Entered CNET Catalog: 03/20/2003
SKU: 600MRM
Manufacturer: Dell, Inc.
Product summary
The good: Fast 3D performance; smart case design; dual-band wireless 802.11a/b/g antennae; integrated Bluetooth support; built-in smart-card reader.
The bad: Relatively slow office-productivity speeds; short battery life; no FireWire port.
The bottom line: The Dell Inspiron looks fancy and features wireless options beyond the Centrino package, but it offers only middling performance.
CNET editors' review
- Editors' Rating: 7.3
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 03/05/2003
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 Don't like the new silver look? We do, but you can snap on a colored lid for an extra $35. |
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The Inspiron 600m remains fairly lithe by including just one swappable bay for optional drives and modules. While our evaluation system shipped with a DVD/CD-RW drive, you can order CD, DVD, CD-RW, and floppy drives. A second battery and hard drive also fit the bay.
The Inspiron 600m's keyboard resembles the 8500's, with a couple of exceptions. The comfortably familiar, desktoplike layout of both boards huddles Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys in the upper-right corner. Yet the slightly shorter length of the 600m's board makes it feel sturdier in the middle. The 600m lacks a pointing-stick option, including only a blue-rimmed touchpad and two mouse buttons in the wrist rest. The same blue plastic lines the top and bottom of the keyboard. Volume-up, -down, and mute buttons are ensconced above the board as well, providing easy access.
 We like the Inspiron 600m's roomy, sturdy keyboard. |
 There's no pointing stick--just a standard touchpad and mouse-button combo. |
Dell doesn't clutter the Inspiron 600m with too many ports and slots. The left edge sports headphone and microphone jacks; an IrDA port; and one Type II PC Card slot with a handy, embedded smart-card reader that allows you to store and read sensitive password, credit card, and other info on optional smart cards. (The cards are available in a number of sizes and prices from third-party manufacturers.) The front edge features two speakers with clear, but not deep, sound. Most ports sit on the back edge. There are S-Video out, 56K modem, 10/100/1000 Ethernet, parallel, VGA, and serial ports, as well as two ports for USB 2.0. Unfortunately, there's no FireWire port.
Cutting edge is the name of the Inspiron 600m's game. This thin-and-light notebook, aimed at both home and SOHO users, is based on Intel's new, battery-saving Pentium M processor, at your choice of 1.3GHz to 1.6GHz. Primary RAM starts at 128MB of speedy 266MHz DDR SDRAM and maxes out at 1GB. Hard drive options spinning at 4,200rpm measure 20GB, 30GB, or 60GB; a pricier, 5,400rpm, 40GB choice is also available. The system ships with ATI's fastest graphics chip, the Mobility Radeon 9000, including either 32MB or 64MB of dedicated video memory. The configuration we tested included a 1.6GHz Pentium M; 512MB of DDR memory; the fast 40GB hard drive; and 64MB of video memory. Swappable modules for the internal bay consist of CD, DVD, CD-RW, DVD/CD-RW, and floppy drives, as well as a second hard drive and a second battery. In an attempt to keep case weight manageable, Dell offers only a 14.1-inch display but provides both an average 1,024x768 native resolution as well as the more graphics-friendly 1,400x1,050 resolution.
 Dell keeps the weight off with a 14.1-inch display, but it has a 1,400x1,050 resolution. |
 The audio ports are on the side. |
The Inspiron 600m can, in the right configuration, carry Intel's new Centrino label. (Read more about Centrino technology here.) Dell built two dual-band wireless antennae into the case that support all three wireless flavors currently available--802.11a/b/g--and it comes standard with the new Intel Pro 802.11b Wireless mini-PCI card known as Calexico, which completes the Centrino trio. But you can configure the Inspiron with a non-Centrino TrueMobile mini-PCI card, which supports the three Wi-Fi standards--that's the model we tested. You'll also find integrated Bluetooth, and you can even order your 600m with built-in GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) for yet another layer of wireless connectivity.
The same solid software package ships with all Inspirons, including the 600m. You can get either Corel WordPerfect Office 2002 minisuite comes standard, but you can upgrade to either InterVideo WinDVD come free and are handy for CD burning and DVD play, respectively. Dell's own bundled PictureStudio, Jukebox, and MovieStudio allow for additional photo, music, and movie tweaking.
