CNET Asia Review

With a starting price of about S$2,200 (US$1,258), the Inspiron 500m series is one of the best-value Pentium M-based notebooks currently available in the market, with a performance that is by no means compromised in any way. Best of all, this all-in-one Inspiron comes with a variety of upgrade options, so you can easily customize the laptop to fit your lifestyle needs, be it for business or home use.

Design
Like the recent Inspiron 1100 and 5100, the 500m comes in the distinctively familiar chassis design, with the Dell logo engraved in the propeller-shaped emblem that spans across the whole lid. While Dell has given the cover a rugged finish that won't suffer scratches easily, the rest of the lid is less sturdily constructed. When shut, the cover tends to "give" and creak under a little handling pressure.

Even with a battery and a DVD/CD-RW drive installed, the 500m weighs just 2.5kg, making the cut as a thin-and-light notebook in our books. Combined with its 315 x 257 x 31mm frame, which is relatively small considering the 14.1-inch screen and hot-swappable drive bay, the Inspiron will fit into almost any laptop bag and will hardly be a burden for mobile users.

A slight push of the release latch on the front edge of the notebook promptly pops the lid and reveals an interior dominated by a blend of blue and grey. We found the keys well-spaced, providing a rather comfortable interface for typing. Its indicator lights, located on the right hinge, are visible even when the lid is closed. However those looking for a scroll function may have to invest in an external scroll mouse as the 500m incorporates only the standard two-button touchpad.

Features
The interesting thing about the Inspiron 500m is its variety of upgrade options. While S$2,200 (US$1,258) can get you a entry-level system equipped with a Pentium M 1.3GHz processor, 256MB of DDR SDRAM, a 30GB hard drive and CD-ROM drive, users have the flexibility to add a second hard drive or change the optical drive to a DVD writer, thanks to the hot-swappable bay. At the point of purchase, users can also choose among a wide selection of hardware configurations, including processor speeds from 1.3GHz to 1.7GHz, up to 1GB of memory, and two screen sizes to choose of either 13.3 inches or 14.1 inches.

As with most notebooks these days, the optical drive is located on the right edge of the machine, while on the left side you will find audio jacks, an infrared port and a Type II PC Card slot. The two speakers on the front, hidden behind slits, are not too impressive but offer enough volume for personal music and movie entertainment. The rest of the connectivity ports, such as the USB 2.0, serial, VGA, printer, S-video, RJ11 (modem) and RJ45 (Ethernet), are housed in the rear. The only port missing in the lineup is FireWire.

Performance
Our review unit, which came with a Pentium M 1.4GHz and 256MB RAM, scored a respectable 140 points in MobileMark tests, just three short of the similarly configured IBM ThinkPad X31 system. Unfortunately, as a mainstream notebook, the 500m's integrated graphics card will not be able to support intensive 3D graphics or gaming applications. Compared with other thin-and-light Centrino offerings we tested, the 500m's 3.5-hour battery life is not too impressive. But those looking for a mobile workstation will find the battery life relatively sufficient.

While testing the 500m, we stumbled across several minor issues with the notebook. One of them is the optical drive, which causes the laptop to vibrate during read and write operations. The LCD monitor is not too impressive, either, providing a limited viewing angle display during DVD playback.

Service And Support
The Inspiron 500m comes pre-installed with a basic software package which includes Norton Antivirus and WordPerfect Productivity Pack. Users can choose to install either Windows XP Home Edition or Professional Edition, while systems with CD writers or DVD burners will come with the relevant authoring software.

Dell offers a standard one-year limited warranty for its Inspiron notebooks which includes next business day onsite response, phone support (during office hours) and regional coverage (within Asia Pacific). You can extend the warranty by upgrading to a three-year complete package for an additional fee. As with most vendors, you can find a useful archive of FAQs, documentation and driver updates on Dell's Web site.

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Dell Inspiron 500m (Pentium M 1.4GHz, 256MB RAM)

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