Really like this Laptop!
Written: Sep 23 '03 (Updated Jan 22 '04)
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Pros: compact, fast, great wireless reception
Cons: no firewire; customer support
The Bottom Line: I would highly recommend the 600m due to its size and speed. After 3 months of use I am not disappointed.
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| kblondina's Full Review: Dell Inspiron 600M (600MBS1) PC Notebook |
I was replacing my old laptop (Ashton Digital 420 - total junk - steer clear!) and needed something that had good battery life and was pretty light. So far the 600m has been just what I was looking for.
The Setup:
Pentium M 1.4
64 mb Video Ram
512 Mb Main Ram
40 gb Hard Drive
15.1 SXGA screen
Modular floppy drive
Modular DVD/CDRW Drive
Windows XP Home
The Computer:
It is a pretty nice looking machine that is very thin and light compared to my last laptop. I really like the sharpness of the SXGA screen and definitely have gotten used to the smaller fonts. I was hesitant to go for this after reading other reviews but now I am very glad I did. The screen is very thin but it doesn't feel flimsy at all. The only thing that wasn't esthetically pleasing were the windows xp & intel centrino mobile tags that they put next to the touchpad which I peeled off - really took away from the looks. The touchpad worked great for me and the keyboard is pretty smooth.
I found the ports to be in pretty convenient places - the headphone jack is on the side which is great because it gives you a bit of extra room. The power plug is in the back and the power pack has a nice little strap to hold down the extra cord. It also comes with a plug that you can substitute for the cord that plugs into the wall. 2 USB ports are a plus but the lack of a firewire connection was a definite negative. Hopefully Dell will react soon and add that on.
The modular drives are great - unfortunately I had to add on a floppy drive because I still get programs from some companies still on floppies (hard to believe but true!) Slides right in and out - pretty neat. I picked up a case to store the one not in use. Definitely considering an extra battery for the slot.
The volume button above the keyboard is a really nice feature.
Performance:
The speed is great! I am very impressed on how fast it is. My desktop at work is a 800 Mhz CPU and man it does seem to take forever when I have the laptop going at the same time. I am glad that I upped the video and main ram from the basic although I know it would have probably been cheaper to upgrade the main ram on my own. The download speeds I have gotten with DSL have been excellent.
The battery life is good - I am getting a little over 3 hours with it. I was hoping for more towards the 4 hour mark - I will try tweaking it a bit more in the control panel. I keep the screen brightness down. Had time to spare while watching a full DVD. The button on the bottom of the battery is convenient to check the charge without turning on the laptop.
Wireless feature is excellent. Had trouble at first getting it to work with my existing home network - then realized that the wireless router wasn't working anymore (belkin - and they never got back to me). I replaced it with the Dell wireless router and it worked flawlessly. I just started up the laptop and router and they seemed to install themselves. I get such better range than I ever did with the old wireless system. There was about a 5 -10% loss in speed using the wireless in the house. I don't think that's much to give up for the mobility.
Sound is fine - I wasn't really expecting much - I plug the 600m into a universal docking station when I am working for a long time at home and hook up speakers for music. It wasn't something that was important to me.
Runs much cooler than my previous laptop - gets a little warm after a bit - but it wasn't scorching at all.
Support:
Only called them once when I was having trouble hooking it up to my office network - wasn't that thrilled with the response. It was a quick "you have to talk to your network person" before I even had a chance to explain the trouble I was having. I just didn't like that attitude right off the bat. I managed to fix the problem on my own but I thought they could have heard me out before dismissing it as a problem on my end.
Final Thoughts:
I waited a few months before writing this review because I wanted to give it a good workout before I passed judgement. So far I would highly recommend it. I have toyed with replacing my desktop computer the past year or so - I will probably just grab a docking station and stand from Dell and solely use the laptop. I probably paid more for the laptop back in June but it was worth it to be able to bring it on trips. This is an excellent laptop.
******************UPDATE*********************
I thought it would be helpful to update after 6 months or so of using my laptop.
I still think it is great - it is still superfast. I don't get the 4 hours out of the battery that others do - I normally get around 3 hours. Someday I actually have to wipe out everything and start from scratch but I just don't have the time to do it. The wireless reception is still excellent.
I like it so much that I dumped my old gateway desktop at work (it was going on 5 years old now) and purchased the Dview stand and docking station combo for about $250. It works tremendously. It didn't like my old logitech cordless mouse (it kept giving me the dreaded blue screen when I shut down) but I just switched it out and everything was fine.
I still highly recommend this laptop and am very happy with my purchase.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1600
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:
kblondina
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Reviews written: 6
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