Dinesh
06-26-2006, 08:37 PM
REVIEW WILL BE UPDATED WITH PICTURES AND BENCHMARKS SOON
Overview:
The notebook I settled on purchasing, after a long stint in deciding even if to get one was the Dell 710M. The only difference between Dell's updated model and the ever popular 700M is a white/off-white keyboard that replaces the Black original. As of this writing, the 710M is now available on the USA website. The 710M is in the range of an ultra portable (standing at a mere 4.1pounds) notebook and a thin-and-light style notebook. The configurations I got with the system were:
Intel® Pentium® M Processor 755 (2.0GHz), 12.1" WXGA, English
Operating System: Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition, English
Memory: 512MB DDR2 SDRAM a 333MHz, 2 DIMMs
Optical Device: 8x Dual Layer CD/DVD RW Burner
Hard Drive: 60GB Hard Drive
Warranty: 3 year warranty plus Complete Care accidental damage protection for drops and liquid spills
Primary Battery: 32 WHr Primary Battery
Additional Battery: 65 WHr Additional Primary Battery
Wireless Networking: Intel PRO/Wireless 2915 Internal Wireless (802.11 a/b/g, 54Mbps)
Software: Microsoft® Works 7.0, English
Additional Software: Norton Internet Security™, English - 90 day trial
I am not from the USA, and ended up paying approximately 1400 USD with shipping for this system from my local website, though $250 was the price for the warranty upgrade. I however did order a 1 Gigabyte stick of Crucial Ram to use in the computer, as dell was charging me an outrageous price for an upgrade.
Reasons for buying:
My need for a notebook stemmed from numerous quarrels with my sibling about who should use the computer at what time. Of course we both had very important things to do on it, such as msn messenger, spam message boards and of course the new drug, hi5. Believe it or not, I actually do use the computer alot for school, especially researching. It has been this way since high school, and I am keeping it until I finish University.
I consulted various message boards and friends and was urged not to get a Dell. Everyone kept drilling into my head how horrible the Inspirons were, and that I would be better off with a Sony Vaio,HP or even a Latitude system. The latititude on one hand was too big and clunky for my taste, and the Sony was out of my price range. The HP did not provide an international warranty so I from early on eliminated it from the forerunners. (I am from Trinidad, West Indies)
I was first faced with the decision of how much weight I wanted to lug around between classes, or even around the house. The weight and overall dimensions of the 710M were a major influence in my purchase. Before this however, I was seriously considering the HP Pavilion dv4000 or Dell 630M.Although the 630M has a lot bigger screen, would give me more bang for my buck and I would be better able to run games on it due to its superior video card, I realized this was not my primary intention when looking for a laptop. The dv4000 was more of a multimedia setup, and deviated from my general path. At the end of the day, the 3 year accidental protection warranty offered by dell, especially to me as an international customer was the winning factor.
Where and How Purchased:
I got this from my local dell website Dell-Trinidad and Tobago, and paid approximately $1400 USD for the system with a large chunk, $250 being spent on the 3 year warranty. If you are alot more careful with your stuff than me, save the money and pick up the laptop at a far reduced cost. All in all it was a pretty good deal as I got a free DVD burner upgrade and 60GB hard drive upgrade from the preexisting 40GB one. Locally the configuration would sell for as much as $2200 from retail stores(or more) so I thought I came out pretty good. Initially, the website informed me that my order would be shipped on January 9th 2006, which put in my head the idea of canceling it, and trying from the US website. However, within a mediocre 5 working days from placing my order it was shipped from Malaysia to Atlanta, US, and a week later to my door.
Build and Design
The case is sadly made of cheap plastic. It doesn’t look like it could take a much of a beating, far less a drop on the floor. It's a good thing I got that warranty. I would of preferred a bit more rugged pc, but I guess you get what you pay for. The notebook is admittedly a bit heavier than I initially predicted, maybe I should have checked to see how much approximately 4 pounds really was. Nevertheless it's not a drag (pardon the pun) to lug around the house or to school. It's lighter than most of my Textbooks (Even my beloved Robbins Pathology). The screen has excellent protection; no ripples were seen upon pressing on the back of the unit. The hinges are pretty good as well; there is not any noticeable wobbling on it.
The 710M is by no means ment for those clumsy amongst us, or the ones that want to dump their notebook in their bag, or leave it on the floor. It would require a significant amount of care, unless you don't mind your notebook looking like crap.
Screen-
The screen worked perfectly, no dead pixels and was substantially bright enough for my taste. However again I underestimated how small 11.2 inches of viewable screen was. Thankfully the resolution on the screen was pretty high 1280 X 800, which accommodated my needs.
Speakers
The Dell 710m comes with 2 speakers mounted on the monitor that are less than 2 inches lengthwise.
