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Dell Inspiron 600M for Home (Pentium M 1.4GHz, 512MB, 30GB) (discontinued)

Dell Inspiron 600M for Home (Pentium M 1.4GHz, 512MB, 30GB)

Entered CNET Catalog: 03/20/2003

SKU: 600MRM

Manufacturer: Dell, Inc.

Product summary

The goodThe good: Fast 3D performance; smart case design; dual-band wireless 802.11a/b/g antennae; integrated Bluetooth support; built-in smart-card reader.

The badThe bad: Relatively slow office-productivity speeds; short battery life; no FireWire port.

The bottom lineThe bottom line: The Dell Inspiron looks fancy and features wireless options beyond the Centrino package, but it offers only middling performance.

Average user rating: from 136 users
3.0 stars

CNET editors' review

  • Editors' Choice: No
  • Reviewed on: 03/06/2003
Among a brand-new crop of Pentium M (PM) notebooks, the Dell Inspiron 600m is one of the smaller systems. This thin-and-light laptop weighs a modest 5.6 pounds but packs Intel's new Pentium M CPUs in speeds up to 1.6GHz and the new Intel 855 chipset. The 600m isn't always a true Centrino, but it can be. Dell offers either the Centrino-completing Intel Pro Wireless mini-PCI card, known as Calexico, or its own TrueMobile Wi-Fi mini-PCI cards (supporting 802.11a/b/g). The 600m includes cool additional wireless features, such as two dual-band 802.11a/b/g wireless antennae and built-in Bluetooth support. Coupled with a smart, new case design, the 600m's impressive wireless parts nearly make up for performance and battery life that lag behind its PM peers' (note, however, that we didn't test the more battery-friendly Centrino model). For a faster, longer-lived Pentium M thin-and-light, check out the Compaq Evo N620c.


Don't like the new silver look? We do, but you can snap on a colored lid for an extra $35.
The thin-and-light Inspiron 600m represents an entirely new case design for Dell. Based on the mostly gray, 6.3-pound Inspiron 4150, the 600m comes in a sophisticated, 5.6-pound silver case made from a combination of strong magnesium alloy and aluminum. The case measures 1.3 by 12.4 by 10.1 inches. Add about another pound for the AC adapter. Dell has designed the adapter so that the power cord wraps conveniently around it, and it attaches with a rubber tie. As with Dell's new desktop replacement, the Inspiron 8600, you can personalize the 600m with colored QuickSnap lid covers in Graphite Swirl, Bamboo, Burlwood, Venice Blue, or our fave, Red Lava. The covers cost $35 a pop.

The Inspiron 600m remains fairly lithe by including just one swappable bay for optional drives and modules. While our evaluation system shipped with a DVD/CD-RW drive, you can order CD, DVD, CD-RW, and floppy drives. A second battery and hard drive also fit the bay.

The Inspiron 600m's keyboard resembles the 8500's, with a couple of exceptions. The comfortably familiar, desktoplike layout of both boards huddles Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys in the upper-right corner. Yet the slightly shorter length of the 600m's board makes it feel sturdier in the middle. The 600m lacks a pointing-stick option, including only a blue-rimmed touchpad and two mouse buttons in the wrist rest. The same blue plastic lines the top and bottom of the keyboard. Volume-up, -down, and mute buttons are ensconced above the board as well, providing easy access.




We like the Inspiron 600m's roomy, sturdy keyboard.


There's no pointing stick--just a standard touchpad and mouse-button combo.


Dell doesn't clutter the Inspiron 600m with too many ports and slots. The left edge sports headphone and microphone jacks; an IrDA port; and one Type II PC Card slot with a handy, embedded smart-card reader that allows you to store and read sensitive password, credit card, and other info on optional smart cards. (The cards are available in a number of sizes and prices from third-party manufacturers.) The front edge features two speakers with clear, but not deep, sound. Most ports sit on the back edge. There are S-Video out, 56K modem, 10/100/1000 Ethernet, parallel, VGA, and serial ports, as well as two ports for USB 2.0. Unfortunately, there's no FireWire port.


Cutting edge is the name of the Inspiron 600m's game. This thin-and-light notebook, aimed at both home and SOHO users, is based on Intel's new, battery-saving Pentium M processor, at your choice of 1.3GHz to 1.6GHz. Primary RAM starts at 128MB of speedy 266MHz DDR SDRAM and maxes out at 1GB. Hard drive options spinning at 4,200rpm measure 20GB, 30GB, or 60GB; a pricier, 5,400rpm, 40GB choice is also available. The system ships with ATI's fastest graphics chip, the Mobility Radeon 9000, including either 32MB or 64MB of dedicated video memory. The configuration we tested included a 1.6GHz Pentium M; 512MB of DDR memory; the fast 40GB hard drive; and 64MB of video memory. Swappable modules for the internal bay consist of CD, DVD, CD-RW, DVD/CD-RW, and floppy drives, as well as a second hard drive and a second battery. In an attempt to keep case weight manageable, Dell offers only a 14.1-inch display but provides both an average 1,024x768 native resolution as well as the more graphics-friendly 1,400x1,050 resolution.



Dell keeps the weight off with a 14.1-inch display, but it has a 1,400x1,050 resolution.


The audio ports are on the side.


The Inspiron 600m can, in the right configuration, carry Intel's new Centrino label. (Read more about Centrino technology here.) Dell built two dual-band wireless antennae into the case that support all three wireless flavors currently available--802.11a/b/g--and it comes standard with the new Intel Pro 802.11b Wireless mini-PCI card known as Calexico, which completes the Centrino trio. But you can configure the Inspiron with a non-Centrino TrueMobile mini-PCI card, which supports the three Wi-Fi standards--that's the model we tested. You'll also find integrated Bluetooth, and you can even order your 600m with built-in GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) for yet another layer of wireless connectivity.

The same solid software package ships with all Inspirons, including the 600m. You can get either Corel WordPerfect Office 2002 minisuite comes standard, but you can upgrade to either InterVideo WinDVD come free and are handy for CD burning and DVD play, respectively. Dell's own bundled PictureStudio, Jukebox, and MovieStudio allow for additional photo, music, and movie tweaking.


Mobile application performance
When compared to all seven Pentium M notebooks tested in CNET Labs, the Inspiron 600m lagged behind three of them. The pacesetter was the Acer TravelMate 803LCi; its score of 211 was far above the 600m's 169. However, when we put the Inspiron 600m against two other notebooks for the home user, it faired better, winning this narrowly defined test group. The five-point spread it enjoyed over the IBM ThinkPad T40 is relatively small and would not offer any noticeable difference in real-life performance. The Dell Inspiron 600m beat the Gateway 450 by 22 points. The Gateway 450 was no doubt hindered by its relative lack of RAM. For a 1.6GHz Pentium M system, the Dell Inspiron 600m scored only slightly below average, but its mobile performance ranked high even among systems with faster CPUs.

Mobile application performance  (Longer bars indicate faster performance)
BAPCo MobileMark2002 performance rating  
Dell Inspiron 600m
169 
IBM ThinkPad T40
164 
Gateway 450
147 
 
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).

SysMark2002 performance
Once again, the Dell Inspiron 600m is the leader of the performance pack. The system had no problem running the office-productivity and Internet-content-creation applications that comprise the maximum performance test. With its fast 5,400rpm IBM hard drive, the Dell Inspiron 600m scored exceptionally well in the office-productivity test. The system scored high in Internet content creation (ICC) as well, getting the second-highest ICC of the Pentium M systems we've tested.

Maximum application performance  (Longer bars indicate faster performance)
BAPCo SysMark2002 rating  
SysMark2002 Internet content creation  
SysMark2002 office productivity  
Dell Inspiron 600m
181 
197 
167 
IBM ThinkPad T40
173 
192 
156 
Gateway 450
161 
190 
136 
 
To measure maximum notebook application performance, CNET Labs uses BAPCo's SysMark2002, an industry-standard benchmark. SysMark measures a desktop's performance using off-the-shelf, 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 3D score is affected by the quality of the graphics adapter as well as the speed of the CPU. The 1.6GHz Pentium M Dell Inspiron 600m includes an ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 64MB and scored significantly higher than its comparison systems. Its closest competitor, the IBM ThinkPad T40 houses an ATI Mobility Radeon 32MB and as such, scored more than 2,000 points less. In this case, the extra 32MB of video RAM in the Dell Inspiron 600m made a huge difference.

3D graphics performance  (Longer bars indicate faster performance)
Futuremark's 3DMark2001 SE  
Dell Inspiron 600m
6,986 
IBM ThinkPad T40
4,985 
Gateway 450
4,072 
 
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:

Dell Inspiron 600m
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 64MB; IBM Travelstar 40GN 40GB 5,400rpm

Gateway 450
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 256MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility M7 32MB; Toshiba MK6021GAS 60GB 4,200rpm

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


Among the first crop of Pentium M-based notebooks we've tested, the Dell Inspiron 600m is the only one that failed to last four hours. Its smaller 11.1V, 4,320mAh battery just didn't have the juice to keep up with the Pentium M competition. Nevertheless, its score of three hours, 21 minutes would still be quite good when compared to notebooks based on Pentium 4-M or even Pentium III-M processors. Though we don't test with wireless on, it's also worth remembering that the Centrino configuration with Intel's wireless 802.11b should offer slightly better battery life than Dell's TrueMobile implementation.

Battery life  (Longer bars indicate longer battery life)
BAPCo MobileMark2002 battery life (in minutes)  
IBM ThinkPad T40
416 
Gateway 450
311 
Dell Inspiron 600m
201 
 
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:

Dell Inspiron 600m
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 64MB; IBM Travelstar 40GN 40GB 5,400rpm

Gateway 450
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 256MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility M7 32MB; Toshiba MK6021GAS 60GB 4,200rpm

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


Dell comes out of the service-and-support gate neck and neck with other laptop manufacturers, offering the standard one year of parts and labor, plus mail-in service with 24/7, toll-free tech support. But the company quickly pulls ahead with a vast assortment of for-fee extended warranty choices, including three years of service, accidental damage protection, onsite repair, and expedited service.

The company's excellent self-help program, Dell Solution Center, helps it cross the finish line ahead of the competition. Dell preloads this program, which contains a general user guide, plus individual guides to using specific system components such as the modem, the graphics card, and the wireless card. It also offers an entire section on how to tap your system's multimedia capabilities. Finally, you can click from the guide onto Dell's online support site, where you'll find help from other users in the customer forum, as well as FAQs, downloads, and more.

User opinions

Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136

User Rating: 7/10

Okay computer

Pros: Semi-fast system

Cons: Screen feels flimsy

Review: I bought my computer off Craiglist and it turned out to be a bad one. But, overall when it was working - I really liked it. There is so, so much better today though that you should probably look elsewhere if you're thinking of getting a computer.

User Rating: 2/10

Don't Buy Dell

Pros: It turns on

Cons: Everything else

Review: We use the computer for basic computing needs such as managing our iPods, pictures, email, and basic Microsoft Office programs (no games) - yet it can barely handle those basic needs. When ordering it from Dell they delivered the wrong docking station and never followed up after we returned it. Go somewhere else other than Dell to find a computer. After only 18 months of owning this one we are back in the market for a new one ? very disappointing.

User Rating: 6/10

Good simple for every day use

Pros: nice laptop, gets the job done

Cons: get pretty slow once it isn't brand new even with a ton of free space

Review: nice laptop but if you want something special it isn't for you. It's simple and to the point. Can become slow and it isn't a problem of having a lot of programs and documents. I totally emptied it and it is just a little faster but still on the slow side.

User Rating: 3/10

Highly Unreliable. Poor Hardware

Pros: User-friendly. Fast. Overall great

Cons: Charging-Input Jack breaks easily. Battery.

