Dell Inspiron 700m

By NetRyder
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NetRyder

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how does this machine compare with the inspiron 300m

The 300m was phased out and replaced with the 700m, so you can't buy a new 300m in the US anymore (used ones should still be available).

Since the 700m is essentially a replacement for the 300m, they're very similar machines. Some of the biggest differences are:

- the 700m includes second-generation "Dothan" Pentium-M's (2MB L2 cache) whereas the 300m included first-generation "Banias" processors (1MB L2 cache).

- The 300m weighed less than the 700m, but unlike the 300m, which needs to be docked for access to any secondary drives like a CD-RW/DVD drive, the 700m is an all-in-one design with a modular bay built-in, so it's more convenient in that sense. With the docking bay, the 300m weighs the same or a little more than the 700m. Also, I don't think the 300m included a DVD-burner option.

There are other smaller differences that I don't have much time to get into, but basically, I feel the 700m would be a better option since it's a newer offering, and because of it's all-in-one design.

Another tip for anyone considering purchasing the 700m: Buy the 65Wh battery! I can't stress this enough. The included battery is smaller and gives you only about 2.5 hours. The 65Wh battery is slightly bigger, but it should easily give you about 5.5 hours (perhaps more) with non-CPU intensive tasks like basic word processing, internet surfing etc.

It's quite impressive - I watched two full-length two hour movies (i.e. 4 hours total) in the car on the trip to San Fransisco this weekend, with full screen brightness and still had 20% of the battery left to spare at the end of it. :)

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Grand Master

stncttr908 Veteran

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Two of my friends here at NJIT (identical twins, funny) bought a pair of these laptops and they came in today. They're sweet little machines, if portability is your thing.

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mzkhadir

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The 300m was phased out and replaced with the 700m, so you can't buy a new 300m in the US anymore (used ones should still be available).

Since the 700m is essentially a replacement for the 300m, they're very similar machines. Some of the biggest differences are:

- the 700m includes second-generation "Dothan" Pentium-M's (2MB L2 cache) whereas the 300m included first-generation "Banias" processors (1MB L2 cache).

- The 300m weighed less than the 700m, but unlike the 300m, which needs to be docked for access to any secondary drives like a CD-RW/DVD drive, the 700m is an all-in-one design with a modular bay built-in, so it's more convenient in that sense. With the docking bay, the 300m weighs the same or a little more than the 700m. Also, I don't think the 300m included a DVD-burner option.

There are other smaller differences that I don't have much time to get into, but basically, I feel the 700m would be a better option since it's a newer offering, and because of it's all-in-one design.

Another tip for anyone considering purchasing the 700m: Buy the 65Wh battery! I can't stress this enough. The included battery is smaller and gives you only about 2.5 hours. The 65Wh battery is slightly bigger, but it should easily give you about 5.5 hours (perhaps more) with non-CPU intensive tasks like basic word processing, internet surfing etc.

It's quite impressive - I watched two full-length two hour movies (i.e. 4 hours total) in the car on the trip to San Fransisco this weekend, with full screen brightness and still had 20% of the battery left to spare at the end of it. :)

Right now, I have the 300m. I got it for the portability reasons. I didn't care much about the drive bays at that point.

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Apprentice

Lionheartilly

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wow!

That looks real sweet, but let's not get distracted by looks.

I was actually thinking of purchasing a 700m b/c they were having a good deal.

After a few days, tell us about the overall profile of the beast.

Basically, how well it performs.

I have faith in DELL, b/c I'm using their desktop that's like 3 yrs old and it still runs pretty tight.

I had a DELL inspiron 2500 laptop that was very stable.

I just want to know how this system goes....

Lion

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Cube

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you know.. when dell had that $750 off coupon I almost bought a 700m. but then I remembered I have to keep saving for the tuition costs.. maybee next year :devil: I really like this 700m though.. is it the only inspiron with reflective screen or do other dell lappys have it too??

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mrogers

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It is currently the only Inspiron with that type of screen.

