Dell Inspiron 700M - Taking the Widescreen Display to Ultraportables

Construction - Usability in the Field

Display

Interestingly enough, Dell chose the same type of high-gloss display that we saw on the HP Pavilion DV1000. HP uses the term "high-definition" for their display (Dell uses "crystal clear"), but this isn't really high-definition in the same way that we think of the difference between HDTV and TVs. For the typical computer user, computer displays are, by default, "higher definition" than the NTSC standard to begin with. So this is more of a marketing additive than anything else.

The only practical difference that we found in high-gloss displays compared to their non-glossed counterparts was a wider viewing angle. They are just as bright as the higher end non-glossed displays. Because of the high-gloss effect, it retains a larger percentage of its brightness as its viewing angle increases.

However, there is a reasonable degree of glare because of the glossiness of the display. It isn't overtly large or minimal, but in a reasonably well lit room, you should be able to see a faint reflection of yourself. The brighter the light source, the larger the glare effect. Iin a real world test, just sitting in a well lighted meeting room, classroom, computer room, bedroom, etc. doesn't make the glare effect a big enough problem to make you concerned about not being able to work. This display makes it a perfect fit for a multimedia notebook, when you may be watching movies or videos along with a friend in a dark room., though not so much if you plan on doing more business or school-related stuff.

LEDS

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

There are two LED strips: one is located below the LCD panel and the other is on the back of the display lid. The first LED strip (left to right) include those for: WiFi (green when active), power on status (green when active), battery status (green when charging and blinking green when low), hard drive activity (blinking green when active), number lock (green when active), caps lock (green when active), and scroll lock (green when active). The three LEDs on the back of the display lid are WiFi, power on status, and charging status.

Speakers & Microphone

The speakers are located to the left and right of the LED strip beneath the LCD monitor. This is actually an ideal placement over the front of the notebook because it directs sound in a more direct path without dubbing. Considering how small and thin the speakers are, they can get loud enough to hear it slightly in the next room. However, these aren't that awesome to be considered in the same context of a multimedia notebook, which is where HP's DV1000 tops Dell's ultraportable multimedia design, but they do a fair job (i.e. max volume doesn't sound great with the Windows startup sound bit). Granted, this notebook is just cramped full of stuff, so I am glad to see at least a stereo setup over something like Asus' S5200N mono-speaker.

We should note that unfortunately, there is no integrated microphone for this notebook.

Charger

This is the same charger used for the rest of Dell's notebook lineup.

Click to enlarge.

Darkroom & The Rest

Since this is a multimedia notebook, it is really supposed to be used in dark environments, such as during that really long plane flight to London. OK - we may be exaggerating, but you get the point. The 700M actually feels good to work with in the dark, but you must give yourself some time to get use to the smaller buttons on the keyboard. Once you get a feel for the notebook, you basically know want to do while in the dark.

The only thing that would really make this better would be to have LEDs in keyboard buttons that work as shortcut keys for multimedia programs, e.g. Control + P = pause/play in most programs. Essentially, we would like to see something similar to what HP has done with the DV1000, but with the ability to turn the lights off when necessary to preserve battery life.

Personally, I haven't settled on whether or not a program like QuickPlay (read our HP DV1000 review) is a good idea. As we mentioned before, the main benefit of a system-off feature is supposed to be one or more of three things:

• load faster
• less software
• use less hardware

The problem is that in real practice, there hasn't been a really mature software solution to do all three while yielding true blue battery benefits - at least, not yet. QuickPlay was a set in the right direction, but we need to see some more software development before any of us get worked up on something that might be really something of a cross between those small DVD players and a PC with great battery life all around.

It would be great if one of the notebook vendors took a cue from what MSI did with their early MegaPC's - using a Bluebird chip to process MP3 audio, which made it possible to bypass the CPU totally.

Click to enlarge.

As far as the LEDs go, they are bright enough to be seen in a dark room, and are standard for what we see in Dell notebooks, in general. They aren't as intense as the ones on the HP NC6000, but they do the job nicely. We definitely like the fact that Dell is continuing to use the icon LEDs instead, which let you know what is active/inactive.