Review: At first loved this laptop. Its comfortable, fast, user-friendly,etc. Then after 2 months of use, the Input for the charging adapter failed. In other words, I could not charge the battery or use the laptop just by plugging in the adapter. Decided to get it fixed, only to find out DELL weld their laptop Jacks to the motherboards, meaning i have to buy a new motherboard (worth as much as the laptop itself). Did research, found out many others have the same problem. Never buying DELL laptop again.

User Rating: 3/10

Dell dud - quality no longer a priority of Dell

Pros: Inexpensive, small and light without being too cramped

Cons: Dell's reliability/service have tanked

Review: The motherboard on this laptop quit on me after 1 year of VERY light use and is no longer repairable. The DVD drive rarely worked from day 1, and tech support was of no use in getting my problem resolved. I used to be a Dell fan, but have had disppointing experiences with with this laptop and the last 2 Dell desktops I've owned. At some point, their build quality and reliability have plummeted. Dell, you lost a loyal customer here!

User Rating: 3/10

Decent specs, had it lasted

Pros: high resolution option, decent performance specs for its time, decent weight

Cons: cheap, filmsy plastic enclosure. only two USB ports, which are on the back, just a basic business model, really really ugly

Review: Our company buys Dell laptops exclusively.A colleague and I have received exact same 600m within about a month (november, december 2004).

Within few month both laptops' left front corner was chipped off exact same way, same location, thanks to very cheap plastic casing... It scratches my left wrist sometimes.

Second, we both observed that due to some uneven heating on the backside of the display, bottom portion of the display close to right hinge would become darker over time. Whites would become dark gray.. Poor design causes excessive heat on portions of LCD, exact same way on both laptops.
Several months back, it started not to boot up. It would not even power up. I had to play with it, apply pressure to different parts of the case until it would start. It would make noises via its speakers while it did not start at all, would not even post.

Just like another user mentioned, my network card also started acting up. First it would not see the LAN. I thought it could be a connector issue, so I removed the minuature connector from cable and soldered it to the network card. It worked OK fo a while, but then it started o act again. In the meantime, wireles would also act up, though not as much as wired part.

My colleague's network card started acting up with the wireles part, but for the most part he does not have any problem with wired networking.

His computer also will not power up from time to time, he says he applies pressure on the back to get it boot.

For the last two weeks, my display background light started to turn off, or sometimes it will not turn on at all. I think my colleague will have this problem shortly. Since his laptop had been replicating mines problems.

These ar all indications of poor design and quality control. Although manufacturing seems to be quite repeatable. Otherwise, would it be possible to make systems that fail same way at around same times.
I'll push hard to convince my company not to buy dell anymore.

BTW. I am NOT "irfan_bugmenot ". I logged in via BUGMENOT ;).
Sagolasin Irfan

User Rating: 7/10

Generally decent hardware

Pros: good resolution, good support, good keyboard, good wifi, fast hard drive

Cons: hmm... I am not sure

Review: I got this one with the faster 5400 rpm hard drive, SXGA+ resolution, 256 Mb RAM, 64 Mb Video, back in 2002. I have upgraded the RAM to 512 on my own and I am still using it with Windows XP Home. I had one problem within the first year and Dell had to change the mainboard for me. Other than that, after the warranty, my lid latch has broken. I have had no problem until now... well. My battery doesn't last even half hour now. And the screen is significantly dimmer now than when new. Other than that, it's still running, better than my 6 month old HP desktop which has broken, and I have no clue what's wrong with it, and I am a computer geek. I have fixed many computers. Generally, I think it's a pretty solid laptop. Looks good. And is not too heavy either. Hey, this is my primary comptuer for now, until my much newer HP desktop is being fixed (with no date, coz. I don't know what's wrong with it yet)

User Rating: 4/10

worked great until warranty ran out

Pros: battery life pretty good, case held up

Cons: hot (even w/ new battery), wireless and ethernet crapped out, hard drive iffy

Review: I bought a 600m in March 2004 - it worked great for a year and a month (my school purchased only the 1 year warranty). Since then the system slowly failed to recognize that a network cable was plugged in, then failed to recognize the ethernet adapter, then failed to recognize the wireless adapter. I tried replacing the wireless card - didn't help. For the last year, I've had to use USB adapters to connect to a network. Bulky and easily broken, especially when I am trying to transport the computer from my office to my classroom. The battery, hard drive, and palm rest all get excessively hot. The machine rarely shuts down without freezing and often refuses to display useful icons in the task bar, like the volume icon (oddly, kodak comes up all the time). The hard drive has crashed on me a few times, though I've been able to recover by removing it and putting it back in - don't know what that's about. I know this one's now verging on obsolescence, but I expected more life out of it, given my past experiences with Dells. I think their quality is going downhill.

User Rating: 7/10

Excellent quality but the worst customer service

Pros: unbreakable

Cons: customer service lacks of common sense and quality

Review: I have spilled water, soda, dropped it so many times that I can't even remember. It has cracks everywhere but it is still working as good as the first day I bought it. Fast, reliable, affordable. I would give it a 9.8 but its customer service is the worst so it gets a 7.

User Rating: 6/10

Decent Laptop

Pros: Good wi-fi, good design(looks nice), good 3D proformance. This is a nice laptop when it comes down to it. I bought it for college and it served it's purpose

Cons: This thing just feels cheap. Cheap plastic. This thing gets HOT! On the lower portion of the LCD it get so hot you can't keep your hand to it for long. You don't want to keep it on your lap either.

Review: I'd say this is a good functional laptop but by now I'm sure you could do a lot better.

User Rating: 9/10

Works great with Ubuntu.

Pros: Light and easy to carry around.

Cons: Battery life drops out quickly.

Review: I have been using this computer for 3 years, at first with Windows XP, and then Ubuntu. Every problem it ever had could be tied back to Windows, so I switched. It dual boots the two OS's, but I never use Windows anymore. Linux is fast and efficient on this laptop, and seems to be more reliable.

User Rating: 3/10

Cheap but still not worth it.

Pros: Inexpensive and fairly light

Cons: short battery life, low disk space, other problems

Review: I bought this computer 4/03 and I entered high school in 9/03. In between those 5 months, I went from having a decent laptop with wireless internet, to a cumberson laptop without it. For whatever reason, wireless stopped working on my computer. Also, my computer didn't recognize printers. I was annoyed, but I tried to ignore these two things because I primarily wanted my laptop to type my papers and play music, and now, 4 years later, even this is difficult. My computer no longer recognizes the icon, Microsoft Word and every time I want to use it, I have to open up a previous document. Also, the lack of hard drive on this computer makes it hard for me to keep all of my songs. I have deleted, songs, files, programs, but to no avail, there just isn't enough of a hard drive. I will be buying a new laptop for college this spring, and it will not be a Dell.
Updated
I also forgot how horrible the keyboard. Some of the faces on the keys started to fall off. They still worked, but even the rest of the key collaped. This first happened to my shift button, so dell sent me another keyboard, free of charge. Nice of them, or so I thought. I put in my new keyboard, and it worked, at first. But then even more keys started to go. The r, i, and the caps lock have fallen off.

User Rating: 9/10

Great student/gaming laptop!

Pros: Strong processor, crazy graphics card (can play all the up to date games), big hard drive, and super clear screen display.

Cons: Hard drive gets so hot that it becomes difficult to type (left wrist warms up). Graphics card becomes crazy hot that it has darkened the LCD in the lower right middle portion.

Review: I purchased this laptop in December of 2004. Out of the box this laptop was great. It lasted ~4 hours on battery (50% brightness) and had a huge hard drive - 80GB at that time. The processor was fast enough to play all the games (still is pretty much) and the graphics card did everything and more. The keyboard is perfect!

Again, the only problems I have had are the heat issues - and an external power supply failing (which dell replaced before warranty ran out).

Other than that, this laptop has been running since then basically an average of 8 hours a day - many hours at 100% CPU playing games. Today it serves as my alternate account computer for Eve Online and assist in several distributed computing projects (protein folding). Still running strong!

User Rating: 7/10

Good laptop if the price is right.

Pros: Great keyboard, nice screen, good performance.

Cons: Has a tendency to overheat.

Review: I purchased this laptop less than a year ago for under $600. At that price, I believe that this laptop is a good value. Also, this laptop is adequate for watching movies and playing music. Performance is as good as I need. It's perfect for web browsing, email and other daily tasks. With 1GB of RAM included, I never have to wait for anything to load.

I have had one serious problem with this laptop and I would imagine other people would encounter this too. The CPU fan intake takes in more dust than a vacuum cleaner. After about 6 months, I noticed that the laptop was getting very hot and programs seemed to slow down. I managed to open the laptop and clean out the dust which was preventing air from flowing properly inside. It has now been running fine since then. I opened it again today and cleared up what dust had built up since the first cleaning.

Aside from this, I am very happy with this laptop and would advise a purchase as long as you don't pay more than $500 or so.

User Rating: 2/10

New Dehli isn't a new store to buy a sub-sandwich

Pros: looked nice

Cons: customer service is horrible

Review: Don't buy Dell. . . period. When we purchased we had a nice rep eager to help. Even spoke English. Dell sure is great pushing their wares out the door. WAIT 'TIL YOU HAVE A PROBLEM. Long story short, when the hard drive went belly-up had a support rep we couldn't understand?? Said he was in New Dehli. Tried a second rep without any luck. Wanted to escalate the issue to a pay for service! All this took over 30 minutes of my time including hold time. Isn't my time valuable too, Dell? After all was said and done, we were told we had to get the HD warrantied from the manufacturer of the HD, Hitachi. We discovered it was a refurbished drive, not new. Unbelievable. It actually is just cheaper to purchase a new HD, but we don't know if it's worth putting money into a lemon. A new HD is about $70, less than my calls and agravation to Dell. BTW, did I say Don't buy Dell. . . period.

User Rating: 2/10

DO NOT PURCHASE!!

Pros: There aren't any.

Cons: Everything...read my opinion.

Review: I purchased this system in February 2005. After I had the computer for six months, I received numerous blue screens and error messages and prompts that would not let me even access Windows in safe mode. After speaking with Technical Support (10-15 phone calls), and re-installing and de-installing Windows it was discovered that Dell did not even send me my Driver disks to install the drivers after uninstalling them. (make sure if you purchase a Dell you request these be sent to you) Three days after receiving the driver disks, I called Technical Support back again to re-install the drivers. After reinstalling, losing all programs (that were paid for) that were on my system and additionally losing all documents related to work and school, it was discovered that the hard drive, motherboard and memory sticks needed to be replaced. I was told that if these major components failed a second time, that the entire system would be replaced. Here it is ... 6 months later (seems to be a trend) the laptop has once again popped up with the error messages, blue screens and will not even let me access Windows. I enjoy the fact that I purchased a piece of crap with a warranty that is just as bad. Additionally, I will state that the product was good for the 3-5 months it did work, but, if you want to spend that kind of money for that kind of reliability, feel free. I am still in a battle with Dell over them honoring their statement of replacing the system that does not work.

One last note... make sure that if you do have the parts replaced, that they are actually "new" and not "refurbished". They also do this to cut costs.

Out of all the computers/laptops out there.. I HIGHLY suggest avoiding this one and going with a Sony Viao.

User Rating: 4/10

Mediocre to poor performance.

Pros: Small sleek design with bells and whistles.

Cons: Marginally acceptable speed.

Review: This machine has good network connectivity but slow hard drive, only 256 mb RAM (upgradable to 512 mb). Slow performance for a 1.6 ghz processor.

