Dell Latitude D620: Portable Business Machine
I received something nice in the mail today: The Dell Latitude notebook computer I ordered last week. It’s the latest business-grade machine in Dell’s lightweight (but not ultraportable) range, recently redesigned to better compete with the IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad. I decided I needed my own notebook for portable business, something more easily transported than Apple’s large Inspiron 8600, and something I could fill with my work applications and such without making her worry about remaining hard drive space.
Before I selected the Dell, I looked at the Lenovo T60 (the one you always see on TV commercials) most seriously, as well as notebooks from Fujitsu, Toshiba, even HP and Sony. I figured I wouldn’t buy another Dell, not after the somewhat dodgy build quality of our Inspiron, but the Latitude wound up having the best set of features for the price. Since the Latitude is a business machine, they’re built to more stringent requirements than the Inspirons — and you get to talk to the superior Small Business support department, too.
I had the system configured with an Intel Core Duo T2400 (1.83 GHz) dual-core processor, 14.1″ WXGA screen at 1440×900, 2GB RAM, a 100GB hard drive, and the nVidia Quadro 110M dedicated video array. It’s also got the usual wi-fi, Bluetooth and so on. I’ve been installing software on it all evening, and so far I’m very impressed. The notebook doesn’t creak, groan or feel cheap like the Inspiron, and the keyboard is actually a pleasure to type on (for a change). It’s also thin, lightweight, and the 6-cell battery recharges in just over an hour. I also ordered a nice little nylon carrying case with it that’s equally small, just perfect for easy portability.
The primary impetus behind my picking up this laptop was the need to work from home during our trip to Michigan this August, but it’ll also be good for doing work outside of this stuffy room — out on the lanai, or at the kitchen counter, or on the leather sofa…whatever. An apt desktop replacement in a small form factor. I highly recommend the Latitude D620 for anyone needing something similar.
Categorized as Computers
Looks pretty spiffy, I must say, although all the software you listed is of course way over my head. Nevertheless, the call for something small and very portable is really starting to beckon. Hope it works well for you!
Thank you! So far it is a wonderful machine, very impressive especially in the realm of improvement over the Inspiron line. One way in which Apple’s 8600 gets the one-up on this Latitude is battery life; the Inspiron’s huge battery allows it to last longer.
They make a longer-lasting battery for the D620 as well, but it’s heavy and sticks out an inch from the front of the machine, which I felt rather defeated the “easily portable” purpose.
No matter; if I’m doing any serious work on this thing, I’ll be sitting at a desk with it plugged in anyway.