Let me start by saying, that the speakers on this notebook are horrible. I didn't really expect anything grand, but they are simply a waste. I followed some online instructions to remove the sigmatel drivers received with the system in place for an Intel one, and got significantly increased clarity and volume from them. However they lack any base at all, and make everything sound well, bad. Invest in a good headset for around $50 bucks and have fun with that.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard is sufficiet to say smaller than a standard desktop one. It does make some noise typing, but nothing unbearable. The first day I used it , I was incompetent. After a couple of hours however I got accustomed to it , as could be expected from my heavy MSN messenger usage. The keyboard is pretty good, no flex that I would identify, and the buttons are pretty well placed. I like the 2nd Function button that has a keypad integrated on the keyboard, and some quick functions like volume controls at the F1-F12 keys. Refer to the picture for more information on that. Like everything else it takes time to get proficient with it, but don't stop practicing! I have never used a touchpad in my life, so it took some time, and I am embarrassed to say I still can't use it well. I may resort to a USB mouse. Initially, on the touchpad pressing harder would cause it to click, which proved quite frustrating and inconvenient, so I disabled it indefinitely. The Touchpad keys are very clunky but not unbearable.
Processor
My obvious choice was a Centrino. It's power saving capabilities and built in wireless won me over from the start. But what about clock speed? I initially was going for the 1.73Ghz Pentium M, but when I saw that the upgrade to 2 GHz was a mere $100USD I couldn't resist.
Ram
The 710 uses ram that is a bit slow, but I decided to supplement this with at least a gig of ram. The issue here was that Dell wanted to charge me $250 to upgrade to 2 X 512 sticks of ram, when a 1GB of the same stick is $118 bucks on Newegg.Guess what I chose to do? When it arrives I'll stick in the 1gb stick.
Warranty
The 3 year warranty was a must, and so was an extra battery. I foresee many days without an AC supply, so there were no two questions about it, I needed a backup.
Other
With respect to the hard drive, there was a free upgrade to a 60gb which is sufficient as I have over 200gb of storage on my desktop, and I got a free DVD burner upgrade(didn't really matter as I already have a DVD burner at home).
Case I didn’t' bother ordering the piece of crap case that Dell sells you for $59 ,instead I opted for the OGIO Nyquist Backpack (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0008KLFYW/qid=1134263369/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl200/002-8648593-3887264?v=glance&s=sporting-goods&n=507846) .Just my luck, the $60 price tag was cut back the day after I ordered it.
Overview:
The notebook I settled on purchasing, after a long stint in deciding even if to get one was the Dell 710M. The only difference between Dell's updated model and the ever popular 700M is a white/off-white keyboard that replaces the Black original. As of this writing, the 710M is now available on the USA website. The 710M is in the range of an ultra portable (standing at a mere 4.1pounds) notebook and a thin-and-light style notebook. The configurations I got with the system were:
Intel® Pentium® M Processor 755 (2.0GHz), 12.1" WXGA, English
Operating System: Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition, English
Memory: 512MB DDR2 SDRAM a 333MHz, 2 DIMMs
Optical Device: 8x Dual Layer CD/DVD RW Burner
Hard Drive: 60GB Hard Drive
Warranty: 3 year warranty plus Complete Care accidental damage protection for drops and liquid spills
Primary Battery: 32 WHr Primary Battery
Additional Battery: 65 WHr Additional Primary Battery
Wireless Networking: Intel PRO/Wireless 2915 Internal Wireless (802.11 a/b/g, 54Mbps)
Software: Microsoft® Works 7.0, English
Additional Software: Norton Internet Security™, English - 90 day trial
I am not from the USA, and ended up paying approximately 1400 USD with shipping for this system from my local website, though $250 was the price for the warranty upgrade. I however did order a 1 Gigabyte stick of Crucial Ram to use in the computer, as dell was charging me an outrageous price for an upgrade.
Reasons for buying:
My need for a notebook stemmed from numerous quarrels with my sibling about who should use the computer at what time. Of course we both had very important things to do on it, such as msn messenger, spam message boards and of course the new drug, hi5. Believe it or not, I actually do use the computer alot for school, especially researching. It has been this way since high school, and I am keeping it until I finish University.
I consulted various message boards and friends and was urged not to get a Dell. Everyone kept drilling into my head how horrible the Inspirons were, and that I would be better off with a Sony Vaio,HP or even a Latitude system. The latititude on one hand was too big and clunky for my taste, and the Sony was out of my price range. The HP did not provide an international warranty so I from early on eliminated it from the forerunners. (I am from Trinidad, West Indies)
I was first faced with the decision of how much weight I wanted to lug around between classes, or even around the house. The weight and overall dimensions of the 710M were a major influence in my purchase. Before this however, I was seriously considering the HP Pavilion dv4000 or Dell 630M.Although the 630M has a lot bigger screen, would give me more bang for my buck and I would be better able to run games on it due to its superior video card, I realized this was not my primary intention when looking for a laptop. The dv4000 was more of a multimedia setup, and deviated from my general path. At the end of the day, the 3 year accidental protection warranty offered by dell, especially to me as an international customer was the winning factor.
