Business notebooks just got cheaper, with the advent of Dell's Celeron M-powered Latitude D505. Here are our initial impressions.
Last week, Dell incorporated a new budget chip from Intel into its thin-and-light Latitude D family, creating a low-cost wireless notebook. Pricing varies by configuration, and at the time of writing, the only way to order at Latitude D505 from Dell Australia was by phone; online configuration and pricing options were not available. The Latitude D505 features the new Celeron M processor, a discount version of the Pentium M that all of the Centrino notebooks run on. The new chip is based on the same processor core but comes with 512KB of Level 2 cache and runs at slower clock speeds.
Dell continues to drop notebook prices while packing in the features, and the Latitude D505 is no exception. This 2.3kg business notebook can be purchased in dozens of configurations -- including the aforementioned Celeron M, or you can opt for the speedier Pentium M. Display choices are 14.1in. or 15in., hard drives range from 20GB to 60GB, and memory tops out at 1GB. Three wireless choices round out the package: Intel PRO/Wireless (802.11b) or one of two Dell TrueMobile solutions, 802.11a/b/g or 802.11b/g.
As with the Pentium M, the Celeron M will incorporate features designed to cut down on energy consumption, but it won't have as many. The Celeron M, for example, doesn't include Intel's SpeedStep technology, which allows the processor to slow down and conserve energy when a notebook is running on batteries. It remains to be seen how those changes will affect performance and battery life.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, some computer makers were quietly questioning whether the Celeron M is a good move for Intel. Some vendors say that consumers are confused by the Pentium M's gigahertz number, which is lower than that of other Pentium processors. In other words, a desktop Pentium 4 might run at 2.8GHz, for example, while a typical Pentium M runs at 1.6GHz, even though the latter is a newer chip designed for notebooks. Some vendors think the addition of Celeron M might confuse computer buyers even more. Will the new Latitude D505 help them get the picture? Check back soon for a full review.
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