The good: Ample multimedia control buttons; bright widescreen display; power indicator on the battery; good speaker position.

The bad: Heavy and bulky; no pre-boot DVD play; integrated graphics chipset.

The bottom line: The cheapest configuration is adequate only as a basic computing machine. Fortunately, Dell offers upgrades, at a price, to power users looking for a multimedia notebook.

Read full review of the Dell Inspiron 630m »

By Darius Chang, CNET Asia
Dec 15, 2005

The first 14.1-inch notebook from Dell, this product fills in the gaps between the thin-and-light 12.1-inch Inspiron 710m and the 15.4-inch Inspiron 6000. Though possibly the cheapest 14-inch notebook running on the Centrino Sonoma platform in the market, several upgrades are a must to meet its promise as a portable entertainment machine.

Design
The entertainment focus of the Inspiron 630m is obvious with the row of multimedia controls straddled by two stereo speakers. The controls include volume and playback functions, with a dedicated button to Dell's MediaDirect software. Though not as large as a Toshiba Qosmio F20, the Dell Inspiron 630m is no lightweight and tips the scales at 2.5kg with the six-cell battery. Compared with the svelte Samsung X1, the 206.8 x 49 x 24mm does not endear it to users looking for a sexy multimedia notebook. But at a price of S$1,869 (US$1,354.35), the Inspiron 630m gives an alternative to budget buyers looking for an entertainment machine.

	Dell's 14-inch multimedia notebook.

Comprising sturdy silver plastic accented with white borders, the exterior color scheme is reminiscent of the Inspiron 700m. The build quality is excellent, with tight hinges and firm buttons. With the exception of two USB ports, the connectivity options are easily accessed from the sides of the machine. The optical drive is integrated with no modular upgrades possible. A row of LED lights display keyboard, Bluetooth and wireless status.The full-size keyboard sits above the silver two-button touchpad and provides an acceptable typing experience. Fortunately for gamers, the bottom left key is mapped to "control" instead of "Fn", thereby reducing embarrassing incidents which involve pressing the wrong button in tight combat situations.

Features
Dell's value-for-money mantra is evident with the Inspiron 630m's generous connectivity ports. Four USB 2.0 and a miniFireWire input hook up peripherals to the unit. The wireless module connects to 802.11b/g standard, with an optional upgrade to 802.11a/b/g. Bluetooth come as part of the basic configuration for data exchange. External displays can be used with either the S-video or monitor-out ports. The 5-in-1 memory card reader, located just about the ExpressCard slot, allows SD/MMC, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro and xD-PictureCard to be read without an external adapter. The choice to integrate an ExpressCard/54 feature is a good move, as it is compatible also compatible with the smaller ExpressCard/34 devices. The modem and ethernet ports, located on the right, are too close to the stacked USB ports. Larger USB devices may be hindered by a phone line entering the machine. Though adequate, we would have preferred a Gigabit ethernet port which should become the standard next year.

The 14.1-inch display is an active-matrix widescreen LCD capable of a 1,280 x 800-pixel resolution. Though sufficient for normal work, we recommend upgrading the screen to the TrueLife option which changes it to a brighter transflective display. For movie and outdoor viewing, the additional illumination is necessary for a better entertainment experience. The integrated graphics card, which provides the processing power for videos and graphics, is inadequate for gaming. As it shares memory with the system, high-quality videos or graphics processing would require an additional 512MB as a buffer, which can be purchased as an option.

Most of the ports are easily access from the sides.

The location of the speakers is worthy of mention. Some notebooks put it on the palm rest which is blocked during typing. Others shift it to the sides which result in sound diffusion. The Dell 630m puts it at an angle on the front of the machine. This not only directs the sound straight to the user, it also prevents the hands from blocking the audio output. The sound production is sufficiently loud yet clear, though it lacks bass. For the audiophile, the headphone jack doubles as an optical connector, which is preferred for hooking up to external speakers as there is less distortion.

One feature we would love is the integrated power meter on the battery. A single press allows you to find out how much juice is left without having to power up the notebook. For users with multiple cells, keeping track of battery life is greatly simplified. The unit comes with a standard six-cell battery pack, with an optional nine-cell high-capacity power cell for longer computing time.

The multimedia buttons located in the front allows easy control over volume and playback. With a push of a button, Dell's MediaDirect software boots up for quick access to video and music files on the harddisk and optical drive. However, we feel that for an entertainment notebook, the absence of a pre-boot disc player is a serious omission. Though the MediaDirect button automatically boots up to Windows and enters the entertainment software automatically, we prefer Samsung's pre-boot feature which not only allows playback of movie and music discs, but access to harddisk content as well.

Performance And Battery Life
Though Dell's online store offers a maximum of a 2.0GHz Pentium M 760 processor, our test unit had the fastest available Pentium M chip going at 2.26GHz with 2GB of memory. On MobileMark 2005, the Inspiron 630m gave a score of 261. This is within expectations as Intel's tests on the chip with the same benchmark yielded a result of 259.

With the extended nine-cell battery, the unit had a runtime of 6 hours 25 minutes on productivity tests and 5 hours 15 minutes on the DVD playback test. For the mobile traveler, a single extended battery would probably be sufficient for almost an entire workday without needing the services of a charger.

Service And Support
Dell offers a one-year next business day onsite warranty which covers parts and labor. The company's support Web site contains a knowledge database for basic troubleshooting and downloading of updated drivers. Optional warranty options include extended three-year warranty, HelpDesk, onsite service during nights and weekends, and Plus Phone support can be purchased together with the system. Plus Phone support extends the technical phone support to include Saturdays. HelpDesk coverage provides a 24-hour phone support to an expert who can help with any problems related to Dell hardware and peripherals and even some third-party software from major vendors like Microsoft Office. The full package, which includes all the optional warranty options, costs S$324.45 (US$235.11).

Editor's note: This page has changed from our original version. Please see the corrections page.

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