Dell Latitude C600

Standing 3.5cm high and weighing 2.7kg (3.1kg with the AC adapter), Dell's Latitude C600 can hardly be described as 'thin-and-light'. However, its functionality has more in keeping with true desktop replacement systems.

The 850MHz system we tested offered excellent performance, long battery life, two modular bays and even a built-in antenna for wireless networking. Although the Latitude C600 will take up more space in your laptop bag than most mid-range systems, its bulk leaves enough room for an extra modular bay and allows it to carry a big enough battery to attain almost 3.5 hours running time -- benefits that many users may find worth the trade-off. With its 850MHz Mobile Pentium III SpeedStep processor, 128MB of RAM, and 10GB hard drive, the Latitude C600 is also a top-notch performer in other areas. In fact, the Latitude C600 is the fastest notebook we've tested under Windows 2000, returning a Business Winstone 99 score of 39.9. The quality of the Latitude C600's 14.1in. TFT display is very good. Our review sample's XGA-resolution screen had no noticeable 'dead' pixels or artefacts, and DVD movie playback quality through the eight-speed LG drive and InterVideo WinDVD software was smooth. Dell's S-Video port (with included composite video adapter) allows you to display presentations or (with the optional DVD drive) movies on TV screens. When we played audio tracks, the side-mounted stereo speakers were about par for the type, delivering a flat sound. There's no hardware volume control, so if you do use this notebook to play music, you'll need to keep a volume control screen open or remember the function key combinations. Hard drive and memory upgrades are easy with the Latitude C600, requiring the removal of one screw in each case. Another new feature is an integrated antenna for 802.11b wireless networking: by the first quarter of next year, you'll be able to add an internal miniPCI 802.11b card and free yourself from network cables. The Latitude C600's hybrid cooling system, which combines passive heat sinks with a variable speed active fan, results in a cool-running system. The keyboard is quiet and comfortable, but the dual-mode touchpad and pointing stick, each with control buttons, is a decidedly mixed blessing. Having a choice of pointing devices is great, but there are some drawbacks. For example, we found that the touchpad caused unwanted cursor movement when we used the pointing stick because of misplaced palms. However, if you disable the touchpad using Windows 2000's control panel, it also disables all four of the actuation buttons -- oddly, this didn't happen in reverse when we disabled the pointing stick and left the touchpad enabled. A single programmable function key can be configured to access a favourite Web site or service. It's a bit bulkier than the other mid-range notebooks in its class, the Dell Latitude C600 is a solidly built notebook that offers an excellent combination of performance, battery power and expandability, backed by a strong service and support program.

Specifications

Audio
Audio processor	ESS Maestro PCI
Microphone	yes
Speakers	stereo
Audio connectors	microphone, headphone
Battery
Battery technology	Li-ion
Battery capacity	3600 mAh
Cabinet (chassis)
Dimensions (W x H x D)	31.9x3.5x25.4 cm
Weight	2.7 kg
Display
Display technology	colour TFT
Display diagonal size	14.1 in
Maximum resolution	1024x768 pixels
Expansion slots
PC Card	2 x Type II, 1 x Type III
Hard drive storage
Hard drive interface type	Ultra ATA/66
Hard drive size	10 GB
Rotation speed	4200 rpm
Storage controller	Ultra-ATA/33
Input
Pointing devices	2-button trackpoint, 2-button touchpad
Keyboard	88 keys, 19mm pitch
Interfaces & networking
Serial	1
Parallel	1
USB	1
Ethernet	10/100Mbps
Modem	56Kbps
VGA (analogue)	1
Video out	S-Video
Docking station port	yes
Wireless LAN	integrated antenna for wireless 802.11b networking via a Mini-PCI card
Memory
RAM installed	128 MB
Number of memory slots	2
RAM capacity	0.5 GB
RAM type	SDRAM
Memory specification compliance	PC100
Miscellaneous
Accessories	C/Port II with 10/100_BaseTX (Â£232), C/Dock II with Media Bay & 2 x PCI slots (Â£414), 2nd Li-ion battery (Â£67), LS-120 (Â£88), Zip 250 (Â£182)
Other	DVD-ROM drive
Motherboard
Chipset	Intel 440BX
Data bus speed	100 MHz
OS & software
Operating system	Windows 2000 Professional
Software included	InterVideo WinDVD
Processor
Processor manufacturer	Intel
Processor model	Mobile Pentium III
Clock speed	0.85 GHz
Service & support
Standard warranty	3 years
Expand

Member reviews

I have had this notebook for 2 years, and I am more then pleased with it. I can only highly recommend it.

Member's rating:

8.50 out of 10

Reply 27 Sep 03 17:39 Reply

This Dell Latitude C600 is using the same parts with Dell Inspiron 4000.

I chatted over email with fi_spareparts@dell.com (Finland), and I got a Dell 802.11b WLAN miniPCI card for 30 EUR only!

It's coming tomorrow and then I will install it also with Toshiba Satellite laptop, which also has internal WLAN antenna manufactured inside... =)

I can really just grap out any device (battery/DVD-drive/PCMCIA-card -- u-name-it) and it still doesn't crash. I'm using WinXP, and all devices were installed automagically, exept ATI's Mobile M3. (in Inspiron 4000 there is Rage 128...)

Dell, simply to say, make these work.

10.00 out of 10

Reply 3 Oct 03 00:37 Reply

Bought this model second-hand, and it still surprises me. Dell still are and always will be the best PC laptop manufacturer on the planet.

If you want at laptop - Buy a Dell!

9.00 out of 10

Reply 8 Jan 04 17:54 Reply

I've had this laptop for 2 years and I travelled around Europe with it. It is robust (It survived a 2metre fall onto concrete without breaking!). Lots of addons to buy for it, easy to service. The only problem I've had is the metal right-hand screen hinge broke because of metal fatigue.

Reply 26 Jan 04 16:38 Reply

When I bought this laptop off ebay for $480 NEW I wondered about how good it would be! Well I had a Dell Latitude cpi 366MHz and that was the coolest little gizmo ever! So I wanted more! More speed, more memeory and just plain more everything! So I went on ebay and found this after 2 months, and bought it. I got a very good deal at $480 new. So I got this little laptop in the mail opened it up and was amazed at the looks and the screen and design! I turned it on and in 3 minutes erased the hard drive and put Windows XP on it. I loved it from that moment on! I first spent about 2 hours loading all off my programs on it then wondered if I coukd play Halo on it? I put it on and it works like nothing I've seen before!!This is an A+++++ laptop!

Reply 7 Mar 04 05:57 Reply

Reply 20 Mar 04 02:42 Reply

I got this as a family heirloom of sorts -- so far, I've put in a better quieter hard disk, a Mini-PCI wireless LAN card, a new battery and I've upgraded the RAM (all for cheap :).

Now that it's all up to spec, this laptop is in my opinion superb: I like the touchpad, the screen is bright, it gets good battery life, the fan doesn't come on much and it's a nice quiet laptop that's good for playing music on.

The wireless range isn't great -- in fact it struggles pretty badly over a distance of maybe a hundred feet with few obstructions, but that's good enough.
The screen brightness is actually a bit too much, it doesn't have the range of brightness that the IBM laptops I'm used to do.

The thing I like most about this is that it can take two batteries, one was semi knackered so I bought another one, I get four hours from that and now the first one seems to be recovering so I can get something like six hours of battery life.

For the price (these c600s go for very little on eBay because they rarely have DVD drives), it is probably my current favourite mobile laptop (I've ended up with too many laptops, just the day before this was given to me, I bought an IBM X20).