Still Love it after Two Years!

I've had this computer for two years now, and it still works fine. The only issue I had was an incorrectly installed display driver when the laptop was delivered to me. I spent some time on the phone with tech support, and they determined that it must be a bad display screen. The next day, the repair tech showed up at my office with a new display. After replacing it, and realizing that it was still bad, we downloaded the latest drivers, and installed them. That fixed the problem. The computer has been trouble free since then.

I chose this particular model because it has the "legacy" ports (serial and parallel) built in, which I still need for the work I do. I also prefer the track-point over the touch pad. That pretty much limits me to a Dell, IBM, or Toshiba. I've had very good luck with Dell, so I've been sticking with them.

A few comments about Dell tech support. First of all, I would recommend paying for the on-site support. If you have a problem, someone will come to you to fix the computer. I've called twice on two different Dell's, and I've had someone show up the next day with parts to fix the problem. If you don't purchase the on-site support, you're faced with replacing the parts yourself, or mailing the system back to Dell. On an item like a notebook, it's definitely worth the small extra price!

Also, if you purchase your system from the Dell "Small Business" section of the web site, you'll get better support than if you use the "Home" section.

As for the D600, mine came with a 1.7M Pentium processor, 1GB of RAM, an 80GB HD, DVD RW Drive, and a wireless card. The operating system is XP Professional. The system has a parallel port, serial port, VGA output, and two USB ports. There are outputs for sound, and S-Video, but I've never used them.

I'm very impressed with the display quality. I run mine at 1400x1050 resolution, and it looks great. I especially like the amount if information that I can see at one time on the screen. The computer works as expected. I still get about three to three and a half hours out of the battery, if I'm not using the wireless card. With the wireless card enabled, I can almost get two hours on a full charge. Using the wireless card eats the battery very quickly.

One thing I have found is that Dell is very good about providing updated drivers on their support web site. I check every couple of months for drive updates, and download them when they're available. Doing this has taken care of any quirky problems that the system may have had.

I do occasionally get the run away pointer when using the track point to scroll. Usually clicking on something makes it stop. I've had that happen with other computers with a track point device, so I don't think it's isolated to this Dell system. If I'm going to be doing a lot of work, I plug in a USB mouse.

These are my thoughts on this system, overall I've been extremely happy with it. The quality's not quite as good as the Latitude C600 that I used to own, but it's still quite good. The Latitude D600 commands a higher price than other notebook computers out there, but you definitely get a better system for your money!