Mobile application performance
When compared to all seven Pentium M notebooks tested in CNET Labs, the Inspiron 600m lagged behind three of them. The pacesetter was the Acer TravelMate 803LCi; its score of 211 was far above the 600m's 169. However, when we put the Inspiron 600m against two other notebooks for the home user, it faired better, winning this narrowly defined test group. The five-point spread it enjoyed over the IBM ThinkPad T40 is relatively small and would not offer any noticeable difference in real-life performance. The Dell Inspiron 600m beat the Gateway 450 by 22 points. The Gateway 450 was no doubt hindered by its relative lack of RAM. For a 1.6GHz Pentium M system, the Dell Inspiron 600m scored only slightly below average, but its mobile performance ranked high even among systems with faster CPUs.
Mobile application performance (Longer bars indicate faster performance)
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To measure mobile application performance and battery life, CNET Labs uses BAPCo's MobileMark2002. MobileMark measures both application performance and battery life concurrently using a number of popular applications (Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2002, Netscape Communicator 6.0, WinZip Computing WinZip 8.0, McAfee VirusScan 5.13, Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1, and Macromedia Flash 5.0).
SysMark2002 performance
Once again, the Dell Inspiron 600m is the leader of the performance pack. The system had no problem running the office-productivity and Internet-content-creation applications that comprise the maximum performance test. With its fast 5,400rpm IBM hard drive, the Dell Inspiron 600m scored exceptionally well in the office-productivity test. The system scored high in Internet content creation (ICC) as well, getting the second-highest ICC of the Pentium M systems we've tested.
Maximum application performance (Longer bars indicate faster performance)
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To measure maximum notebook application performance, CNET Labs uses BAPCo's SysMark2002, an industry-standard benchmark. SysMark measures a desktop's performance using off-the-shelf, office-productivity applications (such as Microsoft Office and McAfee VirusScan) and Internet-content-creation applications (such as Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Dreamweaver).
3D graphics performance
The 3D score is affected by the quality of the graphics adapter as well as the speed of the CPU. The 1.6GHz Pentium M Dell Inspiron 600m includes an ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 64MB and scored significantly higher than its comparison systems. Its closest competitor, the IBM ThinkPad T40 houses an ATI Mobility Radeon 32MB and as such, scored more than 2,000 points less. In this case, the extra 32MB of video RAM in the Dell Inspiron 600m made a huge difference.
3D graphics performance (Longer bars indicate faster performance)
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To measure 3D graphics performance, CNET Labs uses Futuremark's 3DMark2001 SE. We use 3DMark to measure desktop-replacement notebook performance with the DirectX 8.1 interface at the 32-bit color setting at a resolution of 1,024x768.
Find out more about how we test notebook systems.
System configurations:
Dell Inspiron 600m
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 64MB; IBM Travelstar 40GN 40GB 5,400rpm
Gateway 450
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 256MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility M7 32MB; Toshiba MK6021GAS 60GB 4,200rpm
IBM ThinkPad T40
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 32MB; IBM Travelstar 80GN 80GB 4,200rpm
Among the first crop of Pentium M-based notebooks we've tested, the Dell Inspiron 600m is the only one that failed to last four hours. Its smaller 11.1V, 4,320mAh battery just didn't have the juice to keep up with the Pentium M competition. Nevertheless, its score of three hours, 21 minutes would still be quite good when compared to notebooks based on Pentium 4-M or even Pentium III-M processors. Though we don't test with wireless on, it's also worth remembering that the Centrino configuration with Intel's wireless 802.11b should offer slightly better battery life than Dell's TrueMobile implementation.
Battery life (Longer bars indicate longer battery life)
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To measure mobile application performance and battery life, CNET Labs uses BAPCo's MobileMark2002. MobileMark measures both application performance and battery life concurrently using a number of popular applications (Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2002, Netscape Communicator 6.0, WinZip Computing WinZip 8.0, McAfee VirusScan 5.13, Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1, and Macromedia Flash 5.0).
