$600 Notebook Roundup - Crowning the Affordability King
by Anand Lal Shimpi on November 29, 2005 10:38 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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johnsonx - Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - link
Inspiron 6000 (can be had for $600 on the right day)Acer Aspire 3003
Rudimentary gaming benchmarks. Yes, most current games are almost unplayable on these, but some would probably play fine. I played Dungeon Siege LOA quite happily on my Inspiron 6000, and old Unreal Tournament works great (even UT2k4 is just barely playable at 640x480x16, though very ugly). It would also be nice to see how much better ATI integrated gfx are vs. Intel (and SiS Mirage 2 in the case of the Acer).
hondaman - Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - link
I agree that its long overdue for a laptop graphics gaming review. Using all the common graphics, integrated or not, like the mirage 2, x200m, 700m, 9700, and all the assorted nvidia ones.johnsonx - Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - link
"with the Dell doing absolutely dismally at only 144 minutes. The only tangible advantage we can see that Gateway has in this case is that they use an older chipset"...The tangible disadvantage for the Dell is that they use the old NiMH battery instead of Lithium ion. I have the original version of that laptop, the Inspiron 1000. It's battery life sucked even worse, plus it died after only 5 months.
If you even remotely care about battery life, DON'T buy a dell with the NiMH battery. Don't buy a Dell without a 1-year warranty either.
ksherman - Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - link
Is there any hope for upgrades in these laptops? Like if I poped the hood off the COmpaq (Smepron of course) and threw in a Turion MT processor... or even a pentium M for the others, is that something doable?Hacp - Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - link
I know for a fact that the compaqs are upgradable. you can upgrade the processor/ram/hd/optical drive.bloc - Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - link
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/compute...">http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopp...el=2&...IT's TFT XGA, not WXGA.
SilverTrine - Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - link
I'm amazed that Gateway tries to charge $50 shipping on a notebook. Anands assertion of $600 laptops is misleading, with shipping and tax this laptop is $800.KCjeeper - Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - link
I purchased one of these Gateway laptops a few weeks ago and am very pleased with it. Mine came with the wireless G and I only paid $579.bldckstark - Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - link
I am curious as to which company(ies) denied access to test parts. It doesn't make a whole lot of difference, but I wonder who is so embarassed of their product that they don't want them compared openly.bjacobson - Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - link
Something worth noting is that the good battery life on the V2000 is thanks to the Intel 2200BG integrated wireless, not the Broadcom wireless. The Broadcom is what made the V2000z Sempron's do so poorly.