Dell Inspiron 700m

[IK47]

my parents might be buying one.

[mrogers]

I finally got mine and it's great! I think most of my sentiments echo the original reviewer's. As everyone has said, the screen is awesome; beautiful picture, no dead pixels, no light leakage. And damn is this thing small! So easy to carry around. Very sturdy, high quality feel, more so than any other Dell laptop I have owned. Absolutely NO keyboard flex. FAST: Windows XP Pro installed in--are you ready for this?--11 minutes flat. Wireless reception seems strong. I haven't tested the extended battery fully, but I've been surfing with the screen on full brightness and continuously downloading files over WiFi for over an hour, and I still have 75% remaining.

All in all, a great, solid piece of equipment. Highly recommended if you're looking for portability and performance.

[NetRyder]

I finally got mine and it's great! I think most of my sentiments echo the original reviewer's.

Good to know. ;)

As everyone has said, the screen is awesome; beautiful picture, no dead pixels, no light leakage. And damn is this thing small! So easy to carry around. Very sturdy, high quality feel, more so than any other Dell laptop I have owned. Absolutely NO keyboard flex. FAST: Windows XP Pro installed in--are you ready for this?--11 minutes flat. Wireless reception seems strong. I haven't tested the extended battery fully, but I've been surfing with the screen on full brightness and continuously downloading files over WiFi for over an hour, and I still have 75% remaining.

All in all, a great, solid piece of equipment. Highly recommended if you're looking for portability and performance.

585122829[/snapback]

Awesome. Enjoy your shiny new machine. :D

[BGraceTFaith]

This is gonna sound kinda dumb...

I've got a 8600 with the 1st gen Pentium M 1.7 processors (1mb L2)

Whats the comparison between the two?

I checked out the GamePC link that someone threw up there and it shows the 1.7 "Dothan" coming in at 116.2 FPS for Doom 3

How would that be adjusted for the 1.7 with only 1mb L2 cache instead of 2?

I know I'm asking a dumb question since I already own it, but I wanna know how much of a cut in performance I'm taking with the 1st gen Pent M processor.

Edit-

I also realize those systems were built on a PC and not a laptop. Still, the difference in numbers would give me an idea.

[mrogers]

I read an article on Tom's Hardware where they tested a new Dothan against a 1.7 GHz Banias in a number of benchmarks. In their conclusion, they stated that overall, the Dothan is 5% fast clock for clock than the Banias. But in some cases it didn't provide any advantage, and in some cases it did. It did not stand out above the Banias in most games--mostly because in laptops especially, game performance is still limited more by the graphics chip than the processor.

[YBG]

Man I'm hoping to get one of these in the near future (August maybe?)

[multimediatechy]

wonder when this model will be available in the UK?

[edcosta]

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.

585103446[/snapback]

Please, could you email me the A00 BIOS?

I upgraded my DELL 700m to BIOS A01 and now it runs very hot.

DELL cannot provide me the old BIOS :-(

I would really appreciate you emailing the A00 BIOS to me. Thanks.

edcosta

[IK47]

all monitors should have those shiny screens. so cool!.

[mercuryx013]

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]

Nevermind. I found it. I had to unhook my USB mouse first.

Edited December 28, 2004 by mercuryx013

[Steven]

Thx for the review. I'm pretty sure I'l be ordering one of these for work and school today. :)

[kromatic]

thanks to this review, i ordered mines sunday, should b here by tuesday of next week...holla... i was either going to buy a gaming pc like alienware or the xps, or a small portable laptop, went with portable, i already have a desktop with a great graphic card, i rather have longer battery life and lower weight and size. thanks again for writing this review. :alien:

[Lee G. Veteran]

That blue Dell Inspiron 5100 looks almost identical to my Dell Inspiron 1150 (mine's silvery rather than the blue).

Thanks for the review

[guddie]

I just love my 700m. Not a single regret. Thing is, I formatted it and installed XP Pro the other day, so had to download all the newer drivers and all, too. Also installed the new Bios, and for the very first time today it froze. It was a bit of a surprise since I had 2GB RAM in it, so I know it wasn't the memory (like it usually was in my old laptop/desktop.) I'm not sure if it's the new Bios or if I need to go ahead and change my hard drive, too. I'm not sure if all the 60GB for the 700m have a 5400rpm, but someone tells me I can get a 7200 one and use that instead.

Any advice on what to do? Shall I look for the old Bios or could it possibly be something else?

[mrogers]

It's likely the new BIOS. Over at NotebookForums there's been a lot of talk about problems with the newer BIOS, so most people just never install it. Those that did install it have been desperately searching for the old one. I think it's been posted on Neowin somwehre too. Why would you risk upgrading the BIOS anyway unless there's something wrong?

[guddie]

Sigh.

Anyone know where I can find the old BIOS, then?

[g8crash3r]

There will be a new XPS Laptop from Dell as well but I dont know when it's gonna be released. It's similar to Inspiron 9200 in design but the color is black and it will have blue backlights inside the unit itself which you can actually see from the air vents and on the front speaker of the laptop. Don't know the final specs yet though and not sure either if the design of the chassis is final as well.

:)

[Premgenius]

nice...I got a free upgrade from the Inspiron 8600C to a Inspiron 9200, the 700M will be avaliable in the UK soon.

[jtaylor]

nice...I got a free upgrade from the Inspiron 8600C to a Inspiron 9200, the 700M will be avaliable in the UK soon.

585294387[/snapback]

Hi there,

I don't suppose you have any idea when the 700m might be in th UK? I've looked at the Hi grade/Aopen models which use basically the same setup but I'd prefer to go with a Dell who I've had good experiiences with in the past...

thanks for you help

Jt

[y0sia]

Hi... i just bought a new Inspiron 700m, everything is great and wonderful. Nice screen, lightweight. After i use it for a while, i realized something not usual going on. I heard an unusual ticking sound on it, at first i thought is a CD Rom head moving, but it is not. After i examine it, i am sure that it comes from the hard disk. This sound is quite loud and happen once in 1 or 2 minutes. And for information, it is not the sound of a reading hard disk, its more to the hard disk head sound.

It really make me scared, i got browse through website and forums about this thing, some said it is dangerous, some said it is normal for this model... My specs is 1.6 Centrino, 256 mb ram + 512mb upgrade, 40 gb hardisk (Hitachi brand HTS548040M9AT00)

Anybody has the same problem with me? Please... i need an answer and suggestion, i can't wait to use my laptop in peace

[ChrisWang]

y0sia: i got a 700m too, and i know a lot of friends who got the same laptop, i can't say the hard disk problem is danger or safe, but what my friend have done is called up the tech guy and let him come to ur place and replace it for u. so i think you should call dell and tell them to fix/replace one for you.

[y0sia]

How about yours one chris? is yours got that ticking sound? Are you using the same hardisk like mine? Thanks ^^

[+chorpeac MVC]

I get that ticking sound occassionally. It's almost like it is the hard disk going into a sleep mode or something, like a part of it is disengaging. I am not sure, but I do hear it.

[y0sia]

I get that ticking sound occassionally. It's almost like it is the hard disk going into a sleep mode or something, like a part of it is disengaging. I am not sure, but I do hear it.

585724565[/snapback]

Yea, that ticking sound quite loud but happen only once... i think it is making sound when the hardisk is changing sector or something.. is that dangerous? its a bit scary for me...

[ChrisWang]

no sound at all, i got the world's best 700m :laugh: . my hd is fujitsu