First
Lifer
The Specs
The good
- At somewhere between 4 and 5 lbs, this notebook is light. Though certainly not as easy to carry as the Tablet PC's and super light Centrino notebooks from other manufacturers, the additional features that add weight to the 600m (like a CD-RW/DVD drive) are worth it for my particular needs.
- Price/performance/features is easily the best out there. Even though I bought my 600m slightly used for significantly less than you would pay online, I've shopped around and can definitely tell that Dell has a distinct price/performance/features advantage in the Centrino notebook market.
- Battery life is excellent, on par with other Centrino notebooks. Three full hours when I'm constantly using it (word processing, Internet, music, gaming, etc.) and about 5 hours with occasional usage.
- The look and general style of this notebook is excellent. I wouldn't be shy to show this thing off in public. In general, well thought out.
The bad
- The 600m's construction is pretty bad. Compared to Toshiba, Sony, Compaq, and HP notebooks, the 600m build quality just plain sucks (I've physically touched and played with all those notebooks). The plastic construction is fairly hard and I'm sure it wouldn't be destroyed if it were dropped, though obviously it depends on how far you drop it. Point is, this notebook is just plain flimsy. Comparing the 600m to IBM's T40 series (and other IBM Centrino notebooks from what I hear) in terms of quality of construction is a joke. IBM beats all others in this area, by a mile.
- Another somewhat build quality-related issue is the keyboard, yet another aspect of the 600m's flimsy nature. Dell clearly skimped on the keyboard costs with the 600m. They're much too delicate, and I could see myself breaking these keys in the future.
- Believe it or not, this notebook gets quite hot at times. The hard drive area gets pretty hot and it's marginally annoying, and the CPU fan goes on and off (as it should), which causes a bit of noise. Overall though, these are just minor quirks that aren't all that bad.
- No pointing device. I really wouldn't use one all that much anyway, as the 600m touch pad is just fine for me. But a pointing device would be nice.
Overall, the 600m is great, it meets my price, performance, features, support, and any of my other computing needs. Where the 600m falls short is aesthetically, such as construction (plastic construction is barely decent), keyboard flimsiness, and other "intangibles" that I already listed.
I give the 600m an 88 out of 100.
The good
- At somewhere between 4 and 5 lbs, this notebook is light. Though certainly not as easy to carry as the Tablet PC's and super light Centrino notebooks from other manufacturers, the additional features that add weight to the 600m (like a CD-RW/DVD drive) are worth it for my particular needs.
- Price/performance/features is easily the best out there. Even though I bought my 600m slightly used for significantly less than you would pay online, I've shopped around and can definitely tell that Dell has a distinct price/performance/features advantage in the Centrino notebook market.
- Battery life is excellent, on par with other Centrino notebooks. Three full hours when I'm constantly using it (word processing, Internet, music, gaming, etc.) and about 5 hours with occasional usage.
- The look and general style of this notebook is excellent. I wouldn't be shy to show this thing off in public. In general, well thought out.
The bad
- The 600m's construction is pretty bad. Compared to Toshiba, Sony, Compaq, and HP notebooks, the 600m build quality just plain sucks (I've physically touched and played with all those notebooks). The plastic construction is fairly hard and I'm sure it wouldn't be destroyed if it were dropped, though obviously it depends on how far you drop it. Point is, this notebook is just plain flimsy. Comparing the 600m to IBM's T40 series (and other IBM Centrino notebooks from what I hear) in terms of quality of construction is a joke. IBM beats all others in this area, by a mile.
- Another somewhat build quality-related issue is the keyboard, yet another aspect of the 600m's flimsy nature. Dell clearly skimped on the keyboard costs with the 600m. They're much too delicate, and I could see myself breaking these keys in the future.
- Believe it or not, this notebook gets quite hot at times. The hard drive area gets pretty hot and it's marginally annoying, and the CPU fan goes on and off (as it should), which causes a bit of noise. Overall though, these are just minor quirks that aren't all that bad.
- No pointing device. I really wouldn't use one all that much anyway, as the 600m touch pad is just fine for me. But a pointing device would be nice.
Overall, the 600m is great, it meets my price, performance, features, support, and any of my other computing needs. Where the 600m falls short is aesthetically, such as construction (plastic construction is barely decent), keyboard flimsiness, and other "intangibles" that I already listed.
I give the 600m an 88 out of 100.