System configurations:
Dell Inspiron 600m
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 64MB; IBM Travelstar 40GN 40GB 5,400rpm
Gateway 450
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 256MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility M7 32MB; Toshiba MK6021GAS 60GB 4,200rpm
IBM ThinkPad T40
Windows XP Professional; 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M; 512MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 32MB; IBM Travelstar 80GN 80GB 4,200rpm
Dell comes out of the service-and-support gate neck and neck with other laptop manufacturers, offering the standard one year of parts and labor, plus mail-in service with 24/7, toll-free tech support. But the company quickly pulls ahead with a vast assortment of for-fee extended warranty choices, including three years of service, accidental damage protection, onsite repair, and expedited service.
The company's excellent self-help program, Dell Solution Center, helps it cross the finish line ahead of the competition. Dell preloads this program, which contains a general user guide, plus individual guides to using specific system components such as the modem, the graphics card, and the wireless card. It also offers an entire section on how to tap your system's multimedia capabilities. Finally, you can click from the guide onto Dell's online support site, where you'll find help from other users in the customer forum, as well as FAQs, downloads, and more.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135
User Rating: 
2/10
Don't Buy Dell
Pros: It turns on
Cons: Everything else
User Rating: 
6/10
Good simple for every day use
Pros: nice laptop, gets the job done
Cons: get pretty slow once it isn't brand new even with a ton of free space
User Rating: 
3/10
Highly Unreliable. Poor Hardware
Pros: User-friendly. Fast. Overall great
Cons: Charging-Input Jack breaks easily. Battery.
User Rating: 3/10
Dell dud - quality no longer a priority of Dell
Pros: Inexpensive, small and light without being too cramped
Cons: Dell's reliability/service have tanked
User Rating: 3/10
Decent specs, had it lasted
Pros: high resolution option, decent performance specs for its time, decent weight
Cons: cheap, filmsy plastic enclosure. only two USB ports, which are on the back, just a basic business model, really really ugly
Within few month both laptops' left front corner was chipped off exact same way, same location, thanks to very cheap plastic casing... It scratches my left wrist sometimes.
Second, we both observed that due to some uneven heating on the backside of the display, bottom portion of the display close to right hinge would become darker over time. Whites would become dark gray.. Poor design causes excessive heat on portions of LCD, exact same way on both laptops.
Several months back, it started not to boot up. It would not even power up. I had to play with it, apply pressure to different parts of the case until it would start. It would make noises via its speakers while it did not start at all, would not even post.
Just like another user mentioned, my network card also started acting up. First it would not see the LAN. I thought it could be a connector issue, so I removed the minuature connector from cable and soldered it to the network card. It worked OK fo a while, but then it started o act again. In the meantime, wireles would also act up, though not as much as wired part.
My colleague's network card started acting up with the wireles part, but for the most part he does not have any problem with wired networking.
His computer also will not power up from time to time, he says he applies pressure on the back to get it boot.
For the last two weeks, my display background light started to turn off, or sometimes it will not turn on at all. I think my colleague will have this problem shortly. Since his laptop had been replicating mines problems.
These ar all indications of poor design and quality control. Although manufacturing seems to be quite repeatable. Otherwise, would it be possible to make systems that fail same way at around same times.
I'll push hard to convince my company not to buy dell anymore.
BTW. I am NOT "irfan_bugmenot ". I logged in via BUGMENOT
. Sagolasin Irfan
User Rating: 
7/10
Generally decent hardware
Pros: good resolution, good support, good keyboard, good wifi, fast hard drive
Cons: hmm... I am not sure
User Rating: 
4/10
worked great until warranty ran out
Pros: battery life pretty good, case held up
Cons: hot (even w/ new battery), wireless and ethernet crapped out, hard drive iffy
User Rating: 7/10
Excellent quality but the worst customer service
Pros: unbreakable
Cons: customer service lacks of common sense and quality
User Rating: 6/10
Decent Laptop
Pros: Good wi-fi, good design(looks nice), good 3D proformance. This is a nice laptop when it comes down to it. I bought it for college and it served it's purpose
Cons: This thing just feels cheap. Cheap plastic. This thing gets HOT! On the lower portion of the LCD it get so hot you can't keep your hand to it for long. You don't want to keep it on your lap either.
User Rating: 
9/10
Works great with Ubuntu.
Pros: Light and easy to carry around.
Cons: Battery life drops out quickly.
User Rating: 3/10
Cheap but still not worth it.
