Dell latitude d600 laptop review

Product: Dell Latitude D600 laptop Product Page
Price as configured: US$1,806
Processor: Pentium-M (Banias) 1.4GHz
Display: 14.1" SXGA (1400x1050) screen
Video: ATI Radeon Mobility 9000 w/32 MB DDR
Hard drive: Hitachi Travelstar 40GB 5400rpm HDD
Operating system: Windows XP Professional
Original battery code:DELL 312-0068

You can get the configuration:

• Intel 1.4Ghz Pentium-M CPU


• 640MB DDR2100 RAM (128MB included, 512MB from Crucial)
  
• 40GB Hitachi Travelstar 5K80 5400rpm HDD


• 14.1î SXGA+ (1400x1050) display


• ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 w/ 32MB DDR RAM (dedicated)


• Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 802.11b mini-PCI card


• DVD/CD-RW and second standard battery
  
• Dimensions: 1.2" height x 12.4" width x 10.1" depth


• Weight: 5.3lbs


• Price tag: US$1,606, after 512MB upgrade and US$200 instant rebate


• Battery: dell latitude d600 battery

If legacy connections and long battery life are what you need in a business laptop, the Dell Latitude D600 delivers. The slim Wi-Fi-ready unit weighs 5.4 pounds and has parallel and serial connections for old office peripherals. For typists, the D600 provides both a low-profile pointing stick in the center of the keyboard and the more popular touchpad. The two sets of mouse buttons cater to polar-opposite tastes: The pointing stick's buttons are squishy and deep-depressing, while the touchpad's buttons are extremely stiff. In our battery tests, the D600 lasted just over 4 hours, about an hour longer than the average laptop.

The thin-and-light Latitude D600 series, based on the new Pentium M processor, marks the start of an ambitious new corporate look for Dell. Not only has the company redesigned all of its popular Latitude laptops, it has also reworked its docking stations, port replicators, and media modules. The notebooks carry the very latest components, including Pentium M processors and Intel's new 855 chipset. The D600 series isn't always a true-blue Centrino, but it can be except the dell latitude d600 battery,The company offers either the Centrino-completing Intel Pro wireless mini-PCI card, known as Calexico, or Dell Computer's own TrueMobile Wi-Fi mini-PCI cards, supporting 802.11a/b/g. If your corporate budget includes money for a new laptop line, the Latitude D series is a wise way to spend it.

Design of Dell Latitude D600

If the old Latitude C600 was the comfort food of corporate computing, then the new Latitude D600 series would be the dessert. The silver D600 is a smaller, sleeker version of the gray C600, measuring 1.2 by 12.4 by 10.1 inches and weighing an easy-to-tote 5.3 pounds. It still includes an internal swappable bay that houses a second battery or one of various drives: CD, DVD, CD-RW, DVD/CD-RW, floppy, or a second 40GB hard drive.

Like the C600, the Latitude D600 series includes both a pointing stick in the middle of the spacious, comfortable keyboard and a touchpad centered in the wrist rest. There are four mouse buttons: two below the spacebar (you're supposed to use these with the pointing stick) and two below the touchpad. Three handy buttons for volume--Up, Down, and Mute--are located in the upper-left corner above the keyboard.

If you'd rather rely on an external keyboard and mouse, Dell's new D/View monitor stand ($69) and port replicator ($199) make it easy to connect them. And in a unique twist, the monitor stand lets you use the notebook's screen as your main monitor, though setting it up takes some getting used to. First, attach the notebook to the monitor stand, place that on the port replicator, then lift up the back of the port replicator (there's a hinge in front). Open your notebook and slide the system up or down until the display reaches eye level. Next, connect an external keyboard and mouse, and voilà--you have a desktop-PC-like setup. The two downsides to this setup: you might tire of looking at the laptop's keyboard propped up in front of you, and you might find the whole setup difficult to use.

Features of Dell Latitude D600

The Pentium M on which this series is based comes in 1.3GHz, 1.4GHz, and 1.6GHz speeds--all paired with Intel's new 855PM chipset. You can order your Latitude with anywhere from 128MB to 2GB of fast 266MHz DDR SDRAM; a 40GB hard drive spinning at a speedy 5,400rpm or 20GB, 30GB, and 60GB drives running at 4,200rpm; a 32MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 graphics chip; and a number of swappable modules for the single internal bay, including CD, DVD, CD-RW, DVD/CD-RW, floppy, a second hard drive, or a second battery. The average-sized, 14.1-inch screen isn't as impressive as some of the other components; fortunately for those who deal with detailed graphics, it comes in a fine 1,400x1,050 native resolution. (You can save a little money by dropping back to a 1,024x768 display instead.) The configuration we tested included the 1.6GHz PM processor; 512MB of DDR memory; the fast 40GB hard drive; and the ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 with 32MB of video memory.

Battery life of Dell Latitude D600

The Latitude D600 makes the dell latitude d600 battery beyond the four-hour battery-life barrier, which is impressive when compared to older, non-Pentium M systems. However, most of the new Pentium M notebooks we've tested last at least four hours; one, the IBM ThinkPad T40, lasted nearly seven hours--an astonishing feat. The Latitude D600's 11.1V, 4,320mAh is mostly to blame for its middling score. That battery is just not large enough to compete with the IBM's power source or that of the D600's closest competitor, the Compaq Evo N620c, with its 14.4V, 4,400mAh battery.