Dell Latitude D620 Review (pics, specs) Discussion

They can't fill the orders. I had a quote for the core duo D620 with the 256mb nVidia chip. When I tried to place the order, I was told that it wouldn't be honored because the video chips weren't available. Shortly after, they pulled the nVidia chip off the build options. My contact tells me it will be a month before they can add that option back. Good thinkin' Dell.

 

Maybe Dell should've stuck with :ati:

It's gotta be a blow to ATI to lose the design wins for the D620 and D820 especially when for the past 3 years the predecessors D600/D610 and D800/D810 had ATI cards.

 

Yah this laptop is beautiful. 14.4 widescreen seems to be the perfect balance between usable and portable.

I was wrong about directx10, two days behind the rumour curve I guess

But the fact remains it is a problem that needs clarification in the reviews. I went to check out dell again and also noticed they had yanked the NVIDIA option.

I got this back from NVIDIA asking them about this business GPU:

The NVS 110M is a directx 9 gpu with pixelshader 3.0, and WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model)?

Response (which I really don't believe):
That's correct. As for WDDM, the NVS110 is Windows Vista ready

The reason I still have doubts is the NVIDIA website for this chip mentions only business-related features such as dual-monitor support and low power. It never mentions directx, let alone 3d graphics at all.

-d

 

Do you really think it's not available? The D820's are shipping with the same nVidia chipset. I believe that there is actually a problem with the D620's that they haven't figured out yet (w/nVidia chip). Thoughts?

 

Does anybody know if you can buy the NVIDIA card later and install on the D620 when Dell release the option?

Thanks

Sly

 

Yeah, I think Dell went the wrong direction . . the Quadro is a good card to have in a business notebook, and I like Dell's thoughts there, but if they can't fill orders, then why offer it, pull it, and disappoint people?

The same thing happened on their Inspiron E1705/9400 with the Go7800. They put in the ATI Radeon X1400 to serve as a 'replacement'.

I think Nvidia is having some trouble supplying desktop chips too. Their 512MB GF 7800GTX was extremely rare, and now I've read about shortages of the 7900GTX chips.

 

Really interested in knowing that as well. I'm really thinking about buying the d620, but I dont know if I should wait for the discrete graphics card to be available.... I was so disappointed when they pull the graphics card option off the website.

 

You can't upgrade nor change the card. It is not possible in a laptop.

 

ChazM...in the D620, if you have the nVidia Quad 110 graphics, is it hard wired in, or is it a card in a slot? Thanks.

 

will there be a d420 coming anytime soon?

the 12 inch one

 

will there be a d420 coming anytime soon?

the 12 inch one

 

According to the webcast last month, the D420 will be out this summer. It will replace both the D410 and X1. I haven't heard any specs yet though.

 

Yeah, that would make sense.

 

I received my D620 yesterday. I had it side by side with my D610 and must say that I am disappointed with the screen brightness, seems less bright than the D610 which is strange to me. Every time I have upgraded laptops, the screens have gotten brighter. I'm having a harder time seeing the fonts as well. I opted for WXGA as I didn't want fonts natively too small, I made the mistake in the D610 and ended up returning it for my current one.

So, I'm playing around with the Windows display settings to see if will help.

I love the form factor and the keyboard is great. Sound out of the speaker is pretty good but when connected to the dock and driving the external speaker bar, the sound is definitely tinny and seemed underdriven compared to the D610.

I'm on the fence as to what to do..... I may opt to keep the D610 and return the D620. We ordered a couple as a trial for our company, but I'm not sure users will be happy.

Any suggestions/advice? The two that we ordered seem to have the same look in thier display, and the other user is a D610 user as well so it doesn't seem like we received defective units.

 

sweet, u've already received it?

do you mind if i ask you something? how does the built quality compare between the d610 and d620? is the built quality different noticeable? not noticeable? the same?

your comment would be appreciated. i've been looking for a long time to find someone who has both the d610 and d620 to compare

thx

 

Yeah, we received both of our D620's on Friday, didn't expect them so early. The anticipated date was early May.

