D630 got it.

Wow, my machine has the exact same specs as yours. I think it's pretty good and the battery does last a long time. This review is taking a while to finish because of the battery (trying to benchmark in different situations) and because some family things have come up.

Sorry, folks =[

 

Sirius gave out good information, what are you talking about Iskeys?

Since Dell agreed to send me a new D630 (but I probably wont get it anytime soon ), I have also upgraded my D630 to faster processor and 2GB RAM. So hopefully it will help me with the issues I am having.

On the second note, I am doing a little test on how fast Wireless /n really are. So far, it has faster downloading and uploading capability. As soon as I complete my test, I will post the result but I am kind of impressed at the moment for /n…

 

Any chance anyone will have their review done by tomorrow or tuesday? I'm really having a tough time deciding between the D630 and a MBP.

 

Odd comparison. I prefer the Dell Latitude D630, but I do not like Mac OS. I think you should try out Mac OS before you decide.

 

I believe someone here was trying to get a review out by Tuesday.

 

Haha, I've been a mac user for over eight years. I have been thinking about buying the dell because of the price I can get it for and because I need to run visual studio for my computer science classes. I can either pay $1800 for a MBP and run OS X and windows or pay around $1200 for a D630, but have no OS X.

 

MacBook won't cut it?

 

It got pushed back to Wednesday, family things have come up.

 

Can anybody tell me if the 6-cell battery also sticks out, if so, how much more does the 9 cell stick out. Also, just to be sure, the height of this laptop is 32.3 mm all round, it is not, like many other laptops, shorter at one end than the other?

 

i never had a 6 cell, so don't know if it sticks out or not.

My little test for /n is kind of unsuccessfully, the connection speed varies too much I can't get a positive reading on it. maybe i will do an average speed, looks like /n is not that stable at the moment.

 

6-cell does not stick out. 9-cell does, which I kinda like.

Battery life does not seem to be as good as my 620.

 

The 6 cell is flush with the laptop, the 9 cell sticks at in fron of the D630.

 

lol... now i am asking for some help, i updated my IE6 to IE7. now i can't open any application, or it will freeze on me. any advice on that?

 

I finally received my D630 couple of days ago and don't find anything wrong with the screen. It is clear and bright. No problem with the viewing angles either.

I got a battery life of roughly 4 hours with a fully charged 6 cell battery. During these 4 hours, LCD, WiFi and Bluetooth remained switched on, Windows XP was updated and some softwares were installed.

Though I have just 512 MB RAM, (which is enough for my present needs) I am satisfied with the performance of the machine.

I had mentioned in one of my posts that it was a bit risky to go for a machine which was new and and had no user reviews. Plus I was a bit tense with regard to the quality of the LCD. I am happy to say that D630 has not at all dissapointed me and it was a good decision to buy it.

 

In case anyone still cares about this machine, I have finally finished my 20 page review on it. I'd say about half is pictures and the other half is pure writing. Andrew should have it as of now, and hopefully post it tomorrow.

What a day and adventure this was.

 

Thank you very much FrostKnight, your efforts are well appreciated here on the forums.

 

Perhaps there`s yet again a difference with LCD mfg-s, just like with D620. Can you tell us who manufactured your D630`s screen? There are instructions somewhere in the Dell section

 

Mine is AUO again, lucky me.

 

Anyone know of many manufactures for the D630 also?

 

Lucky fellows everyone here has a new D630, and complaining about poor performance!!!!

I just bought a second-hand D600 and I clean installed XP Pro and replaced the 1.4G Bania with 1.6G Dothan. Blazing fast compared to my old Thinkpad T22 and T23...I still use my old Thinkpad!!!!

cheers fellows...

 

you'll get far in life with that attitude

I never complained, mine is faster than lighting. wabam!

 

Too old for that....Ha... Ha...

 

I wasn't joking. I didn't think you were being jealous. I was thinking you were being appreciative. That's all

 

I am happy with D600 eventhough it is not as good as my Thinkpads(T22,T23) in terms of ease of use. Thinkpads are still better, I am using one(T23) now. D600 serves me well for what it can do.

I am not into collecting technological gadgets, I pass that stage. All the best to those who collect, and I mean that. Possibly their days may arrive one day.

 

how old are you ttan? you might be the oldest member on board. i'm going to be 58 soon

 

by the way, get a D630 and you won't think Thinkpads are the best any more

 

i have an Inspiron 600m that im trying to replace. does the D630 use the same docking station?

