This is preliminary review, because I've only had it for a day. I've used it for a total of about 10-12 hours, but used pretty much every function.
Here are the specs:
Inspiron 700m, Intel Pentium MProcessor 725 (1.6GHz), 12.1 in WXGA
768MB DDR 333MHz, PC2700 Sodimm
30GB Ultra ATA (4200rpm) Hard Drive
8X Dual Layer DVD+RW DRIVE for Inspiron 700m (NEC6100-Firmware upgradeable to Dual Format)
Dell Wireless 1350 (802.11 b/g) Internal Wireless
Integrated 64mb (shared DDR) Intel Extreme2 Graphics
32 WHr 4-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
65 WHr 8-cell Lithium Ion Addiotional Battery
I bought it for $1575-$275 in rebates = $1300. Not bad considering I got it with DVD+RW, and a Second Battery. I bought a 512mb Sodimm when CompUSA had a sale for $65 after rebate, and I think I will buy a 40gb 5400rpm HDD for $85, so my total will come to about $1450.
The first thing I noticed about it was when I took it out of the box, which was very well packaged..how light it was. This thing without the battery is Feather Light! The standard battery doesn't weigh that much either, so when the standard battery is installed, it weighs about 4lbs. Definitely, and noticeable lighter than my old 12" Apple Powerbook (which weighed about 4.6lbs), Dell 600M (which was only about 5lbs), and my Compaq Armada (which is about 6lbs). The color scheme is Silver/White, which I know is Hit or Miss. Some people seem to really like it, some people seem to really hate it. But then again, I know many people (including myself) who think that Alienware products are fugly, and some people who think that they are beautiful.
I took out all the parts, and accessories that came with it, and then you notice something else. It comes with a "sample" pack of KlearScreen. I'm familiar with this product, because I used to own a Powerbook, which they make most of their products for. I have a bottle of ApplePolish to klean my LCD, and my iPod. The Klearscreen must have made this especially for the 700M, because they include a little pamplet congratulating you on your purchase of the 700m, with special instruction on how to clean the computer, along with reordering information on the back. It also comes with their Microfiber cleaning cloth, which is awesome. These things actually buff out little scratches to your LCD! I've seen them in action. I thought that including this little sample pack was really cool.
The two batteries that I got came "partially charged". The manual says to fully charge the battery for 3 hours before using it without being plugged in. I charged it for about 1 hour, before the battery charge light went off. One thing I do have to mention is that the batteries are not completely flush with the main chasis. I know this is very common among "ultra-portables" which have the rear-connected batteries, so it's no biggie. The extended battery protrudes about an inch, while the standard goes out about half an inch. The extended battery also adds about 1/2lb to the total weight. I noticed that the standard battery lasted about 2-2.5 hours (with the brightness on fairly high), and the extended battery outlasted me last night, as I fell asleep. I was about 3/4 of the way through at 4 hours, and that was also with the brightness on high. I had the wireless NIC working, and also played lots of music, surfed the web, did some benchmarking, burned a DVD, etc... I didn't just let it sit there, and hope for the longest battery life, but instead did real world testing to see how long it would last. Most of the tasks performed last night were power consuming, and the batteries (espeically the extended one) met my expectations.
The best thing about this laptop has to be the LCD Display. I've owned many laptops ranging from Apples, IBM's, Dell's Compaq's, with various different displays from XGA, to SXGA+ and this is by far the best. The brightness is actually better than my IBM thinkvision that has 300cd/m2 (something to do with candle power). It has a Mirror-like finish which is comparable to the Sony XBrite (as far as I can tell, from seeing one up close at retailers), which can also be a hit or miss. You can actually use it as a mirror to check your hair or something when powered off. :laugh: . It's really crisp too. The text is very good, and the colors are very vivid. I watched a little of "Old School" on it, and the widescreen combined with the clear bright display is awesome! The integrated graphics does its job well on DVD's, and also plays CS/DoD/HalfLife pretty well (I know that these games plays well on pretty much any computer), but I doubt that it'll run Doom3 smoothly. I have seen on some forums that people claim that they play Doom3 on their Alienware Sentias which is very similar to the Dell 700M, so maybe I'll try it.