I wish that $750 off was going on now...I found someone who asked if I wanted to sell my 600m, and when I thought about it I said, "Yeah, you know what, I think I do!" So I'm probably going to grab one soon. Most will be an upgrade from the 600m--faster processor and larger/faster hard drive. The only real "downgrade" from my 600m is the graphics card, but I don't ever try to play games on the laptop anymore; I used to keep Halo and MOH loaded up on the 600m for friends if we wanted to play multi, but anymore they'll just bring their own PCs. I want to grab the 700m with 1.6, 512MB, b/g WiFi, 40GB hard drive, and the 5.5 hr extended battery. I priced it out today and that came to $1149--not bad, but I think I'll wait for a deal to drop it below a grand.

To the reviewer, thanks for the review, it was a factor in my decision. I'm glad our favorite "bang for the buck" company is continuing to increase the quality of its product line with products like the 700m.

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NetRyder

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To the reviewer, thanks for the review, it was a factor in my decision. I'm glad our favorite "bang for the buck" company is continuing to increase the quality of its product line with products like the 700m.

585000729[/snapback]

Glad you found the review helpful.

Hope you can get one sometime soon. I'm sure you'll love it. You too, Cube. :)

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zigaroo

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I have one and it is great. It's more on the lower end side, but it's all I needed for browsing the internet and doing other simple tasks.

And it's funny that I just learned there's a scroll wheel on the touchpad that really isn't there when you just move your finger up or down, on the right hand side. I think I remember someone on another site reviewing the laptop saying they were disappointed that it wasn't there... when it's secretly there.

Is this some standard for most laptops? Or is it secretly there on this one and on others? I have noticed some with a specific section for it all mapped out with arrows to indicate it's the touch scroller thing...

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mrogers

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Yeah the Inspiron 9200s have arrows on the touch pad for scrolling...but my 600m didn't have any arrows and it scrolled too.

On a related note: I ordered a 700m last Wednesday, and it was delivered today! But it was delivered to my home address, and I'm still at school finishing up finals. Even though I won't get to play with it until Friday, I did that on purpose so it wouldn't distract me this week :D

I got 1.6 GHz, 256 MB + 512 MB I ordered from NewEgg, 40GB drive, DVD/CD-RW, Intel B/G wireless, and the extended battery. Plenty powerful for my purposes considering it's only a secondary (or third..uh, third-y-ary?) computer for me.

Oh, and to those interested in comparing the Dothans (2nd generation Pentium Ms) to "real" processors, check out these benchmarks:

http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.as...angaming&page=4

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tr1kstanc3

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i ran into some problems with the a01 bios release. computer would randomly freeze and when i went to look for the older bios, dell had removed it from their ftp. luckily a kind soul emailed me the older a00 bios and all is well again. if anybody needs the older bios pm me.

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Neowinian

guddie

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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). 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)

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Weasel

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And it's funny that I just learned there's a scroll wheel on the touchpad that really isn't there when you just move your finger up or down, on the right hand side. I think I remember someone on another site reviewing the laptop saying they were disappointed that it wasn't there... when it's secretly there.

585098885[/snapback]

That's all done via software. You can actually control the size and speed of the "secret scrolling area" in your synaptics touchpad options in the control panel.

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zigaroo

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That's all done via software.  You can actually control the size and speed of the "secret scrolling area" in your synaptics touchpad options in the control panel.

585103786[/snapback]

Awesome. There's even Horizontal scrolling... laptops continue to amaze me.

Oh and I got the 1.6 ghz, 512mb ram, 40 gb hdd, with extended battery.

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mrogers

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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). 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)

585103771[/snapback]

:blink: Wow, you certainly sunk a lot into that notebook. I can't believe you spent almost as much on RAM as I did on my whole laptop! And you said you wouldn't want to "lug around" the laptop with the 8-cell battery...it's 4.1 lbs with the 4-cell, and only 4.6 lbs with the 8-cell. That's still lighter than my current 600m at 5 lbs, which is already one of the lighter full-feature notebooks on the market. By no stretch of the imagination is 4.6 lbs a "heavy laptop." But to each his own. You'll be able to do some mad Photoshop on that thing with so much memory!

Edit: One additional thing which may be a problem for you: iirc, the 700m maxes out at 2GB RAM. Which means you'll have to remove the 256MB stick, which means disassembling half of the laptop (the factory-installed RAM slot isn't considered serviceable). But there's documentation on Dell's site that can tell you how to get to it: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/syst...0m/en/index.htm

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