Pros: Inexpensive and fairly light
Cons: short battery life, low disk space, other problems
I also forgot how horrible the keyboard. Some of the faces on the keys started to fall off. They still worked, but even the rest of the key collaped. This first happened to my shift button, so dell sent me another keyboard, free of charge. Nice of them, or so I thought. I put in my new keyboard, and it worked, at first. But then even more keys started to go. The r, i, and the caps lock have fallen off.
User Rating: 9/10
Great student/gaming laptop!
Pros: Strong processor, crazy graphics card (can play all the up to date games), big hard drive, and super clear screen display.
Cons: Hard drive gets so hot that it becomes difficult to type (left wrist warms up). Graphics card becomes crazy hot that it has darkened the LCD in the lower right middle portion.
Again, the only problems I have had are the heat issues - and an external power supply failing (which dell replaced before warranty ran out).
Other than that, this laptop has been running since then basically an average of 8 hours a day - many hours at 100% CPU playing games. Today it serves as my alternate account computer for Eve Online and assist in several distributed computing projects (protein folding). Still running strong!
User Rating: 7/10
Good laptop if the price is right.
Pros: Great keyboard, nice screen, good performance.
Cons: Has a tendency to overheat.
I have had one serious problem with this laptop and I would imagine other people would encounter this too. The CPU fan intake takes in more dust than a vacuum cleaner. After about 6 months, I noticed that the laptop was getting very hot and programs seemed to slow down. I managed to open the laptop and clean out the dust which was preventing air from flowing properly inside. It has now been running fine since then. I opened it again today and cleared up what dust had built up since the first cleaning.
Aside from this, I am very happy with this laptop and would advise a purchase as long as you don't pay more than $500 or so.
User Rating: 2/10
New Dehli isn't a new store to buy a sub-sandwich
Pros: looked nice
Cons: customer service is horrible
User Rating: 2/10
DO NOT PURCHASE!!
Pros: There aren't any.
Cons: Everything...read my opinion.
One last note... make sure that if you do have the parts replaced, that they are actually "new" and not "refurbished". They also do this to cut costs.
Out of all the computers/laptops out there.. I HIGHLY suggest avoiding this one and going with a Sony Viao.
User Rating: 4/10
Mediocre to poor performance.
Pros: Small sleek design with bells and whistles.
Cons: Marginally acceptable speed.
User Rating: 7/10
It does what I need it to do
Pros: fast, easy to set up and use
Cons: too heavy to carry to school everyday
Other than that, I am very pleased with the Inspiron 600m. It is much faster than my old laptop, and everything is easy to use for a novice like me.
User Rating: 7/10
Good, but not great
Pros: Good value for the price
Cons: Tech support, Tech support....
The major concern I have is tech support. English skills are poor. Compounding this problem I have a hearing impairment and found my phone support experience complete frustrating and useless. The chat session was better, but scripted, and if its not in the script dont expect a solution. I give their tech support an F, because of their English shills and poor overall communication abilities, perhaps I would rate them slightly higher (D) if I didnt have a hearing impairment.
The second issue is the AC adapter. After seven months of ownership the AC adapter failed. How can an AC adapter fail? Come on, this is a laptop. Without AC the 600m is an oversized paper weight or a dog's chew toy. I give the AC adapter an F. If you get a 600m buy a spare AC adapter, because you will need it.
The last very annoying problem is when I put the 600m into rest or suspend mode. More times than not I will have to perform a hard re-start to get the 600m out of the rest mode. This problem is annoying, and it is likely a settings issue, but without better Tech support I really dont want to endure another pointless experience with tech support. I give this issue a D.
In retrospect,I wasn't an educated buyer prior to purchasing the 600m, and if I had done a little more research before purchasing this machine the short comings probably wouldn't be as disappointing. I would have purchased the warantee, because the 600m is rumored to have issues with the motherboard. To date, I haven't had any issues with the motherboard (knocking on wood). It's not a bad machine, and for the money it's a safe buy.
User Rating: 9/10
2 1/2 years and counting
Pros: Size/weight, screen, quiet, running temperature, keyboard, graphics
Cons: Battery, volume controls, processor showing its age
User Rating: 2/10
Beware: The hard drive is unreliable and is a piece of junk. Don't waste your money on this laptop!
Pros: It looks cute.