Where and How Purchased:
I got this from my local dell website Dell-Trinidad and Tobago, and paid approximately $1400 USD for the system with a large chunk, $250 being spent on the 3 year warranty. If you are alot more careful with your stuff than me, save the money and pick up the laptop at a far reduced cost. All in all it was a pretty good deal as I got a free DVD burner upgrade and 60GB hard drive upgrade from the preexisting 40GB one. Locally the configuration would sell for as much as $2200 from retail stores(or more) so I thought I came out pretty good. Initially, the website informed me that my order would be shipped on January 9th 2006, which put in my head the idea of canceling it, and trying from the US website. However, within a mediocre 5 working days from placing my order it was shipped from Malaysia to Atlanta, US, and a week later to my door.
Build and Design
The case is sadly made of cheap plastic. It doesn’t look like it could take a much of a beating, far less a drop on the floor. It's a good thing I got that warranty. I would of preferred a bit more rugged pc, but I guess you get what you pay for. The notebook is admittedly a bit heavier than I initially predicted, maybe I should have checked to see how much approximately 4 pounds really was. Nevertheless it's not a drag (pardon the pun) to lug around the house or to school. It's lighter than most of my Textbooks (Even my beloved Robbins Pathology). The screen has excellent protection; no ripples were seen upon pressing on the back of the unit. The hinges are pretty good as well; there is not any noticeable wobbling on it.
The 710M is by no means ment for those clumsy amongst us, or the ones that want to dump their notebook in their bag, or leave it on the floor. It would require a significant amount of care, unless you don't mind your notebook looking like crap.
Screen-
The screen worked perfectly, no dead pixels and was substantially bright enough for my taste. However again I underestimated how small 11.2 inches of viewable screen was. Thankfully the resolution on the screen was pretty high 1280 X 800, which accommodated my needs.
Speakers
The Dell 710m comes with 2 speakers mounted on the monitor that are less than 2 inches lengthwise.
Let me start by saying, that the speakers on this notebook are horrible. I didn't really expect anything grand, but they are simply a waste. I followed some online instructions to remove the sigmatel drivers received with the system in place for an Intel one, and got significantly increased clarity and volume from them. However they lack any base at all, and make everything sound well, bad. Invest in a good headset for around $50 bucks and have fun with that.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard is sufficiet to say smaller than a standard desktop one. It does make some noise typing, but nothing unbearable. The first day I used it , I was incompetent. After a couple of hours however I got accustomed to it , as could be expected from my heavy MSN messenger usage. The keyboard is pretty good, no flex that I would identify, and the buttons are pretty well placed. I like the 2nd Function button that has a keypad integrated on the keyboard, and some quick functions like volume controls at the F1-F12 keys. Refer to the picture for more information on that. Like everything else it takes time to get proficient with it, but don't stop practicing! I have never used a touchpad in my life, so it took some time, and I am embarrassed to say I still can't use it well. I may resort to a USB mouse. Initially, on the touchpad pressing harder would cause it to click, which proved quite frustrating and inconvenient, so I disabled it indefinitely. The Touchpad keys are very clunky but not unbearable.
Processor
My obvious choice was a Centrino. It's power saving capabilities and built in wireless won me over from the start. But what about clock speed? I initially was going for the 1.73Ghz Pentium M, but when I saw that the upgrade to 2 GHz was a mere $100USD I couldn't resist.
Ram
The 710 uses ram that is a bit slow, but I decided to supplement this with at least a gig of ram. The issue here was that Dell wanted to charge me $250 to upgrade to 2 X 512 sticks of ram, when a 1GB of the same stick is $118 bucks on Newegg.Guess what I chose to do? When it arrives I'll stick in the 1gb stick.
Warranty
The 3 year warranty was a must, and so was an extra battery. I foresee many days without an AC supply, so there were no two questions about it, I needed a backup.
Other
With respect to the hard drive, there was a free upgrade to a 60gb which is sufficient as I have over 200gb of storage on my desktop, and I got a free DVD burner upgrade(didn't really matter as I already have a DVD burner at home).
Case I didn’t' bother ordering the piece of crap case that Dell sells you for $59 ,instead I opted for the OGIO Nyquist Backpack (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0008KLFYW/qid=1134263369/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl200/002-8648593-3887264?v=glance&s=sporting-goods&n=507846) .Just my luck, the $60 price tag was cut back the day after I ordered it.