 

Sorry Sirius GTO, I'm already 59 and will be 60 in October. Just call me King of the Hill.

 

I wish I could believe that... I've always like Dell's ... or tried real hard to like them but there was always something that didn't work.

However, I've got a T61 and it's definitely got some issues. Especially related to docking and resuming from a sleep mode. I've had some blue screens that are just a little disconcerting. Dell definitely offers some nice componenets... like a 160 gig 7200 RPM hard drive. Makes my mouth water.

But then again, the new MBP (Macbook Pro) has that also. Having used a Macbook Pro for the last 7 months, there's something to be said for being able to run WinXP and OS X. But I needed to run Vista Aero, so I opted for the T61 because I could buy it from an online reseller instead of waiting for a custom order.

I recently disposed of a D620 and was not happy with the LCD or the heat. After extended use, the bottom got a little warm. I also didn't like the keyboard / trackpoint. The keyboard spacing is screwed up because I would always seem to catch the underside of a key adjacent to the one that I pressed. Tell me it's not just me?

Trackpoint was improved over earlier models, just not as slick as the one on the Thinkpad. And no scroll button... don't they know a good thing when they see it?

Even Apple was smart enough to implement the two finger scroll - which I have to say is just about as good as the scroll button on the Thinkpad.

I'd buy a D630, but only for the speed and the battery life, but you've got to convince me the that the head is no longer an issue and the LCD is improved.

 

Has there been any changes to the pointing stick?


jj- was your poor 620 screen a wxga+? And we have determined nothing improved about that either right, just the wxga was changed?

 

I am very confused about the whole 620/630 WXGA/WXGA+ issue. I remember reading that the D620 had issues with it's LCD screen, however my understanding is that it was fixed and they no longer have a problem.

With the D630 all I have read so far is that the screen is bright,sharp, and fine. The videos and pictures I have seen so far seem to indicate this. I am confused as to where people are reading threads that indicate that the screen is bad? I understand LeeC81 had an issue but he later resolved it with a gamma correction fix.

 

The heat has not been an issue with me and the LCD is perfect! I think you should pick one up now.

 

No, Lee fixed it by having a replacement sent, Ed fixed it with gamma correction I believe.

Or maybe I got that wrong...

here is where lskeys comes in and tell me as usual I don't know what I'm talking about and Jesus Christ is the one and single God. I didn't even know that Jesus Christ was a God. What religion is this?

 

well, lol...the replacement is not here yet so we can't really say it is "fixed".

 

Lee - I don't understand why your replacement hasn't arrived yet. You've placed your call before I placed mine (I placed a call in because the hinge on my lcd was installed incorrectly). I placed it early morning yesterday and just received it today.

 

What the....!!! When I check on my order status, it is saying boxing stage (18004339014). And some customer service lady told me it will ship out on the 6th; I am excepting my new notebook on the 7th. Because Dell over-night all their replacements.

 

oh wait, LOL, you're getting a new computer. I was just getting the monitor LOL. Sorry.

 

will the Inspiron 600m docking station work with the D630?

i always thought it would, but recently i read somewhere that it wont, so i just want to make sure

 

Does it connect to the computer using USB? If so, then I think it should work.

 

not USB, its got a port replicator on the bottom

 

swarm, I told you it doesn't use USB.

Why would you even say "it should work" when you thought a docking station connects via USB?

 

ok, I didn't think the Inspirons had a real docking port connector, but I guess they do (or some do).

 

so... does anybody know if its the same? or does the D series need a different dock?

 

I wouldn't expect it to work in that case.

 

It'll work, the d/port replicator is the same. The Inspiron 600m is exactly the same as the Latitude D600 but with a different case.

 

Is there anyway I can identify the make of the LCD?

Sorry siLc, I would like to avoid downloading any kind of software like Astra 32 to check the make. Is it possible to check through XP?

 

control panel > hardware and sound > device manager > double click monitors > right click on Generic PnP monitor > Details > drop down menu select "Hardware ID's"

it should give you something like Monitor\AUOblahblahblah

 

Thanks Sirius_GTO

It is same as yours - AUO.

 

This website's review of D630's LCD screen is not good i.e.
"Color accuracy and contrast, on the other hand, out of the box already left me disappointed"

I experienced the same problem with D600(I had to tweak it to get reasonable performance) and so is D620. Dell should know this by now. Thinkpad's screen is better.

 

Thinkpad screens do not perform any better on reviews.