Dell Inspiron 710m

Dell Inspiron 710m

Inspiron 710m Review, by Carla Thornton December 19, 2005

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• Reviewed by: docvenzon

  Strengths: Compact and lightweight. Great for web browsing, web processing, and slide presentations.

  Weaknesses: Gets hot pretty quickly. Noisy optical drive.

  Overall: I was looking for a replacement for my 2-year old Dell 700m. The 710m just happened to be on sale at the same time so I snapped one up. It is basically in the same chassis as the 700m, although the color is now entirely silver/gray, whereas the 700m had white trimmings.The size and weight of this laptop (and the older version 700m) are its main advantages. No more shoulder and back pain while carrying this baby around. I mainly use it for word processing, powerpoint presentations, web browsing, and occasional DVD watching. And for these tasks, it is more than adequate. Just don't expect to play 3d extensive games.I do have a few gripes about the 710m. I noticed that it gets a lot hotter on my lap when compared to the 700m. Whether this is due to the faster processor that the 710m has, I cannot be sure. Also, the optical drive can get pretty noisy when reading CDs/DVDs, and it ocassionaly gets annoying. But other than these, it's a solid compact laptop.

• Reviewed by: anis

  Strengths: Very bright screen. Light (although it seems heavy due to the ration of weight to size, but it's still lighter than a normal laptop). Keyboard has a good steady feel.

  Weaknesses: No restore CD, and as a result there is a partition on the Hard Drive (about 3.4Gb) that is unusable and exclusive for Restoring the System to its original state. The keyboard is a bit crunched.

  Overall: Overall this is a good laptop. Good speed, nice screen, smooth touchpad and keyboard. Only 2 USB ports. The headphones/mic ports are very near the touchpad, which can sometimes make it difficult to operate. I expected this to warm up less, being a Centrino, but after an hour work, it was pretty warm (but very silent!). Aesthetically it is a bit thick: as thick as a bigger laptop, but all in all very convenient to carry around. The Power Adapter is the same size as a bigger laptop, making it not so portable. As this is an ultra-portable notebook, it would have been useful to have a smaller adapter.

• Reviewed by: zxlm80

  Strengths: It is light weight, easy to be carried with on a trip; it has a wide screen and great LCD display; it is comparatively economical than other brands.

  Weaknesses: looks not very professional; a little bit thicker than I expected

  Overall: I it a good choice for those who want to spend less money to get a light weight laptop. You can customize it online and the delivery is fast. It is better to watch the price for a while before you make the decision, because there will be deals from www.dell.com from time to time.

• Reviewed by: rsonakiya

  Strengths: ? Fast application performance? Long endurance with extended battery? Beautiful glossy display? Good Value

  Weaknesses: ? Slightly cramped keyboard? Tinny speakers? Fewer Multimedia Options

  Overall: This is real example of ...small things can pack a big punch. The Dell Inspiron 710m measures a compact 11.7 x 8.5 x 1.5 inches, but it offers snappy performance behind its 2-GHz Pentium M 755 processor, which is complemented by 512MB of memory and a 5,400-rpm 80GB hard drive. As a result, the 710m is recommended for those always on the go who refuse to sacrifice power in the quest for a thin-and-light notebook.The 710m?s 12.1-inch screen is a widescreen model with a glossy finish that makes colors more vivid. We found this notebook to be the perfect mobile DVD player. The integrated stereo speakers sound tinny, but they?re surprisingly loud for such a small notebook. The optical drive installed in the 710m is a DVD burner, so you can create your own movies, as well.A four-pin FireWire port located on the front panel gives you an easy way to connect your digital camcorder to the notebook and an S-Video output routes video signals to an external television.When you need to get some work done on the 710m, you?ll be disappointed to find that the keyboard is a little cramped. To support the widescreen display, the base measures a good 11.7 inches wide, but Dell inexplicably left a gap of 0.75 inches between the edges of the keyboard and each side of the base. The 710m is more than an inch narrower, at 10.6 inches wide, than the Panasonic Toughbook W4 we also reviewed this month, but the W4 actually has a more spacious keyboard.Another drawback to the input system is the touchpad, which doesn?t match the wide aspect ratio of the screen. On the upside, the pad?s surface is smooth and responsive and the buttons are well-positioned.With the eight-cell (65-watt hour) Li-ion battery installed in our test system, the 710m ran the MobileMark 2005 benchmark for over five hours. Its runtime dropped only ten minutes when the integrated 802.11b/g radio was turned on. The system?s productivity score of 236 makes this one of the fastest 12-inch notebooks around.We verified the 710m?s performance in our real-world testing of Excel, Photoshop, and Windows Media Encoder. We watched as the system cruised through each task without breaking a sweat. Just don?t expect to play any 3D games on this notebook.In terms of wireless performance, the 710m delivered excellent range. The 12.6 Mbps of throughput is above average for its system class, which means that you shouldn?t have any problems getting a connection at hotspots or maintaining a connection on your home or office network.Preinstalled software includes Dell Jukebox, Dell Media Experience, and a copy of WordPerfect. We consider that software package a bonus since the Inspiron 710m offers excellent performance and features. Add in three years of on-site service with 24/7 toll-free tech support and you have a solid and affordable thin-and-light notebook.

• Reviewed by: jimly05

  Strengths: lightweight, sleek, portable, no white borders like 700m

  Weaknesses: key pads need a little getting used to

  Overall: I love the compactness of the labtop, it's lightweight and easy to carry around. Labtop doesn't over heat like my previous dell and the fan doesn't make loud sounds. Very good computer for a low price, well worth every penny.