My two D630's are here

They came in last Wednesday after being ordered on 5/9/07.

2 222-7947 Latitude D630, Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, 2.00GHz, 800MHz 4M L2 Cache, Dual Core
2 320-5289 14.1 inch Wide Screen WXGA+ LCD for Latitude D631
2 311-5686 1.0GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM, 1 DIMM for Dell Latitude Notebooks
2 310-8768 Internal English Keyboard for Latitude Notebooks
2 320-5298 Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 Latitude D630
2 341-4568 80GB Hard Drive 9.5MM 7200RPM for Latitude DX30
2 310-8792 Standard Touchpad for LatitudeD630
2 340-8854 No Floppy Drive for Latitude D-Family Notebooks
2 420-4790 Windows XP Professional, SP2 with media, for Latitude English, Factory Installed
2 430-2274 Dell Wireless 360 Bluetooth Module for XP, Latitude
2 310-7284 90W AC Adapter for Latitude D-Family, Factory Tied
2 313-3286 No Optical Device, Latitude D610, Factory Tied
2 430-2375 Intel 4965 WLAN (802.11a/g/n) mini Card Latitude, Factory Install
2 313-5028 Resource CD w/ Diagnostics andDrivers for Latitude D630 Notebook
2 312-0485 9-Cell/85 WHr Primary Battery for Latitude D630
2 310-7278 D/Port, Port Replicator for Latitude D-Family, Factory Tied

I blew away the Dell OS build and loaded XP Pro on a 37GB partition, leaving the rest for a future Vista install. Physically it looks exactly like a 620, except it says D630 on the case. For my work I prefer the long battery life of the Intel graphics card combined with the 9-cell battery and media bay battery. I get about 9-9.5 hours with that combo.

Overall I'm not impressed yet. It's going to be very tough to get me away from my D620. It's the first notebook I've had in a long time where everything worked. The OS build is perfect. Even the little things like the touchpad and keyboard have perfect feel.

I will do a D620/630 deathmatch performance test this week and see what the real differences are. More to follow.

 

Can you look at your GMA X3100 setup and see if you can tell it to rotate 90 degrees the image on an external monitor. The folks at Dell seem clueless about this.

My older dell 5150 with an NVidia card does this without an issue, just don't know if the integrated graphics offers this option.

 

So you can't tell any performance difference between the 620 and 630? How is the screen? Bright with good viewing angles and no leakage? Thanks

Mine arrives in 2 hours.

 

Mines arrived Friday and so far it is very good. No leakage and no complaints

 

Yes, I can rotate.

I guess the 630 seems a bit faster, but that could be the fresh build. My greatest disappointment is the built-in lcd. Regardless of my brightness setting, the lighter colors appear washed out like an overexposure on film. The screen on my 620 is much nicer. I will have to play with the settings. Right now I have it docked and it is a champ.

Maybe I will just swap out my HDD, keyboard and lcd panel with the 630.

 

That's a shame about the screen quality. What's wrong with the keyboard and HDD?

 

I just like the XP build I'm running on the 620, so instead of starting over I would just keep it. The keyboard is just personal preference. I like the touch better on my old one. I'm picky that way.

I played with the gamma a bit in the GMA utility and the screen is fine now.

The battery is still kind of "burning in", so stats are all over the board. Looks better now, though. I've been running it on battery since about 11am (almost 4 hours ago), and it still says 6 hours left and 79%. That's with the media bay battery + 9-cell.

 

Good to hear about the color issue being easily fixed.
That's awesome if you can get 10 hours battery life. (I was pleased with the 3 hours I get on my old inspiron.)

 

I guess my opinion is that it's an acceptable follow on to the really nice 620 series. I wouldn't make a special purchase to upgrade from a 620, but from a 600 or 610 it's worthwhile. Externally it looks no different. On the inside it's a totally new machine.

 

I just got my D630 and I'm completely happy with it and it is my best purchase from Dell so far.

 

Is the screen bright enough for working outside when sunshine weather (on battery)?

 

i guess i am not the only one with the lcd problem

 

The screen is superb. It is bright and the matte finish is perfect. Doesn't reflect. It gets plenty bright for me, I love it!!!! Horizontal viewing angles are great. My only complaint would have to be the vertical viewing angle.

 

Sirius_GTO,

Can you talk a little more about the laptop? What about the performance? Is it bloated with software? etc.

 

Sounds like Ed tweaked the settings a bit and the screen's fine now.

It's good to hear some of these first hand accounts. I'd definitely be interested in some more battery tests.

 

I have not done any benchmarks yet but everything loads up very quickly and I'm not disappointed at all. I would say that it's faster than my XPS m1210 with the same speed processor but that could be due to a new reformat. Adobe CS2 loads up considerably faster (that's the only comparison I have for right now, I barely have anything on this computer).

There was no bloatware but there were over 64 processes running in the background which were due to some utility tools and such that I didn't need, So I just went ahead and reformat it anyways. I'm a firm believer that everyone should reformat their laptop when they get it regardless of where it's coming out of (business or consumer line laptops).

 

It's probably faster than your M1210 because of the 7200 rpm hard drive. Also, the bus speed is faster on the D630, but I'd bet the faster hard drive makes the bigger difference.

 

Yes, I also think 7200 HDD is the main reason for faster load times, can you run some benchmarks. What about general performance like multitasking , encoding, data compression etc. ?
Can you post some pics of your new toy ? (pics showing the screen quality are highly appreciated)

 

Sirius_GTO,

I assume Dell provided a recovery DVD? Were they 2 separate discs, one for Vista and the other for drivers?

 

I'm going to have to decline the bench marking, I don't want to download all the utilities for that. But I will definitely take some pictures for you tonight!!! Give me two hours. I have to go pick up a buddy and eat and I'll be back to snap some shots!!!

 

Yes, please take pictures of it side by side. I am interested in the screen.

 

here are the pictures, please let me know if you need better pictures or more specific pictures.

Dell XPS M1210 with AUO (the best monitor) VS. Dell Latitude D630 WXGA+

 

Well, I'll say that your D630 +screen looks exactly like my D620 +screen, of which I received two weeks ago. I can not find any negatives with my screen, or with yours. I would say your D630 screen looks better than your comparision screen in those pics. Clear, crisp and bright.

I sure don't understand the screen complaints coming from the new D630 owners.

 

That's what I was thinking as well. I believe the XPS M1210's AUO screen is very good and my D630 is definitely better for me.

 

Sweet snaps.

Can you comment about the build quality of your D630 compared to the XPS?

 

overall it is a very well built laptop with very minor keyboard flex in the corners of the keyboard. The whole body is very sturdy. The screen doesn't exhibit ripples when being pushed from the rear of the screen. There isn't any play on the chassis that I can feel.

It is much better than the inspirons by FAR and it is comparable to the XPS line. Well worth the money.

edit - and if you're wondering, I can barely tell the difference in weight between the XPS M1210 with the extended battery and the D630 with the extended battery. (I think it's a .3 pound difference.

 

I'll actually take that comment a step further and add that complaints of the sound and performance are surprising to hear as well because I find the sound great and the performance to be perfect.

 

Can you confirm how many speaker(s) the D630 has? I think others have already said it but I'd like a confirmation from you instead.

 

spoon - there is only one speaker on the left. Feel free to ask whatever question you have and I'll try to answer to the best of my abilities.

 

I'm starting to be concerned about battery life. Last night my 620 was showing 10:43 left at 99% with both batteries in (9-cell and 4-cell Media Bay). I moved those same batteries over to the D630 this morning, along with my trusty keyboard, and I see about 7:50 at 99%. Of course that's probably not accurate, so it would bear further observation. I will be in conference rooms a lot over the next few days, so I will have a chance to watch it.

Regarding the screen, my gamma adjustment fixed the problem and I'm now liking it better than the old one.

Speaker is still crappy, but I usually mute it unless I'm listening to music or voicemail. If I'm docked I have nice external speakers.

 

I notice at a sweet spot on the D630, the screen is bright. Away from the sweet spot, the screen is not so bright from the top looking down.

There were many makes of the D620 screen last year.

 

Sirius_GTO thanks for the pics. Yep, the screen definitely looks better than the M1210.

 

my replacement was shipped out today, so i should have it soon. and my screen looks no where close to yours GTO. so hopefully my replacement will be better, and you guys can help me compare between the two. ^^

 

best of luck to you! I love my D630 and I hope you do too!!!

 

GTO, did you perform a fresh install of your OS? I remember that damn Google desktop apps ignore the heck out of me.

And any D630 user out there, if you plan to do a fresh install please make sure to back up all your drives. Because the resource CD is not included with our shipment, I even called Dell to request for one but tech. support told me they are working on it…

 

No Problem. It's funny because I thought the XPS AUO screen was plenty nice, but when compared with the D630, the D630 takes the win.

Are you thinking about getting the D630 Phoenix? I remember we were in the market for the M1210 at the same time

I'll probably be picking up the M1330 when it comes out.

 

Whenever I get a new computer, I always clean out everything and install my own OS.

The only thing I need to be sure is that I get the correct network driver.

After fresh new OS install, I install the network driver and go to Dell website to get whatever drivers I need.

I usually do not get the drivers from the CD that come with it.

You can also save the drivers to your USB flash drive.

Also it helps to take a screenshot of the Device manager and write down all the drivers you need to install back again.

 

Chong, nice ideas. but i have to remind D630 users, two key drives are not loaded on Dell web site. Those are Dell notebook system software, and nvidia video quadro NVS 135m video controller. and also the intel chip set drives are working when i tried to use it.

 

I definitely reformatted. I always recommend that. When I first got it, there were 67 processes running in the back!

I've got the resource CD, why didn't you?

 

what are you doing installing the drivers for the Quadro NVS 135m!? That's not available for D630 users.

 

yeah good question GTO, i asked that tech dude the same thing. he said it "supposed" to work for our card...

 

No it's not! LOL! The D630 isn't equipped with the Quadro card. He was most likely thinking the D620. Did you in fact install it?

We have specific drivers for the integrated card.

 

lol yeah, i done what i was told and somehow it works...so

 

Let us know how the screen/performance is when your other notebook gets there. I hope for your sake it's better than the one you have now. And remember to reformat

 

hahaha GTO..me too bro!!! so you have done a clean install of the OS? have you had any luck with the D630 resouce CD, or you just backed up the drivers?

 

Yes, I did a clean reinstall of the OS. Also, the resource CD came with my purchase, I don't know why it didn't come with yours.

 

ouch...time to call them back!

 

Ok, I'm going to give my verdict now. I did a fresh install of XP Pro. I loaded all of the drivers from the Dell site, moved all of my junk from the trusty 620, and the new machine has been my work machine for several days now. Barring any hardware issues or battery fires, this thing is my main box now. I feel they've improved on everything, not drastically, but incrementally.

Corporate IT departments will have to certify new images, as so much of the hardware is different. That might be the only big problem. Prepare to update your bartPE disks as well. Larger companies will want to squeeze every D620 out of Dell before they disappear, rather than certify a new image too quickly. The bonus is that all of the accessories, including batteries, will work fine, unlike the 610 to 620 migration.

620 is going to sit in a drawer for a bit, just in case.

 

that's my man Ed!!!:yes: :wink: