Dell 700m Review

Now that I have had ample time to play with the 700m — almost a full month of heavy use — I decided it was time to post my comments regarding this little laptop. First, let’s begin by discussing exactly which model and configuration I have and how much Dell asked for it: I put in my order through the first set of Dell Discounts, the $500 instant off alongside the $200 mail-in-rebate. Unable to shake the urge to buy a good deal, I plunged for the laptop, and a few other things. The Dell 700m was, as configured, $1495. I doubled the RAM to 512mb, I upgraded to extended battery (65Whr) and I upgraded the integrated wireless to 802.11g (54mbs). With tax, that put me up to $1752.08 – $500 – $200 = $1052.08 out the door. It couldn’t get much better than that, I thought.

Once it arrived, I spent about a day just fiddling to oohh and ahh. Once I was done, it was down for some serious business. I threw in my slipstreamed Windows XP SP2 CD and reinstalled from scratch. I was able to easily reinstall all the drivers without a hitch using the famous blue-top CDs supplied with the laptop. I was up and running perfectly — everything went smoothly. As of today (11/06/04), I have not yet received my $200 rebate although the Dell Rebate site shows a confirmation of my rebate submission (received 10/21/04) and has it at the “processing” status. This is normal for rebates as they often take between 6 – 8 weeks. I appreciate that Dell, at least, has some sort of visual confirmation for me — since most places you just have to sit and wait for your rebate to come in.

As far as the actual laptop goes — I love it. The screen is very sharp and of course, widescreen. These two little goodies make the laptop very enjoyable to work on. The widescreen facilitates easier browsing and in my case, coding. The optimal screen resolution of 1200 x 800 is also more than enough for me. The keyboard though it is a little small, takes minor practice to get used to. In reality, one of my primary concerns was the keyboard, as I felt that I was going to do a lot of writing / coding and that if the keyboard did not easily facilitate my needs, I’d be really frustrated. But fortunately, I have no problems with the keys whatsoever — though I still stumble with the shift and punctuation mark, since the buttons sit so closely. This is sometimes frustrating when coding in tag-based languages.

The integrated wireless card serves me exceptionally well. I use it at home and school without any problems. The battery life is sufficient and I’d say that the rated 5 1/2 hours is not too far from the truth. I absolutely adore the integrated Secure Digital slot. I had some minor problems for it recognizing my Lexar 1gb SD Card, but after asking around I found that there was a driver update for the slot. It can be found here. That solved all my problems. Sound quality is lacking, but I wasn’t expecting much from a laptop anyhow. I don’t play games so I have not put the integrated video card through any real test. Dubbed “midget top” by all the girlies in the dorm, this laptop definitely gets some looks. “It’s so small” I hear everyone always protest. And it really is. I have no problems carrying it around, it really does feel like a little notebook. However, I should say that it was a lot heavier than I initially expected. Weighing in at about 4.1lbs, I realize now, that I shouldn’t have expected feather-light, but alas, in comparison to all the bricks out there — 4lbs is hardly anything… just felt more than I expected.

No review would be complete without a list of items which just piss me off to no end. I really can’t think of too much that I despise, except (and this could be user error) when I get into a groove and I start hammering out lines of text — if my hand slightly grazes over the touch pad it places the cursor on another part of the screen and I end up with half my sentence in the middle of the previous paragraph. It’s happened twice during this entry. So either I need to learn to type at a tilted angle or we can blame Dell for putting the touch pad basically 2mm away from the space bar. Otherwise, for a daily (non-gaming) use with ultimate portability, you really can’t beat the 700m.

Finally, since I’ve had such remarkable enthusiasm and interest — I’ll note that I picked up a 12″ Shinza ZeroShock Sleeve for the laptop and it although forums said it was a snug fit, let me reiterate: for the Dell 700m, the 12″ Shinza ZeroShock Sleeve is a tight fit. It requires some effort to put it on, so be forewarned. However, the sleeve offers superior protection and of course, most importantly, it’s exceptionally stylish. I get questions and comments all the time.

Synopsis: For what it cost, for what I got and for what I use it for, I really could not have seen a better system. Although everyday I am getting better at typing with the touch pad issue, I find myself actually becoming more productive since everything is in place, everything works as expected and I am not spending any time wishing for features or attempting to patch things to the way I want them. The Dell 700m offers true mobility (a mere 4lbs) while harnessing a stylish look as an effective system all together. There isn’t much to say except that I am exceptionally happy with it. No regrets thus far.

Adieu. Navid.