I received my 700m from Dell 6/1/05. (1.6 Dothan, 768 PC2700, Hitachi 7K60, 8 cell 71wh)
I have owned the P7010 since 1/05. (1.1 Dothan, 768 PC2700, Hitachi 7K60, std batt)
Here are some quick observations:
SCREEN:
- the screen on the p7010 isn't as accurate in color. The 700m has higher contrast and shows more accurate color reproduction when compared to my calibrated desktop monitor
- the viewing angle is larger both vertically and horizontally on the 700m.
- the screen on the 700m is more reflective because it does not have the antireflective coating that the p7010 has, but it is still acceptable
- the screen on the 700m does not have the faint sparkles that the p7010 has. A plus for me.
- the 700m screen is brighter both at max brightness and at min brightness.
- the light leakage on the p7010 with the blank screen saver at full brightness is even. But the leakage is more. On the 700m the leakage is concentrated at the top and bottom with the middle having almost full darkness. I don't notice the light leakage unless the top and/or bottom parts of the screen is close to black. But I enjoy the higher contrast of the 700m.
BATTERY:
- the battery life so far is about equal using the extended battery on the 700m and the standard battery on the p7010 (both are the same mAh). The p7010 battery is 10.8v at 51WH. The 700m battery I have is 14.8v at 71WH. The mAh is 4800 for both.
PERFORMANCE:
- 700m is much faster on AC power with its 1.6ghz. I didn’t think the 500mhz would make that huge of a difference but I guess it’s 50% faster haha.
- the video performance of the 700m at 600mhz on battery power seems to be much weaker and laggier than the p7010 at the same settings. Don't know why since they have the same chipset and I have the same power settings using speedswitchxp on both. Maybe it's the newer driver I have on the 700m.
- the wireless performance goes in favor of the 700m as I can get faster throughput on my DI-524 router. Maybe it’s the newer wireless driver on the 700m because when I upgraded the drivers on the p7010 the connection was really slow and I had to revert to the factory driver. I just wish the 700m had a physical switch like the p7010 so you can actually turn it completely off.
BUILD:
- the p7010 is much flimsier than the 700m. Much more of a thin plastic feel on the p7010. The 700m's metal chassis must be a factor along with thicker, composite-like plastic. The plastic on the p7010 is really cheap and I saw this when upgrading the RAM and HD on both units.
- the CDRW/DVD players are the same loudness (700m has the Philips)
- the touchpads are both synaptics and work equally well.
- the mouse buttons on the 700m are loose but the pressure required to press down and click is virtually indiscriminable.
- the keyboards are exactly the same size. The keys measure 16mm wide and the keyboard measures 10 inches wide. The 700m keyboard is louder and doesn’t have the same feedback as the p7010. The feedback part isn’t a big deal because it is actually closer feeling to a real keyboard to me and I had just gotten used to the firmer feedback of the p7010. There is also less flex on the 700m.
- the positioning of the USB ports and optical drive on the p7010 were better but I knew that before ordering
- the weight difference is not really noticeable until you have them both in hand at the same time. The 700m is about 1.2 lbs heavier.
- the power supply of the 700m is bigger but comes with a nice cord wrapping design. The 3 pronged plus is annoying though and you can't share cords with other devices that use the standard 2 prong plugs (such as my camera battery charger). Anyone know where to get a better cord? (maybe shorter for travel and with only 2 prongs?)
- the placement of the HD is better on the 700m. On the p7010 it is under the right palmrest and it gets pretty warm. The left palmrest on the 700m for some reason gets warm too, but not nearly as much. Weird since only the PC card slot is below there.
- the fan on the 700m is much more tame and doesn’t give the same annoying click sound that the p7010 did when it first starts to spin.
- the speakers and sound on the 700m are weak compared to the p7010 and I thought the p7010 was already lacking. The sound from the 700m is hollow sounding and lacks depth. The p7010 sounded trebly but still had better dynamic range.
