Dell Inspiron vs Latitude series - Questions and thoughts..

Well... if you look at the 600m, it seems to be the old Latitude D600... so it appears that the distinction between the two lines can be blurred even by Dell.

The D810, Prec. M70, Insp. 6000 all support WUXGA in the 15.4" factor. The Prec. M70 is the only one AFAIK with the Nvidia card. It's what I own.. it's a good laptop. Similar to the D810 except with the 6800(actually it's a Quadro 1400go) GPU.

I also own a Lat. D600 (which again looks to be the new Inspiron 600m).

The Latitude series generally uses better quality components than the Inspiron series. Dell also includes the 'StrikeZone(tm)' protection with Latitude notebooks, which as far as I can tell is nothing more than some rubber stoppers around the hard drive enclosure.

Dell rarely if ever has good coupons for their business class PCs, desktop and laptop.

Almost all components are the same. The big difference? The Latitudes are advertised as business class units and have, for the most part, three year warranties attached. And, a higher profit margin. Same ram, same batteries, same hard drives, same CD/DVD drives, same screens, etc.

Actually, there are some differences between the Lat and Insp. lines... there aren't one-for-one representations in the two lines. You won't find a D810/M70 like machine in the Insp line for example.

The D600 was often criticized for it's lack of sturdiness which may be why it became the Insp 600m. Don't know. The Prec. M60 I don't believe ever made it to the Insp line and it seemed fairly sturdy to me.

My M70 (similar to the D810) is built rock solid. I haven't gotten my hands on a 9300 or XPS2... so I don't know how solid they are. The last line did give some people some grief with regards to studiness... so maybe that's been addressed universally. Also addressed was the tendency for the LCD to smash into the keyboard (a common problem across many laptop/notebooks). Of course, now people are complaining about the thickness... so I guess you can please them all!

If you can get the M70 with a coupon that would probably be your best bet. It has nearly equal gaming/processing power with a more sturdy frame and a 15.4" screen.

However, without a coupon, the M70 is expensive as shit.

I got my M70 on the 35% off + free port replicator deal. With any luck it'll come around again Otherwise it's @#($*@^% pricey!

I doubt the m70 will ever go on the 35% off again, because I have only seen that coupon once in small business.

That's too bad.

I'm having serious issues finding a laptop, and the m70 is on my list. If I could get a 35% off coupon I think that would make my decision for me.

The Latitude series also have a real docking station and not a half-assed port replicator. This was one of the major deciding factors for me.

And a modular bay. I wont be buying any more Insipirons.

What needle said

Docking station Docking station docking station!

Oh yeah and the lattitude can use a docking station.

Lets see you find a docking station that can do DVI and VGA for your 9300? That has an extra bay that can hold an optical or hard drive? That also has a PCI card slot that will fit any full height, half length PCI card?

One button... Boom, my two monitors, gig ethernet, USB hard drive mouse and keyboard are all disconnected. And when I come home I just set my laptop down turn it on and I am all reconnected.

Lattitude suposedly has better support. Not sure I have not used it.

It seems that dell is trying to diferentiate the Lattitude/inspiron lines.

There is no 9300, 700 or 6000 lattitude twins. The 600m will be discontinued and there will probably be no D610 twin.

The 9300/XPS-2 is an execption but most of the inspiron line (700, 6000, 600, 1000) can not do dual external monitors, most of the Lattitude line can.

There's a post on here somewhere that the dell outlet has been having fantastic precision deals, including the M70. Need to have a code use DPA and hop on one foot, or something but might be worth a shot.

Finally: Much less garbage installed by dell on the lattitudes. Have not felt the need to format, saves me some time for playing instead of working on my new system.....