Simplify your laptop buying
Entered CNET Catalog: 05/06/2004
SKU: d800hi
Manufacturer: Dell, Inc.
Manufacturer description
As one of the world's leading notebook brands, Dell Latitude products are known for their reliability, high performance, low cost of ownership, platform compatibility and excellent service and support. The new D-Family builds on the success and traditions of the C-series, optimizing the latest performance and productivity features and making them available to the mobile professional through a fully customizable business solution. The Latitude D800 features the fastest Intel Pentium M processors and the Intel 855PM chipset supporting up to 2GB of system memory, the latest ATA-100 hard drives, USB 2.0 technology as well as the new nVIDIA GeForce 4 4200 Go graphics chipset. The GeForce4 4200 Go's nfiniteFX II engine is ideal for rendering and displaying complex 3D images, video editing and graphics-intensive applications incorporating up to 64MB of 128-bit DDR dedicated graphics memory. The Latitude D800 incorporates Dell's latest LCD screens offering a choice of either a wide aspect ratio (16: 10) 15.4" UltraSharp WXGA display with 1280 x 800 resolution or a 15.4" UltraSharp WUXGA display with 1920 x 1200 resolution. The wide aspect 15.4" WUXGA screen provides 20% more information than standard 15" UXGA screens, significantly improving the amount of information visible on the screen at any time. Seeing more means being more productive, as well as offering an excellent viewing experience when running 3D modeling applications and presentations. Every Latitude D800 is wireless-enabled, incorporating an integrated dual-band antenna and MiniPCI WiFi Intel PROWireless 2100 802.11b wireless LAN card as standard giving the user Intel Centrino mobile technology. The Latitude D600 also offers a choice of either a Dell TrueMobile 1300 802.11b/g wireless LAN card or a Dell TrueMobile 1400 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN card. As well as an optional Dell TrueMobile 300 Bluetooth wireless option, the Latitude D800 also features as standard an integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet 4 chip supporting Wake-on-LAN from all power states and integrated 56K v.92-capable modem supporting Wake-on-Ring.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
User Rating: 
10/10
Workhorse and Reliable
Pros: Large screen, stable operating system, never crashes, great wireless connectivity, HIGHLY RELIABLE, boots and runs without fail. This is not a fussy laptop and does everything a computer is supposed to do every time. Great Dell customer service.
Cons: Moderately heavy, battery life is modest between charging.
I recently purchased a used D600 for my wife to use as her daily machine to supplement her whiz bang desktop computer. She needs reliability.
User Rating: 
9/10
A great laptop!
Pros: perfect performance
Cons: a bit heavy
User Rating: 
5/10
terrible quality
Pros: keyboard is comfortable
Cons: heavy, poor display quallity, slow
User Rating: 
7/10
Heavy, big, rip off battery issues
Pros: Big screen, peformance
Cons: Big screen and weight
I have an ancient Dell laptop I never used too. My kids play on it, the battery only lasts an hour or so, they gradually fall away in performance. Or that is what I thought until the D800! I left it on one night and in the morning the battery fault light was on. Battery fault I hear you say - surely not, they're a chemical thing, they just gradually become knackered? No, the clever electronics had decided I needed a new one and at 100 GBP I was not a happy customer. Beware.
User Rating: 
2/10
Save Your $$$s
Pros: Nice On-Site Tech Repair Personnel
Cons: Too Many Repairs-Save Your Money
Save Your Money
User Rating: 9/10
Just a great tool
Pros: Screen , Speed, looks and feel.
Cons: Haven't found one yet..
User Rating: 10/10
Excellent PC: Good Value
Pros: Big screen, fast, looks good.
Cons: Heavy, gets hot underneath.
User Rating: 
1/10
PC is horrible
Pros: Good Battery Life
Cons: Laptop feels cheap
User Rating: 
6/10
90watss for power is just too much@
Pros: Great, much lighter than the C840 I replaced it with. I am a corp customer, so service is excellent.