I think the build quality is great, very solid. I would say better than the D610's. The keyboard seems nicer than the D610's. I like the form factor of the widescreen, much better for airplane tray tables.

I have to figure out the display issue though to see if it's a keeper. The brightness disappoints. I need to find out how many nits the screen has as compared to the D610.

If you have any other questions, post away...

 

How heavy is your d620?

According to the review its 2.2kgs

Dell site says its 2kg? some other review site says its 2.4kg??


I am confused.

 

I have a D610. Is it worth buying a D620 for the extra peformance? Or is the the speed increase not really noticable?


I heard the headphone noise problem is gone that would be a relief. Fan noise and heat are reduced in the D620 right?


Thanks for the help

 

I don't have a way to weigh it, but it feels about a 1lb lighter than my D610. My guess is @5lbs. I think it depends on type of battery and what you have in the media bay, maybe that's where the confusion is. I have a 6 cell battery and use either the DVD drive or the media bay battery in the unit.

 

It does feel quicker. I have 1GB RAM as does my D610. If that was your only reason to upgrade, not sure I would do it.

Fan noise is definitely lower and heat seems less. Haven't tried headphones yet, although the speaker is quite good (better than the D610 IMHO).

 

Just received the D620 today. It's much better than the D610. I ordered one last year and it had so many problems. It's returned. The D620 is much better. The keyboard, no conflicts between the mouse pad and the stick, the brightness is much better, the view angle is better.

The only problem I found so far is the heat. It's hot. I'm not sure if the fan actually works. Does anyone have an idea how to test the fan?

Thanks.

 

hm...that's no good. i hope it's an isolated case...because if they all have heat issues, it would ruin the perfect laptop for me

 

thats strange, The D620 is supposed to run very cool according to other reviews. You can test the fan by running quake or some other 3D game, the fan should turn on within a minute or two..

 

I've had no heat/fan issues whatsoever. My D610 fan ran much more often and the laptop created a lot of heat. The screen on my D610 seems much brighter than my WXGA screen on the D620, that's why I'm returning it for a WXGA+ screen.

 

A friend of mine had some heat issues with this one while the fan was really loud. He returned it to Dell and got a new one with a much more quiet fan.

 

I have no fan issues and the CD ROM/DVD drive are not loud as the Dell i6000.

I got 3:30" off of the 6 cell battery. I had WIFI off with screen brightness of about 80%. I want to try a movie to see if I can finish one with the 6 cell but I knew I wouldn't actually get to watch one while 'on call'. I also have the 9 cell battery but I left it home today.

 

Hi I think I will buy the D620 as well. But could some of you guys post some pics. of it? I really want to see some different pics. of it before I order since I can't go and see it in my local Dell shop

cheers

PS. I don't now if I should order it with a 1,66 GHz or 1,83 GHz how big is the difference in performance? What do I get for putting down the extra money?

PPS. Does anyone know how much I save in wight if i order it with a 4 cell instead of a 6 cell battery?

 

pictures would definitely be nice...especially with the lid closed side ways


the pictures from the review doesn't seem to portray the physical appearance of the laptop very well


thx

 

Yes bring them on high rez. please

 

You should be able to test the fan by running the Dell Diagnostics. Just boot off of the CD if you received one, or press F12 upon boot up to access the built-in diagnostics if you didn't wipe the Dell utility partition.

 

Hi again I just found some nice pictures of the D620...

 

More but please sumbit yours as well so we get all the nice angels

 

sweetness. those side shots with the lid closed really gives you a good idea of the laptop's dimension.

if i were a girl, i would kiss you, but i'm a guy, so i'll just say: thank you!

 

You are welcome santasballz... but D620 owners please sumbit your pictures as well...

 

You guys can go onto dell higher education link and take a 360 degree view of the laptop. Albeit, you can't see the bottom of the laptop or how it looks with the lid closed.


http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/latit_d620?c=us&cs=2236&l=en&s=eep

 

Hi nice find thank you very much but still I would like to see some "live" pictures of it from the users themselves...