User Rating: 7/10

It does what I need it to do

Pros: fast, easy to set up and use

Cons: too heavy to carry to school everyday

Review: About 8 months into to owning my new Dell, it slowed down to molasses pace. My school support team said it was a bad hard drive, but they fixed it temporarily. The hard drive thing flares up every once and a while and after finals I am anticipating a marathon tech support phone call to Dell.

Other than that, I am very pleased with the Inspiron 600m. It is much faster than my old laptop, and everything is easy to use for a novice like me.

User Rating: 7/10

Good, but not great

Pros: Good value for the price

Cons: Tech support, Tech support....

Review: I purchased this 600m to satisfy my small business needs. I use this machine strickly for business applications and internet access, so I can't speak to other applications such as gaming. This is the first laptop I?ve owned, and at the time I purchased it I really didn?t know what I needed. I just wanted something that worked, wasn?t very complicated and wasn?t expensive. As a ?non-techy? owner I would say, it was a good purchase. It works. I?ve read other comments about the 600m that haven?t very complimentary. But my experience has been satisfactory with exception to the AC adapter. I would grade my overall satisfaction with this 600m a B-.

The major concern I have is tech support. English skills are poor. Compounding this problem I have a hearing impairment and found my phone support experience complete frustrating and useless. The chat session was better, but scripted, and if it?s not in the script don?t expect a solution. I give their tech support an F, because of their English shills and poor overall communication abilities, perhaps I would rate them slightly higher (D) if I didn?t have a hearing impairment.

The second issue is the AC adapter. After seven months of ownership the AC adapter failed. How can an AC adapter fail? Come on, this is a laptop. Without AC the 600m is an oversized paper weight or a dog's chew toy. I give the AC adapter an F. If you get a 600m buy a spare AC adapter, because you will need it.

The last very annoying problem is when I put the 600m into ?rest? or ?suspend? mode. More times than not I will have to perform a hard re-start to get the 600m out of the ?rest? mode. This problem is annoying, and it is likely a settings issue, but without better Tech support I really don?t want to endure another pointless experience with tech support. I give this issue a D.

In retrospect,I wasn't an educated buyer prior to purchasing the 600m, and if I had done a little more research before purchasing this machine the short comings probably wouldn't be as disappointing. I would have purchased the warantee, because the 600m is rumored to have issues with the motherboard. To date, I haven't had any issues with the motherboard (knocking on wood). It's not a bad machine, and for the money it's a safe buy.

User Rating: 9/10

2 1/2 years and counting

Pros: Size/weight, screen, quiet, running temperature, keyboard, graphics

Cons: Battery, volume controls, processor showing its age

Review: I bought my Dell refurbished 600m almost 2 1/2 years ago with a 1.3 ghz centrino, 1 gig of ram 5400 rpm 30 gig hard drive, and 32 megs of video memory. I have been very happy with this computer and have been happy with the one time I phoned tech support. I had a 15 minute wait time and the Indian technician solved my wireless networking problem. There have been 2 problems so far. The volume control buttons stopped working so I have to use the FN key. And the battery now gives me about an hour of time and goes from 75% charged to zero almost instantly. Other than that I have thoroughly enjoyed this machine. Mine does not run hot. I know others have a had difficulties with heat but the left side of mine gets warm after extended use but it is not even close to hot or in any way uncomfortable. The computer is very quiet. The screen is very pleasing to my eye whether I am doing office work or watching a movie. Text is crisp and readable. DVD's and photos look very good. It some how feels right. Just the right size to be truly portable. It feels good to hold in your hand and carry around. Yet the keyboard and screen are big enough to be comfortable. The touch pad is comfortable and works well. While it is true that the screen can flex and seems a bit flimsy I have dropped this machine at least 3 times with no ill effects. I use it almost continously from early morining to late at night. I use it with the excellent dedicated port replicator (which is absolutley first rate) at the office and then at home in the evening. The wireless is excellent. Dell has upgraded the bios several times. I know that others have had abysmal experiences with the 600m. I get mad at Dell too when I read some of their descrpitions. I cannot account for why this computer has been so reliable and satisfying to own while for others it has been a nightmare. Maybe I just got lucky and didn't get a lemon. Perhaps if you get one that is flawed in any way out of the you should avail yourself of the 21 day return privileges and try again.

User Rating: 2/10

Beware: The hard drive is unreliable and is a piece of junk. Don't waste your money on this laptop!

Pros: It looks cute.

Cons: Bad graphics card, hard drive breaks easily, mouse messes up a lot

Review: This computer is a complete rip off. Dell uses very cheap parts in making this product, and you do not get what you pay for. When my hard drive recently broke for no apparent reason, I told a friend. He said he has had his Inspiron 600m replaced three times because the hard drive broke...THREE! Another friend said he has also been experiencing problems with his hard drive. I wish I had known this before I invested in this product. I will never buy another Dell computer after my experience with this one. I have lost all of my school work, all of my pictures, and all of my important documents. Thanks, Dell! The only good thing about this laptop is that it has a cute design. Other than that, it is a crappy piece of junk. Please don't throw your money away on this computer. I recommend an HP laptop.

User Rating: 3/10

wouldn't matter that service people don't speak english if it broke less

Pros: looks good, works fast enough when it isn't broken

Cons: screen broke within 6 months, was sent a refurbished computer, motherboard broke months later, bluetooth INTERNAL card somehow broke as well, along with one of my USB ports...

Review: and from the second day I had this computer, the keys left impressions on the center of the screen. Quite a design flaw for a $2000 machine.

Every time I called Dell, they made me absolutely furious. By the end of a day where I spent 10 hours (no joke) on the phone with them on my day off from work, they actually made me cry three times. I don't have much of a temper, but when I wait on hold 30 minutes, I don't want to be hung up on. When I talk to someone who doesn't speak English, I don't want to be denied a manager. My favorite was that a woman yelled at me because I wasn't following her instructions to UNPLUG MY MONITOR on my LAPTOP. Yelled. No joke. Then she hung up when I asked for a manager. Bad days happen, but with Dell this isn't atypical. Every day is a bad customer service day. Also, they don't tell you they'll send a refurbished 'new' (to me) computer. They just do it. And they sent my ship box to the wrong address TWICE, then refused to send another. I imagine this also involved their employees' failure to speak the company's language. Finally, I called headquarters in Austin with a list of complaints after my third box was denied (two weeks after my screen went out and I refused to "unplug my monitor"), I was promised a discount on my next Dell, and when I went to buy it -- it wasn't there. And no record existed of any of my disasterous service calls.

Save yourself. The machine isn't bad when it's working. But it breaks all the time. And when it does, don't count on Dell.

If you do get one, the first time you call service ask the person where they're located. They won't tell you. It's pretty funny. "Are you in Austin?" "I cannot answer." "Are you in India?" "I will not answer that question." "Why you will not unplug your monitor?"

Good luck.

User Rating: 7/10

Great student laptop

Pros: Lightweight; sturdy; good battery life

Cons: Needs more USB ports; wrist rest heat

Review: I'm a college student, and I have gotten great use out of this laptop. It has been a solid worker with excellent battery life and solid performance. Only two complaints - as I'm sure has been mentioned, the left wrist rest gets really warm after a while. Also, I would have added more USB ports, perhaps replacing the parallel and serial ports (though some may need these). But these are just small issues with an otherwise good and reliable work tool.

User Rating: 8/10

Great laptop

Pros: Performance + Design

Cons: eatSome hardware issues but corrected with great support.

Review: This laptop runs very nicely. I play Half Life 2 and Rainbow Six 3 games on it and, at low/mid graphics settings, it runs perfectly. This is a good looking, leightweight laptop with a very nice screen. The only problem that I have had with my 6oom was my PC Card slot stopped working about a year after I bought it. I sent my computer to Dell and got it back totaly fixed within a few days. I would suggest getting a warranty longer than a year.

User Rating: 6/10

Not for gaming or video intensive applications

Pros: Nice form factor

Cons: Design flaw makes it overheat while playing games

Review: One of the main reasons to buy a 600m is it is one of few laptops with both Pentium M processors and a real video card (Radeon 9000). However, there is a hardware design flaw that causes the 600m to overheat, which melts the RAM sockets. Dell "fixed" this by releasing a BIOS revision that causes a huge performance slowdown once the processor temperature reaches a certain level. The result is that the 600m no longer plays games for more than 10 minutes.

More info about this problem is available here:
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_bios&message.id=34029&view=by_date_ascending&page=2

The other problem with this laptop is short battery life, and no high capacity battery option is available.

Aside from that, after 2 years, I like mine, and if these two problems were fixed, I would get another.

User Rating: 2/10

Can you spell LEMON?

Pros: Lightweight

Cons: Bad hardware; mediocre customer service

Review: The last of my 5 (totally reliable) Dell computers I bought more than 4 years ago before greed and avarice took over. What a piece of crap this laptop is. The screen and graphics are disappointing, the feel of the keyboard is so-so, and the touchpad's behavior is inconsistent. And that's just the esthetics. Before my 600m was 2 months old, the only parts that were not refurbished were the CPU, memory, CD/DVD drive and wireless card. The hard drive, the motherboard, the USB ports, and the Bluetooth card all went bad! Customer service is variable, as it is outsourced to India where knowledge of English is questionable. Service people have icewater in their veins and don't care about your problems. At least one was downright rude and another scolded me for using "profanity" when I commented "That sucks!". Plus there is no followup when a service person tells you to do something, but later you find it didn't fix the problem. When you talk to another service person, they make you go through all the same tedious steps to verify that there really is a problem. Then you have to argue with them that you really did what the previous person told you, and they need to figure something else out. What a waste of time!

And get this: they only replace failed parts with new parts if they fail within the first THREE weeks! After that, everything is refurbished. Plus, your warranty period starts *the day they ship your computer* - not the day you get it or the day you set it up for the first time. So you can lose nearly a week off your warranty just in shipping!

Now I have a computer (that I paid full price for) consisting of mostly refurbished parts. It doesn't give me a lot of confidence about the useful lifespan of this computer, which will surely be my last Dell computer!

User Rating: 9/10

A great Notebook!

Pros: Light, great battery life and powerful.

Cons: More USB ports needed.

Review: Pros - I have to say that I am impressed with this notebook. Right out of the box you turn it on and connect to the internet immediately. It has great bettery life and and a sizeable screen/display.

Cons - They probably could of done a better job on the exterior and the color scheme, but thats cosmetic. More USB ports would have been a plus, as well as a fire wire port. But over all it is great!

User Rating: 1/10

Still Not Working!

Pros: Arrived on time. Worked great for 3 months.

Cons: After 13 months, I'm on my 3rd hard drive, the modem still doesn't work, etc., etc.

Review: This notebook worked great for only 3 months before the hard drive crashed. Customer service sent me a replacement that was a virus-infected refurbished one. Gave up on that after 3 months & bought a new one myself. The modem still doesn't work & I've spent countless hours with their "lack of Service" people. It's worthless!

User Rating: 1/10

Don't buy Dell

Pros: did not find any pros, as the compute was delivered not completely working

Cons: Dell service is completely nonexistent

Review: This computer arrived with the wireless card not working. Spent 1 1/2 hours on the phone, 45 min of that on hold. The service tech said someone would arrive at my home in 2-3 days to put in a new card. This did not happen. When I inquired, there was NO RECORD we had called, or that someone was coming to my home. This technical support person said, they would ship the card to ME, and I would be installing it.....even though I paid for in home service! Apparently this was a "Customer Replaceable Part". This was all she could do. I would need to contact Customer Care. I did. That person said, well SHE can't do anything about sending out technicians! I had to talk to Technical Support. So after spending 1 1/2 hours on the phone, waiting 3 days, spending 2 hours on their chat line, and another 2 hours, talking to 3 different people on the telephone today, I am returning the entire computer. I have never been so disgusted at any company in my life. NEVER BUY FROM DELL. I was told, there is NO way to actually contact Customer Care via email or chat...ONLY by sitting on hold, on the telephone. Their web page for Customer Care actually sends you to "tech" people in India.....NOT to Customer Care. NEVER BUY DELL

User Rating: 7/10

Great product. Love it!