Cons: Bad graphics card, hard drive breaks easily, mouse messes up a lot
User Rating: 3/10
wouldn't matter that service people don't speak english if it broke less
Pros: looks good, works fast enough when it isn't broken
Cons: screen broke within 6 months, was sent a refurbished computer, motherboard broke months later, bluetooth INTERNAL card somehow broke as well, along with one of my USB ports...
Every time I called Dell, they made me absolutely furious. By the end of a day where I spent 10 hours (no joke) on the phone with them on my day off from work, they actually made me cry three times. I don't have much of a temper, but when I wait on hold 30 minutes, I don't want to be hung up on. When I talk to someone who doesn't speak English, I don't want to be denied a manager. My favorite was that a woman yelled at me because I wasn't following her instructions to UNPLUG MY MONITOR on my LAPTOP. Yelled. No joke. Then she hung up when I asked for a manager. Bad days happen, but with Dell this isn't atypical. Every day is a bad customer service day. Also, they don't tell you they'll send a refurbished 'new' (to me) computer. They just do it. And they sent my ship box to the wrong address TWICE, then refused to send another. I imagine this also involved their employees' failure to speak the company's language. Finally, I called headquarters in Austin with a list of complaints after my third box was denied (two weeks after my screen went out and I refused to "unplug my monitor"), I was promised a discount on my next Dell, and when I went to buy it -- it wasn't there. And no record existed of any of my disasterous service calls.
Save yourself. The machine isn't bad when it's working. But it breaks all the time. And when it does, don't count on Dell.
If you do get one, the first time you call service ask the person where they're located. They won't tell you. It's pretty funny. "Are you in Austin?" "I cannot answer." "Are you in India?" "I will not answer that question." "Why you will not unplug your monitor?"
Good luck.
User Rating: 7/10
Great student laptop
Pros: Lightweight; sturdy; good battery life
Cons: Needs more USB ports; wrist rest heat
User Rating: 
8/10
Great laptop
Pros: Performance + Design
Cons: eatSome hardware issues but corrected with great support.
User Rating: 6/10
Not for gaming or video intensive applications
Pros: Nice form factor
Cons: Design flaw makes it overheat while playing games
More info about this problem is available here:
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_bios&message.id=34029&view=by_date_ascending&page=2
The other problem with this laptop is short battery life, and no high capacity battery option is available.
Aside from that, after 2 years, I like mine, and if these two problems were fixed, I would get another.
User Rating: 2/10
Can you spell LEMON?
Pros: Lightweight
Cons: Bad hardware; mediocre customer service
And get this: they only replace failed parts with new parts if they fail within the first THREE weeks! After that, everything is refurbished. Plus, your warranty period starts *the day they ship your computer* - not the day you get it or the day you set it up for the first time. So you can lose nearly a week off your warranty just in shipping!
Now I have a computer (that I paid full price for) consisting of mostly refurbished parts. It doesn't give me a lot of confidence about the useful lifespan of this computer, which will surely be my last Dell computer!
User Rating: 9/10
A great Notebook!
Pros: Light, great battery life and powerful.
Cons: More USB ports needed.
Cons - They probably could of done a better job on the exterior and the color scheme, but thats cosmetic. More USB ports would have been a plus, as well as a fire wire port. But over all it is great!
User Rating: 
1/10
Still Not Working!
Pros: Arrived on time. Worked great for 3 months.
Cons: After 13 months, I'm on my 3rd hard drive, the modem still doesn't work, etc., etc.
User Rating: 1/10
Don't buy Dell
Pros: did not find any pros, as the compute was delivered not completely working
Cons: Dell service is completely nonexistent
User Rating: 7/10
Great product. Love it!
Pros: Works great. Looks expensive, but is cheap for a good laptop. Plays DVD with great quality.
Cons: Problems with being able to connect to some of the hot spots
Dells tech support is TERRIBLE! They wanted to charge me over $100 to get a 'technician' to answer my SIMPLE QUESTION... I still can't connect to 'hot spots'
The hard drive on this computer sucks. this is the 2nd time I get the hard drive replaced (I bought it 7 months ago) It seems that the computer isn't the same after the a new hard drive change.
BAD PRODUCT! I'va had too many problems with this lap top. Bad hard drives, bad hard drives!!! I've had problems with their hard drives two times now. They're good about replacing them, but they're HORRIBLE replacements. They actually tols me to take the mother board out myself beacuse they thought it was the mother board rather than the hard drive...
