Latitude X300 From Dell Financial Services

I ordered an X300 from DFS today: 1.4 GHz, 40 GB HD, 1GB RAM, DVD/CDRW, Intel 2200 wireless, XP Pro. It cost $412 and comes with about 8 months of Complete Care and Next Day warranty service. I first started looking on eBay a few weeks ago, for an nc4010, D400 or X300, but saw this one at DFS and really liked the full gig of RAM. Really just want something light and portable for word processing and maybe video. Might have been able to keep the cost a little lower through eBay, but figured that between the RAM, warranty and some reasonable options if something goes wrong, I might as well spend the extra 50 or 75 dollars.

That's it. Just thought I'd post this in case someone's looking for something similar. Plus, discussion's always interesting. Thanks.

 

Not bad when you consider that laptop sold for $2,500 or so back in the day when it was released in 2004. I think it'll serve well as a secondary laptop for when you're on the road. Is Dell Financial Services like Dell Outlet? Not familiar with that channel.

 

I was thinking about purchasing one from there also, but I didn't know how the condition was. I talked to dell and you can upgrade the warranty also but it's like 200 for 2 years. Post back if you can about it.

 

Dell Financial Services is kinda like Dell Outlet with the exception that the notebooks are kinda outdated and are being sold after being used for a lease agreement, while Dell Outlet are pretty current models with being returned for problems, or cancellations. Correct me if I am wrong

 

Thanks for the quick replies. Compsavy's got it right, I'd say, Andrew. My wife once (years ago) bought a couple of old Latitudes from DFS and they were pretty good, and cheap at the time. The X300 was originally purchased in January of 2005, thus the 8 months' warranty & complete care (I think).

The DFS machines are generally off-lease business machines that are at least a couple of years old, as compsavy says. They could have seen some hard use. But they're not supposed to be too rough. I guess in the under $500 category, they make some sense. I just wanted the small form factory, and it's hard to find regular old refurbs at Dell Outlet for under eight or nine hundred, at least the ultraportables.

 

My father has one of these from his office, and a friend of mine has one as well just for personal use.

Weak hinges. Both of them are about 3 years old and the hinges are dying. The lids will fall over just of their own accord sometimes. Aside from that, they are solid performers, especially considering the age, and give great battery life. I don't like the low screen res either, but the screen is pretty small. Overall, I really like it. Good choice!

 

It is amazing that a notebook that cost $2500 or so in early 2005 now sells for $400. I also considered the Thinkpad X40 and X31, which I didn't mention before, but the right price usually meant no hard drive or OS, or some kind of damage that "doesn't affect operation." I'm always plotting: "XP Pro and a RAM upgrade will cost..." This seemed like the way to go. I'll definitely report back when I get it. By Tuesday, I'm hoping, since I got the 2-day shipping.

Just saw Vivek's mention of the hinges. I guess if there's a problem out of the box, I can address it early. We'll see.

 

I suspect that it's the finance arm selling units that have come off lease.

I know that's what the IBM certified used channel is.

Probably same for dell.

Some very good deals there, some not. Gotta shop carefully.

 

I have to say nay, simply because there are notebooks in the $500-$600 range that will totally own what your looking at, with mail in rebates they could be even cheaper, you wont get complete care, but you should still get a decent warranty and probably for longer than 8 months. Ram is cheap right now, DDR2 is actually cheaper than DDR, I think you would be better off investing a little more and getting a modern more functional machine for your money.

heres something from a quick browse through Dell outlet,

Inspiron 640m / E1405
(System Identifier: 0G7RFG8Z)


Inspiron 640m/E1405 Notebook: Intel Pentium dual-core T2060(1MB Cache/1.6GHz/533MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic

System Price : $569.00

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Memory
1 GB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz (2 DIMMs)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Disk Drive
80 GB EIDE SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Video
Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 950
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Software Upgrade
Corel Paint Shop Pro XI - Advanced photo editing
Microsoft Works 8.5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Certified Refurbished
Certified Refurbished
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Base
Inspiron 640m/E1405 Notebook: Intel Pentium dual-core T2060(1MB Cache/1.6GHz/533MHz FSB)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Media Bay
24X CD RW/DVD Combo Drive
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Network Interface Card
1390 Wireless Card
Internal NIC/56K Modem
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NoteBook Screen
14.1 inch WXGA TrueLife Notebook Screen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hardware Upgrade
6 Cell Primary Battery

 

Some pretty compelling arguments there. I actually reviewed a 640m/e1405 about a year ago, and it was impressive for the price. That Outlet machine does look like a great deal. Another pretty decent, and cheap, review model I looked at was the Toshiba A135-S4427, which you can get new for $600 from time to time. All that said, I'm just gonna see how I feel about the X300 when it comes. DFS has a 30-day return policy, but if it's in decent shape I'll probably keep it. For anything beyond the basic, I'll use the M65.

