Light Weight Champion
Written: Nov 09 '01 (Updated Nov 09 '01)
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Pros: Light weight, fast, quiet, detachable devices...
Cons: Easy to get hot, and expensive
The Bottom Line: Get it if you are a frequent traveler or if you have extra 3000 to spare or else, get a desktop.
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| stse's Full Review: Dell Latitude C600 (220-6670) PC Notebook |
When it comes to notebook or laptop, I automatically think of Dell Systems. Dell Latitude gives a new look of what real notebook should be.
Light Weight
That’s the first thing that comes to mind that notebook computer should be. There are so many notebook computers out there that claim to be good and light weight. However, Dell Latitude is a true light weight champion. It’s only 4.9 pounds and 1.4” thin. This is good especially for travelling occasion. When put all other stuff like (power pack, adapter, detachable cd-rom drive or floppy drive) together, 4.9 pounds will become 8 to 10 pounds which is still better than all other laptop. Of course, most people consider weight only on the notebook itself. The feature comes with detachable Cd-rom or floppy drive which is very handy. When we need it, just replace it and plug and go. If you want to use both, all you need is to plug outside external cable for the floppy drive.
Design
Speed
Intel® Mobile Pentium® III 750 mhz,850 mhz OR 1.0 GHZ processor and the hard drive speed is 4470 kb/sec and pretty quiet too.
Memory
This mighty small package comes with Intel Processor III and 14.1" XGA and SXGA+ displays with 8MB of video memory (C600) or 16MB of DDR video memory (C610). Well, most user don’t play heavy video games on the notebook 16mb video will be more than enough. The base memory is 128 mb sdram. Well, nowadays, most OS like Windows 2000, NT 40, 98, and so on requires at least 64 mb ram. 128 mb should be considered standard. You can upgrade this guy up to 512 mb ram.
Storage
It has a 10 GB hard drive removable, and you can replace any removable hard drive form 10 gb to 20 GB. Pretty neat! It has a 24x CD-Rom drive, or if you want, put a DVD rom there and you can enjoy DVD movie while computing. Or you can buy a removable Zip drive or CD writer to your liking. Of course, the more drives you have, the more money you will have to pay.
Audio and video
You can hear the sensational sound without plugging into your speakers. But of course, speaker sounds tend to be better. The spec for the audio and Graphic display as follow:-
Audio controller: ESS Maestro 3i
Audio type: Sound Blaster software emulation capable
Stereo: 16-bit (analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion)
Easy-to-see 14.1" XGA and SXGA+ active matrix (TFT) displays
XGA maximum resolution4 of 1024x768 pixels, 16.7 million colors (support up to 1600x1200 pixels with external monitor, 16.7 million colors)
SXGA+ maximum resolution of 1400x1050 pixels, 16.7 million colors (support up to 1600x1200 pixels with external monitor, 16.7 million colors)
ATI Mobility RAGE 128, 64 bit hardware-accelerated 2X AGP
8 MB SGRAM Integrated video memory
Mouse
This is the best besides the weight. When I compare this with the IBM thinkpad. There is no Contest. Dell beats IBM by the mouse tail! It’s so easy to manipulate the mouse. There is a square touch pad in the middle. Just point your finger and move around and tab tab equals double click. Or you can use the old fashion cursor or Track Stick just like IBM. Dell tends to take the IBM customers over by using their features. I know some notebooks like Toshiba likes to use track ball in the middle. To me, touch pad is the best, besides, if you want to use the external, you can still do so, there is external port for mouse and keyboard.
Battery life
It can last up to 4 hours depending on the usage. If you use it constantly like open and close application, game here and there, or DVD, 2 hours the battery may die down. However, the charger is really fast, after one hour of charging, your battery will be back in full life. The weigh is about .88 pounds and you can charge more than 500 times and the dimension is H 0.83 x W 5.47 x D 3.48
Modem / Network Card
Modem is 56K V.92 global modem - built in and Network Card can be input in the pcmcia slot
And if you are into Wireless communication, this notebook comes with something called True Mobile pc card and solution. This is so popular now, so I will skip the detailed introduction, but there is something you may want it in the future depending on your business needs.
Docking station
Even the docking station is also small. And it’s lighter than the IBM docking station. And it docks easier than IBM.
Software or OS
It comes with Windows 2000 operating system. It would be nice if you can partition the drive and put 2 OS for you. But most pc maker don’t do that unless you request it.
Customer Support
It is quite helpful on Dell Customer Support.
Set Back
There is nothing perfect in this world, and so is the notebook.
1. Two many stuff to carry – if you have to use CD ROM, FLOPPY DRIVE, ZIP DRIVE at the same time, you will end up carrying more in the bag.
2. There is no reset button. When machine is frozen, there is no way to turn off the machine, you will have to take the battery out and put it back in to reset it.
3. There is only one serial port. If you have two serial devices like BlackBerry and Palm, you may end up problem.
4. It gets very easily, so be sure to turn on the power management function.
5. Expensive. You can buy 2 decent Desktops with the price of one notebook.
Suggestion
This notebook is definitely for business use and for frequent travel only. If you let it sit on the Desktop and don’t often travel with it. I suggest that you look for other cheaper models.
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Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): around 3000
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 801-900
Screen Size: 14
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: CD-ROM
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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Epinions.com ID:
stse
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Location: New Jersey
Reviews written: 108
Trusted by: 27 members
About Me:
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