The build quality is Excellent! Not something that you come across with Dell notebooks. I've had some shoddy Dell lappies in the past, but this one looks outstanding. The fit and finish is almost as good as my Powerbook, and IBM T series that I've owned in the past. Nothing loose, or jiggling, or anything like that. I'm guessing it's because it doesn't come from the same assembly line as the other Dell Inspiron Notebooks. The three jacks/ports (firewire, Headphone, and Mic) in the front, right below the screen release are perfectly placed. I love syning my iPod right up to the front of the laptop. The speakers are decent, and louder than any other laptop that I've owned. It may just be the placement, where the speakers are directly pointed at you. The other laptops usually point their speakers too low, too high, or away from you . My gf has an Acer that has the speaker on the back of the LCD! The Dells have them on the chasis under the palmrest pointed at your stomach, and the Powerbooks have them on the chasis below the LCD pointed straight up. These speakers are on the LCD porton right under the screen. It would have been nice to have a few additional button instead of just the Power on/off, to control the volume, and such, but I guess going with the "Fn" combination isn't too much of a pain. The inclusion of the Secure Digital slot is also perfect for me, as I have a Digital Camera, and a Digital Camcorder, which all use the SD cards. It would have been nice if it had a 6-in-1 reader, but if it had to be one, I'm glad that it was the SD.
Here is a short list of the only Drawbacks to this otherwise fantastic laptop:
One major drawback is the keyboard. It's very cramped, especially on the side keys such as: ;',./Enter, and Shift. I find myself pressing / many times when I'm trying to press .. and the Shift key is often missed in favor of the Up Arrow. I'm sure that it'll take a little getting used to. The 12" powerbook, and the IBM T series without a doubt had the best keyboards of any laptops that I've tried. The feeling on the keyboards is very good. Not too mushy, and not to clicky, with a good feedback, and give to them. The touchpad is just OK. The buttons are a little "clicky". Also...note that the USB ports are on the left side, and the NIC ports are on the right. This is somewhat different than most of the other laptops that I've used as well. No ports are on the back, as that space is occupied by the battery.
I haven't really noticed any other issues so far. It does get a tad bit warm when sitting on my lap, but it's expected from any small notebooks. I wouldn't say that It got any warmer than my 600M, and definitely not as warm as my Powerbook (or Firebook as I dubbed it), but maybe a tad bit warmer than the IBMs.
The performace (non-gaming) is very good. It did take a little long to boot up when I only had 256mb of memory installed, but that was fixed with the addition of the 512mb stick. All the programs open up very fast, and the Wireless maintains a very good connection from just about anywhere in my tiny little condo. I also get more available wireless networks on it than on my desktop, picking up 6, compared to 4...which I guess means it's stronger. Ripping a DVD via DVDShrink took about 45 minutes, and Burining it took about 25 (4X since I don't have any 8X disks). I read upgrading the firmware actually increases the performace of the ripping speeds.
If anyone wants to host some pictures for me, I can go ahead and click some. I will also take requests, if anyone would like a particular picture taken.
I hope this little review helps.
Here are the specs:
Inspiron 700m, Intel Pentium MProcessor 725 (1.6GHz), 12.1 in WXGA
768MB DDR 333MHz, PC2700 Sodimm
30GB Ultra ATA (4200rpm) Hard Drive
8X Dual Layer DVD+RW DRIVE for Inspiron 700m (NEC6100-Firmware upgradeable to Dual Format)
Dell Wireless 1350 (802.11 b/g) Internal Wireless
Integrated 64mb (shared DDR) Intel Extreme2 Graphics
32 WHr 4-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
65 WHr 8-cell Lithium Ion Addiotional Battery
I bought it for $1575-$275 in rebates = $1300. Not bad considering I got it with DVD+RW, and a Second Battery. I bought a 512mb Sodimm when CompUSA had a sale for $65 after rebate, and I think I will buy a 40gb 5400rpm HDD for $85, so my total will come to about $1450.
The first thing I noticed about it was when I took it out of the box, which was very well packaged..how light it was. This thing without the battery is Feather Light! The standard battery doesn't weigh that much either, so when the standard battery is installed, it weighs about 4lbs. Definitely, and noticeable lighter than my old 12" Apple Powerbook (which weighed about 4.6lbs), Dell 600M (which was only about 5lbs), and my Compaq Armada (which is about 6lbs). The color scheme is Silver/White, which I know is Hit or Miss. Some people seem to really like it, some people seem to really hate it. But then again, I know many people (including myself) who think that Alienware products are fugly, and some people who think that they are beautiful.
I took out all the parts, and accessories that came with it, and then you notice something else. It comes with a "sample" pack of KlearScreen. I'm familiar with this product, because I used to own a Powerbook, which they make most of their products for. I have a bottle of ApplePolish to klean my LCD, and my iPod. The Klearscreen must have made this especially for the 700M, because they include a little pamplet congratulating you on your purchase of the 700m, with special instruction on how to clean the computer, along with reordering information on the back. It also comes with their Microfiber cleaning cloth, which is awesome. These things actually buff out little scratches to your LCD! I've seen them in action. I thought that including this little sample pack was really cool.