For most people, though, the Outlet e1405 would probably make more sense.

 

Actually, instead of the E1405, you could look at the Gateway MT3707. That is a phenomenal notebook at the $599 price point.

The only problem with all of these is they are somewhere between thin-and-light and mainstream in terms of size and weight, whereas the X300 is squarely ultraportable at 2.9lbs. The X300 is good enough for basic tasks like word processing and internet though, so it should be fine.

 

please post the link to Dell Financial services.

 

Where is this site. Lattuides= better build Quailty. I am thinking of replacing this aging X30 Thinkpad of mine.

 

Here's the link:

http://www.dfsdirectsales.com/dell/ctl641/cp19263/cl2/latitude

 

Damn That X300 is sweet for the price. get a nice cheap 7200RPM drive and throw in a 1GB stick of ram, you have a really light durable road warrior. The Pentium M @ 1.4GHZ is fine for all basic work.

 

The more general link is: http://www.dfsdirectsales.com/

I just saw a Precision M90 for $854. Service Tag JM150B1. A CD T2300 & 512MB, I think, but only a year old, so 2 years left on warranty. A good deal but it needs more RAM. I doubt it'll last.

 

WoW thats really really good. You can pop in a Core 2 and it has the Dual Pipe 7900GS which means you can v-mod the card.

 

Just got the X300 and it looks good. Very clean overall, and the keyboard and LCD appear to be new. The only real imperfection I've noticed so far is that one of the little rubber feet is missing. The bottom has a few scratches, as well. Either the person who had it took good care or some parts have been replaced. The docking station also looks new.

Haven't tested it nearly as much as I will, but I couldn't be happier so far.

One little thing. I first turned it on without putting it into the MediaBase docking station and got all kinds of errors, but after restarting from the docking station, Dell's XP install utility kicked in and everything went fine.

 

Hmm, that M90 is really nice. I need something way smaller though.

Nice to know that the X300 is looking good.

 

Finally occurred to me today that I maybe should have originally posted this in the "New Dell" thread. Oh well. I guess it's really more about DFS, which looks to be a very strong option for people who want something decent on the cheap. I'm amazed at how close to new this X300 seems. There's some barely visible wear on the spacebar, same as I get on all my laptops, and the missing rubber foot on the bottom, but everything else is in near pristine condition.

My thinking when I bought this, which is still my thinking now that I have it, is that as long as the off-lease notebook has a fair amount of warranty time left, it's hard to go wrong. But the question people brought up earlier remains: Is it better to get a new dual-core consumer notebook for $600 or $700, or a used business machine, still in warranty, for $400 or $500? In the world of ultraportables, of course, a new notebook is a lot more than 6-700 dollars. I really liked a Gateway review machine I had a while back, the E-100M. But that would probably cost something like $1400 for a good configuration.

That M90 was a great deal, Vivek, but it's apparently gone now.

Now that I've owned and reviewed a few notebooks, I guess what I really like about Dell is that between DFS and Dell Outlet, you can get something pretty decent for a really good price. In the world of new notebooks, it's all up for grabs, all the time, with so many new models being released, and each manufacturer having strengths or weaknesses depending on the particular line or model.

 

I'm curious. I might buy one too.

Just a few questions:

• Did Dell ship it with new batteries?
• What battery was it? Normal or extended?
• Do they come with wifi cards preinstalled?

If someone could answer this, I'd be happy.

 

I got the small battery (1900mAh, I think). I don't think it's new; it's not banged up or anything but it's only good for about an hour. Mine came with wireless. If you plug the service tag in at the link below, you'll get more info. If wireless was part of original config, it should still be there.

http://support.dell.com/support/top...systems_info/en/details?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs