Pros and Cons of D620?

If everything goes well, I will stick with the D620.

I am mainly concerned with the battery life, weight and durability. I will be picking the Nvidia NVS card rather than the GMA950.

thank you

 

Review link: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=46900&highlight=Review+of+Latitdue+D620


And here's an additional review also from this site.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=63761&highlight=Review+of+Latitdue+D620

<3 Niki

 

My friend has one, and he's really happy about the portability and battery life, especially compared to my M1710... but do get the 9-cell.

He plays a few games now and then, but he's happy with the relatively modest performance of the NVS.

It's built pretty solidly, much better quality than my previous plastic Inspiron 8200.

He's a bit annoyed by the lack of Firewire port (for DV editing), and the speakers are pretty pointless (not even stereo?).

But if you're looking for something in the 14" range, this is the best I've seen apart from the 13" Sony VAIOs. The Dell service options and configurability beat Sony's though.

 

I've got a D620.

Pros:
+ Not to heavy (around 5 lbs)
+ Sturdy build quality
+ Nice keyboard
+ Point stick and touchpad

Cons:
- For some, lack of glossy high-brighness screen
- Lack of multimedia features like shortcut buttons, card readers

 

I've heard the LCD on the D620 isn't that great and that the battery life isn't that great either in comparison to other notebooks with the same hardware.

 

There are issues with the LCD panel if you have really good eyes. Lucky for me I don't find the supposed silvery-ness bothersome. I only notice on white backgrounds, but even then its not to the point I would call Dell about it nor post on that long thread they have on their forums.


The NVS 110M is pretty good for what it does, I was surprised it could handle Company of Heroes at 30fps, granted at relatively low detail.

Battery life is good IMO, even with just the 6-cell. I can usually get 3 hours on 1/2 brightness and Wi-Fi on doing tasks with low-processing needs. I also have the 6-cell media bay battery which adds another 2 hours; it's rated at 8 kWhr less than the standard 6-cell and you'd probably get the same battery life out of the 9-cell; but I didn't want something sticking out and I rarely use my optical drive.


The only con I would really put on my D620 is the fact that it gets incredibly hot when doing anything graphic-intensive. The Core processors don't generate much heat, but apparently the Nvidia card is what really increases the heat output as its passively cooled.

 

The pros far out weigh the cons on this laptop

 

The LCD is 185 nits with anti-glare coating. It doesn't look as glitzy as the superbrite displays in consumer notebooks, but its better for getting work done without the glare of overhead lights.

Battery life is 4 to 4.5 hours with the light sensor enabled and wi-fi on.

 

There are real problems with D620 screens - check out this 630 post thread over on the Dell support forums:

http://forum.us.dell.com/supportfor...essage.id=21944&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

The D820 has similar problems, but not nearly as bad.

 

How bothersome the graininess of the screen is gonna vary from person to person. I saw it right away when setting up my sister's D620 (WXGA+ screen, haven't checked the manufacturer yet), but while it was noticable I didn't find it distracting. Neither my sister or girlfriend cares at all, they just laughed at me for being picky. And in fact, when I look at any other matte LCD screen hard enough I can see varying degrees of shimmer/graininess from the coating.

Battery life with the NVS 110m, wireless on, and the 6-cell primary is between 2.5-3.5 hours depending on the screen brightness. The modular bay battery will almost double this.

My sister has no problems carrying around the laptop to class so weight shouldn't be an issue.

It definitely feels solid out of the box, the first thing I did when I took it out of the box was toss and flip it around. Time will have to tell if it holds up though. The only build issue I have with it is the metallic latch has a bit of play so it can rattle when it setting it down with the lid open.

 

I did some Bapco Sysmark and BatteryMark testing on the D620 a while back. Here's the Link

Dell came back and offered us a 2GHz Core 2 Duo for the same price instead. I'll do more testing on this new configuration as soon as it arrives...

 

Pros
Durability - with the case, It has survived what would have cracked a plastic case
Spill proof keyboard
Rapid charge batteries
Dual pointer
No junkware
3 year warranty is standard
Doesn't run hot
Widescreen business computer
Lighter weight than comparable 14.1" notebooks
Thinner profile
Option for modular battery

Cons
One speaker
No Firewire
No multimedia option
No glossy option, for some people this is a disadvantage
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