The two batteries that I got came "partially charged". The manual says to fully charge the battery for 3 hours before using it without being plugged in. I charged it for about 1 hour, before the battery charge light went off. One thing I do have to mention is that the batteries are not completely flush with the main chasis. I know this is very common among "ultra-portables" which have the rear-connected batteries, so it's no biggie. The extended battery protrudes about an inch, while the standard goes out about half an inch. The extended battery also adds about 1/2lb to the total weight. I noticed that the standard battery lasted about 2-2.5 hours (with the brightness on fairly high), and the extended battery outlasted me last night, as I fell asleep. I was about 3/4 of the way through at 4 hours, and that was also with the brightness on high. I had the wireless NIC working, and also played lots of music, surfed the web, did some benchmarking, burned a DVD, etc... I didn't just let it sit there, and hope for the longest battery life, but instead did real world testing to see how long it would last. Most of the tasks performed last night were power consuming, and the batteries (espeically the extended one) met my expectations.
The best thing about this laptop has to be the LCD Display. I've owned many laptops ranging from Apples, IBM's, Dell's Compaq's, with various different displays from XGA, to SXGA+ and this is by far the best. The brightness is actually better than my IBM thinkvision that has 300cd/m2 (something to do with candle power). It has a Mirror-like finish which is comparable to the Sony XBrite (as far as I can tell, from seeing one up close at retailers), which can also be a hit or miss. You can actually use it as a mirror to check your hair or something when powered off. :laugh: . It's really crisp too. The text is very good, and the colors are very vivid. I watched a little of "Old School" on it, and the widescreen combined with the clear bright display is awesome! The integrated graphics does its job well on DVD's, and also plays CS/DoD/HalfLife pretty well (I know that these games plays well on pretty much any computer), but I doubt that it'll run Doom3 smoothly. I have seen on some forums that people claim that they play Doom3 on their Alienware Sentias which is very similar to the Dell 700M, so maybe I'll try it.
The build quality is Excellent! Not something that you come across with Dell notebooks. I've had some shoddy Dell lappies in the past, but this one looks outstanding. The fit and finish is almost as good as my Powerbook, and IBM T series that I've owned in the past. Nothing loose, or jiggling, or anything like that. I'm guessing it's because it doesn't come from the same assembly line as the other Dell Inspiron Notebooks. The three jacks/ports (firewire, Headphone, and Mic) in the front, right below the screen release are perfectly placed. I love syning my iPod right up to the front of the laptop. The speakers are decent, and louder than any other laptop that I've owned. It may just be the placement, where the speakers are directly pointed at you. The other laptops usually point their speakers too low, too high, or away from you . My gf has an Acer that has the speaker on the back of the LCD! The Dells have them on the chasis under the palmrest pointed at your stomach, and the Powerbooks have them on the chasis below the LCD pointed straight up. These speakers are on the LCD porton right under the screen. It would have been nice to have a few additional button instead of just the Power on/off, to control the volume, and such, but I guess going with the "Fn" combination isn't too much of a pain. The inclusion of the Secure Digital slot is also perfect for me, as I have a Digital Camera, and a Digital Camcorder, which all use the SD cards. It would have been nice if it had a 6-in-1 reader, but if it had to be one, I'm glad that it was the SD.
Here is a short list of the only Drawbacks to this otherwise fantastic laptop:
One major drawback is the keyboard. It's very cramped, especially on the side keys such as: ;',./Enter, and Shift. I find myself pressing / many times when I'm trying to press .. and the Shift key is often missed in favor of the Up Arrow. I'm sure that it'll take a little getting used to. The 12" powerbook, and the IBM T series without a doubt had the best keyboards of any laptops that I've tried. The feeling on the keyboards is very good. Not too mushy, and not to clicky, with a good feedback, and give to them. The touchpad is just OK. The buttons are a little "clicky". Also...note that the USB ports are on the left side, and the NIC ports are on the right. This is somewhat different than most of the other laptops that I've used as well. No ports are on the back, as that space is occupied by the battery.
I haven't really noticed any other issues so far. It does get a tad bit warm when sitting on my lap, but it's expected from any small notebooks. I wouldn't say that It got any warmer than my 600M, and definitely not as warm as my Powerbook (or Firebook as I dubbed it), but maybe a tad bit warmer than the IBMs.
The performace (non-gaming) is very good. It did take a little long to boot up when I only had 256mb of memory installed, but that was fixed with the addition of the 512mb stick. All the programs open up very fast, and the Wireless maintains a very good connection from just about anywhere in my tiny little condo. I also get more available wireless networks on it than on my desktop, picking up 6, compared to 4...which I guess means it's stronger. Ripping a DVD via DVDShrink took about 45 minutes, and Burining it took about 25 (4X since I don't have any 8X disks). I read upgrading the firmware actually increases the performace of the ripping speeds.
If anyone wants to host some pictures for me, I can go ahead and click some. I will also take requests, if anyone would like a particular picture taken.
I hope this little review helps.