Cons: It takes 90 watts (or 8.5amps) at 12vdc to power the unit. Airlines limit you to 6.5 amps, so, no charging the laptop while in flight. You can find chargers that let you run w/o charging though.
User Rating: 5/10
Good for work, but flimsy feeling
Pros: I am a DBA and Systems Admin and I use this laptop so heavily, taking it back and forth from work, working wirelessly in the server room, etc., that I have literally worn the keys smooth. It's got great battery life, and it's pretty powerful. It's also st
Cons: The plastic is flimsy. You hold it by the keyboard and the whole thing flexes. My wife has a new HP laptop and there is no comparison. I don't know if it would survive the same 4' fall, but it certainly feels a whole lot sturdier.
User Rating: 7/10
Great product but heavy
Pros: Feature packed with a large screen and the hardware to back up the games and apps you're looking to play on it.
Cons: It's really, really heavy. If you don't want a big computer to lug around don't get this machine.
User Rating: 6/10
Dell laptops plagued with problems, especially the HDD.
Pros: All the value add feature functionality
Cons: Fairly unreliable with hardware failure.
User Rating: 6/10
Great machine if you like high res and miniscule icons
Pros: It's SILVER not standard charcoal grey - is that a plus? Next we'll be having beige laptops again. Wi-Fi good; three USB ports, great as my mouse and keyboard take two. Firewire was a nice addition. The 'big' screen is a great addition and really enabled
Cons: Screen size: strikes me that Dell were trying to somehow copy Apple with a big screen. Resolution had to be pumped up to 1900+ otherwise graphics work looked warped. Display Panels: In one year, 8 display panels later, the one installed just before Thank
User Rating: 10/10
Can't get more for the $$$money.
Pros: Fast, lots of inputs, 128MB video, DVD/CD-RW Standard, will hold a second battery.
Cons: Absolutely none.
User Rating: 5/10
DELL is for institutions only.
Pros: Good product. I used a friend's and liked it a lot.
Cons: Service. My friend needed service on his laptop and asked me to help. Since it seemed to be hardware, I called DELL. I remember now why I stopped buying DELLs: Once they started getting all the institutional accounts and customers, the private consumer be
User Rating: 5/10
Not recommended for multimedia.
Pros: Upgraded graphic card is excellent.
Cons: Sound card is lousy. Wireless card doesn't work properly.
User Rating: 5/10
DELL SUCKS!
Pros: It's alright.
Cons: Dell's Customer Service is awful, wait times to speak to an unknowledgeable rep is hours.. I wouldn't deal with Dell, all they do it take parts from other companies, put it together and slap the brand name DELL on it. I would go with either Toshiba or HP,
User Rating: 
8/10
This laptop is awesome it helps me alot with my job because I am an independant contractor.
Pros: It is fast and real efficient it does what I need it to do when I need it to do it and that means alot because my desktop computer is slower that snails so a fast computer is nice to have
Cons: I don't really have any except that Dell charges way to much for accessories for there products when you can get them from somewhere else for less than half. like www.pacificbattery.com
User Rating: 9/10
Dell is reliable and stable
Pros: Dell laptops are reliable and stable computers. I've purchased Dell laptops for all 3 of my kids when they went to college and they all proved to be good investments. Dell's on the spot service was great for them on the college campuses.
Cons:
User Rating: 5/10
VERY POOR SERVICE FROM INDIA
Pros: Dell has a good prodect and features!!
Cons: Very poor customer support, if you can understand them you might get it fixed after elevating to next service level. Bring customer service back to the good old USA!!!
User Rating: 8/10
The best I found
Pros: 1920x1200, fast, all the features I need. All of you who critisize the small fonts, get a smaller resolution or change the fonts. No-one's forcing you to get too high a resolution if you're blind. I couldn't find any other laptop that would have 1920x1200
Cons: Heats a bit (though so do all the laptops), not so light, but it's not meant to be carried around all the time.
User Rating: 
4/10
Love the Laptop, Hate the Service
Pros: I haven't had it that long, but seems to be a quality laptop.
Cons: If you want service DON'T BUY A DELL. Find all the bugs w/in 21 days or PAY! Dell won't help you beyond 21 days, without collecting more money from you. Within a month DELL WANTS MORE MONEY after you have cleaned out your wallet to buy the what I think is
User Rating: 10/10
WOW.....DUMB people
Pros: wow....some of you people are amazing. Complaining about the weight, and how the buttons below the space bar a useless and too expensive for what you get, touchpad useless the "SMALL Screen"....you make you sick....I'm sorry but most laptops come with a 1
Cons:
User Rating: 8/10
superb machine
Pros: great hardware, screen resolution is excellent, bluetooth, wireless. This is a toy lovers dream. Dell sends the complete drivers disk with the machine, I am running windows serer 2k as a full development environment and the drivers all worked!! I cannot s
Cons: based on everyone elses comments the service dept, but I have never had to call so I dont know. I have no complaints. be prepared to shell out some $$$ for the high end models.
User Rating: 5/10
dell is the worst company now
Pros:
Cons: It will take you more than 1 month to get your order no matter what they tell you. They always lie. It takes at least one hour to connect the service people.
User Rating: 8/10
I have had it for 10 months, so far so good! I used to have Dell C640 and this is better!!
Pros: Wide screen, good feel for keyboard, good choice of pointers (nipple & touchpad), good battery life
Cons: can heatup (other members of staff), heavy to carry around, does not fit in normal cases.
User Rating: 1/10
All i can say is that I m in love with this Machine.....
Pros: its simply amazing.........got everything i want
Cons: Del has v poor customer services...........
User Rating: 8/10
Awesome Value, Techies Are Great!
Pros: The guys that actually come to fix it are sub-contracters, so they don't give any grief - just get the job done ASAP. They'r straight-up, honest, and haven't hidden anything from me. The unit was DEAD. He didn't ask a single question as to how or why.
Cons: Had to jump through hoops for 45 minutes before CSR would agree it was a DEAD unit. I rang before lunch, but still - "Next Business Day" wasn't tomorrow, it was the day after that, "sometime" during the day.
User Rating: 6/10
Most versatile laptop to date
Pros: Powerful Desktop replacement, beautiful widescreen, Dedicated graphics, Very fast
Cons: Weak battery life, Large size, Heavy, Lame Dell customer service.
User Rating: 9/10
Works great, love it
Pros: All the necessary connectors. Fast. Reliable. Beautiful screen. Great battery life. Really like it as a performance/business laptop. Nice plastics/materials
Cons: Wireless drivers caused some conflicts out of the gate, but was resolved in less than 10 minutes. Standby glitched on me once. Would trade the serial & parallel port for a 8-in-1 card reader Keyboard layout so-so
User Rating: 8/10
Don?t expect champagne on a beer budget
Pros: I have owned several Dell's now including this one. I have had nothing, but great things to say. To all the people who have had terrible experiences with tech support, all I say is you get what you pay for. It used to be that Dell had great coverage in
Cons: Too many confusing promos
User Rating: 9/10
Dell delivers
Pros: This laptop has great features, looks and Dell support service is fast. The widescreen is great for movies, and at the ratio of 1920x1200, I can open multiple documents and be able to read them without scrolling. The various ports also are handy to have.
Cons: A bit heavy but its sturdier than the average laptop. Dell deluxe laptop case for the D800 is however a bust. The strap has snapped opened at least 5 times dropping my laptop straight to the concrete floor. The first four times, I thought that the lapt
User Rating: 1/10
DELL service is the worst !!!!!!
Pros: All overshadowed by lack of service and the fact the laptop does not work.
Cons: Service is HORRIBLE. 12 phone calls for longer than 2 hours each and THREE trips back to service center did not correct problem. NEVER buy a DELL whatever the price or features. These laptops don't work.
User Rating: 4/10
Good Corporate Support, Horrible Home Support
Pros: Good products when they work
Cons: I have great service from dell on my work computer, however, the support for home products is horrible when existent.
User Rating: 1/10
You'll only buy Dell once...
Pros: Cheap for the features
Cons: Build quality of Dell these days is utterly hopeless. I have a problem with any company with churns out such diff machines and then won't support them properly. You'll only ever use Dell once.
User Rating: 8/10
heat on your wrist!
Pros: fast, quiet, good screen
Cons: heavy, heat on the left hand side where the harddrive sits.
User Rating: 10/10
Only the best, I've owned the rest
Pros: Great Framework, unbreakable/solid design. Fan on the bottom, top, and side keeping it cool. 2Gigs of ram, fast hd, 4 usb 2.0, and a serial port as well. Lattitude with an attitude! - WEBPAGES OF CHARLESTON
Cons: Video Card can't go back to other resoultions without stretching the "wide" screen. Standard battery only 3-4 hr life.
User Rating: 5/10
Runs fast, dependable, turns heads
Pros: The "large" screen is very easy to read from all angles, although it has nearly the same screen SqIn as the Lattitude C800, it also supports extending the desktop to a second monitor. With 1MB of memory and Win XP Pro, I will frequently have 30 apps/servi
Cons: The built-in mouse buttons nearest the space bar are useless. The status lights that indicate hard disk usage/power are difficult to see. The case is slightly warped in one spot near the Insert key causing it to rub on the screen when closed. Who needs a
User Rating: 
3/10
Mike Dell quit
Pros: Good value for your dollar, but I had an Inspiron 8100 that felt 1000 times better than this. Also, its clear Dell no longer designs their laptops (Compal maybe?) because they are painfully sub-par when compared to IBM, Sony, and Apple in terms of aesthe
Cons: Contrary to what the Dell-defenders say, I am a Network Admin and I can say that Dell has the worst tech support I've ever experienced. From a Server with a failed HD on arrival, to a tech that was 100% confused about our service contract, to shipping th
User Rating: 1/10
tech support sucks
Pros: great looking, fast
Cons: poor battery, tech support has gone down, need americans and expert tech support. cannot understand the techs remove the foreigners...or your businees will drop!
User Rating: 3/10
Buy another brand
Pros: No frills, but it runs MS office and WinXP... yawn.
Cons: for close to $2600, i expect a lot more... this has NO DVD burner, NO TV tuner, ONLY a 15.4" WUXGA, so if you're over 40, you are out of luck if you want to read anything on the screen. and it only has the Pentium M processor, which is highly over rated.
User Rating: 9/10
Great Machines
Pros: We switched from HP/Compaq to Dell on out client side about a year ago. Nothing but happiness. Over 4000 machines in-house and in the field and overall stability and reliability is excellent. Just now moving to Dell servers now and so far they are doin
Cons: None for laptops. Servers are still a bit unrefined for enterprise use but as stated above, they are responsive to our wishes.
User Rating: 7/10
You Can't Replace a Desktop with a notebook
Pros: I came to buy such a product because I've seen the highest specs. Right now i am writing this review using it.... processor is 1.8 pentium M with 512MB and 128mb nvidia 5650 graphics card, a 60gb 5400rpm hd-drive, bluetooth, wireless lan and finally a 15.
Cons: Ok here are the cons: 1- Heavy and big 2- Again i repeat, if your buying it for heavy games change your mind. Get a desktop instead. 3-The touchpad mouse is very annoying. 4-I've heard their service is bad but i couldnt prove it. 5-Not a multiregion dvd
User Rating: 6/10
Dude....I got a Dell
Pros: Great screen, reliable, good batery life. Over all this unit has been very satisfying to me.
Cons: Tech support is obsurd. Fortunately I don't need to call very often, but I do think Dell needs to re-think their out-sourcing of tech support. It can be very frustrating to try and communincate with someone who doesn't have a grasp on the english langua
User Rating: 9/10
Great Business Travel Notebook!
Pros: Fast, wireless, tough and a nice large screen. Dell service has been great.
Cons: It's a bit heavy particularly with the second battery installed.
User Rating: 6/10
2000 dells and over 100 servers
Pros: Ratings that indicate poor Dell service were probably from inexperienced users who cannot diagnose their own problems. I.E. the guy who rates this machine as terrible because the fonts are to small. I have called Dell at for at least 40 problems in the la
Cons: Never use Dell online help, it takes days for responce. Need to know tricks like "the hard drive makes noise" to prevent hours of mandatory troubleshooting with the polite Dell tech who answers the phone promptly and will stick with you for the durratio
User Rating: 8/10
Product Great! Service Unmatched!
Pros: All features and performance more than meet my needs. I have owned Dells (laptop and desktop) for 10 years. I have only experienced one problem with my laptop where the keyboard came unseated. I called service. That same day, an Aiborne Express guy pi
Cons: None that I have experienced yet.
User Rating: 4/10
Beware of 5* CNET Certified Store: PC and Plasma
Pros: Beware of 5* CNET Certified Store: PC and Plasma. Does not have stuff in stock and has very poor Customer Service.
Cons: Beware of 5* CNET Certified Store: PC and Plasma. Does not have stuff in stock and has very poor Customer Service.
User Rating: 3/10
$3000 down the drain
Pros: Faster than my 4-year old IBM?
Cons: I absolutely hate this computer. I just don't know what I am going to do with it. The only thing better compared to my 4 year old IBM is that it is fast. Duh. Just make sure you try it before you buy it. Try the keyboard. The pointing device. The l
User Rating: 3/10
Dell don't take care of customers!!
Pros: They had a good deal going untill they got more orders than they could handle the tec support on. BAD deal!!!!
Cons: Dell don't take care of customers. This is why i have changed to hp from a store called best buy. dell has always given me the run around. I own three dells but NEVER again after trying to resove a problem the caused! Buttom line DON'T BUY DELL!!!!!
User Rating: 10/10
They just keep getting better
Pros: I finally ordered my new D800 and I am amazed at this fine piece of work. You know when people complain about lousy service, well that's probably because they are computer illiterate and call up dell to ask the stupidist of questions. I've seen that too
Cons: None at all.
User Rating: 6/10
A Poor and Uninspiring Product
Pros: Dell Reliability. Dell support has always been terrific, and well worth the money... Includes both a touchpad and track point. Relatively Powerful for its price class.
Cons: I have set up 10 different laptops for our company in the past 3 months including the Toshiba Ultraportable, Sony Z1, IBM T40, Dell D800, Sharp ultraportable, and i can safely say, that this is my least favorite. It feels cheap. The soft plastic does not
User Rating: 5/10
great computer, horrible customer service
Pros: great value, great wirless, good performance, good overall product minus customer service
Cons: Horrible customer service...After reading some of other dell comments I had to chime in. I bought the three year at home service. I had a problem, called in for some advice, technician told me to erase everything and reformat my hard drive!! My roomate
User Rating: 2/10
good cptr -- when it works -- service is the pits
Pros: nice cptr -- very, very, nice !
Cons: service is the pits -- and quality has slipped big time at Dell -- Mike Dell should be ashamed to have his name on these laptops -- or associated with the cusotmer service from hell
User Rating: 10/10
User opinions
Pros: Great company and great service, alway the best and always will be the best, I have 5 Dell computers three in my home and two on my desk in my office and now a new one for my summer home in East Hampton, the Dell Latitude D800. Intel's fastest Pentium M p
Cons: Users opinions, get a life! most of them don't even know how to work a computer if they have to call customer service, I have own computers since Window 3.5 and never once had to call for service, but if I did, I know Michael Dell would stand behide his n
User Rating: 4/10
Nice Case! Ugly performance and Service!!
Pros: Nice looking laptop. I just don't want to look at it. I want to use it.
Cons: To "tech" who said "my group supports 1100PCs and 15 servers. We have had great support and service from Dell for the past 10 years." I doubt you have evaluated all 1100 Dell's. If you have used their support for the past Ten years then you don't have a
User Rating: 6/10
Just one system
Pros: All-around good machine. Have owned nothing but Dells for the last 10 years. Most likely will continue to, unless I can find better service.