Can someone comment on the fingerprintreader is't worth putting down the extra money for this option? I'm worried that touchpad-buttons will get to small...

 

I am sending back my D620 and have reordered with a WXGA+ screen. The WXGA screen is terrible. I also nuked the fingerprint reader, definitely made the buttons awkwardly small and not worth the trade off for the "gee whiz" finger printer reader.

 

Thanks for shearing Teledatageek... this is exactly what I want to now before I order the D620... In Danmark the only screen avilible is the WXGA+ so that's already taken care of but you just confirmed what I thought about the pingerprintreader...

On the other hand a D620 at dell.com comes standard with 1 GB ram but on dell.dk (in denmark) it only comes with 512 MB ram... so I guess there is something to inform dell.dk when I call them and order - hope I get the extra 512 MB ram for free

 

what do you mean exactly by "the WXGA screen is terrible"?
is it just a personal preference (in the sense that you think things are too big), or is there something actually wrong with the WXGA? (like too dim, bad color?)

thanks

 

Anyone? Pictures please...

 

I just received my d620 yesterday, 10 days before the original scheduled delivery date. I agree with some that the laptop runs somewhat hot on the bottom center. Has anyone else seen this? I used to have a d610 for work and it ran hot also, but I think less so than the d620. Is it because of the dual core processor or higher processing speed?

Also, the mono-speaker is good enough to watch a dvd or listen to some music in the hotel room. I would get external speakers if you really want treble and bass. Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised. It's not a bose speaker, but it works well enough for my needs.

The computer looks solid, the only part that I think is not solid is the latch. I heard that its made of metal unlike the plastic latches found on most laptops. However, its made from a cheap metal that is found on cheap metallic sunglasses. I don't think the latch is any more strong than sturdy plastic latches. Otherwise, the casing is strong and doesn't seem like it will scratch or bend.

 

the bottom gets hot right? but how about the palm rest and upper parts? thanks

 

Any other D620 users that has problems with hot bottoms? My brothers D610 also gets quite warm...

 

The D620 with the Intel 950 does in fact support all the features of the Aero/Glass interface coming in Windows Vista.

I am writing this post on a D620 running Vista with Aero glass turned ON. The last 3 builds of Vista have had a beta driver for the 950 that supports the glass interface. It is still buggy, but it works.

How much of the glass interface is dependent on on how much ram you have in the machine. See the following link for more details.

http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/gma950/

 

Does anyone know how much the 3d card will cost in the laptop? I'm considering buying it now or should I just wait?

 

Hi All

Can any one tell me if they have experienced freezing problems with these laptops. We have just recieved 3 of these and each one of them freezes either when you do Ctrl /Alt / Delete on initial logon or if you have locked the workstation and left it for a while. This is really annoying now as i have rebuilt 2 of them on more than one occasion and its still happening

Thanks

Dave

UK

 

Are you using imaging on the three laptops that are freezing by chance? Make sure you use the VL version of XP if you are.

Just got a demo 620 from Dell yesterday... no problems so far. Not crazy about the optional 9 cell battery. I didn't realize the extra cells hang off the front of laptop like a palm rest!

 

Hi

Thanks for the reply. They are not imaged in anyway. just had a new one yesterday, straight out the box went through the usual xp setup, went for lunch and when i got back did ctrl alt del and it froze again.
Just teething problems i guess they have only just com out over here

 

The other thing I'm not crazy about:
Specs:
Core Duo 2.0
2 GM RAM
7200 100 GB HD
Intel integrated Video
3DMark 06 Score 222

I'm probably going to keep this thing until the demo period is out and order one with the Nvidia card. Hopefully they are available by then.

Has anyone managed to get one with the Nvidia card yet?

 

Does anyone noticed that in the user guide on webpage: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/latd620/en/UG/specs.htm#wp1058978
Dell mentioned the WXGA+ screen of D620 with viewing angles in Horizontal of 65/65° and Vertical of 50/50°. But actually it's not. It only has the same quality as WXGA. This is a misleading!
I ordered a D620 in early April according this guide, which was the only availabe description on dell website. I'm dissapointed about this screen!