User Rating: 
5/10
Heats up!!
Pros: Fast, nice display..
Cons: Too Hot...left palm and LCD
User Rating: 6/10
No surprises so far
Pros: Affordable, thin, fast
Cons: Keyboard has give
Laptop delivery took 7 days on UPS from Nashville to Tulsa after a one week production wait. I didn't have to pay for shipping. Opened the well padded shipping carton and noticed only one backup CD for WordPerfect. No XP backup disk and no significant documentation to speak of. I called Dell tech support and spoke with a nice Philippino lady about the missing XP disks. She started to have me make an XP CD copy of what was already available on the laptop hard drive but then realized that my laptop isn't equiped to write CDs. FWIW: It was 3 a.m. her time, just before noon my time.
Laptop appears to have been built in Malaysia. Opened clam door and noticed that the laptop screen was smudged, possibly by keyboard keys on left and right. Smudges were easily removed with a Kleen Screen Towelette. I had to study the Dell set up picture because the power connector on the laptop didn't look like the power connector on the power cord. I noticed that the keyboard has a rather small amount of give in the center.
After power up the boot up sequence went as expected except a single DOS text line appears between the Dell screen and the Windows screen. It looks like a question but it sails by so fast I can't read it. The Windows setup went normally. The laptop easily acquired an open WiFi signal from the hotel next door to my office and I was off and running. I'm not a real fan of McAfee but my attitude is changing. I do like McAfee on this laptop which updated itself with a McAfee firewall.
I went with the standard XGA screen which is very sharp and colorful at the default setting of 1024 x 768 with 32 bit color. No bad pixels. I'm very happy with this screen.
The chassis gets a little warm on the left of the key pad but nothing yet of concern to me. I purchased a Dell optical mouse which plugs into one of the two USB ports. It works just fine and is a lot better than using the keypad.
So far I've only connected with WiFi mode B. The laptop WiFi seems to be operating normally. Hard drive properties show that 52.7MB is the maximum available to the user on the laptop 60MB drive. The laptop case is thinner than I expected.
I was able to negotiate the price and shipping with Dell through their small business sales rep. I paid $799 incl. shipping.
My very first impression about this May 2005 version 600M is good. Now I'll find out how it holds up over time.
My biggest surprise was when the laptop dropped out of its bag by accident at the end of my first week of use. Now only a small part of the screen works. Dell says that their 21 day Customer return for any reason guaranty doesn't apply and their 1 year limited warranty doesn't apply either. I should have bought Dell's Complete Care warranty.
User Rating: 8/10
good performance for less price
Pros: light,rugged,comparitively cheap
Cons: Excessively heats up in the area to the left of touch pad on continuos use
User Rating: 6/10
Good for Home Use
Pros: Spacious wide keyboard
Cons: Battery Life
Its good for Personal use only.
I personally give a rating of 6.5/10.0
User Rating: 1/10
Motherboard dead and support not much better
Pros: Great on electricity now that it can't power on
Cons: Makes for an expensive paper weight
Forgot to mention that laptop was 22 months old when it died.
User Rating: 9/10
Light, Powerful and Feature Packed!
Pros: Tons of Options, Powerful Pentium M Processor, Radeon 9000
Cons: Power Management causes the hdd to make noise when on batteries
I think the people that weren't happy with this computer may have gotten the slowest (cheapest) processor, minimal ram and the 4200rpm hdd. Go with the 2.0Ghz, 512 or more RAM and the 5400 rpm hdd and you won't be disappointed!
User Rating: 2/10
CLASS ACTION SUIT!
Pros: The computer starts out fantastic, easy enough to bring to class, small and compact, works as well as a desktop
Cons: PIECE OF JUNK!!! Falls apart after a year...
I have had my inpiron 600m for a little over a year and that's when everything fell apart. The fan on my computer broke causing it to constantly overheat. My charger broke and when I ordered a new one, dell sent me one that is too strong for my computer and it has fried my computer now. I'm currently on hold going on 2 hours for their "supurb costumer service" DON"T BUY A DELL!!! THEY ARE NOT GOOD ANYMORE!!
User Rating: 1/10
Dead motherboard right out of the box
Pros: I get a refund in 10 days
Cons: Never even booted, and support really didn't care
User Rating: 2/10
Just Don't!