Pros: Works great. Looks expensive, but is cheap for a good laptop. Plays DVD with great quality.

Cons: Problems with being able to connect to some of the ?hot spots?

Review: Great product for a very good price. GREAT for college students, or anyone else. I typically use it for school and entertainment.
Updated
Dells tech support is TERRIBLE! They wanted to charge me over $100 to get a 'technician' to answer my SIMPLE QUESTION... I still can't connect to 'hot spots'
Updated
The hard drive on this computer sucks. this is the 2nd time I get the hard drive replaced (I bought it 7 months ago) It seems that the computer isn't the same after the a new hard drive change.
Updated
BAD PRODUCT! I'va had too many problems with this lap top. Bad hard drives, bad hard drives!!! I've had problems with their hard drives two times now. They're good about replacing them, but they're HORRIBLE replacements. They actually tols me to take the mother board out myself beacuse they thought it was the mother board rather than the hard drive...

User Rating: 5/10

Heats up!!

Pros: Fast, nice display..

Cons: Too Hot...left palm and LCD

Review: Does anyone have the problem of the LCD frame on the lower right hand side, about 2 inches from the DELL logo get VERY hot? Is this normal?

User Rating: 6/10

No surprises so far

Pros: Affordable, thin, fast

Cons: Keyboard has give

Review: Intel 725 (1.6GHz, 400MHz) 14.1 XGA with 32 MB Video, 60 GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive, 8X DVD, Internal Standard Intel Wireless 2200 and 512MB DDR.

Laptop delivery took 7 days on UPS from Nashville to Tulsa after a one week production wait. I didn't have to pay for shipping. Opened the well padded shipping carton and noticed only one backup CD for WordPerfect. No XP backup disk and no significant documentation to speak of. I called Dell tech support and spoke with a nice Philippino lady about the missing XP disks. She started to have me make an XP CD copy of what was already available on the laptop hard drive but then realized that my laptop isn't equiped to write CDs. FWIW: It was 3 a.m. her time, just before noon my time.

Laptop appears to have been built in Malaysia. Opened clam door and noticed that the laptop screen was smudged, possibly by keyboard keys on left and right. Smudges were easily removed with a Kleen Screen Towelette. I had to study the Dell set up picture because the power connector on the laptop didn't look like the power connector on the power cord. I noticed that the keyboard has a rather small amount of give in the center.

After power up the boot up sequence went as expected except a single DOS text line appears between the Dell screen and the Windows screen. It looks like a question but it sails by so fast I can't read it. The Windows setup went normally. The laptop easily acquired an open WiFi signal from the hotel next door to my office and I was off and running. I'm not a real fan of McAfee but my attitude is changing. I do like McAfee on this laptop which updated itself with a McAfee firewall.

I went with the standard XGA screen which is very sharp and colorful at the default setting of 1024 x 768 with 32 bit color. No bad pixels. I'm very happy with this screen.

The chassis gets a little warm on the left of the key pad but nothing yet of concern to me. I purchased a Dell optical mouse which plugs into one of the two USB ports. It works just fine and is a lot better than using the keypad.

So far I've only connected with WiFi mode B. The laptop WiFi seems to be operating normally. Hard drive properties show that 52.7MB is the maximum available to the user on the laptop 60MB drive. The laptop case is thinner than I expected.

I was able to negotiate the price and shipping with Dell through their small business sales rep. I paid $799 incl. shipping.

My very first impression about this May 2005 version 600M is good. Now I'll find out how it holds up over time.
Updated
My biggest surprise was when the laptop dropped out of its bag by accident at the end of my first week of use. Now only a small part of the screen works. Dell says that their 21 day Customer return for any reason guaranty doesn't apply and their 1 year limited warranty doesn't apply either. I should have bought Dell's Complete Care warranty.

User Rating: 8/10

good performance for less price

Pros: light,rugged,comparitively cheap

Cons: Excessively heats up in the area to the left of touch pad on continuos use

Review:

User Rating: 6/10

Good for Home Use

Pros: Spacious wide keyboard

Cons: Battery Life

Review: After extensive research at cnet.com I bought this laptop (600m) and it seems to be satisfactory. I strongly recommend users to buy only with warranty. Keyboard and the screen are the Pros and Battery life and speed would be the cons.

Its good for Personal use only.

I personally give a rating of 6.5/10.0

User Rating: 1/10

Motherboard dead and support not much better

Pros: Great on electricity now that it can't power on

Cons: Makes for an expensive paper weight

Review: Same story as everyone else. Laptop suddenly wouldn't power on with AC plugged in. Told by Dell that MB was bad. Time spent on hold during one call to support: 2 hours and 10 minutes. Cost to repair 600m: $700. Cost to buy new 600m: $700. Chances I'll ever buy another Dell product: 0%
Updated
Forgot to mention that laptop was 22 months old when it died.

User Rating: 9/10

Light, Powerful and Feature Packed!

Pros: Tons of Options, Powerful Pentium M Processor, Radeon 9000

Cons: Power Management causes the hdd to make noise when on batteries

Review: I bought this laptop after I tried "saving money" with an HP Pavilion and I wish I would have forked out the cash a LONG time ago. For starters it has a Pentium M 755 rated 2.0Ghz, which performs like a 3.2Ghz Pentium 4 - but at a MUCH lower power consumption. This thing zips! I opted for the top processor and 1GB of RAM. It also game equipped with a Dual Layer DVD +/-RW, Integrated 802.11b/g, Integrated Bluetooth, sXGA screen @ 1400 x 1050, 64MB ATI Radeon graphics card that easily overclocks by 35%!

I think the people that weren't happy with this computer may have gotten the slowest (cheapest) processor, minimal ram and the 4200rpm hdd. Go with the 2.0Ghz, 512 or more RAM and the 5400 rpm hdd and you won't be disappointed!

User Rating: 2/10

CLASS ACTION SUIT!

Pros: The computer starts out fantastic, easy enough to bring to class, small and compact, works as well as a desktop

Cons: PIECE OF JUNK!!! Falls apart after a year...

Review: Dell better start being more careful or else this computer and many of their other products are going to cause the company to sink.

I have had my inpiron 600m for a little over a year and that's when everything fell apart. The fan on my computer broke causing it to constantly overheat. My charger broke and when I ordered a new one, dell sent me one that is too strong for my computer and it has fried my computer now. I'm currently on hold going on 2 hours for their "supurb costumer service" DON"T BUY A DELL!!! THEY ARE NOT GOOD ANYMORE!!

User Rating: 1/10

Dead motherboard right out of the box

Pros: I get a refund in 10 days

Cons: Never even booted, and support really didn't care

Review: The 600m I purchased for over 1200 dollars had a dead motherboard right from the company. I called support 4 times the first night. I was on hold for over 3 hours total. I got 4 different answers about what dell would do to resolve the problem. In the end I was told I would have to get a refund and then reorder in 10 days. That wont happen. Support is poor to say the least

User Rating: 2/10

Just Don't!

Pros: light, cheap, nice looking

Cons: Well, let me count...

Review: 1, 2, 3, 4 motherboards! 1, 2, 3 hard drives! 1 entirely new system! All within 18 months! The most recent problem started in December '04. It took countless calls and emails to the absolutely unhelpful tech support before they would replace the hard drive (their suggestion of a fix) and then countless more before they would send me a new system after I installed the new hard drive and all my files/software. The tech support people are absolutely polite, but utterly useless and highly inept. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, DO NOT BUY THIS MODEL!!!!

User Rating: 6/10

Motherboard dead after 1.5 yrs

Pros: Light weight

Cons: Motherboard problem is very common. I have created a database to record such issues. If you are having such problems then join us at "http://groups.yahoo.com/grou p/dell_Inspiron_600m/join" <center> <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com /group/dell_I

Review:

User Rating: 8/10

Good, basic notebook

Pros: This is a great notebook for students. It's small and fairly light, but not tiny like some out there. The feature set is really all I need, and it's plenty fast for normal computing. Catch the sales right, and it's really inexpensive, too.

Cons: One or two more USB ports would have been nice - I'd have traded the parallel port for that. There's no firewire, either, but that's no issue for me. And, of course, the aforementioned hot spot under the left wrist.

Review:

User Rating: 7/10

Great notebook for the home user to take on the road.

Pros: Slim and lightweight. Fast and dependable for most non-gaming or graphics users.

Cons: Battery could last longer

Review:

User Rating: 5/10

will never purchase dell again

Pros: offers what any other walmart laptop would, wish i would have known

Cons: slow, problems from 1st day

Review:

User Rating: 7/10

So far it has been great

Pros: Mine: Cent.1.6, 512 (1 dimm) 60 g, 32 video. I've had it for about a month now, and I have concluded that all those stories about poor quality and so on, are anomalies. The built quality is not the best, but it's also about 700 to 800 less than a similar

Cons: none so far.

Review:

User Rating: 3/10

Bad Bad Hardware

Pros:

Cons: This was my first and last purchase from Dell, Dell customer service is great but your Hardware sucks, I change my hard drive 3 times and still I am having problem with it. is not reliable at all, again Dell is good in customer service but BAD BAD BAD in

Review:

User Rating: 8/10

Slow productivity speed, great battery life - CEHAP PRICE

Pros: 1) I dont care what others say. I watch 2 movies on this laptop before the battery runs out. Dude, that's 4 hours of baterry life. 2) Light weight, thin laptop. Only 1.5 inches thick. Way better than a dumb HP Pavilion. 3) Inexpensive - I bought this one

Cons: 1) Productivity speed is slow, try not to run many programs at once. IT WILL FREEZE. Otherwise it will works just fine 2) No firewie port - say good bye to ur camcoder. Unless you obsessed with video editing, you will be just fine w/o it. 3) The bottom le

Review:

User Rating: 8/10

good overall package

Pros: every laptop is a compromise; this one offered all the features I wanted in the right sized package

Cons:

Review:

User Rating: 5/10

Poorly Built!

Pros: size, features

Cons: Poorly built, power button is broken, needs replacement. Other people I know with same model have same problem also. Will not buy dell laptop in future.

Review:

User Rating: 1/10

Dell rips you off by providing a cheap batter

Pros: laptop itself is decent.

Cons: engineers at Dell can only design a battery that last (almost) exactly 1 year (end of warranty). Strange how other vendors can design Li-ion batteries that last for multiple years. I guess Dell needs to make profits somewhere... what a shame.

Review:

User Rating: 4/10

good laptop but a tad bit slow

Pros: Great package! not heavy and should integrate into the office just nicely.

Cons: dell seems to put the worst batteries in their notebooks and actually prompt you for battery upgrades. This is absolutely weak. but, it is the only bad thing i can say about their notebook products. :)

Review:

User Rating: 8/10

600m is a decent, lighweight, working computer

Pros: it's light weight, easy to travel with, great with wireless technology and very upgradeable. the small design still allows for modular additional batteries and bays. very awesome

Cons:

Review:

User Rating: 9/10

Great Buy, Great Machine!

Pros: I bought the 600m with almost all the top options, including the highest resolution. The performance is nice and the battery does last over 4 hours, even on the wireless network. I love it.

Cons: I didn't pay for the DVD writer, which is the only option that I did not choose. But, then again I don't plan on burning DVD's on the go! I still have my desktop.

Review:

User Rating: 6/10

bad finish!

