel, not bad but I’ve used better. The case has a nice silver finish with good fit, with a couple of exceptions. The front corners over the hard drive and battery bays are a little “creaky”. This unit does not have a dedicated Floppy drive, by default it comes with one that fits the modular bay. The same bay is used for the CDR/DVD/DVDR drive or extended battery. Only one device at a time though. Personally, I don’t have a need for the rapidly dieing floppy format. Consider picking up a usb keychain drive for moving files between non networked pc’s instead. The SXGA+ screen is a very worth while (and often free) upgrade. The screen is very sharp, though some may have a problem with small text. Dell includes a good compliment of software for those 1st time buyers including WordPerfect productivity pack, McAfee anti virus/firewall, the awful Musicmatch jukebox, a light version digital photo editing program, AOL (sic), RealOne (delete at once!), Britannica reference (isn’t Google enough?), WinDVD, Quicken and a host of support program/links and utilities.
Performance- I’ve yet to run any benchmarks, but the system feels zippy. Though not much of a gamer anymore, I threw Quake 3 on the drive and it played with a high frame rate. Photoshop loaded well, but I’ll need to increase the memory for a fair test. Battery life has proven fairly good too, around 3.5-4 hours with moderate use of the 802.11g. The battery meter in the taskbar is widely inaccurate with the new Pentium M’s. Not top of the class, but good enough for the money. The base of the unit only gets a little warm as does the left side palm rest area that’s over the hard drive. Overall, the computer is exceptionally silent when running. Audio performance is just acceptable, par for the course with most laptops.
I’m happy with my purchase. This laptop meets my criteria for performance and portability; hopefully I won’t feel the need to replace it for several years. I have a few recommendations for anyone buying this computer.
- Unless you know you have a need for a floppy, you probably don’t. Save the money
- Get the minimum amount of RAM (256mb unless Dell is running a special), Dells upgrade price is much higher than the going rate for PC2100 and RAM is a snap to install.
- Peruse the Dell Insperon Community on Dells Support page for valuable tips on display, bios and audio issues.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1306
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 14 inches
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 21-30
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Epinions.com ID:
andykay
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Reviews written: 24
Trusted by: 5 members
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