Dell Latitude D600 Notebook Computer for Business

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.

	The keyboard is big and solid.

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 1.2 by 12.4 by 10.1 inches and weighing an easy-to-tote 5.3 pounds. 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 ($69) and port replicator ($199) 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 keyboard 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.

	BAPCo MobileMark2002 performance rating

Acer TravelMate 803LCi 211

Compaq Evo N620c 178

Dell Latitude D600 176

IBM ThinkPad T40 164

 
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.

Maximum application performance  (Longer bars indicate faster performance) BAPCo SysMark2002 rating    SysMark2002 Internet content creation    SysMark2002 office productivity

Acer TravelMate 803LCi 186  199  174  Dell Latitude D600 172  196  153  IBM ThinkPad T40 173  192  156  Compaq Evo N620c 172  186  159

 
To measure maximum notebook application performance, CNET Labs uses BAPCo's SysMark2002, an industry-standard benchmark. Using off-the-shelf applications, SysMark measures a desktop's performance using office-productivity applications (such as Microsoft Office and McAfee VirusScan) and Internet-content-creation applications (such as Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Dreamweaver).

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.

3D graphics performance  (Longer bars indicate faster performance) Futuremark's 3DMark2001 SE

Acer TravelMate 803LCi 6,365  IBM ThinkPad T40 4,985  Dell Latitude D600 4,624  Compaq Evo N620c 3,871

 
To measure 3D graphics performance, CNET Labs uses Futuremark's 3DMark2001 SE. We use 3DMark to measure desktop-replacement notebook performance with the DirectX 8.1 interface at the 32-bit color setting at a resolution of 1,024x768.

Find out more about how we test notebook systems.

System configurations:

Acer TravelMate 803LCi
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 64MB; Toshiba MK6022GAX 60GB 5,400rpm

Compaq Evo N620c
Windows XP Professional; 1.5GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 32MB; Hitachi DK23EB-40 40GB 5,400rpm

Dell Latitude D600
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 32MB; IBM Travelstar 40GNX 40GB 5,400rpm

IBM ThinkPad T40
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 32MB; IBM Travelstar 80GN 80GB 4,200rpm

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 or that of the D600's closest competitor, the Compaq Evo N620c, with its 14.4V, 4,400mAh battery.

Battery life  (Longer bars indicate longer battery life) BAPCo MobileMark2002 battery-life minutes

IBM ThinkPad T40 416  Acer TravelMate 803LCi 289  Compaq Evo N620c 274  Dell Latitude D600 242

 
To measure mobile application performance and battery life, CNET Labs uses BAPCo's MobileMark2002. MobileMark measures both application performance and battery life concurrently using a number of popular applications (Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2002, Netscape Communicator 6.0, WinZip Computing WinZip 8.0, McAfee VirusScan 5.13, Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1, and Macromedia Flash 5.0).

System configurations:

Acer TravelMate 803LCi
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 64MB; Toshiba MK6022GAX 60GB 5,400rpm

Compaq Evo N620c
Windows XP Professional; 1.5GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 32MB; Hitachi DK23EB-40 40GB 5,400rpm

Dell Latitude D600
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 32MB; IBM Travelstar 40GNX 40GB 5,400rpm

IBM ThinkPad T40
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 32MB; IBM Travelstar 80GN 80GB 4,200rpm

When you're an IT manager who's responsible for hundreds of laptops, you want to know that your notebook manufacturer has your back covered. Dell offers its big-business customers just such extensive support, beginning with a three-year parts-and-labor warranty that includes onsite service beginning the next business day after reporting a problem. Toll-free telephone support is also available for the life of the laptop.

You can also tap Dell's medium-and-large-business Web support site for information. The site lets each business customize its own support page with the info that's most useful, choosing among file downloads; a large knowledge base; and system-configuration and service-contract details.

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