Pros: 2.0GHz Pentium M, 1024MB DDR RAM, 40 GB hard drive, 64MB VGA card, a/b/g wireless card, bluetooth, CD-RW/DVD-RW, all under $2500. Even though the Toshiba Tecra M2 offers the same configuration in the same price, you'll never be able to get through to cust

Cons: The notebook seems like a plastic toy...bad finish! There's even some constant ticking noise form under the keyboard. Also, it seems a bit heavier than I expected. I'm giving this a bad rating not because I think it's bad performance-wise, but it just doe

Review:

User Rating: 5/10

A good deal, but not a home run

Pros: Easy to configure and price, realtively inexpensive, good looking (IMO), brillent hi res screen for Photoshop & CAD.

Cons: No firewire; case is nice looking,sturdy, but having used an IBM and an Apple it feels less substantial. Battery life sould be better, but its still better than most Apple laptops. A 1280x1024 screen option would be nice.

Review:

User Rating: 2/10

I have had 2

Pros: The fist 600m I loved. Unfortuately, it disapeared with all my other belongings during a robbery. Loved the speed and graphics. It was perfect for my life.

Cons: The second system is slow, the screen blacks out (even the first time I turned it on) have lost reports several times, top USB port only works about 50% of the time, the list goes on and on. I have been waiting for a new system for over a month. Have ha

Review:

User Rating: 8/10

Excellent Support so far. . .

Pros: Screen has excellent colour. The overall looks of the computer are pretty good, I just got it today and am so far quite satifed but we shall see

Cons: I used to have an Inspiron 8000 and It had tons of problems, the keyoard probably went out 4 times and that is not an exageation. The mouse pad went out twice the screen went out once and was about to go out again, If I were rating that machine it would

Review:

User Rating: 8/10

Good lap with a few glitches

Pros: light, enough power to do what i need it for, nice screen (SXGA), good graphics (64 Mb), nice design except for fan below, quick accesibility to sound controls, ports and outlets well located, nice wireless reception with the 11 Mbps. Except for when it's

Cons: heat in left side palm rest, minor heating but can bother after a while..... fan on the bottom of computer which does not permit to put laptop in bed without anything solid below, else it would heat up the processor i suppose.

Review:

User Rating: 5/10

Great Futures, Terrible Quality Control.

Pros: Bought it coz the features of the Inspiron 600M is quite comprehensive. Thought it to be value for money.

Cons: Terrible or NO Quality Control. Just got my unit today, powered it up for the first time out of the box and notice that the colors are smeared on the LCD display. Called Tech support and they acknowledge that it's the display problem. They promised to sen

Review:

User Rating: 8/10

Great design and features

Pros: I like all of the features it has with, of course, the possibility for upgrades and installments. One of the best of dell's finest.

Cons:

Review:

User Rating: 8/10

Best Deal Ever!

Pros: I have 60 GB HD, and 512 memory, and wireless internet. It's a great machine!! It's way faster than my other computer (we have 2). Wireless is the way to go.-It comes with great perks such as Musicmatch (which i paid about $50 for for my other computer)

Cons: The only downside is the battery life isn't so great. It lasts about 2 hours. But that's easily fixed since 99% of the time it's going to be used in our house, so we just plug it in, no battery used.

Review:

User Rating: 9/10

Great Price, Configureable Specs!

Pros: The thing about DELL notebooks is that you can configure the specs yourself at DELL website, buy it online and DELL always put on special promotions and free gifts! That is why DELL is triumphed over other competitions! And the Inspiron 600M, well, it was

Cons: Product quality not as good as my other notebook, Fujitsu S-series, but hey, if you want better quality casing opt for DELL Latitude D600. In this 600M case, you get what you pay for.

Review:

User Rating: 4/10

Poor service makes computer useless

Pros: Good value compared to other similarly equipped notebooks. It is a false economy since they appear to cut corners in both the hardware quality and support to get to the price point

Cons: The worst service I have ever experienced period. They could not solve problems or they made things worse. Very long wait times to get to the support desk followed by longer wait times as they search for the answer or contact tier 2 support personnel. Ema

Review:

User Rating: 2/10

I wont recmend this system to anyone

Pros: Good battery life. Built-in WiFi.

Cons: Hardware is teriable. My Dvd/CD Write combo went dead with 3 months. in the fourth month i started having problems volume buttons to top to keyboards. They complete stopped responding. System shipped to dell for repairs. I am not what to they but it 3 key

Review:

User Rating: 1/10

A dog

Pros: None.

Cons: Horrible quality. In two months I've gotten a new fan, dvd/cd and motherboard, and now they're sending a new bottom for the machine and maybe another motherboard to try to get the thing to behave (it doesn't see its battery, sometimes, and shuts off at t

Review:

User Rating: 1/10

GREAT NOTEBOOK!

Pros: I just got my Inspiron 600m with Pentium M 725 (Pentium M Dothan, 2MB L2 Cache), 1GB of DDR266 RAM, 64MB DDR ATi Radeon 9000, 60GB 5200rpm 8MB Cache Hitachi HDD, 14.1" SXGA,Intel PRO Wireless 2200 BG & Bluetooth, DVD-RW(SONY)Modular Drive, LS120 Diske

Cons: But i hate the blue colour trim on the keyboard, as they make the notebook look cheap, and appreciate if dell can sell another silver-add-on for the keyboard trim (the keyboard trim can be opened). About the heat on the left-wrist rest area, it was cause

Review:

User Rating: 8/10

Purchase the media bay battery-7 plus hours!

Pros: I opted for the separate media bay battery that will give you over 7 hours of battery life. The CNET review that talks of short battery life is correct, however, the cost (another hundred) on top of a comparitively inexpensive Centrino Notebook is still f

Cons: The quick snap cover is vary difficult to remove ( I purchased the Graphite Swirl) and although I have no intention of removing it, anyone who plans on switching covers should know that it is not a quick swap. I frankly would worry about breaking it.

Review:

User Rating: 7/10

quite a buy

Pros: well, this was an extreme step up from my old pc (intel celeron 333mghz! ouch..) i opted to get the pentium M 755 (2.0 ghz) and it's quite a machine. i do wish i got the 60gb hd instead of the 40, cause i find myself downloading tons of mp3s more often be

Cons: the heat in the left corner is noticable, and bearable. i've had this thing for a little over a week, and i've already had to restart it by removing the battery (which im sure isn't the best option) i tried calling the dell support line, and the wait was

Review:

User Rating: 6/10

Just another mediocre notebook

Pros: Good-looking, not bad quality, superb internet abilities.

Cons: Warm on the left side due to HD. Seems like the HD is the limiting factoring at least for mine. HD is too active which causes windows to freeze momentarilry. All the cache and memory would be worth it if the HD did not freeze so much.

Review:

User Rating: 5/10

Not enough bang for the money.

Pros: I choose the higest option to they you can choose for this Notebook 1.7 Centrino P4-M, 64 mb Video Card, 512 MB RAM and Super-TFT screen. The Screen rock but I paid additional for the S-TFT it.

Cons: Overheats, (if your playing a game it will start off normal after 15-20 mins it will lag. Battery Life sucks 1-1.5 hrs (The whole selling point on a centrino is long battery life might as well buy a Notebook with high MHz and hyperthreading without centr

Review:

User Rating: 6/10

Power supply is a brick

Pros:

Cons: Just got my 600m. Much is great but I am severely disappointed with the power supply. Why do they advertise it as an ultra portable 4.9 pounds and then give you a 10 pound brick for a power supply. It ruins the whole point - how many people travel witho

Review:

User Rating: 7/10

all-around good deal

Pros: i'm going into college in the fall, and i wanted a laptop that would meet my needs, go easy on the eyes, be reasonably lightweight, and be reasonably priced. it seemed impossible-- i searched for months. shipping put me slightly over budget, but i didn'

Cons: heat - a little uncomfortable to keep on lap for long periods of time. only a minor annoyance. screen - had read that it was extremely flimsy, but is only a problem under extreme pressure, except on bottom right behind "DELL" logo, causing slight paranoi

Review:

User Rating: 10/10

600M, 512Memory, Centrino wireless.

Pros: Just got it yesterday. Centrino WIFI works great. Out of the box and online in a flash!Video looks good but have not really played any movies yet. I got a sweet deal from Dell so far I love my new laptop

Cons: No problems that I can find yet.

Review:

User Rating: 7/10

Nice System for the money

Pros: Good features for the price Good expandability Good choice for the average user I am happy with my choice

Cons: Need better QC, had to send the first unit back because the USB ports did not work. Overseas telephone support is worthless. It does get a little warm. Won't suit EVERYONE. You want a lighter laptop buy the 300M. You want a bigger screen buy the 8600.

Review:

User Rating: 2/10

Horrible notebook! Worth $10 for the box 0 for the computer

Pros: Is there any? flexible configuration on display (SXGA+ for just $50 good price if it works). Price, Price, Price. You can't find another one as cheap as dell!!!

Cons: Heavy compared to nc6000, Heat on the left side. Bad video card! (It does appear to have some design flaws on the video adapter, as several others have mentioned.) Short battery life (<3hr without running anything)... bad keyboard/mouse pad/interface.

Review:

User Rating: 8/10

Excellent Laptop w/ Tons of Features!

Pros: wifi, bluetooth, fast processor, great screen, great keyboard and great mouse. I do not have ANY of the problems anyone else complains about. NO heat, flimsy screen warped/sunken keyboard. I run many intensive applications on the laptop and it never

Cons: -My bluetooth card crapped out for no apparent reason. Dell was here on the next business day and replaced it and the motherboard just to be sure NO QUESTIONS ASKED. -I wish I did not have to speak to an Indian whenever I call tech-support. Other than t

Review:

User Rating: 5/10

LCD scratched by keyboard due to flimsy case

Pros: Relatively low price, fast, good support.

Cons: MAJOR ISSUE: I have had my 600m for over a year. I carry it back and forth to work everyday, and the LCD gets scratched by the keyboard because the case is so flimsy. I've had to have the LCD replaced twice so far--and at this rate I will need to repla

Review:

User Rating: 10/10

Great!!! Awesome!!!!!

Pros: Can't beat the price. Good performance. Good battery life when the modular battery is in. Great wireless

Cons: lacking batter with just one battery. Not as light as expected.

Review:

User Rating: 6/10

It's a great laptop..but you get what you pay for

Pros: I have done a lot of research when I was going to buy a laptop. Finally I chose Inspiron 600M cuz it's very valuable. Brand new 1.6GHz CPU 256MB memory (easily upgradable) 40GB HD 64MB dedicated video memory 14.1 XGA TFT DVD/CDRW Modular Bay (such that yo

Cons: you get what you pay for. What everyone else says here is almost all correct. The left palm rest where the HD is located does gets warm very fast (especially when the power is not plugged) It might be annoying to some people. I think the HD is a cheap one

Review:

User Rating: 5/10

Still on the fence post with this one.

Pros: Perfect size, great display, good battery life.

Cons: Loaded all my software into my new 600m last week. Attached it to the new port replicator and kaboom, the dreaded blue screen. Could not fix till I reformated the whole damn thing. Installed everything again, after I attached to docking station and seem

Review:

User Rating: 6/10

Great for travel, but lacks some

Pros: Great Screen and form. Light-weight and portable. Average performance and awsome battery life.

Cons: Plactic seems a bit cheap at times. Hard Drive heats up too easily, poor cooling. The location of the wireless isn't great, if you place your hands on the keyboard, it tends to lose singal.