Pros: light, cheap, nice looking
Cons: Well, let me count...
User Rating: 6/10
Motherboard dead after 1.5 yrs
Pros: Light weight
Cons: Motherboard problem is very common. I have created a database to record such issues. If you are having such problems then join us at "http://groups.yahoo.com/grou p/dell_Inspiron_600m/join" <center> <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com /group/dell_I
User Rating: 8/10
Good, basic notebook
Pros: This is a great notebook for students. It's small and fairly light, but not tiny like some out there. The feature set is really all I need, and it's plenty fast for normal computing. Catch the sales right, and it's really inexpensive, too.
Cons: One or two more USB ports would have been nice - I'd have traded the parallel port for that. There's no firewire, either, but that's no issue for me. And, of course, the aforementioned hot spot under the left wrist.
User Rating: 7/10
Great notebook for the home user to take on the road.
Pros: Slim and lightweight. Fast and dependable for most non-gaming or graphics users.
Cons: Battery could last longer
User Rating: 5/10
will never purchase dell again
Pros: offers what any other walmart laptop would, wish i would have known
Cons: slow, problems from 1st day
User Rating: 7/10
So far it has been great
Pros: Mine: Cent.1.6, 512 (1 dimm) 60 g, 32 video. I've had it for about a month now, and I have concluded that all those stories about poor quality and so on, are anomalies. The built quality is not the best, but it's also about 700 to 800 less than a similar
Cons: none so far.
User Rating: 3/10
Bad Bad Hardware
Pros:
Cons: This was my first and last purchase from Dell, Dell customer service is great but your Hardware sucks, I change my hard drive 3 times and still I am having problem with it. is not reliable at all, again Dell is good in customer service but BAD BAD BAD in
User Rating: 8/10
Slow productivity speed, great battery life - CEHAP PRICE
Pros: 1) I dont care what others say. I watch 2 movies on this laptop before the battery runs out. Dude, that's 4 hours of baterry life. 2) Light weight, thin laptop. Only 1.5 inches thick. Way better than a dumb HP Pavilion. 3) Inexpensive - I bought this one
Cons: 1) Productivity speed is slow, try not to run many programs at once. IT WILL FREEZE. Otherwise it will works just fine 2) No firewie port - say good bye to ur camcoder. Unless you obsessed with video editing, you will be just fine w/o it. 3) The bottom le
User Rating: 8/10
good overall package
Pros: every laptop is a compromise; this one offered all the features I wanted in the right sized package
Cons:
User Rating: 5/10
Poorly Built!
Pros: size, features
Cons: Poorly built, power button is broken, needs replacement. Other people I know with same model have same problem also. Will not buy dell laptop in future.
User Rating: 1/10
Dell rips you off by providing a cheap batter
Pros: laptop itself is decent.
Cons: engineers at Dell can only design a battery that last (almost) exactly 1 year (end of warranty). Strange how other vendors can design Li-ion batteries that last for multiple years. I guess Dell needs to make profits somewhere... what a shame.
User Rating: 4/10
good laptop but a tad bit slow
Pros: Great package! not heavy and should integrate into the office just nicely.
Cons: dell seems to put the worst batteries in their notebooks and actually prompt you for battery upgrades. This is absolutely weak. but, it is the only bad thing i can say about their notebook products. :)
User Rating: 8/10
600m is a decent, lighweight, working computer
Pros: it's light weight, easy to travel with, great with wireless technology and very upgradeable. the small design still allows for modular additional batteries and bays. very awesome
Cons:
User Rating: 9/10
Great Buy, Great Machine!
Pros: I bought the 600m with almost all the top options, including the highest resolution. The performance is nice and the battery does last over 4 hours, even on the wireless network. I love it.
Cons: I didn't pay for the DVD writer, which is the only option that I did not choose. But, then again I don't plan on burning DVD's on the go! I still have my desktop.
User Rating: 6/10
bad finish!
