Much like Oprah, it's not as light as it claims
Written: Jun 21 '01
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Pros: Lots of RAM, lots of hard drive space, nice display. DVD.
Cons: A little heavy, not as sleek as other notebooks
The Bottom Line: It's performance and overall value is worth the extra money over the cost of a comparable desktop.
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| secondmidnite's Full Review: Dell Latitude C600 (220-6670) PC Notebook |
The Dell Latitude C600 is an excellent computer. My job just upgraded us to the LatC600s from our Compaq Armada m700. It's configured with 128MB RAM, 20 GB Harddrive, DVD, 14" display, and running Windows 2000.
DVDs!
I just got my DVD player last month and now I can watch my movies on the road. The DVD picture and sound isn't as good as on the television, but it will due for sitting on the plane. Especially when you don't want to pay the $4 for the headphones to watch "The Legend of Baggar Vance." But it works, it doesn't skip, the sound is all good. The only problem is the battery life may run out before your movie ends. But such is the case all over. You can do somethings to help this like not play them at the full screen. But you get what you get - it takes up juice. The system does come with an adapter where you can connect it to a television A/V outlets. So you can watch in your Hotel rooms while on business or at a family member's on vacation. The only problem is you may not be able to experience the stereo sound. But like I said, you get what you get.
Speedy
What I like about this one is its speed. Nothing beats a new computer - they're always laser sharp and they haven't been slowed down by the run and wear that time and usage brings. I can easily run all of my applications (Excel, Word, SAP, Lotus Notes, Internet explorer) quickly and without much trouble. The large amount of memory and harddrive space is to thank for that. I have way more than enough room to hold all of my work documents and some non work documents (!caugh! MP3).
Like Oprah - not as light as it claims.
The LatC600 is a little heavier than my Armada m700. That one was about 3/8" slimmer and didn't have all the curves that the LatC600 does (making it slightly more compact). That was the one thing I liked about my compaq - it was nice and compact to fit nicely amongst my books in my backpack. It's also a little heavier than my old compaq. I don't know if that's because it has newer, heavier components (3x the harddrive space, bigger battery?). Whatever that might be, it is noticably heavier. I doubt that it's the 4.9 lbs the Dell website claims. I'll check it on our analytical balance and see what it says. In any case, it's not uncomfortably heavy so I can put it in my backpack when I go travelling with no problem.
Windows 2000 - not quite what I expected
I'm new to Windows 2000, and frankly, it's not as great as I'd hoped. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the Windows NT technology (nothing beats the Task Manager!). It just seems a little to commercial for my tastes. I liked NT because it was a little more Utilitarian than its Win95 counterpart. In any case, it's fast and it doesn't glitch up on my like Windows 95 (what we had before - can you believe it) did on my last work-notebook. It's a lot more flexible and it's lighting fast on this machine. I guess that's all you can ask for.
HOT!
This sucker heats up pretty good too. My Compaq got hot too, but definately not like this. I turned it off this evening afterwork and pulled it out from its docking station - I could have almost boiled an egg on it. Any other laptop I've ever used has only really gotten hot when I ran it off the battery. This is most likely due to the difference in processors - this one is a Pentium III 800; my old one was a Pentium II 366. But i guess you have to take the good with the bad. There aren't whole lot of alternatives that won't get hot at the higher clock speeds (except maybe a Mac...but that's redundant because it's still a MAC).
Desktop replacement?
In the end, this is a superb machine. I'm considering buying a new computer for home to replace my tower, and this one might due. It has more power, its faster, has just as much memory, and has twice the harddrive space as my old tower. But it's also more expensive than the new workstations Dell is offering. It's a competitive choice, but this model really does give the desktop workstations a run for their money.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 3000
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 701-800
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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Epinions.com ID:
secondmidnite
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Location: Stanford, CA
Reviews written: 93
Trusted by: 18 members
About Me:
Grad student
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