CNET Asia Review

Dell's thin-and-light Inspiron 600m has the makings of a good notebook for business travelers. It weights only 2.3kg, but packs Intel's latest Pentium M CPUs in speeds up to 1.8GHz, the supporting Intel 855 chipset, and a wide range of wireless networking options including 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11a, and Bluetooth. Combine all this with a new design and it looks like a winner, that is until we got it into CNET Labs. Overall we found the Inspiron 600m's performance and battery life fell short of what we expect in a Pentium M system. For now, we recommend a competing thin-and-light such as the Compaq Evo N620c for small business users.

Design
The thin-and-light Inspiron 600m represents an entirely new case design for Dell. Based on the mostly gray, 2.9kg Inspiron 4150, the 600m comes in a sophisticated, 2.3kg silver case made from a combination of strong magnesium alloy and aluminum. The case measures 315 x 257 x 34 mm. Add about another 400g for the AC adapter. Dell has designed the adapter so that the power cord wraps conveniently around it, and it attaches with a rubber tie. As with Dell's new desktop replacement, the Inspiron 8600, you can personalize the 600m with colored QuickSnap lid covers in Graphite Swirl, Bamboo, Burlwood, Venice Blue, or our fave, Red Lava.

The Inspiron 600m remains fairly lithe by including just one swappable bay for optional drives and modules. While our evaluation system shipped with a DVD/CD-RW drive, you can order CD, DVD, CD-RW, and floppy drives. A second battery and hard drive also fit the bay.

The Inspiron 600m's keyboard resembles the 8500's, with a couple of exceptions. The comfortably familiar, desktoplike layout of both boards huddles Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys in the upper-right corner. Yet the slightly shorter length of the 600m's board makes it feel sturdier in the middle. The 600m lacks a pointing-stick option, including only a blue-rimmed touchpad and two mouse buttons in the wrist rest. The same blue plastic lines the top and bottom of the keyboard. Volume-up, -down, and mute buttons are ensconced above the board as well, providing easy access.

Dell doesn't clutter the Inspiron 600m with too many ports and slots. The left edge sports headphone and microphone jacks; an IrDA port; and one Type II PC Card slot with a handy, embedded smart-card reader that allows you to store and read sensitive password, credit card, and other info on optional smart cards. (The cards are available in a number of sizes and prices from third-party manufacturers.) The front edge features two speakers with clear, but not deep, sound. Most ports sit on the back edge. There are S-Video out, 56K modem, 10/100/1000 Ethernet, parallel, VGA, and serial ports, as well as two ports for USB 2.0. Unfortunately, there's no FireWire port.

Features
Cutting edge is the name of the Inspiron 600m's game. This thin-and-light notebook, aimed at both home and SOHO users, is based on Intel's new, battery-saving Pentium M processor, at your choice of 1.3GHz to 1.6GHz. Primary RAM starts at 128MB of speedy 266MHz DDR SDRAM and maxes out at 1GB. Hard drive options spinning at 4,200rpm measure 20GB, 30GB, or 60GB; a pricier, 5,400rpm, 40GB choice is also available. The system ships with ATI's fastest graphics chip, the Mobility Radeon 9000, including either 32MB or 64MB of dedicated video memory. The configuration we tested included a 1.6GHz Pentium M; 512MB of DDR memory; the fast 40GB hard drive; and 64MB of video memory. Swappable modules for the internal bay consist of CD, DVD, CD-RW, DVD/CD-RW, and floppy drives, as well as a second hard drive and a second battery. In an attempt to keep case weight manageable, Dell offers only a 14.1-inch display but provides both an average 1,024 x 768 native resolution as well as the more graphics-friendly 1,400 x 1,050 resolution.

The Inspiron 600m can, in the right configuration, carry Intel's Centrino label. Dell built two dual-band wireless antennae into the case that support all three wireless flavors currently available--802.11a/b/g--and it comes standard with the new Intel Pro 802.11b Wireless mini-PCI card known as Calexico, which completes the Centrino trio. But you can configure the Inspiron with a non-Centrino TrueMobile mini-PCI card, which supports the three Wi-Fi standards--that's the model we tested. You'll also find integrated Bluetooth, and you can even order your 600m with built-in GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) for yet another layer of wireless connectivity.

The same solid software package ships with all Inspirons, including the 600m. You can get either Windows XP Home or Windows XP Professional. The thin Corel WordPerfect Office 2002 minisuite comes standard, but you can upgrade to either Microsoft Works or Microsoft Office XP. Roxio Easy CD Creator and InterVideo WinDVD come free and are handy for CD burning and DVD play, respectively. Dell's own bundled PictureStudio, Jukebox, and MovieStudio allow for additional photo, music, and movie tweaking.

Performance
Mobile application performance
When compared to all seven Pentium M notebooks tested in CNET Labs, the Inspiron 600m lagged behind three of them. The pacesetter was the Acer TravelMate 803LCi; its score of 211 was far above the 600m's 169. However, when we put the Inspiron 600m against two other notebooks for the home user, it faired better, winning this narrowly defined test group. The five-point spread it enjoyed over the IBM ThinkPad T40 is relatively small and would not offer any noticeable difference in real-life performance. The Dell Inspiron 600m beat the Gateway 450 by 22 points. The Gateway 450 was no doubt hindered by its relative lack of RAM. For a 1.6GHz Pentium M system, the Dell Inspiron 600m scored only slightly below average, but its mobile performance ranked high even among systems with faster CPUs.

SysMark2002 performance
Once again, the Dell Inspiron 600m is the leader of the performance pack. The system had no problem running the office-productivity and Internet-content-creation applications that comprise the maximum performance test. With its fast 5,400rpm IBM hard drive, the Dell Inspiron 600m scored exceptionally well in the office-productivity test. The system scored high in Internet content creation (ICC) as well, getting the second-highest ICC of the Pentium M systems we've tested.

3D graphics performance
The 3D score is affected by the quality of the graphics adapter as well as the speed of the CPU. The 1.6GHz Pentium M Dell Inspiron 600m includes an ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 64MB and scored significantly higher than its comparison systems. Its closest competitor, the IBM ThinkPad T40 houses an ATI Mobility Radeon 32MB and as such, scored more than 2,000 points less. In this case, the extra 32MB of video RAM in the Dell Inspiron 600m made a huge difference.

Battery Life
Among the first crop of Pentium M-based notebooks we've tested, the Dell Inspiron 600m is the only one that failed to last four hours. Its smaller 11.1V, 4,320mAh battery just didn't have the juice to keep up with the Pentium M competition. Nevertheless, its score of three hours, 21 minutes would still be quite good when compared to notebooks based on Pentium 4-M or even Pentium III-M processors. Though we don't test with wireless on, it's also worth remembering that the Centrino configuration with Intel's wireless 802.11b should offer slightly better battery life than Dell's TrueMobile implementation.

Service And Support
Dell comes out of the service-and-support gate neck and neck with other laptop manufacturers, offering the standard one year of parts and labor, plus mail-in service with 24/7, toll-free tech support. But the company quickly pulls ahead with a vast assortment of for-fee extended warranty choices, including three years of service, accidental damage protection, onsite repair, and expedited service.

The company's excellent self-help program, Dell Solution Center, helps it cross the finish line ahead of the competition. Dell preloads this program, which contains a general user guide, plus individual guides to using specific system components such as the modem, the graphics card, and the wireless card. It also offers an entire section on how to tap your system's multimedia capabilities. Finally, you can click from the guide onto Dell's online support site, where you'll find help from other users in the customer forum, as well as FAQs, downloads, and more.

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