[Review] Dell Inspiron 700m

[HFrankenstein]

Do you know if the onboard video can be upgraded? I noticed on the site that there's an access door to the mini-PCI slot.

 

[NetRyder]

I'm almost certain the onboard video can't be upgraded.
The MiniPCI slot that you're talking about houses the internal wireless card, which can easily be removed and/or replaced.

 

[champ2005]

The only Dell laptop with upgradable graphics is the Inspiron XPS, which is huge compared to the 700m.

 

[guddie]

I bought it today, won't get it till the end of the month though cus my brother's going on vacation till the 28th and it was shipped to his address. I was worried about the reflective screen and the video card - but I did get a 2.0Ghz processor which some people say make a huge difference. I got minimum ram, 256mb, bought 2gb of ram from newegg.com which I'll put in myself. (It was an addition $1000++ on dell.com as opposed to $386 on newegg.com for the Kingmax SODIMM). I also got both the 4-cell as well as the 8-cell, figuring I wouldn't want to lug around such a heavy laptop to work every day or when I'm travelling.. (and I hear the 8-cell sticks out quite a bit in the back, so..)

Hope it's performance is as beautiful as it looks ... (and Sims 2'll play well on it)

 

[NetRyder]

I bought it today, won't get it till the end of the month though cus my brother's going on vacation till the 28th and it was shipped to his address. I was worried about the reflective screen and the video card - but I did get a 2.0Ghz processor which some people say make a huge difference. I got minimum ram, 256mb, bought 2gb of ram from newegg.com which I'll put in myself. (It was an addition $1000++ on dell.com as opposed to $386 on newegg.com for the Kingmax SODIMM). I also got both the 4-cell as well as the 8-cell, figuring I wouldn't want to lug around such a heavy laptop to work every day or when I'm travelling.. (and I hear the 8-cell sticks out quite a bit in the back, so..)

Hope it's performance is as beautiful as it looks ... (and Sims 2'll play well on it)

Awesome.

- About the screen - some people like reflective screens, others don't. Have you ever seen reflective screens in stores that sell computers (many Sony notebooks have them)? I personally really liked it, but there are those who prefer the regular kind.
- Integrated graphics - well, what can I say? It's not meant to be a gaming machine, but I suppose it should be able to handle Sims 2.
- You did the right thing buying RAM elsewhere. Dell, like everyone else, does hike up the cost of additional RAM. I bought an extra 256MB module from Crucial for the same reason.
- I don't think you'd need the 4-cell battery if you got the 8-cell one, but that's up to you. The 8-cell doesn't add a lot of extra weight (just a couple of ounces), but yes, it does come out a little more than the 4-cell.

Very cool. I'm sure you'll like it. It's so small and light, and if you like the reflective screen, that's even better. Oh, and with the 2.0GHz Dothan, that thing is going to fly.

 

[explicit]

about the battery... i ordered my 700m with the extended life battery, yet after being completely charged, i can barely get 3 hours... i was expecting around 5 or so, and im completely disappointed. could it be a defective battery, would dell replace it? its about 2-3 months old

thanks

 

[NetRyder]

Three hours doesn't sound right at all with the 65WHr battery. I used to get little more than 3 hours on my Inspiron 5100 when the battery was new, and this thing has a power-sucking 2.4GHz Northwood P4.

Were you getting just 3 hours even when the battery was brand new? Or has it just started happening recently? Either way, batteries are covered under a warranty for 1 year after the day you purchase them, so if there's a defect (and it definitely sounds like it's losing charge too quickly), Dell should replace it for free.

Li-Ion batteries don't really suffer from the memory-effect, but you could try calibrating it once. Charge it completely, then leave it on without AC power until the battery drains completely, and recharge to full again. Do this just once. If it still doesn't hold charge for long enough, you should call to get it replaced.

 

[dark_Wraith]

Can you really not play games on the 700m at all?

What if you changed the video card to a 128mb? Could games run in that case?

Can you change the video card?? (I am laptop incompetant as you can see)

Is there any way humanly possible to get this sweet little machine to run games?!

(I will resume praying)

 

[NetRyder]

It's an integrated GPU with shared memory, so you can't really swap it out with a better video card that uses dedicated memory. Does it run the latest games with all the whiz-bang graphics? Probably not. Older games? Probably...but I can't give a definite answer since I've never installed any on the system.

 

[Sazar]

What kind of work are you doing on your notebook?

With the 8 cell, the battery is rated to a max of about 5 hours or so. Of course if you have all your settings maxed for your display as well as doing intensive work, you will wear out your battery faster.

For weight and size reasons, the product comes with only with an integrated graphics card. You cannot exchange it for something else in the same family with a graphics card. The smallest notebook with a gfx card on the Inspiron lineup is the 600M.

You can still play games, they will just run a heck of a lot slower

It is not a gaming system, the lowest end system you can get through dell that allows you to play any degree of games is the 6000 D (tobago version) or the 9300. The best system on the market currently is the XPS gen-2 with the ultra-go.

 

[dark_Wraith]

How do the dell latitude laptops compare? Can they run decent games? Here are some links:

All:
http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx?c=ca&cs=CABSDT1&id=latit&l=en&s=bsd

Interesting ones:
http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/latit_d610?c=ca&cs=CABSDT1&l=en&s=bsd
http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/latit_d510?c=ca&cs=CABSDT1&l=en&s=bsd
http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/latit_d410?c=ca&cs=CABSDT1&l=en&s=bsd
http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/latit_110l?c=ca&cs=CABSDT1&l=en&s=bsd

Thx!

 

[Sazar]

I am saving my bucks for the X-1

The tech is basically the same, just the design is more modular to allow for lower cost on the back-end of ownership by small businesses and organisations. The latitude families (ie D family) share a lot of components so its easier to fix them for a company that bought a ton of spare parts for say a battery or a bay cover or something.

Primary differences are extra time in QA and subsequently better build quality. They also use slightly different internal components which are designed to run 24/7 under more intense conditions vis-a-vis inspirons.

Also most latitudes have a tri-metal chasis v/s a plastic combo chasis for the inspirons.

Initial cost to buy is much higher, but some people swear by them

I just want the X-1 coz its TINY (less than an inch thick) and weighs almost nothing (2.5 lbs).

 

[NathanA]

I'm able to play Rise of Nations at high detail level with no detrimental speed loss on my 700m, so thats good enough for me! I'm really impressed with the Intel Extreme Graphics 2...much better than I thought...but no comparison to my 6800 Ultra. But I digress (comparing apples to oranges...) Anyways, I only use it when I'm travelling, and love it! Would definitely recommend it to anyone whos on the fence about it...