I am in the market for a Dell notebook, but I can't make up my mind on which one to get. I am giong back and forth between the 8600 and the 600m. Do any of you have any of these and if so what are your thoughts? By the way, Dell is offering Free Shipping, free 512MB memory upgrade, Free 2200 Pro Wireless Card, and $150 savings instantly until Wednesday.
Dell offers those discounts almost every week. Sometimes it's in the form of 10-15% off, other times it's free memory or $150 off. Don't sweat it unless you absolutely need one now. These sales will come around again within the next 1-2 weeks. You may also want to check coupon sites for coupon codes you can use in your purchase. They may be stackable coupons.
8600 -Intel® Pentium® M Processor 715(1.50A GHz/400MHz FSB) 15.4 WXGA -512MB DDR SDRAM 2 DIMMs -32MB DDR NVIDIA®GeForce™ FX Go5200 AGP 4X Graphics -24X CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive with Sonic RecordNow -40GB Hard Drive -Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless $1,263 600m -Celeron® M Processor 340(1.5GHz/400MHz FSB) 14.1-in XGA, 32MB Video -512MB,266MHz,2DIMM (from 256MB,266MHz,2DIMM) -40GB Hard Drive -24X CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive with Sonic RecordNow -Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps) $1,197
check this out. 1099 after rebates. http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Comp.../sem/rpsm/oid/95999/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do
Dell laptops are not the best. Be careful. There are horror stories from all computer companies about the cruddiness of their computers, but I have seen firsthand the cruddiness of Dell consumer laptops. And Dell's "award-winning" service is not near what it used to be. In fact, I think I read a customer satisfaction survey that had them behind both IBM and HP in customer service over the last year. They are driving on the perception that they have good service...when really they haven't had that "award winning" service for over 3 years now.
my friend and my mom have the 8600 my friend hates it but my mom loves it, but then again she does nothing but email so there you go. and my friend could break a computer by looking at it wrong
I've owned laptops from Toshiba, Sony, Dell, and Gateway in the past 3.5 years. The one I'm using now is a Fujitsu. I would recommend them over the others because the majority if not all of the Fujitsu computers are still made in Japan. While nearly all laptop manufacturers make good notebooks at the +2000 range, Toshiba, Dell, and Gateway offer very poorly made notebooks at the price point you're looking at. IBM offers solidly made notebooks, but they're expensive for what you get (which is usually less in terms of performance than the others). Even the cheaper Fujitsu models feel of better quality and design than their counterparts. I purchased my S series Fujitsu for less than 1300. If you're not too worried about an extended service plan, Fujitsu is the way to go. It's the only notebook I've kept for more than one year, the rest I sold on ebay. Dell and Gateway's customer service is horrendous. I have used Dell's consumer and business customer services and it really isn't worth the amount of $$ they want for "premium" service. Long wait times, short conversations with the problem almost never being resolved. Gateway is almost as bad, except their customer service people pretend to care and occassionally do.
if you're going to get a dell - i suggest looking at the latitudes. the business models are just better made, and usually not at that higher of a price point. i have a d600 at work and i have no problems with it