Pros: 2.0GHz Pentium M, 1024MB DDR RAM, 40 GB hard drive, 64MB VGA card, a/b/g wireless card, bluetooth, CD-RW/DVD-RW, all under $2500. Even though the Toshiba Tecra M2 offers the same configuration in the same price, you'll never be able to get through to cust
Cons: The notebook seems like a plastic toy...bad finish! There's even some constant ticking noise form under the keyboard. Also, it seems a bit heavier than I expected. I'm giving this a bad rating not because I think it's bad performance-wise, but it just doe
User Rating: 5/10
A good deal, but not a home run
Pros: Easy to configure and price, realtively inexpensive, good looking (IMO), brillent hi res screen for Photoshop & CAD.
Cons: No firewire; case is nice looking,sturdy, but having used an IBM and an Apple it feels less substantial. Battery life sould be better, but its still better than most Apple laptops. A 1280x1024 screen option would be nice.
User Rating: 2/10
I have had 2
Pros: The fist 600m I loved. Unfortuately, it disapeared with all my other belongings during a robbery. Loved the speed and graphics. It was perfect for my life.
Cons: The second system is slow, the screen blacks out (even the first time I turned it on) have lost reports several times, top USB port only works about 50% of the time, the list goes on and on. I have been waiting for a new system for over a month. Have ha
User Rating: 8/10
Excellent Support so far. . .
Pros: Screen has excellent colour. The overall looks of the computer are pretty good, I just got it today and am so far quite satifed but we shall see
Cons: I used to have an Inspiron 8000 and It had tons of problems, the keyoard probably went out 4 times and that is not an exageation. The mouse pad went out twice the screen went out once and was about to go out again, If I were rating that machine it would
User Rating: 8/10
Good lap with a few glitches
Pros: light, enough power to do what i need it for, nice screen (SXGA), good graphics (64 Mb), nice design except for fan below, quick accesibility to sound controls, ports and outlets well located, nice wireless reception with the 11 Mbps. Except for when it's
Cons: heat in left side palm rest, minor heating but can bother after a while..... fan on the bottom of computer which does not permit to put laptop in bed without anything solid below, else it would heat up the processor i suppose.
User Rating: 5/10
Great Futures, Terrible Quality Control.
Pros: Bought it coz the features of the Inspiron 600M is quite comprehensive. Thought it to be value for money.
Cons: Terrible or NO Quality Control. Just got my unit today, powered it up for the first time out of the box and notice that the colors are smeared on the LCD display. Called Tech support and they acknowledge that it's the display problem. They promised to sen
User Rating: 8/10
Great design and features
Pros: I like all of the features it has with, of course, the possibility for upgrades and installments. One of the best of dell's finest.
Cons:
User Rating: 8/10
Best Deal Ever!
Pros: I have 60 GB HD, and 512 memory, and wireless internet. It's a great machine!! It's way faster than my other computer (we have 2). Wireless is the way to go.-It comes with great perks such as Musicmatch (which i paid about $50 for for my other computer)
Cons: The only downside is the battery life isn't so great. It lasts about 2 hours. But that's easily fixed since 99% of the time it's going to be used in our house, so we just plug it in, no battery used.
User Rating: 9/10
Great Price, Configureable Specs!
Pros: The thing about DELL notebooks is that you can configure the specs yourself at DELL website, buy it online and DELL always put on special promotions and free gifts! That is why DELL is triumphed over other competitions! And the Inspiron 600M, well, it was
Cons: Product quality not as good as my other notebook, Fujitsu S-series, but hey, if you want better quality casing opt for DELL Latitude D600. In this 600M case, you get what you pay for.
User Rating: 4/10
Poor service makes computer useless
Pros: Good value compared to other similarly equipped notebooks. It is a false economy since they appear to cut corners in both the hardware quality and support to get to the price point
Cons: The worst service I have ever experienced period. They could not solve problems or they made things worse. Very long wait times to get to the support desk followed by longer wait times as they search for the answer or contact tier 2 support personnel. Ema
User Rating: 2/10
I wont recmend this system to anyone
Pros: Good battery life. Built-in WiFi.
Cons: Hardware is teriable. My Dvd/CD Write combo went dead with 3 months. in the fourth month i started having problems volume buttons to top to keyboards. They complete stopped responding. System shipped to dell for repairs. I am not what to they but it 3 key
User Rating: 1/10
A dog
Pros: None.
Cons: Horrible quality. In two months I've gotten a new fan, dvd/cd and motherboard, and now they're sending a new bottom for the machine and maybe another motherboard to try to get the thing to behave (it doesn't see its battery, sometimes, and shuts off at t