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$600 Notebook Roundup - Crowning the Affordability King

 by Anand Lal Shimpi on November 29, 2005 10:38 AM EST
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Dell's keyboard is a bit more cramped than the competition. You have about an inch less horizontal space on the Inspiron's keyboard than on the Gateway or Compaq keyboards, which can lead to more typing mistakes.  For us, it wasn't too hard getting used to it, but we did feel slightly cramped typing on it and preferred the larger Compaq/Gateway keyboards. 

The function key on the Inspiron's keyboard is wedged between the left CTRL and Windows keys.

The keyboard features dedicated home, end, pg up and pg down keys, which you can expect from a notebook of this size. 

Despite the fact that the Inspiron's Celeron M processor doesn't dynamically adjust its clock speed, the notebook itself doesn't get too far beyond warm on its underside.  It will keep your lap slightly warm, but it won't burn you or make you uncomfortable after a lot of typing. 

As you can guess, the notebook is also fairly quiet.  You do hear a bit of fan and disk noise at times, but it is nothing significant by any means.

Thanks to the faster Celeron 1.5GHz processor (compared to the 1.4GHz CPU used elsewhere), the Inspiron 2200 that we tested managed to outperform all of the other notebooks.  Unfortunately, the Inspiron 2200 also boasted the absolute lowest battery life, which is a real problem for anything that claims to be portable.  It's the age old trade off of battery life for performance, and in the case of the Inspiron 2200, it's not one that we're willing to make. 

Dell's updated B130 model switches over to a 4-cell lithium-ion battery, as opposed to the large 8-cell NiMH battery that's used in the Inspiron 2200.  How this affects battery life will remain to be seen. However, it is worth pointing out that all of Dell's competitors use lithium ion batteries, although they are larger 6-cell designs.

Dell Build Quality and Aesthetics Gateway NX200S
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  • trexpesto - Wednesday, December 14, 2005 - link

    Didn't notice much about screen quality.

  • cactux - Wednesday, November 30, 2005 - link

    Hello,

    Such articles are great, but you say nothing about the Linux compatibility of these PCs.
    In only 5 minutes, you could test them, using for example a Knoppix. This Linux distribution boots are works from one CD.
    This would allow you to say what works and what fails (sound, screen, nouse, etc.)

    Regards
    Yann

  • CB1 - Wednesday, November 30, 2005 - link

    Want Linux? Get an Acer. A version of the Acer TravelMate TM2312LCi has been sold briefly with a Linux boot disk and no OS. There is an Asian linux distro linked at Acer's website.

    HP has had an Ubuntu option available in Europe.

    I've just booted a Compaq X1000 from the latest Ubuntu live disk, and it produces a perfectly working desktop, at the correct screen resolution. I wasn't in a location to check the modem or wireless, but I doubt there would be problems. Win 2K wouldn't give me the proper screen res or colours without the Compaq driver disk.

    Short of gaming, you'll have as many issues with Win as Linux. I don't think it requires special consideration in the test.

  • nullpointerus - Wednesday, November 30, 2005 - link

    I'd love to see a test like this, too.

    In the meantime you take a look at building your own laptop from Linux-compatible parts:

    http://www.anandtech.com/news/default.aspx?newdate...">http://www.anandtech.com/news/default.aspx?newdate...

  • artifex - Wednesday, November 30, 2005 - link

    ...because a couple of weeks ago, we bought my sister a v2000z, with a 3000+ chip, for $400 or so after rebates. I think the office supply company that sold it to us figured out they screwed up, because it hasn't been that low, since :) Anyway, at these prices, look at the Sunday ads before you buy, because if one is substantially cheaper than the Gateway, like ours was, go for it instead.

  • Myrandex - Wednesday, November 30, 2005 - link

    I have seen plenty of laptops for sale under $600 with 512MB ram. Well at least on a sale and not a regular price. I wouldn't buy a machine w/ 256MB of ram at all anymore :-/

  • bupkus - Wednesday, November 30, 2005 - link

    What's with these 90 day warranties?

  • unclebud - Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - link

    heartily enjoyed!
    and also printing out to share with my coworkers -- the most asked question for me "is how good is this laptop?"
    can just give this to them (to read) instead...

  • MacLean - Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - link

    You can't review low price great bang for the buck laptops without including a model from Acer. The Acer AS3003 is AMD Sempron based, has WI-FI and all the of the specifications reviewed for the other models.

    I am very interested to find out how the integrated SIS Mirage 2 graphics go head to head vs. Intel and ATI.

    Hardly a beauty contest if you don't invite all the contestants.

  • CB1 - Wednesday, November 30, 2005 - link

    I too was surprised by the absence of a model from Acer. They are ubiquitous in the market here in Vancouver, and have a good reputation for quality. Their bottom end models, both Cel M and Sempron, use SiS chipsets. I could care less about gaming capabilities of the onboard video, but would really like to know about the performance and battery life of the Cel M Acers with an SiS chipset.
    Please include one when you test the new Dell model.
    Otherwise, this was a very well done and thorough test, up to the usual Anandtech standards. The idea of testing the loss leader versions was brilliant.

    Bottom end model locally is the Acer TravelMate TM2312LCi-H.
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