Teh Blarg » Dell Inspiron 700m review

Dell Inspiron 700m review

June 29, 2005 @ 2:41 pm · Filed under My Stuff ;D, Photos, Technology

Introduction:
I ordered a Dell 700m Laptop in mid May, 2005. I was first attracted to its sleek looking wide-screen 12″ LCD and light 4.1lb weight, but liked the idea that it was also capable of having plenty of processing power.

Technical Specifications
I ordered my 700m when Dell was having one of its now popular $750 off of $1500 sales. My goal was to go for the fastest processor, best battery and a great warranty. With those in mind, I purchased the following:

Intel Pentium M Processor 755 – 2GHz/400MHz FSB
12.1″ WXGA
256MB RAM
40GB HDD
24X DVD/CD-RW combo
Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 for 802.11b/g
65WHr 8-cell Lithium Ion Battery
3 year Economy Plan Warranty

I paid $1177 after the $750 off. Some people would say that it is foolish to order only 256MB of RAM with a system. However, look at the prices that Dell charges for RAM. They conventiently allow you to upgrade to 2GB for only an extra $925 (or $25/month). I then ordered 2 of the 1GB RAM sticks for just over $200 from newegg, putting my total paid amount up to roughly $1400. Installing the RAM was a sinch, it took me two small tools and about a half hour.

Gaming
Simply put, do not expect to use the Dell 700m laptop for gaming. While my configuration has a 2GHz processor (fastest available at this time) and 2GB of RAM (most available at this time), it will still not handle many games appropriately. The reason that it performs poorly on games is because it has a “Intel 855 GM Graphics Controller”, which is very substandard for gaming. There are some things that can be done to make it play games.

Before you do anything, find your driver version. The one that is currently available from Dell.com is 6.14.10.3889, which is considered “alpha” by Intel. Intel offers the latest driver (currently 6.14.10.4308) on their official 855GM chipset page.

I have tested three games with the latest driver on my test system as seen above. I tested Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne Dota-Allstars multiplayer mod, Guild Wars, and Black & White. None of the three are on the 855GM game compatibility list, so they could potentially work or not, neither Intel nor the game vendors have an opinion.

Warcraft 3:
The game performed at almost optimal performance. There was a slight (~100ms) latency issue, but it could have either been caused by the poor performing graphics card, or the wireless connection. However, because this game came out in 2002, and due to the fact that it has a performance cap, I somewhat expected the 855GM to perform optimally, but that wasn’t the case.

Guild Wars:
Guild Wars is a popular MMORPG that came out earlier in 2005. This game has very limited functionality on the 4308 driver and the 855GM chipset. System crashing (blue screen) occurred as well as many graphical errors. One of the major graphical errors was that items would appear incorrectly or would appear at incorrect places.

Black & White:
Black & White is a simulation type game that was released in 2001. I experienced no problems whatsoever with this game. It performed very fast and was error free.

Overall, I wouldn’t expect any game made after 2002 to fully work on this laptop or any with a similar Intel graphics chipset.

My Personal Thoughts and Opinions
While IBM boasts the best battery life on their Centrino laptops, I can’t get past the fact that they don’t have the Windows key and are horribly overpriced. I have used many different kinds of laptops in the past. I’d be lying if I said that this was the best looking laptop I’ve ever had, but it does rate among the best I’ve seen. Frankly I’ve become tired of the expanding size of displays of laptops (17″ is rediculous), and find it refreshing to find a nice small and compact display. I think that 12″ is a perfect size for what I do on this laptop. I keep the display at 1280×800 and the display is very clear and crisp.

I actually did not know that it had a build-in SD/MMC card reader on it, but I have found it VERY useful. Prior to getting this laptop, I was considering buying a USB2 memory card reader, because transferring is very slow with the USB1 connecters for my digital camera or PocketPC.

My major complaint about this laptop would be its awkward keyboard layout. The “,”, “.” and “/” keys share the width of 2 regular keys, so it’s very difficult to get used to moving over a few millimeters to hit the correct key. Also, the “Ctrl” key is to the left of the “Fn” key, which is swapped from my last laptop, so that takes awhile to get used to as well.

My last comment would be a very positive one for the battery. My last laptop was a desktop replacement. Even with two installed batteries, the unit would last MAYBE 1 hour on battery while doing anything intensive. I paid quite a bit for the upgrade to the 8 cell, 65WHr battery, and am very pleased with it. The first day I used the laptop, it lasted over 5 hours on battery. Playing games it lasted about 3 hours, which is very impressive. Others have said it has lasted through two entire DVDs (4 hours), which would also be very impressive.

Pictures
I have taken some pictures of my Dell 700m. Click on each to see the larger picture, or view the whole album.

Crisp, glossy display.	Picture of entire unit.
Picture of keyboard.	Bottom of unit.
Closed unit, picture from back.	Closed unit, picture from front.
Closed unit, picture from top.