Dell Inspiron 700M laptop

By DChenster (8/8/2005)

REVIEW:

Major Specifications ( Specification PDF file from Toshiba Website) :

Inspiron 700m, Intel Pentium MProcessor 725 (1.6GHz), 12.1 in WXGA 
256MB,DDR,333MHz,1 Dimm, Inspiron 700m 
60GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive for Inspiron 700m 
Image Restore 
Microsoft Windows XP Home Service Pack 2, English, for Inspiron 
Dell Owners Manual installed on your system,click on icon after system set-up to access 
Windows Media Player 10 
DELL SUPPORT 3.0,INSP 
Integrated NIC for Inspiron 
Internal 56k Modem 
Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0, for Inspiron 
8x CD/DVD Burner (DVD+RW,+/-R)for Inspiron 700m 
CyberLink PowerDVD v5.5 Decoding Sofware for DVD Drives, for Inspiron Systems 
Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 (802.11b/g) Internal Wireless 
No Security Subscription 
Music Match 9.0 Basic 7 day OnDemand 
65 WHr 8-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery 
Dell/My Way Home Page 
Broadband Icon for Inspiron 
AOL for Broadband 
Paint Shop Photo Album 5.1 Standard 
Corel WordPerfect 12 plus Trial of Quartro Pro and Presentations 
No Warranty, Year 2 and 3 
1 Year Limited Warranty 
Soft Contracts - Banctec 
Technical Support, Initial Year 
Type 3- Third Party At Home Service, 24x7 Technical Support, Initial Year 
Quickbooks 2005 Special SimpleStart Edition 
Dell Media Experience 3.0 Basic 

 

This laptop is tiny laptop compares to other Toshiba A75-S229's 15.4 inch VGA laptop; the extra 3.3 inch does make a difference on the viewing compares to 700M eventhrough both are coated wide screen. It is very clear on both screen due to reflex brightness with thin coating screen.  The similarity ends here, because 700M are slower, smaller, lighter, in every sense. The most  are weight and the battery life, which I didn't put on the comparison.  The Dell 700M are 4.1 lb, and Toshiba A75-S229 are 10 lbs.

Dell Inspiron 700M
Intel Pentium MProcessor 725 (1.6GHz), 12.1 in WXGA 
12.1 in WXGA
256MB,DDR,333MHz,1 Dimm, Inspiron 700m 
60GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive for Inspiron 700m 
Microsoft Windows XP Home Service Pack 2, English, for Inspiron 
8x CD/DVD Burner (DVD+RW,+/-R)
Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 (802.11b/g) Internal Wireless 
65 WHr 8-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery 
4.1 lb

The box it comes is standard box that Dell sent out with all the laptops, which can be find in the 600M review.

 

Top of the laptop

Front side of the laptop

right side of the laptop with most port

rear have the extended battery

Left side of the laptop with most port

The top of the white boarder

It's pretty good looking

Here is the small keyboard because it's med size laptop

backside of the laptop

Opinion:

After I brought the laptop, I immediately added another 512 DDR SODIMM RAM (took from the Toshiba laptop), and takes out many unnecessary software. This is cool laptop compare to other large model. 

The best thing for this unit is the screen, it's beautiful and great looking, the movies look beautiful with wide-screen, and since it's 12" WXGA, it looks small but wide.  The wide-screen is interesting, I am able to view more per screen than regular screen, especially I like to put my start bar on the left side of screen instead of bottom to fit more. This is on board graphic card, it's a little bit older card, but most games run pretty good, but since it is not a gamer machine, I don't think anyone would want a benchmark on the system, so I won't include one.

Update: this is laptop is great, many people got it and use it everywhere. 

Excellent:

Good price: less then $1100 after rebate if it is available

Small, light, and sleek

5.2 hours battery (optional) , regular is 2.5 hours

Functions: internal Wireless, modem, 2 USB 2.0, VGA out Port

Centrino Certified

Size: smaller size compare to other 12.5" WXGA, but larger than regular12" XGA model.

PC2700 DDR SODIMM RAM

Intel Pentinum M 1.6 GHz processor

Great Quality on workmanship

Beautiful screen,  special coating is much better than regular screen

Full multimedia DVD reader writer (Added option).

Great Built on the Laptop

weight 4.1 lb with adaptor

Not so Excellent:

No docking

Speakers are not very loud.

Very small keys

Reflection of light screen even through it is minimum

Windows XP home instead Window XP Pro

Crappy software that comes with machine

Dust show on the screen easier due to coating

Touch pad sometimes not accurate

Shipping box is not as sturdy as other model, very minimum protection for such laptop

Slower processor

Links to other useful sites:

Dell

INTEL

Microsoft

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