Little review for anyone buying a PC laptop anytime soon

[powerbook4me]

Move this if needed to the right forum

Just wanted to make a comment about the Inspiron 600m.

If anyones looking to buy a pc laptop anytime soon, this one is pretty good.

Light weight and feels very durable. It doesn't look too bad either. Came with a centrino 1.4/15 inch screen and started up pretty quickly. Thing came fully loaded with 2 gigs of ram/60 gig hd/cd/dvd writer/wireless.

I was checking it out earlier today, when I was at my parents house(its my dads new work laptop) and figured I'd throw this on the forums for future knowledge.

[themadchemist]

Sorry, I've got a moral opposition to Dell.

[rueyeet]

Any idea how much that'd run at retail prices, given that this is your dad's work computer and was probably paid for by the company?

[blue&whiteman]

dell is the microsoft of hardware!

[&RU]

Thanks PB4Me, I have been looking for a PC for testing purposes, VPC isn't working out. I was looking for something small that I can hide in my closet of shame. But I was looking at the Viao TR1 so at least it would match my iMac and Dell kind of gives me th creeps. I'll take a look though.

[Capt Underpants]

So we get mad when people bash macs, but then we bash PC's. Sounds fair to me ;)

[ExoticFish]

Dell has made some REALLY crappy hardware in the past numerous years but the latest batch we got at work included a couple 600m's and for a Dell it's nice... still no Thinkpad, but that's a whole other class that Dell can't touch.

[coopdog]

holy ****, mother ****ing, holy jesus!! A CENTRINO?!?!?! Orgasm!! :D :p

[Calvinatir]

Powerbook > Dell :cool:

[Macmaniac]

I'm sorry the Inspirion line reminds me too much of a gallon of milk, its case looks like a milk jug, and it ways just as much. Dell's reliability has fallen so much recently and their whole debacle with India just made things worse, if I ever wanted a PC laptop(shudder) I would get a thinkpad, they are solid pieces of engineering.

[powerbook4me]

I'm sorry the Inspirion line reminds me too much of a gallon of milk, its case looks like a milk jug, and it ways just as much. Dell's reliability has fallen so much recently and their whole debacle with India just made things worse, if I ever wanted a PC laptop(shudder) I would get a thinkpad, they are solid pieces of engineering.

Not sure what reminds you of a milk jug....Unless your milk jugs look like professional laptops :confused:

Besides, I don't think one of the biggest companies in the US would be investing so much in them if they weren't reliable ;)

(They switched from IBM to Dell)

Must have been a reason for this.

[powerbook4me]

Powerbook > Dell :cool:


Well, 12 inch powerbook is better as far as mobility, but other than that, I think the Dell beats it, hehe.

[Dippo]

Well, 12 inch powerbook is better as far as mobility, but other than that, I think the Dell beats it, hehe.


Well, how is the battery life? Is it as good as the powerbook.
All of my win laptops have terrible battery life!

Also, how smooth does it run?
And, how hot does it get?

I was looking at getting one of those, but I am not sure if I want a Dell.

[legion]

Well, how is the battery life? Is it as good as the powerbook.
All of my win laptops have terrible battery life!

Also, how smooth does it run?
And, how hot does it get?

I was looking at getting one of those, but I am not sure if I want a Dell.

The Dell 600m gets much, much better battery life than PBs (due to the Pentium M chip) It is actually a little bit better than the iBooks (which have the best battery life of any Apple laptop)

"How smooth does it run?" Depends on your definition of smooth (???)

As for heat, warm to touch at max. Nowhere near the heat of a PB running for an hour. I can't keep my 17"PB on my lap after about an hour. I don't notice the heat of the 600m (unless I want to be critical that it isn't cold)

That being said, I don't own the 600m, but have used it on occassion.

[Westside guy]

If I were still a PC user, I'm not sure what laptop I'd buy. I have a Dell Inspiron 3800 that's maybe four years old. When I bought it Dell's service was top-notch; but over the past four years it's degraded significantly, based both on my personal experience during that time and on what my Windows-supporting coworkers say.

But it's rare I hear anyone compliment ANY Windows-based laptop manufacturer's support nowadays. You pay through the nose for IBM laptops, but they seem pretty well made so maybe it doesn't matter if their support isn't good. ;) That Dell of mine has had numerous large and small issues that just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Of course this Powerbook of mine had the white spot problem, so Apple needs to do a better job regarding hardware quality control as well. But all in all the fit and finish seem very good, and it "feels" like a quality product. My Inspiron didn't have that same "feel" (Yeah I know how subjective that is). Plus I've been very pleased so far with the level and quality of support Apple provides.

Edit: By "Windows supporting coworkers" I mean the ones whose job it is to provide support for our Windows boxes. :D I'm dealing mostly with Linux and Solaris at my end.

[Macmaniac]

Not sure what reminds you of a milk jug....Unless your milk jugs look like professional laptops :confused:

Besides, I don't think one of the biggest companies in the US would be investing so much in them if they weren't reliable ;)

(They switched from IBM to Dell)

Must have been a reason for this.
The large companies are attracted by price, if you look at data from Consumer Reports over the past 3 years problems with Dell reliability had gotten much worse. Search www.consumerreports.org for more info. What I meant by Milk jug was that, in my opinion, the Dell line is ugly, some are very sorry excuses at PB copies.