Review:

User Rating: 7/10

Solid notebook...excellent value

Pros: I purchased 1.4, 384mb, 40gb...runs quickly and efficiently...wireless card works great (get the intel, not the dell)...screen is pretty decent...very light...bought it for about 100 with stackable coupons

Cons: the notebook is on the flimsy side...although the screen is decent, i wish it were as nice as the sony xbrite...everyone is right about left palm running warm

Review:

User Rating: 8/10

Good value Centrino

Pros: Reasonably good price (M$4,549) for a Centrino, nice design, trusted brand name (Dell), very reliable, lightweight, excellent sound system for a notebook, it's a Centrino!

Cons: No IRDA capability, unable to use the floppy disk and CDROM modules together, the touchpad has no scroll button

Review:

User Rating: 5/10

Never, ever, buy Dell.

Pros: Good spec. sheet. Good value.

Cons: Never received the computer, even if Dell debited the full amount of the order from the credit card. Had to wait almost 2h for support (which is based in India). Dell finally shipped... a cable lock! nothing that worth 3000$, eh. Buy in store and leave wi

Review:

User Rating: 6/10

Poor LCD quality

Pros: Good price. Good features. Good performance. Good customer service.

Cons: Bad craftsmanship. Laptop is flimsy and all made from cheap, silver color painted plastic, except for a Dell logo on top. The quality of LCD XGA display is well below average... Bad contrast and incorrect colors. Sometimes, red is turning into pink and b

Review:

User Rating: 6/10

Could be Better

Pros: Price.

Cons: The left side of the laptop gets warm, it is quite annoying. Even my Toshiba laptop that I got for 400 does not have this design flaw. In terms of speed, once I uninstalled all the preloaded junk, the laptop runs very well. I am satisfied with my pur

Review:

User Rating: 6/10

Great performance, bad workmanship

Pros: My system config: 1.3 GHz proc, 512 MB RAM, 32 MB Video ATI 9000 card, DVD/CDRW combo, SXGA+ video, 40 GB hdd and inbuilt wireless. Been working very well since the past 9 months. Very responsive for most tasks. Excellent display quality. No complaints pe

Cons: Screen is flimsy. Keyboard slightly clickety but comfortable to work on for very long hours. Slight heating on the left side but not too bad. The heat is apparently due to HDD activity. So if you use apps that do a lot of disk activity (norton antivirus f

Review:

User Rating: 8/10

Could not be happier! Fabulous machine!

Pros: Price, options, wireless, centrino, screen size, battery life, quality

Cons: Could be lighter.

Review:

User Rating: 8/10

Very Reliable, Great 3D

Pros: This is a fast, reliable computer. I've had it for about 4 months now as a replacement for a Dell Dimension 4100. My biggest worry was that I wouldn't like typing on it after using a desktop my entire life. But I find it very comfortable and roomy. It

Cons: When it's plugged in, I get a small dot that follows the mouse pointer around the screen. The dot changes into a line when it runs over text. I checked out their knowledge base online but have been told there is no fix for it. I minor problem but a nui

Review:

User Rating: 9/10

ALL PROBLEMS SOLVE!!!!!

Pros: First the battery meter looks as if it is going to die but if u replace the second compartment u can have a long battery....Also my Dell could go on the internet without a internet card.....and i use cable...THE Graphics are great I play Counter Strike an

Cons: THE ONLY PROBLEM THAT I HAD WAS THE CRAFTMANSHIP the power charger needle was stuck in the hole between the motherboard and the charger in the computer it doesnt matter my warranty will cover it...OH YEAH all notebooks get hot so u shouldnt just complain

Review:

User Rating: 8/10

600m beats the 5100 inspiron !

Pros: I have returned the 5100 for credit and purchased the 600m for about the same price, what a smart choice! The Inspiron 600m is designed for motion, with decent battery life and easy-to-carry style. Its about 5 pounds and only 1.29 inches thin when closed.

Cons: As the others commented, the left does NOT get hot but is slightly warm after a time period. Nevertheless, I am very happy and satisfied with my purchase of the 600m.

Review:

User Rating: 6/10

Warm and Flimsy

Pros: The system is what you would expect based on the specs. The design is nice and sleek, and is an improvement over the older Dell Models.

Cons: Keyboard: The keyboard has too much flex, which can become a problem with serious typing. I don't what Dell has to lose in providing a better quality, more sturdy keyboard. Heat: The left palm-rest is quite warm as it's just above the Harddrive. This qou

Review:

User Rating: 9/10

Very fast delivery, quality product

Pros: I ordered the 600m on a friday, and the thursday after, it arrived at my door, in top condition. Very quick shipping, and the product was right to the order, no mix ups here. I don't know about the tech support, because i have had no need for it thus fa

Cons: You need to buy their s-video to composite video-out cable if your TV doesn't have a s-video in port.

Review:

User Rating: 4/10

Ho-hum machine

Pros: It is a good system, by a good company. I am not excited by it, but am not usually disappointed either.

Cons: Does not come with Firewire (IEEE 1394) port. Keypad leaves a lot to be desired. I frequently get double presses on certain letters, and it feels like it is of poor quality. I am disappointed Dell could not come up with a smaller package like other com

Review:

User Rating: 10/10

GOOD but what happened to all the other reviews

Pros: It's a good laptop. I got mine for about 2000 with 1.6(60gig(512ddr(b+g wireless. For the price you can't find better. Also, like an earler reivew stated that i think was deleted, if you turn up the speedstep to about 1 gig when not plugged in, it real

Cons: THere were about 120 reviews about a week ago. Now about half were deleted. What's going on?

Review:

User Rating: 9/10

No laptop does what this laptop does

Pros: Radeon 9000 64 MB means all games currently available will run well. 5lb PM1.7 means speed anywhere. Amazing Screen, DVD-RW capabilities, and a strong case. I got this for a what a bargain price from the original owner and at 1160, there is no better mach

Cons: This CNET review, they had the weight wrong by a lb, gave it a performance rating below machines it beat handily. Heat: I had a 5lb P4M and the heat issue was much greater on that machine. Who puts blue on a laptop?

Review:

User Rating: 8/10

Deal of the century!

Pros: I got the best deal: 1.7ghz PM, 512 ram, 4x DVD+RW, SXGA+, 802.11g, 60 gb HD, MS Office Basic, FREE WiFi ROUTER, $200 rebate, free shipping - $1700 total. There was a glitch on Dell's website that took $800 off the price - sorry Dell, your loss is my ga

Cons: Left wrist rest does warm up, in fact entire bottom of unit gets a bit warm, but I can take it. Have had some problems with DVD+RW drive reading some cd's, but just put unit into stand-by and start again and it works. Had to buy a firewire/USB 2.0 card

Review:

User Rating: 3/10

good..but last generation technology

Pros: cheap, all around decent

Cons: Look people...the radeon 9000 is last generation technology. This laptop is exactly the same price it was when in came out a little less than a year ago and is using EXACTLY the same components. Possible upgrades = faster ram (266 vs 333), Radeon 9600,

Review:

User Rating: 5/10

important issue with audio

Pros: good features in a nice form factor

Cons: those of you interested in this laptop should be aware of a well-known problem with the audio output. specifically, there is an annoying hissing/static white noise, most noticeable when using headphones. for more info, see these threads from the dell su

Review:

User Rating: 5/10

WARNING - Looks Good, Depends on Use

Pros: This model of computer is fairly good. It has a nice price/performance ratio and I love the Dell Wi-Fi Quality. They keyboard is pretty good (though not as good as Toshiba) and the screen tends to be pretty good. It is a decent computer for moderate use.

Cons: THERE IS A DESIGN FLAW...WHEN YOU CARRY THIS COMPUTER AROUND THE SCREEN BECOMES SEVERELY SCRATCHED BY THE KEYS AND OTHER NON-FLAT SURFACES. I heard about this from one post before I bought the machine and figured it was just some strange manufacturing mes

Review:

User Rating: 8/10

Everything I hoped it would be

Pros: The wireless capabilities are huge; granted, I had to up the power manually because the automatic setting lowered the signal when it was on batteries making it lose connection. I purchase the modular battery with the system giving me a running time of 8

Cons: Simple design, if you want firewire or card readers you have to add on. I would have liked the back connections covered, but its a minor detail. Good Job Dell.

Review:

User Rating: 6/10

you get what you pay for.

Pros: inexpensive....that's the only good thing about it.

Cons: dell used to make good machines, but the last two that i bought (the 600m being the most recent) have been let downs. the 600m kept shutting off (not shutting down, it just shuts off)when plugged into a/c....and the machine was only three months old. al

Review:

User Rating: 6/10

SHODDY

Pros: I've been using this notebook for half a year. Got a whopping $200 rebate + CDRW, a very decent deal. Solid & stable performace, no serious problem so far. Legendary Dell Customer Support.

Cons: Creaky construction and rinky feel. The make is comparable to that of a sub-$20 appliance you might pick up at Target or CVS. Owned 2 Dell PCs over the past 6 years. As long time customer, I'm sad to see that the trend in Dell has been greater decline in

Review:

User Rating: 7/10

Love it but, It can get hot

Pros: My 600m is superb. Its performance is way beyond what an average college student needs.I personally like the way the notebook looks as a whole. The screen is great, i don't have any dead pixels or anything. I am glad I haven't had the to talk to any of th

Cons: The heat can be alittle problem but only because so many people talk about it on cnet, so its on my mind. The SXGA+ screen can make things a bit too small and when u configure the DPI to be large the text is fine but the images are a little fuzzy. Other t

Review:

User Rating: 8/10

Problem Free for over 6 months

Pros: lightweight, fast, port replicator makes you think you have a desk top, i am very glad I bought this laptop.

Cons: Really none it works great

Review:

User Rating: 8/10

fist notebookand I am happy

Pros: I debated on getting this notebook because of the cnet review. Sure glad I didn't listen.

Cons:

Review:

User Rating: 3/10

what a lemon

Pros: this computer's a real powerhouse.. tons of features with a lot of power to back it up. Almost makes you never want to go back to a desktop PC... except...

Cons: IT KEEPS SCREWING UP!!!! I've already gotten two.. one's a replacement.. the first one didn't even work when it got to my house.. did even turn on, and now.. the second one's ati radeon graphics card just blew out.. oh.. and don't bother calling dell cana

Review:

User Rating: 10/10

AWSOME - 1.4(30gig(b-g(512ddr(sxga+

Pros: definately the BEST laptop on the market. I got mine about a week ago and I'm very happy. It is light enough to carry around without much trouble, for the most part is very cool (except for one little portion over the hd but thats just b(c dell puts in

Cons: Slow hd. To compensate I got the cheapest hd and bought a portable USB 2.0 hd. For typing and other portable things I use the internal hd alone. I installed all the games and heavy appliations on the removeable hd (besides, it runs to slow unplugged to

Review:

User Rating: 8/10

Quite a well balanced laptop

Pros:

Cons:

Review: This laptop has basically all of the features I was looking for in a laptop computer. From 64 Megs video ram to a nice 14 inch screen (I bought the XGA, though this is still the one decision that I am not sure about, I kinda want the SXGA+ screen, but don't want things to get too small) it's a very good computer overall. Dell Memory is a ripoff (see Crucial for reasonable pricing) but otherwise this a very good value compared to most other machines in it's class. Is the left wrist slightly warmer than the right? yes, is it the surface of the sun, on first touch scalding your skin and scaring you for life? No, it's perfectly usable, even after multiple hours of constant use. I find the keyboard to be one of the better that I have ever used on a notebook, and everything is easily layed out. I just got this and haven't really tested 3D game performance yet, but performance for Internet/Office type apps is blazing, it boots up really quickly, and everything runs silky smooth with 512 megs of ram.

