Dell Latitude X300: A Traveler's Companion
by Andrew Ku on October 30, 2003 5:53 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Construction — Under the Hood (continued)
As we mentioned before, our X300 came configured with 256MB. There is 128MB of DDR PC2100 mounted directly on the motherboard, which is why our single SODIMM slot came populated with a Samsung 128MB DDR PC2100 memory module. The highest amount of memory that the X300 can support is therefore 1152MB.|
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The mini-PCI slot on our X300 came configured with the Dell TrueMobile 1400 dual band wireless card. Because of this, our system doesn't qualify as a Centrino system (because Intel didn't make the card). Though to be fair, the X300 is default configured with the Intel Pro/Wireless 2100 card. We like many of the non-Intel WiFi cards on the market as they often times support more than just the 802.11b infrastructure. In the case of the Dell TrueMobile 1400 dual band wireless card, we get 802.11a (54Mbps) and 802.11g (54Mbps), in addition to 802.11b. We have yet to toy around with 802.11g stuff, but once we do, we will report back.
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To the right of the mini-PCI slot, the Conexant D480 modem interfaces with the motherboard.
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The bottom of the motherboard is shown below and most of the chips populate this side, including the Ricoh R5C591, which serves as the IEEE 1394 firewire and PC Card controller.
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The hard drive that came in our Latitude X300 is the Hitachi Travelstar 40GNX 40.0GB 5400RPM. We were surprised that Dell chose to use a 5400RPM, considering that we saw a 4200RPM on the IBM X31. The power consumption for a 5400RPM is still slightly greater than a 4200RPM drive and will affect battery life accordingly. For an ultraportable notebook, we would prefer to see a 4200RPM drive implemented, as that would squeeze out the maximum amount of battery life possible.
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We mentioned that the X300 has two small speakers, one of which is pictured below. This is perhaps one of the smallest speakers that we have seen to date.
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DL2 - Saturday, March 20, 2004 - link
I currently have an x300. I travel a great deal and have had a problem with a spot appearing on the screen. I have already had the screen replaced once and soon to be again. My question is would the IBM x31 be more durable than the Dell 300? I have not been able to find a x31 to compare to.Shalmanese - Saturday, November 1, 2003 - link
When anyone says Centrino, the basically mean the Pentium-M. Its just that Centrino is the more recognisable brand name. Technically, half the machines out there aren't real Centrinos since they use a 3rd party 802.11a/b/g chip.And I wasn't saying that the R50p was comparable to the X300, I just wanted it on the waiting list for reviews. IBM haven't had a serious Desktop replacement machine since the A31p over a year ago. (The G series doesn't count due to its sucky onboard graphics). It should be interesting what it brings to the table.
RichieZ - Saturday, November 1, 2003 - link
"BTW, the T40 isn't all that much bigger than the X31.... I like mine :)"Um the T40 is quite a bit bigger than the X31, I had a T40 at work and have an X31 as my personal machine.
Isn't this X300 acutally made by samsung?
Randalmaker - Saturday, November 1, 2003 - link
"Centrino technology continues to breathe a breath of fresh air into the market with a marriage of performance and portability."...omg stop this blue-eyed intelback-scratchin plz. we all know that the real innovation here is the banias only and that intel is using their marketing power and money 2 wipe out its mainboard competition once more. i shouldnt have 2 tell u that. centrino is a joke but it worxSouka - Friday, October 31, 2003 - link
R50p is a "monster" in size compared to these ultra-portables.... review, yes...comparable, no.anyways....yeah, the X31 rulz....more expensive, but going cheap on laptops is often not worth it. BTW, the T40 isn't all that much bigger than the X31.... I like mine :)
Shalmanese - Thursday, October 30, 2003 - link
"The X31 rains supreme in the battery life department."...Anyway, the feature set looks a lot like the Sony ultra-portables, right down to the blocking of the VGA port when you stick the media bay on.
quick request: would it be possible for you to review the IBM R50p when it comes out? Exected release date is november some time. Thanks