Solid Business Laptop

Working in an IT department allows many different kinds of equipment pass thru hands. Most of them are older equipment, but recently, I had the privilege of setting up a brand new Dell Latitude D630 laptop.

As configured, it was a perfect for daily office use (internet, email, and MS Office). It consists of:

Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 (2.4 GHz)
2GB of RAM
1440x900 15" Widescreen LCD
80 GB hard drive
Dell Wireless G
Broadcom NetXtreme built-in Gigabit NIC
56k modem
Dual-pointer (touchpad and eraser head)
DVD recorder drive /w Lightscribe
Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP2

Turning it On
The first time you turn it on, you get a welcome screen from Dell before Windows even starts to boot. Hit any key, and Dell reminds you of your Service Tag, and suggests you write it down. After you hit any key to go on, Windows starts to load.

The usual Windows XP pre-setup comes up and prompts you with the usual questions - Name, time/date/time zone, Computer Name, network settings, etc. Microsoft's usual calm background music is also being played here, while an animated "?" guides you to competition of the Windows XP pre-installation.

Once that's done with, I was welcomed with a clean desktop with a custom Dell-branded wallpaper. Dell includes their own help program called "Dell Solutions", which has a prominent icon on the desktop. Other than that, Dell offers a relatively clean install of Windows XP Pro, leaving the rest to the IT guys to customize it to the company's needs and settings.

Design and Feel
The D630 is not exceptionally thin, but for its size (15"), it was thin enough to notice that it was thinner than most other laptops (1.2"). Weight was also a non-issue with the battery installed. It weighed about 5 lbs not including the power supply. The battery does stick out a bit and serves as a place where your wrist can rest on.

The power supply itself is about a size of 2 iPods stacked up, and the cord goes only one way (and angled). What is nice, though, is the rubber strap that is built onto the brick, which allows you to strap the AC cord onto the power brick: no mess to contend with in the bag! Though, I still like Apple's iBook retractable cord design the best.

The LCD lid feels metallic, especially when cold. It certainly feels hard and sturdy like the brushed aluminum used on the PowerBooks, but it is actually reinforced plastic. Still, a thumbs up for Dell, as it requires more force than usual from behind to now distort the LCD image on the front.

The keyboard was refreshing to use, as well. Though a bit flimsy for my taste, the layout is the best I've used. However, it does rattle a bit during heated typing sessions. The keyboard does not split up or relocate the standard keys from a full-sized keyboard most of us are used to. Keys such as ALT, CTL, Del, PGUP, PGDN, Home, and End (even function keys such as F2) can be radically moved around in some notebook keyboard designs. Not so, with the D630.

Dell also paid attention to the pointing devices, letting us choose whether we want to use an eraser head (still popular with IBM laptops) or a touch pad (majority rules!). Both are on the D630, and have their own set of mouse buttons (right/left). This means a total of 4 buttons, and neither set interferes with each other during use, as it feels just as natural whether you use the touch pad or the eraser head.

Installation and Use of Applications
Being Office-less, Microsoft Office 2003 was our choice of office suite, along with heavy emphasis on Outlook, as our organization relies heavily on Microsoft Exchange. Installation usually entails selecting a complete install, leaving no options unchecked, so that Office will not ask for the CD or source of install (if installed from a network drive). The install (from CD) was the fastest I've encountered - desktop or laptop! It took a mere 7 minutes, where as a Pentium 4 2.8 GHz desktop still took around 10 minutes! Faster CD reads? Not likely, as most laptop drives actually read slower than most desktop-based drives (if not the same). Remember that the generation of these drives is the same.

I've also noticed that Intel CPUs (P3, P4, Celerons) always seem to bog down everything else when there is heavy disk access (and yes, DMA is enabled). Athlon-based machines (XP, 64) does not exhibit this problem, however. Could it be the chipset (very likely) or the CPU? the only Athlon-based machines I encountered this problem is with ATI's 320m chipset (mobile, with integrated video).

However, the Intel Core 2 Duo does not have this problem, as during installations of other programs, I was able to surf the net without feeling bogged down.

Unfortunately, I cannot do a formal benchmark, as it was needed to be set up on a tight deadline.

Network access (network drives, Outlook, and internet access) was very snappy, and felt like there is very little latency. Wireless access was just as pleasant to use, as you can't feel the distinction between wired or wireless (internet access). Our gigabit network was able to pull in 17 MB/sec, while wireless (G) was able to catch 2MB/sec - very impressive, indeed. The somewhat low gigabit network speed is due to using non-jumbo frames, since the organization requires stability and still many 100 Mbit devices.

Battery Life
On a full charge, with the unit I had, Windows power management reported 3.5 hours, and it certainly lived up to it. Windows reported the CPU running at only 1.2 GHz during idle on battery (under Properties, General Tab on My Computer), while the screen dimmed a bit, assisting to wring out as much from the battery as possible.

The Verdict
The Dell Latitude D630 is a decently compact and nicely designed chassis with an awesome line of options available. As tested, there is no doubt that a notebook such as this would cater to most business and home users alike. However, the Latitude line is not available for sale under Dell's Home and Home Office section. Move onto Small and Medium-sized Businesses, and you will find it, but to order from here, you'd need a business license to order from that section.

The way Dell gleefully installed Windows XP without much clutter-ware bodes well for repeating and/or large corporate orders, and a solidly built system (besides the keyboard), a well designed keyboard and pointing system, as well as its light weight and long battery life helps push the D630 up the corporate ladder's favorites list.