User Rating: 8/10

worth the wait

Pros:

Cons:

Review: I ordered this laptop on 4/28 and recieved a email about a unexpected delay.I finally recieved it yesterday. I think the delay was Dells R&D reworking the "flimsy" display that other reviews complain of. The display on the unit I recieved was just as sturdy as my sony Z505 and showed almost no flex and no screen ripples from readjustment as other reveiwers state. one suggestion would be to stick the the minimum 256 megs ram and buy a 512megs or a gig from ebay for much cheaper than Dell will charge(I just ordered a gig for $168)

User Rating: 6/10

Almost perfect except for one fatal flaw

Pros:

Cons:

Review: At first glance the 600m seems to be a fantastic machine. A great combination of power, portability , feature and a very thoughful design design. Sure, it's no Toshiba or IBM in structural integrity and fit and finish but a big improvement compared to previous Dells. The flaw is the keyboard. This is the worst I've ever seen. It sinks excessively when typing and make very strange sounds and overall, feels cheap and doesn't look like it will last the long haul. This is a big shame because the keyboard is a heavily used and important part of a laptop system. I don't see how I can recommend a laptop with the worst keyboard of any machine out there.

User Rating: 10/10

Centrino at the best price

Pros:

Cons:

Review: I just bought it, with the base configuration(1.3 Ghz/256 MB / 30 GB HDD/ CDRW/DVD comboetc.). First of all it is very quiet. Second, eventhough I have an extra battery from the deal, battery life is more than enough. It exceeded 3 hrs with extensive use of MS office. Very fast, heating is minor.Very sharp screen.The best priced centrino you can get for now.One advise though, follow the deals from Dell. They have different promotions for different periods.

User Rating: 8/10

Dell Inspiron 600M for Home (Pentium M 1.4GHz, 256MB, 30GB)

Pros:

Cons:

Review: It's light, fast, and stylish. It suits what I need for everyday tasks and more! The battery life is truely great and now I can watch my DVDs without worry about running outta battery.

User Rating: 9/10

So happy with my new 600m

Pros:

Cons:

Review: I received the 600m at the beginning of this month and am still getting acquainted with all of its features. By far the most impressive of its features is its internal Intel wireless chip. I bought a netgear wireless router which is connected to my cable modem and away I went surfing the net. The Dell photo workshop is great and the the music program is also quite nice. For me, the only poor aspect of the machine is the internal speakers which emit only OK sound. However, that can be solved with external speakers or quality headphones. All in all, the machine is superior to any other laptop I have ever used and am so happy with my purchase.

User Rating: 6/10

Well Please with DELL Inspiron 600m

Pros:

Cons:

Review: I put in the order on 04-10-03 and it arrived at my house on the 18th of that month. Very impressed with the quickness. Worked right away without any problems and no visual defects to be found, even up to now and I use this laptop evryday, even more then my desktop. Configuration is 1.3GHZ,XGA, 40 gig HD, DVD/CD-RW, XP Home,256 Mem, INTEL wireless option. (I don't use the wirless option, so I have it turned off. But the hardwire network works very well.) To address the heat problem, I use a thin wood board with foam on one side and flat wood surface on the other side. And on the flat side I have rubber feet/bumpers that are about inch high that the laptop sits on. That allows better airflow where the fan is located. So I don't get the heat sensation on my lap. As far as the left palm rest goes, on average, it's only luke warm. Almost hot when burning a CD-ROM or a lot of HD activity. And I'm OK with that. The fan is very quiet when it's running. The keyboard I think has good spring reaction, good feel to it. The case I am sure is some sort of plastic and not magnesium aluminium. The visual styling of the grey and blue is very nice. The screen and lid, again is sturdy by my standard. It's not a rubber toy, so I don't care to flex the lid/screen. And as for tapping on the lid's logo, it doesn't affect the view on my screen. And DUHH!!! Burning a CD-ROM or watching a DVD while running on the battery only, drains the battery exceptionally quick. I'ld be surprised if you could get more then an hour and a half or even that much. I the only thing I wished I had done when I put the order in, was to order the second internal battery. With the battery I have now, I get 3 1/2 to 3 3/4 hours. I would very much recommend this DELL and model line to anyone, specially when I looked at comparable configurations from Toshiba, SONY, IBM and Compaq. With what I purchased from DELL, I saved a quarter to half what the other brand's configurations were that are "CENTRINO" certified.

User Rating: 6/10

Good value & service, terrible quality, HEAT HEAT

Pros:

Cons:

Review: Extremely good value especially with $200 rebate and free CD burner. But, screams shoddy worksmanship all round. Tactile feedback from keyboard feels like this thing came from the early 1980s. Screen wobbly. Hard disk overheats, will fry your left palm when typing, CONSIDER THIS ONE BEFORE BUYING. Battery won't last through Lord of The Rings. Have had 3 desktops from Dell for the past 6 years, including one 5 months before this laptop, all excellent and reliable. Don't know when or why Dell started ditching worksmanship for value. Thet better snap out of it before turning into another Compaq.

User Rating: 9/10

Bingo! A perfect notebook for the college student!

Pros:

Cons:

Review: I was looking around for a notebook to replace my old one and for college students, this thing is amazing. It is large enough to be viewed comfortable, but also thin and light enough to carry around campus. The price is very good too. With special Dell Coupons and rebates (just gotta wait for the right time!), you can get a decently packaged 600m for around $1100. My only concern is that it does seem a little flimsy. That might by an issue in the future because I do carry my portable with my quite a bit but other than that, I am completely satisfied with this purchase!

User Rating: 10/10

amazing!

Pros:

Cons:

Review: wow, do i love this notebook or what!!! i had to wait forever to get it, but it was totally worth the wait. my setup is: 512mb mem, 40gb, 64mb vid card, 1.4ghz, cdrw/dvd combo, 14.1 sxga+. a comment about the resoultion. when i first started it up, i had major problems adjusting to it.. now after using it for a few hours, i have no problems with it at all. it is so beautifully crisp. i tried setting the resolution lower to aid in the adjustment, but it just wasnt worth it. i know am in love with this screen - it is so amazingly sharp. the only thing i havent tested out yet is the wireless network. i got the wlan 1300, so i guess i dont have a true centrino machine. the heat on the left palm is not nearly an issue as people have made it out to be. the screen is sturdy as well. it makes me wonder what notebook these people were reviwing for. my months of research have totally paid off. this laptop is totally loaded, sexy, and reliable. i am in love :) you will be too...

User Rating: 7/10

The best performance limited money can buy.

Pros:

Cons:

Review: Ok I bought the 600m two months ago and it has been one of the best purchases I have ever made. My configuration: 1.3ghz,256ddr,TFT screen,DVD,64meg ATI video card. 3D performance on this baby is AMAZING. I 3D benchmarked it at 7005, highly impressive for a notebook. The screen is beautiful and on mine the screen does not distort unless I really squeeze on the back. Wireless connection is pretty fast and incredibly easy to setup. Non 3d performance is alright. Cruising through applications is a breeze, but it could be quicker. Just make sure SpeedStepping is turned off when you have AC in. The keyboard is incredibly comfortable to type on, not complaints whatsoever there. I definetly do NOT find it flimsy. The touchpad took me exactly 2 minutes to get used to. Very comfortable. The only heat that I feel when using this product is indeed on the left palmrest when the HDD is working hard. Come on people, it's not a big deal. People who complain about this obviously have never owned a notebook before. If it ONLY gets hot in one tiny little area then that should be something you should be happy about! Geez, Dell's older notebooks got hot everywhere. And HP's...well.... Service and support is nothing to complain about either. I purchased a 3 year warranty with accidental protection for only 300 CDN more! What a great deal. I was having DVD issues out of the box and I recieved a new DVD drive in two days. That is wonderful service. So what if I was talking to somebody with a East Indian accent?! Boo hoo. Hp/Compaq and Toshiba both have technical support out in India as well. Get over it, whatever saves the company money and makes my product less expensive the better. It's call patience people it gets you what you want. OK I am done ranting about how people complain about Indian Tech support. Bottom line is; this computer was worth every penny I purchased it for. I am a student and I believe this computer is perfect for my situation. It is lightweght, great looking and performs incredibly. I am 100% satisfied and would recommend Dell anyday because of their outstanding warranty and support. Stop reading this and buy the 600m now!

User Rating: 8/10

Very Happy user

Pros:

Cons:

Review: I have used this for about two weeks now, and I am very happy with the notebook. It is big enough to work in photoshop, yet light enough to easily carry around. I strongly recommend this computer, and if you have any questions you can always email me at ryanguibara@yahoo.com.

User Rating: 8/10

excellent machine

Pros:

Cons:

Review: I've had this laptop for couple of weeks now, and I don't see any of the problems other people have been talking about. I have a wireless network, and I use this thing all over my house. The screen has no problem with any distortion or shaking of any sort. If people are talking about the blurriness when you touch the screen, well duuh it's a LCD. I haven't witnessed any slack in productivity either. I've got 1.4gig, 512m, SXGA w/ 64m vid , dvd/cdrw, and centrino technology. I run front page, paintshop pro, numerous web pages, music match, excell, outlook all at the same time, and see no slack in productivity. I've got a 2gig desktop, and that thing is nothing compared to this laptop. If people compain about the chasis being flimsy, it's for durablitiy purposes......it actually makes the system stronger. However, to clear the record, I personally don't find the system flimsy. I researched all the other systems, and to get the same specs, dell had the best price. I don't give this thing a 10 cause nothing is perfect. So far I have no complaints, if any arise, I will be back.

User Rating: 8/10

Perfect mid-range priced laptop!

Pros:

Cons:

Review: Don't be fooled by all the ney-sayers in some of these reviews.. this laptop is fine. Yes, th eleft palm warms up but its not a problem. Get if you try to bend the screen it distorts the picture.. so dont do that! Battery life is around 4 hours with heavy use. Sound is better then I expected. SXGA+ is exreamly sharp and yes does make everything tiny but I found a solution to that. Instead of lowering the resolution (thus making it blurry), just increase the DPI in advanced display properties. This makes everything clear and as big as you want it. Performance wise it is fine for most anything you want to do with it. Not as fast as my desktop but eh. No ps2 so buy a usb mouse.. i dont like touch pads. wireless works perfectly. Buy this!

User Rating: 6/10

THE LAPTOP IS EXCELLENT, BUT SERVICE IS WORSED

Pros:

Cons:

Review: I had purchased a 600M (1.4MHZ CPU with 384 MB RAMs) a few weeks ago. So far the performance is excellent, the machine is very stable and well built and the heat fan is very quite, which you are almost unnoticeable while you are using the 600M laptop. Generally, I am getting 3 hours plus of battery life with 802.11B wireless connection on. Prior to my purchase of the 600M laptop, I did an extensive research on this laptop before placing my order. I even called to Dell?s sales department to confirm some hardware specs. Below are the three questions I had asked from Dell?s sales department: 1)Does the laptop support up to 2 GB of memory? Answer: maximum memory support is 786MB. 2)Is the Dell Bluetooth card internal or external? Answer: external 3)Does the machine come with a smart card reader? Answer: no But, after my purchase and arrival of my laptop, I searched through their online manuals, which I had different answers to the above three questions I asked Dell?s sales department previously. The answers were totally different from what I had assumed accurate. 1)This 600M laptop supports up to 2 GB memory. 2)The Bluetooth card is internal daughter card. 3)The machine does come with a smart card reader. To proof that they do have a smart card reader, I had tried it on recently. Due to Dell?s salesperson?s incorrect information, I didn?t order a Bluetooth card in the first place. I had tried to place an order today, but this option is not available after the laptop is shipped to the customer, which is me. I would recommend that you should do your own online research on Dell?s online manual instead of asking their sales representative as they are lacking proper training. I had also found out that this 600M laptop comes with a gigabit network card. But, this information had never being on Dells 600M product webpage along with Bluetooth and a smart card reader. Even though with my minor complain in regard of their service, I still highly recommend this 600M laptop. This laptop is very affordable with all these features that we could use.

