Dell inspiron 700m or NOT?

I was looking at the Dell Inspiron 700m lightweight
traveler(4.1 pounds)and was wondering if anyone thinks i should go with something else besides this. I need something very light for school,networking,and apps...no gaming at all....Battery life around 2 hours anything else in mind? Any opinions or help would be awesome!
This is the only Notebook i liked so far!

 

Keyboard is horrible. If you are a touch typer it could be the deal breaker. I returned mine. It isn't so much the size...though it could be better as the way Dell squashed the ,./ keys. Everytime I try to hit . I hit /.

 

Thats what i have been hearing about the keyboard. Im not the fastest typer so..im sure it would be alright..Thanks for the opinion![ ]

 

Sony S360

He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
Chinese Proverb

 

Fujitsu S7010, or IBM X Series.

 

Might want to see if the Dell 600m would suit you. Bigger but still very light with decent keyboard.

 

What is you budget? Consider the Fujitsu s6231 as well. Fujitsus have one of the best screens available. They also offer way better quality than Dells. You can get one on NewEgg for around $1300. Or you can configure one at Portable One for about $1450. The Portable One comes with a three year warranty standard. I'd recommend you spend extra $30 for the 5400RPM hard drive. I'll also toss out the IBM T42. They are the best built notebooks. Plus the come with 5400RPM hard drives standard and the best keyboards in the industry. IBM does not do glossy screens though if you like that. The x40 is more expensive than the T42. They use 1.8" 4200RPM hard drives and can not be upgraded. They also have no optical drive, so you'd have to get an external one. Good Luck.






I know things, things that could get me killed


Thinkpad T41:
* 1.6Ghz Pentium M * 768Mb Memory * 40Gb Hitachi 7200RPM * Panasonic UJ-845-B DVD+RW *

 

I would recommend the 700m. Well, i am using a 700m right now. As you can see on my sig, I am into Dell, cuz I think price/performance wise Dell offer quite a good bang for the buck. (Especially ppl in US who can get these insanely good dell coupon.)

As you have said, you don't do gaming. 700M is really a good machine. With a 8 cell battery, it can go 4 hours straight easy. The glossy wide screen is exceptional for DVD playing. And the 700M has integrated DVD-ROM (you can opt for multi-burner). So for quite a small form factor, you got everything with you. And there is a SD card reader, so you can take photo on DC and pop the SD card onto the reader. Since I travel very frequently from Hong Kong, GuangZhou and Shanghai. I pack this lappy on my Crumpler bag, and I basically have everything I need. (Packed together with the China Unicom CDMA boardband wireless card, I am set to surf anywhere in China.)

Here is how I use my lappy:

My current 700M is for my girlfriend. Since I am waiting for my I9300, so I have been using her for 3 months. I do some programming, Photoshop, e-mail, and web surfing. The lappy can run quite smoothly except for Photoshop. I have a SQL server running on the 700M for test database, and constantly have Outlook on. And for normal operation, 700M never fails me.

LCD... When my girlfriend and I saw this screen, we were awed by it. Well maybe we haven't seen much... but we did our fair share of shopping around in HK, where we compare the screen to Toshiba, and Sony (which both offers excellent screen). The wide screen is very good. Quite bright in my opinion, and wide screen is great for DVD. So if you travel or are studying at University, 700M offers excellent DVD playback in compact space.

Keyboard wise... I am an Asian, and my hand was quite small, so I think it is good, but just missed having that nub for mouse. Don't like the touchpad, since it takes time getting used to.

I did try some game on the 700M. I can run Rome Total War, but not very well... especially in the warefare section, the system lags, and have noticeable frame rate drop.

Speaker wise... the 700M isn't too good, considering the speaker is attached to the lower portion of the LCD. No subwoofer... but for a very portable laptop that offers excellent battery life, a good form factor, all-in-one with DVD-Rom.. I unreservedly recommend 700M.

One more recommendation... opt for bigger HD, and more RAM. Since memory makes a huge difference. Althought the 8 cell battery sticks out from the back, but I think in exchange for 4+ hours, i think it is WORTH it.

I9300 - 1.86 1G 60G 7200rpm 17" WUXGA 256M 6800Go - Waiting
700m - 1.6 512M 40G - Current

 

Thanks for all the help guys, especially calbear and zazons...thanks for info and time. I prob will go with the 700m baby! Take care now and i will let you know how it goes.