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- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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4 out of 4 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Dude - you're getting a Dell"
Pros: small size - light weight and looks great
Cons: Max HD is only 80GB and 4200 rpm. Dell should have added a SATA drive
Summary: Things I like about the D420
1) I love the way the keyboard is setup on the D420. Its so easy to type...while its in your lap and on the desk. none of the keys are sized down or anything. PERFECT!
I also love the placement of the "Delete" key-top left corner and "Ctl" key-bottom left corner.
2) The screen does not flex at all, which is great. Sony screens have a lot of flex in them, which basically means that if you're not careful, you're screen will crack.
3) Latop feels solid and the darksilver/carbon grey colors look great.
4) I don't have the reflective screen and I like it that way.
5) I went with the Intel build in NIC and its pretty nice. it picked up all the access points in my building. Including my own secured AP. Also, a thing to note is that it picks up AP's that don't broadcast.
6) Weight: Its so light..even with the 9Cell battery. I am going to order the 4Cell battery so I have the option to make it super light - right under 3lbs.
7) Way thin than the M1210. I am so glad that I did not go with the M1210. After I saw it at a local Dell booth, it seemed too thick for a ultramobile..and frankly, sorta heavy. All said, weight was my first priority. M1210 is a great system. just not for users who have weight/size in mind with decent performance.
Things I don't like about D420
8) No internal optical drive: but that's ok, usb flash drives are like 4 GB now...so that'll work. Also, I went for the CD RW/DVD rom drive option. since I am not really going to burn DVD's from this laptop...its not built for burning DVD's, it would take too long and this thing would heat up hard. so DVD rom does just fine for watching movies on those long cross atlantic flights.
---All that said - my 2 cents---
I have not yet seen anyone post the pics along with a scale. You really need to see this laptop along with a deck of cards to put it in prespective. Its ultra small/light and I love it.
I suggest you wait till Dell release a ultra-portable - under 3 lbs laptop that has Core 2 Duo processor with higher clockspeed and a SATA HD - with more storage than 80 GB. or even better SATA 2 with 3gb/sec transfer rates. Now that would be sweet...I think good guess would be Fed 2007 Release of such a system.
Docking options:
I use my D-dock and have two 19" flatpanel monitors hooked up to the dock, so I can dock this baby and have dual screen. I also have ultramon installed. so that helps me manage screens on both my displays. So its ultra-mobile system which is also a desktop replacement, though not a very powerful desktop replacement, it gets the job done. D420's strength is obviously the mobility it offers. Throw it in your pack and you won't even know its there
My D420 specs:
Intel Core Duo Processor ULV U2500 (1.20GHz, 533Mhz)
1.5GBMB DDR2-533 SDRAM, (512MB Integrated) 2 DIMMs
60GB Hard Drive, 8MM, 4200RPM
D-Bay plus 24X CD-RW/DVD
Dell Wireless? 1390 802.11g Mini Card
9 Cell Primary Battery
65W A/C Adapter
Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Microsoft Windows XP Pro w/ SP2
Network Interface Card:Broadcom 10/100/1000 (Gigabit LAN)