User Rating: 10/10

Awesome Value and Performance

Pros:

Cons:

Review: This notebook has it all, a bargain at $1,350 including 1.3GHz PentiumM, 802.11b wireless, 32MB ATI Radeon 9000, CD-RW/DVD combo, a battery life of 4 hours when surfing the net or using word/excel (less when gaming or watching dvds), a sleek silver design, and the ability to play games like unreal tournament and age of mythology. I have not observed any problems with the screen as some have reported.

User Rating: 8/10

regret

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Review: I wrote a review earlier about this machine. i wrote that this machine is a blast. Like every one else, I agree that this is the best, most valuable centrino you can get. However, few weeks later, i had exchanged it twice. And when I got my third 600m (2nd exchange), the LCD still had problem. (note: all three times problems are associated with the LCD). In addition to LCD, the Combo drive vibrates extremely bad, i was afraid that it will break my system. However, it only happened to the second one out of three I got. The customer support is extraordinarily good. Exchanged system is shipped to me by next day delivery in 3 business days. But, I seriously think that something is wrong with this model. Does anyone have similar experience? The 1st and 3rd one I got, the problems were that I could see the lower corners of the screen darker than the rest of the screen. (Dark area) The dark areas are about 20 pixel in width and in length. I know it might not be a big problem for some people, or not even noticed, but for me, I would like a computer I bought having a certain quality. And beside, the problem didn't appear after few days for my first system. For the 3rd one, i saw the dark areas as I opened it. For the second one, it was worst. The screen turned green after two weeks of minor usage. (about 3 hrs a day) I was shock when I saw my screen turned green suddenly as I was typing. It was LCD hardware defect, since it doesn't appear green when I connect to an external CRT. I refunded it yesterday and bought Latitude d600 instead. I don't know, I think d600 and 600m are two identical machines.... I hope that the business line of DELL promises more assurance of quality. What do you guys think? Anyone experience same thing? or does anyone know the difference b/t D600 and 600M? I did all my research online, they are really identical. Same chassi, same configuration, same ports, even weight similar. Except D600 doesn't offer 64MB graphic... I am actually confused. Reading the review on Cnet about these two systems, 600M has a higher performance than D600, rated higher by users too, but scored significantly less than D600. (D600 is 8, 600M is 7.3) But when I observe, there is no difference b/t them except that D600 is less powerful and lot more expensive and offer a point stick... please enlighten me... please email me!

User Rating: 8/10

To KC/Regan

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Review: About the floppy drive, if you purchase the internal modular drive, it actually comes with a USB cable and there's a port on the drive so that you can use it externally. The floppy drive and CD or DVD drive can be installed concurrently.

User Rating: 5/10

Not a bad system, but you can get better

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Review: I purchased the Inspiron 600m two weeks ago and received it last Thursday (05/08/03). I am returning it today (05/13/03) and getting an Inspiron 5100. It's not a bad system, it's just not worth the extra cash. I'm getting a better system on my new 5100 for about $500 less. One of my biggest dissapointments is the speed of my processor. It just wasn't what I expected. The other problem I have is the warming of the left side of the wristrest that other people have mentioned here. It is not incredibly hot, but when I've been using it for a few hours, my hands start to sweat. It's not a huge deal, but it's certainly a nuisance. The best part of this system is the portabily of it. It's light enough to carry around with you. Since I'll be using my system at home most of the time, I'll deal with the extra weight of the 5100.

User Rating: 6/10

Major Heat Issues!!!

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Review: Despite the other problems posted by users, this laptop has major heat dissipation issues. The left wrist rest gets VERY hot which makes it uncomfortable to type. The underside of the laptop also gets extremely hot near the memory modules and the hard drive. The screen is not as flimsy as mentioned in some reviews and the keyboard is also not bad. I am sending mine back because the heat is untolerable.

User Rating: 8/10

Very good all-around

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Review: I got this model because it offered the best features for the money, and I have to say, I like it immensely. It's very quiet, well-designed, and pretty light too. I've read comments about the flimsy screen, and while it's true that you can make the display ripple by pressing on the back of the display, through normal use it holds up quite well. I don't know why the review says that the casing is made of metal though; it is definitely made of plastic. And the pictures here make the blue lining a little tacky-looking, but it is actually much darker and very acceptable.

User Rating: 9/10

Great size, lots of power!

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Review: Fullfeatured with a good software bundle. Quality of fit and finish is better than my previous brand. Comfortable keyboard with USB 2.0 and bright screen resolution. Only drwback is now Firewire port.

User Rating: 8/10

Question to Greg H

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Review: Hi Greg H, my wireless connection also drops within 15-30 minutes of usage. Can you elaborate a little on how to set power management to manual? I've wasted many hours fixing this problem but have yet to resolve it. Thanks, KC

User Rating: 6/10

Why Serial and Parallel but no Firewire and 2 usb?

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Review: From what I've seen this is a nice laptop, but one thing really bugs me. Instead of maybe 2 more usb, a ps2 port, and a firewire, dell puts a parallel and serial port. A. no one sells parallel and serial devices anymore. B. everyone uses usb and most use ps2, but no one I know uses parallel and serial. C. Venders stopped selling parallel and serial devices in 1997 and instead used usb. Not to mention many other laptops use the exact same motherboard (except it doesn't say dell all over it) and have firewire and ps2. I'll give it a recommend, but that just kinda bugs me...

User Rating: 7/10

This is a good, almost great laptop

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Review: I baught my Dell 600m when they first came out in March. My screen is sturdy and the heat on the left side is not unbearable. The heat from the memory bay is pretty hot though. The battery life is better than most non-centrino notebooks but not that great for a centrino. The main batter last almost 4 hours with everything running low. With the second battery in the multi-bay I can get over 7, nearly 8 hours of life out of the computer. I have a 1.4 centrino with a 60gig harddrive, SXGA screen 64MB ATI 9000. I baught it with 256memoory but upgreaded to 1024 for around $160 from memory4me.com because I ordered the DVD burner for it. The SXGA screen is very crisp and games run faster and look better than the PSX2 in my openion. The wireless capabilities are great. I wish it had a firewire plug instead of a serial plug. Who uses serial anymore? Nothing is even made with serial connections anymore. If you ask me that was stupid of Dell. Thank goodness there is a firewire card for the pci slot that can be purchased but Dell should have left out the serial port in favor of the firewire. The only problems I have had with tech support is the amount of different departments I have had to talk to to solve my problems. I have always received help though. It would also be nice if bluetooth was standard so that I could have bluetooth and 802.11a, b or g. I recomend this notebook to students, gamers on the go, pasters, business persons, and all but the most staunch computer geeks.

User Rating: 6/10

Skewed Reviewd but Solid Notebook

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Review: Starters - the review a CNET is skewed because Dell does not offer 5400 RPM Notebook Drives, Card Reader or GPRS option on their website. Second to avoid bad techsupport you could try to buy the unit through the small business store where your name is the business. This usually avoids the home support in India - nice fellas but they only troubleshoot by the book. Otherwise the specs and features are great for the price and the performance is solid. I would state that the battery life is dissapointing for a Centrino, but it's better than it was. This is a notebook not for geeks, but you student, kid, parent who wants a solid notebook for everyday use and some fun. The complete care is highly recommended for students (if you buy theough small business store you are eligible of onsite in California)

User Rating: 5/10

It's OK but not Great

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Review: Bought mine for 1800 only to find that the I/O lights console is faulty. You can' tell in the darkest night if your laptop is sleeping or switched off or switched on. CAlled their tech center which is based in india by the way ....and took 30 over minutes before he understood what i was talking about... wouldn't have bought it from dell if i knew they outsourced american jobs to india. Not that i am a racist but why should i use my hard earned american dollars to fund the Indian economy when my own friends & family in the US are unemployed ? Who profts from this anyway ? Dell. Not USA.

User Rating: 7/10

I couldn't have made a better choice!

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Review: If all you are looking for is a sensible buy for a good price, look no further. The 600m feels sturdy, is thin and light enough to carry around, and has more than enough features for the average user. Though if you are looking for firewire support, you're out of luck. Any college student (such as I) our small business owners have little to complain about, ecspecially considering the price ($1700 for a decent 600m, or $3100 for an IBM Thinkpad?). The choice is yours.

User Rating: 9/10

Off the hook!

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Review: This notebook is amazing. All the bad things you heard about it are either unwarranted, or have been since fixed. I ordered mine on May 20th and received it on June 2nd in Canada; I consider this to be pretty fast considering they built the system to my specs. The case is very light, sleek, and thin. The screen is very sharp and crisp. This is my first laptop, so I don't have much to compare it to, other than ones I have tested out in stores. As far as this one being "flimsy," it feels as sturdy or sturdier than any other one I have used. The performance is very good, and the price was better than any other company offered. I got an extra battery as well as a carrying case with the computer and it still came out to less than a similarly equipped computer from any other brand. The wireless internet was easy to set up. Here's what I did: installed router on upstairs computer, plugged in my notebook downstairs, opened internet explorer, and had internet. It was seriously that easy, I was astonished. The wireless internet performs well; I am downstairs and the signal goes through a bunch of walls still with a decent signal strength. I could go on forever, but the main point is that this laptop is a solid choice at a good price, especially with the deals Dell has on their website. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a powerful notebook with style.

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Tips on Dell Inspiron 600M for Home (Pentium M 1.4GHz, 512MB, 30GB)

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Dell Inspiron 600M for Home (Pentium M 1.4GHz, 512MB, 30GB) specifications

  • General
  • Built-in Devices Keypad
  • Width 12.4 in
  • Depth 10.1 in
  • Height 1.3 in
  • Weight 5.6 lbs
  • Color Gray
  • Notebook type Thin-and-light (4-6 lbs.)
  • Processor
  • Processor Intel Pentium M 1.4 GHz
  • Chipset type Intel 855PM
  • Cache Memory
  • Type L1 Cache , L2 cache
  • Cache size 32.0 KB , 1.0 MB
  • RAM
  • Installed Size 512.0 MB / 768.0 MB (max)
  • Technology DDR SDRAM
  • Storage Controller
  • Storage controller type Ultra ATA/100
  • Storage
  • Floppy Drive None
  • Hard Drive 30.0 GB
  • Storage Removable - None
  • Hard drive type Standard
  • Optical Storage
  • Type CD-RW / DVD-ROM
  • CD / DVD read speed 24x
  • Optical Storage (2nd)
  • 2nd optical storage type None
  • Display
  • Display Type 14.1 in TFT active matrix
  • Color Support 24-bit (16.7M colors)
  • Video
  • Graphics Processor / Vendor ATI RADEON
  • Video Memory 32.0 MB
  • Audio
  • Audio output type Sound card
  • Audio Input Microphone
  • Telecom
  • Modem Fax / modem
  • Max transfer rate 56.0 Kbps
  • Protocols & Specifications ITU V.92
  • Networking
  • Networking 10/100 Ethernet
  • Data link protocol Ethernet , Fast Ethernet
  • Expansion / Connectivity
  • Expansion Bays 1.0 x , 1.0 x
  • Expansion Slots Total (Free) 1.0 CardBus - Type I/II
  • Interfaces 2.0 x Ethernet , 1.0 x Line in/out , 1.0 x USB , 1.0 x Parallel , 1.0 x Display / video
  • Power
  • Power provided 90.0 Watt
  • Battery
  • Technology Lithium ion
  • Installed Qty 1.0
  • Mfr estimated battery life 4.0 hour(s)
  • Operating System / Software
  • OS Provided Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
  • Software Corel WordPerfect Productivity Pack
  • Manufacturer Warranty
  • Service & Support 3 years warranty
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