This Review ISN'T Brought to You by the Letter F
Written: Mar 28 '05 (Updated Apr 26 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The model's appearance is ok
Cons: Poorly designed keyboard, mouse loses control sometimes, long holds in customer service
The Bottom Line: I'm currently trying to send it back, so there you go.
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| chelledun's Full Review: Dell Latitude D600 (NB312) PC Notebook |
I acquired my Dell Latitude D600 laptop about 9 months ago. This was the exact model recommended by Notre Dame law school for my incoming class, so I did not really shop around before purchasing this model. I am a vigorous computer user, using my laptop about 8 hours a day for school, plus a couple of hours most evenings for epinions and writing reviews. I have been meaning to write an epinion on this model for quite some time, but have been somewhat intimidated due to my lack of knowledge of computer ‘lingo.’ However, the tragic loss of my F key tonight has really got me fired up…but more on the keyboard later.
Components
I have no complaints about the physical structure of this laptop. In fact, I found the appearance to be downright stylish. The model is dark gray with a silver Dell emblem on the top. The laptop weighs around five pounds, which I appreciate since I have to carry it around constantly along with a backpack full of books. It has a 1.60GHz Pentium M processor, which can handle running most applications. The computer has a DVD/CDRW combo drive. This means it can play DVDs and play or write CDs. The screen is a 14.1 inch LCD display. I have been generally happy with the resolution, even for watching movie clips and viewing photographs. The computer comes with Windows XP Professional installed. Perhaps naively, I thought it would come with some type of a word processing program but it does not. As a result, I took all my class notes for the first week in notepad until I was able to get hold of Microsoft Word.
Moving the Pointer
There are several ways to control the pointer on screen. There is a Touchpad at the bottom of the keyboard, with left and right clicker buttons. I personally find this difficult to manipulate, and prefer the Track Stick located in the middle of the keyboard. Using either of these devices makes my fingers tired by the end of the day, so I also purchased an attachable mouse for an additional $20 extra when I ordered the computer. For some reason, whichever of these devices I am using, the pointer sometimes goes crazy in word processing programs. It will scroll wildly either up or down to the top or bottom of the document, and won’t stop moving until I click out of the document entirely. This can be very annoying when I am trying to quickly look for an answer during class.
Keeping it Charged
This laptop comes with a battery pack and power cord. It is charged by plugging one end of the power cord into the wall and the other into the computer. A green light on the power pack signals that the battery is charging. When operating on battery mode, you can determine how long the battery will last by adjusting the brightness of the screen. By knocking it down a couple notches, I can keep powered up for about three and a half hours. However, I prefer to have my screen as bright as possible. Generally, with screen at maximum brightness, my battery power lasts about two hours. To fully recharge seems to take about an hour. The battery pack is fairly light, but kind of bulky.
The Keyboard of Doom
I know what you’re thinking…so far, this doesn’t sound so bad, right? Why such a low rating? Well, let me tell you about the keyboard. First, I have had frequent problems with keys sticking. This means pressing a key will either result in a letter displaying multiple times or not at all until I press hard. I have notoriously had this problem with the period, for some reason, which can really disrupt the flow of typing. However, this I can deal with.
The bigger problem I have faced is the keys falling right off the keyboard. This happened only a month after I purchased the laptop, with the letter z. Must have been from taking notes in all those law school classes talking about zippers and zebras. I promptly called Dell and received a new keyboard, which was easy to install. At this point, I assumed the keyboard problem was just a fluke. However, about two months ago, the right Alt key randomly fell off. Although this left an unsightly hole in my keyboard, I chose to ignore this as I have never, ever, used this key and am not really sure what it even does. However, tonight, the F key fell off. This is a much bigger problem, as the letter F appeared four times in the previous sentence, and is a major part of the alphabet. I can still make the F show up by pressing directly on this little round stub at a certain angle, but it is impossible to type normally.
After this happened, I went to the Dell website to see if I could get any hints in the consumer forums. Under the keyboard forum, I found that I was not the only one having this problem. A sampling of the message board post titles on the Latitude series: “Latitude D600 letter has come off”, “Sensitive Keyboard”, “I am deeply disappointed with Dell”. You get the idea, obviously many users feel this keyboard has a design defect.
Customer Service
This brings us to Customer Service. I have found Dell employees to be very polite and friendly, but incapable of solving my problems. This is not their fault, but it is frustrating nonetheless. For example, when I ordered the computer I was in the middle of getting married and changing my name which complicated my situation with credit cards and bank accounts. I was told I could put the charge on my debit card and Dell would withdraw up to my maximum debit amount (around $300) on several consecutive days. This sounded like a good plan to me, until I received a email saying there was insufficient funds in my account to cover the whole transfer. When I called back, the friendly employee told me that yes, there was a notation to take out the payments on consecutive days, but somehow this hadn’t been implemented. Not wanting to mess with this anymore, I had my mom put the rest on a credit card. And…we got double charged for $900, which was quite a hassle.
Additionally, both times I have called about broken keys the service has been very friendly and both gentlemen have offered to promptly send me a new keyboard. However, this still requires me to use a broken keyboard for several days and take the time to ship the old one back. They actually just sent me an email (Beginning with "Dear Shirk Michelle,) stating they can not guarantee how soon I will recieve my new keyboard. No matter how nice they are, talking to customer service is not my idea of a good time. This can be a time consuming process as well, as sometimes hold times for customer service can be as long as a half hour.
Would I recommend this computer?
A resounding NO! Sure, it has a great display and a lot of memory, but so do a lot of other laptops. Ordering a new keyboard two different times has been a huge inconvenience, and now I am stuck for three days without the letter F as well as dealing several other letters that are currently sticking. My bigger concern, however, is how many more times this will happen, and how expensive it will be to replace letters once my warranty expires in three years. I am currently looking into whether I can completely return this laptop for a refund under my limited warranty. If so, I plan to use the money to purchase a different computer with a keyboard that does not break every couple months. I know other people really like this model, and I am glad they have not had the issues with it that I have. I, however, am one very unsatisfied Dell customer.
This is part of BeastieGirl's "Against the Grain Write-Off", more info is available at http://www.epinions.com/content_4209614980
*UPDATE April 26, 2005...
Computer status has gone from horrendous to worse. Now my battery will no longer hold a charge through the length of an entire class, although I have only been using the computer eight months. After another 45 minutes on the phone with Dell, they are sending me a new battery. I just shipped back keyboard number three, so hopefully I will be able to make it through finals with no buttons falling off. Additionally, the mouse has started going ballistic and insists on drifting to the left of the screen at all times. It will not stay in one place. This is something new.
My passion in life as soon as finals end will be getting them to allow me to upgrade/replace this computer with a different model. I am NOT A SATISFIED CUSTOMER! I hate this laptop! There are still three months left on my one-year extended warranty, and I won't go away. There will be some serious conversations with the powers that be at Dell in my near future.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 1,519.00
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium
Screen Size: 14 inches
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
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