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General discussion

difference dell lattitude vs. inspiron

Jul 25, 2004 2:11AM PDT

What is the difference between dell latitude and the inspiron. I need to get a laptop, wireless, for college and have been researching may different ones. Am new to this. Any suggestions? Great website by the way!

Discussion is locked

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Re: difference dell lattitude vs. inspiron
Jul 25, 2004 3:53AM PDT

Just my view on the world is if Dell won't answer you this question on their 800 toll free line, then you shouldn't buy from them.

Did you call?

What answer did they give?

What about the answer needs more discussion?

In short, they (Dell) tends to push one as portable and the other as a Desktop Replacement. For gamer's only the Desktop Replacement with dedicated video memory and ATI/Nvidia highend video may have a chance. But IMHO, laptops are poor choices for gamers.

Bob

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Re: difference dell lattitude vs. inspiron
Jul 25, 2004 4:21AM PDT

Inspirion is the consumer laptop line for Dell and Latitude is the business line. Often the consumer line has larger displays like the 15.4" 8600 but the 600m inspirion has a 14.1".

The latitudes will supposedly have somewhat better case construction and durability for business use or frequent travelers.

For example, the Toshiba Satellite line is the consumer one and the Tecra line is for business.

All IBM's are business oriented and most have LCD screens 14.1" or smaller.

The key thing to look for is whether a business notebook has firewire if you want it as sometimes this is left off while most consumer notebooks of decent specifications have 1 firewire and 3 USB 2.0 ports.

For most students or home users who want some portability for wi-fi and be able to have at least 3.5-4 hours battery life while unplugged (or more) go with a Pentium M (Centrino) laptop at this point in time.

For example the 8600 is 6.9 pounds with the 15.4" widescreen and the Pentium M, the 600M with the 14.1" screen is 5.5 pounds.