Dell Latitude D600
Dell did a marvelous job redesigning its corporate thin-and-light notebooks, making the new Latitude D600 a wise choice for companies looking to upgrade their laptop fleets.
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. 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.
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 3.05cm by 31.5cm by 25.65cm and weighing an easy-to-tote 2.4kg. 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 and port replicator 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 monitor 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.
The Latitude D600 has all of the standard ports and slots required for everyday business applications. Headphone and microphone jacks, an IrDA port, and one Type II PC Card slot line the left edge. The slot includes an embedded smart-card reader that lets employees store and read their passwords and other info on optional smart cards (the cards are available in a number of sizes and prices from various third-party manufacturers). Two speakers with middling sound occupy the front-edge corners. Two USB 2.0, S-Video-out, 56Kbps modem, 10/100/1000 Ethernet, parallel, VGA, and serial ports stretch out across the rear edge.
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.
Dell offers two wireless networking options: the Intel Pro wireless 802.11b mini-PCI card--the third part of the Centrino puzzle--or Dell's own TrueMobile 1300 802.11b/g and TrueMobile 1400 802.11a/b/g mini-PCI cards instead of Intel's. No matter which wireless card you choose, your Latitude D600 will conveniently include internal, dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) wireless antennae. The Latitude D600's Type II PC Card slot also supports wireless cards. Built-in Bluetooth is another option.
Dell shines in the software department, offering businesses the manageability apps they need to continue running smoothly. The company includes its long-standing OpenManage remote-manageability software for managing assets (that is, your laptop and its associated hardware), doing remote BIOS updates, and more. Dell also preloads QuickSet, its new GUI (graphical user interface), for easy access to your power-management settings and other controls. Dell doesn't offer office suites to its large enterprise customers, as most already have licenses in place. For small businesses, the company provides Microsoft Office XP Small Business Edition and Pro. Operating-system options span the range of business options: Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 3; Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1; and Windows XP Home Service Pack 1.
Mobile application performance
Compared to other Pentium M thin-and-lights, the Latitude D600 demonstrates fairly fast application performance. It scored a 174 on our Labs test, ahead of the IBM ThinkPad T40 and significantly higher than older Penitum 4-M notebooks. Neverthless, the Acer TravelMate 803LCi blew the Latitude D600 out of the water, beating it by 35 points.
SysMark2002 performance
Overall, the Latitude D600 delivered very impressive maximum-performance numbers. It finished second in maximum performance, just behind the Acer TravelMate 803LCi, which leads the pack. The Latitude D600 demonstrates great performance for a 1.6GHz system; it received one of the highest scores we've seen among Pentium M-based systems. Although its office-productivity score could have been a bit faster--especially when compared to that of the TravelMate 803LCi--the Dell did very well in Internet-content-creation tasks, finishing just behind the Acer.
3D graphics performance
The Latitude D600 offers above-average 3D performance, scoring just a few points behind the IBM ThinkPad T40 in our 3D graphics test. Its 32MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 graphics adapter proved fast enough to earn the system a high score. But the adapter didn't have enough oomph to beat the Acer TravelMate 803LCi's 64MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 chip.
The Latitude D600 makes it 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.
Dell Latitude D600
Company: Dell
Price: From AU$3,925
Phone: 1800 812 392
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