- I miss the built-in CF slot on the p7010 but I guess I’ll just have to stick a CF adapter in there permanently. At least it still has the SD slot, which on the p7010 also doubled as a MStick reader as well as some others.
- as far as heat goes, it is subjective. The base gets warmest under the memory cover as it did with the p7010. Except on the p7010 both dimms were under the same cover which had a nifty afterthought of a cloth cover stuck on it which blocked the air vents.
SUMMARY:
- overall, I am very impressed with the 700m as I paid half of what I did for the p7010 and got a 2 yr complete-care warranty for it included in that cost!
- as far as service goes, the Dell service I’ve encountered is very acceptable and I might even say it like it better than the Fujitsu service. The Fujitsu service you call and someone answers quickly and knows mostly about what they are doing. But they just tell you to send your laptop in with almost all requests and don’t send parts to users to replace themselves. Dell, you wait a little longer, get sent to different departments, but they let you do pretty much anything. I haven’t tested out the next day service yet with Dell, but in Michigan, Fujitsu doesn’t even offer next-day service.
- major pluses for the 700m are sturdier build, good screen with good viewing angle, descent life with the extended batt
- major negatives for the 700m are the port placement, louder keyboard,
Compared to the S260P I had for a week back in 12/04:
- the 700m is the perfect size. The S260 was just a tad too wide.
- the lighting on the s260 screen was uneven with it brighter at the bottom and dimmer at the top. The brightness of the Sony was also dimmer at max compared to my p7010 which is dimmer than the 700m.
- the casing was metal on the top as well as the bottom of the s260 but solidity of both in hand are about the same. Both very sturdy.
- the video performance on the s260 was obviously better with the dedicated video.
- the battery life on the s260 was around 3:30 under light wi-fi use with 2nd to lowest brightness setting.
- the fan on the s260 was louder but it never bugged me.
- battery on the s260 was much more loose. The 700m has some rubber spongy things to keep the battery from wiggling around.
- the PC card eject button of the s260 would get inadvertently pressed in the bag and could get snapped off.
I have owned the P7010 since 1/05. (1.1 Dothan, 768 PC2700, Hitachi 7K60, std batt)
Here are some quick observations:
SCREEN:
- the screen on the p7010 isn't as accurate in color. The 700m has higher contrast and shows more accurate color reproduction when compared to my calibrated desktop monitor
- the viewing angle is larger both vertically and horizontally on the 700m.
- the screen on the 700m is more reflective because it does not have the antireflective coating that the p7010 has, but it is still acceptable
- the screen on the 700m does not have the faint sparkles that the p7010 has. A plus for me.
- the 700m screen is brighter both at max brightness and at min brightness.
- the light leakage on the p7010 with the blank screen saver at full brightness is even. But the leakage is more. On the 700m the leakage is concentrated at the top and bottom with the middle having almost full darkness. I don't notice the light leakage unless the top and/or bottom parts of the screen is close to black. But I enjoy the higher contrast of the 700m.
BATTERY:
- the battery life so far is about equal using the extended battery on the 700m and the standard battery on the p7010 (both are the same mAh). The p7010 battery is 10.8v at 51WH. The 700m battery I have is 14.8v at 71WH. The mAh is 4800 for both.
PERFORMANCE:
- 700m is much faster on AC power with its 1.6ghz. I didn’t think the 500mhz would make that huge of a difference but I guess it’s 50% faster haha.
- the video performance of the 700m at 600mhz on battery power seems to be much weaker and laggier than the p7010 at the same settings. Don't know why since they have the same chipset and I have the same power settings using speedswitchxp on both. Maybe it's the newer driver I have on the 700m.
- the wireless performance goes in favor of the 700m as I can get faster throughput on my DI-524 router. Maybe it’s the newer wireless driver on the 700m because when I upgraded the drivers on the p7010 the connection was really slow and I had to revert to the factory driver. I just wish the 700m had a physical switch like the p7010 so you can actually turn it completely off.
BUILD:
- the p7010 is much flimsier than the 700m. Much more of a thin plastic feel on the p7010. The 700m's metal chassis must be a factor along with thicker, composite-like plastic. The plastic on the p7010 is really cheap and I saw this when upgrading the RAM and HD on both units.
- the CDRW/DVD players are the same loudness (700m has the Philips)
- the touchpads are both synaptics and work equally well.
- the mouse buttons on the 700m are loose but the pressure required to press down and click is virtually indiscriminable.
- the keyboards are exactly the same size. The keys measure 16mm wide and the keyboard measures 10 inches wide. The 700m keyboard is louder and doesn’t have the same feedback as the p7010. The feedback part isn’t a big deal because it is actually closer feeling to a real keyboard to me and I had just gotten used to the firmer feedback of the p7010. There is also less flex on the 700m.
- the positioning of the USB ports and optical drive on the p7010 were better but I knew that before ordering
- the weight difference is not really noticeable until you have them both in hand at the same time. The 700m is about 1.2 lbs heavier.
- the power supply of the 700m is bigger but comes with a nice cord wrapping design. The 3 pronged plus is annoying though and you can't share cords with other devices that use the standard 2 prong plugs (such as my camera battery charger). Anyone know where to get a better cord? (maybe shorter for travel and with only 2 prongs?)
- the placement of the HD is better on the 700m. On the p7010 it is under the right palmrest and it gets pretty warm. The left palmrest on the 700m for some reason gets warm too, but not nearly as much. Weird since only the PC card slot is below there.
- the fan on the 700m is much more tame and doesn’t give the same annoying click sound that the p7010 did when it first starts to spin.
- the speakers and sound on the 700m are weak compared to the p7010 and I thought the p7010 was already lacking. The sound from the 700m is hollow sounding and lacks depth. The p7010 sounded trebly but still had better dynamic range.
- I miss the built-in CF slot on the p7010 but I guess I’ll just have to stick a CF adapter in there permanently. At least it still has the SD slot, which on the p7010 also doubled as a MStick reader as well as some others.
- as far as heat goes, it is subjective. The base gets warmest under the memory cover as it did with the p7010. Except on the p7010 both dimms were under the same cover which had a nifty afterthought of a cloth cover stuck on it which blocked the air vents.
SUMMARY:
- overall, I am very impressed with the 700m as I paid half of what I did for the p7010 and got a 2 yr complete-care warranty for it included in that cost!
- as far as service goes, the Dell service I’ve encountered is very acceptable and I might even say it like it better than the Fujitsu service. The Fujitsu service you call and someone answers quickly and knows mostly about what they are doing. But they just tell you to send your laptop in with almost all requests and don’t send parts to users to replace themselves. Dell, you wait a little longer, get sent to different departments, but they let you do pretty much anything. I haven’t tested out the next day service yet with Dell, but in Michigan, Fujitsu doesn’t even offer next-day service.
- major pluses for the 700m are sturdier build, good screen with good viewing angle, descent life with the extended batt
- major negatives for the 700m are the port placement, louder keyboard,
Compared to the S260P I had for a week back in 12/04:
- the 700m is the perfect size. The S260 was just a tad too wide.
- the lighting on the s260 screen was uneven with it brighter at the bottom and dimmer at the top. The brightness of the Sony was also dimmer at max compared to my p7010 which is dimmer than the 700m.
- the casing was metal on the top as well as the bottom of the s260 but solidity of both in hand are about the same. Both very sturdy.
- the video performance on the s260 was obviously better with the dedicated video.
- the battery life on the s260 was around 3:30 under light wi-fi use with 2nd to lowest brightness setting.
- the fan on the s260 was louder but it never bugged me.
- battery on the s260 was much more loose. The 700m has some rubber spongy things to keep the battery from wiggling around.
- the PC card eject button of the s260 would get inadvertently pressed in the bag and could get snapped off.