Cons: Service - for me. I understand that if I had 1100 Dell PC's and 50 servers, I might get pretty good service from. In fact, they might even play Monica to my Bill. But I only have three machines, and they could not care less about me. Sad truth is, nei
User Rating: 6/10
Latitude D600
Pros: It seems to work very well to my needs. Should come with more software for the price but it comes with the basics of what i need
Cons: Costumer service is not that well. I call with questions and either get no answers or I get someone that is rude on the phone
User Rating: 5/10
Crashes with USB drives
Pros: Fast especially when packed with memory
Cons: Can't deal with a simple USB thumb drive. Screen resolution for such a big screen is disappointing. If you are looking for visual real estate (1600 x 1200 or better) it's not there.
User Rating: 7/10
Excellent Machine, Excellent Vendor
Pros: Great machine, durable.
Cons: People are complaining about Dell's tech support, my group supports 1100PCs and 15 servers. We have had great support and service from Dell for the past 10 years.
User Rating: 8/10
D800 nice; "bulky Apple?"
Pros: Love the D800 as a Windows laptop, although it is a bit heavy. But it's fast and feature-rich. Very few problems with Dell service over the last 2 years, and we have hundreds of Dell servers, PC's, and notebooks. Whoever thinks the Apple PowerBook G4 is
Cons:
User Rating: 5/10
G4?!?!?
Pros: This laptop is full of nice features for a great price. I dont know what kind of technicians you guys are talking to but nothing has gone wrong with mine at all
Cons: Bulky Apple is not the way to go other than video/pic editing
User Rating: 7/10
plastic chunk, but many features. not latest tech-equipped.
Pros: Many features at good price that allows it to rival IBM T42, best notebook in the market.
Cons: Many features at good price are allowed by using ancient stuffs from the 1990s. No ultranav.
User Rating: 7/10
Heavy, but feature packed.
Pros: Fulle featured laptop, with plenty of grunt-if you include the upgrade options. The wide screen means that I have done away with a desktop monitor.
Cons: Heavy.
User Rating: 10/10
lying losers
Pros: i can't speak for this specific product, however my experience with dell's customer support has been nothing short of amazing. we purchased a new server and 14 pcs in the past month. the server had one hard drive go bad during the burn-in. not dell's faul
Cons: dell makes a solid product that has served me well for years. i maintain a network of 50 pcs and two servers, and in the past two years i have called them for service exactly twice. both times, i was provided with immediate support that resolved my issue
User Rating: 4/10
Not as good as HP
Pros: Customer service
Cons: too expensive for what you get. I closely compared all of the laptops before I purchased. Without getting into my specifics, I recommend that you do the same. Quickly, touchpad not the same, no card reader, smaller screen at the same price. etc, etc, etc.
User Rating: 9/10
great lap top
Pros: its fast, its powerful, big screen, 802.11b/g and bluetooth, and media reader. It's all that and a bag of chips
Cons: where do all complaints about service come from, of the 50+ machines i have bought from dell, only one had any problems (damaged case and power supply, UPS dropped it), and it was taken care of in less than 24 hours. what is everyone calling about? you
User Rating: 6/10
NIGHTMARE SERVICE + great laptop when it works
Pros: Good laptop features. Large but worth its weight for the 'brite' screen and speed.
Cons: Horror story. THIS IS NOT A COMPANY WITH COMMITMENT TO QUALITY. Not reliable at all. Worst experience of all the computer makers I deal with. Issues with power supply and motherboard. I am a small business customer with gold service... it means nothing to
User Rating: 5/10
Great laptop, Horrible Dell Service
Pros: Features, screen, looks
Cons: Customer service at Dell resides in hell. No response, late response, voice mails, pass the buck around, hard to get an answer.
User Rating: 6/10
What...You got to be kidding!!
Pros: Good support from Dell because it falls under there Business class support..which means you wont get someone from india who can't speak english very well. it's pretty fast
Cons: Editors choice...I had a D800 for about 16 Day's and didn't like it that much. Damn thing got hot, keyboard felt like I was typing on a pillow (after it got hot, popped up), it was heavy, and the battery life was a joke. I guess Cnet needs to help take
