Comparing a T43 to the Dell Latitude D610

[rocketman]

Has anyone ever compared the T43 to the Dell Latitude D610? What are your opinions if you have.

[anthony]

Those were my two finalists. We have D610s at work so I was very familiar with them They are a great little machine.

One quirk, unless they've fixed it, was that if you bought less than 1GB DIMMS, you got 400 Mhz memory instead of 533. But, "little things" sent me to ThinkPad. None of these may matter to you.

The Price. For similar features to my 2687D3U, I would have paid about three hundred dollars more, even after the 15% discount. One reason is that mainly Dell sells Dells. Very little competition once you fall in love with their product.

The Look. I like the plain black case of the ThinkPad. I found all the grays and silvers on the Dell to be distracting and a bit too cutesy.

The Feel. The keyboard and controls fit my hands better. The finger pads on the Dell is pretty hard to control. And the nav stick much smaller and trickier to maneuver.

The Misc. Loved the fingerprint scanner and the built-in light. Although the specs don't reflect it, the TP is both thinner and lighter. And the Dell adapter is about twice the size of the TP's. So for me and traveling, the TP worked better.

On the other hand, the D610 feels sturdier. It comes with at least marginal productivity software. It is a very nice machine and I use one everyday. And yes, it was a close decision that hinged on non technical aesthetic factors. But for my home and play machine, I still chose T43.

[Merlyn_3D]

The Feel. The keyboard and controls fit my hands better. The finger pads on the Dell is pretty hard to control. And the nav stick much smaller and trickier to maneuver.

No truer statement has ever been said. I hate the dell keyboards after getting used to my thinkpad. I have a d610 from work and I still prefer typing and browsing on my thinkpad because of the scrolling, touchpad, cursor features and the nice nice nice keyboard. I use the D610 for google earth though because my T30 is too slow to run it at SXGA+.

[Leeper]

I have both and greatly prefer the T43 to the 610. The Thinkpad just feels much more solid and I like the black vs. the dell gray.

[hoolaw]

Has anyone ever compared the T43 to the Dell Latitude D610? What are your opinions if you have.

I have been curious about this as well. My law school is pushing the D610, but I do prefer the T43 also offered through the university (though I have not seen a 610 yet).

[emorphien]

I know someone with a 610 and it's not bad, fairly well built for the price. The hinges aren't as strong and the screen housing isn't as stiff (this is one of the huge deals about the T IMO). Overall the case is pretty good but the T is still better, but given the D610 is usually several hundred less from what I've seen and Dells university warranties are great, it's a tough call.

[Basker]

I am still looking at the D610 vs the T43. I am actually also looking at the HP 6230 which is very similar to the T43 sans thinklight and fingerprint. Something that basically made the 610 a big no for me is that there is an issue that is widely reported indicating there is a big problem with the headphone jack. Basically you hear system sounds through the headphones as in static and electrical noise. It is discussed on the Dell forums here http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums ... ge.id=6377. It's also featured in a few laptop reviews, which you can find on Google. I am one of those people that often listens to music while working, so having unresolved static on the headphone jack is a no no.

[cj3209]

I've used a D600 and currently use a T43p at work. I'm sorry, unless Dell improved with the D610, the D600 is annoying to say the least:

- flimsy keyboard;
- screen showed white splotches after about a year (not really Dell's fault);
- outer casing feels cheap and it IS cheap plastic;
- no structural solidity on LCD casing;

I would recommend the D600 to students and light home users but NEVER power users as the D600 won't stand up to the abuse. Of couse, this is an opinion from one D600 user so take it for what its worth.

I always thought Dell's were the best until I started using T42/T43s extensively and then realized how much stronger the ThinkPads were. The only advantage Dell has is PRICE and bleeding-edge technology.

My two cents...

[hoolaw]

I know someone with a 610 and it's not bad, fairly well built for the price. The hinges aren't as strong and the screen housing isn't as stiff (this is one of the huge deals about the T IMO). Overall the case is pretty good but the T is still better, but given the D610 is usually several hundred less from what I've seen and Dells university warranties are great, it's a tough call.

Im my case, the T43 and 610 are roughly the same price, but w/differing warranties: 4yr depot (on campus) w/TPP vs. 3yr on site w/CCare). The school offers added support for the 610.

The sound issue on the Dell is good to know about; as I will probably be using my laptop+iTunes as a replacement for my stereo.

[emorphien]

The sound issue on the Dell is good to know about; as I will probably be using my laptop+iTunes as a replacement for my stereo.

Yipe, what a sacrifice of sound quality!

I hope you at least hook up some decent, cheap external speakers.

[hoolaw]

Yipe, what a sacrifice of sound quality!

I hope you at least hook up some decent, cheap external speakers.

Probably will do so. One of the downsides of moving across country for school and puting all my money into a computer

[lilserenity]

I can't comment on the D610 - but suffice to say it seems to be from what I have read and heard an improvement on the D600 which preceded it. The difference is mainly the latter being Banias/Dothan based and the former Sonoma.

Anyway - my experience of the D600 has actually been very good indeed. I am guessing however that the quality of some of these machines has varied greatly as I have heard some horror stories, but they were few.

Secondly, much criticism I have read seems to be coming from people who expected lots of bells and whistles, which the Latitude really does not provide, it's a bit like cocoa in front of an open fire on a wet Sunday, it's 'nice'. But not exotic.

In a nutshell - the T40 series is better than the D600/610 Latitude series; if you pick a badly constructed one this is plainly obvious, if you pick a good one or the D610's by the sounds of it; they are not far behind at all. Since D600s can be had very cheaply; they can make a compelling alternative to the likes of the T40/41/42 series.

I cannot comment on the D610's audio issue I have heard about -- you would only know once you start to use it but the D600 does not exhibit such faults at all.

Ok, the enhancements to the D600 with the D610 aren't just internal, basically:

- D600 Video/Gfx: 32MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 (great chip for 2D and basic 3D I think...)
D610 Video/Gfx: Intel Integrated with shared memory (915 chipset (?)) or ATI Mobility Radeon X300 64MB.

- D600 CPU: Banias/Dothan (1.3-2.0GHz); D610 CPU: Sonoma (1.6-2.0GHz)

Otherwise the machine is much the same.

The 'superficial' differences are:

- 4 USB 2.0 ports instead of 2 as on the D600.
- Serial (COM) port and CRT port opposite order on D610 to D600 (this is actually very very important as I'm about to divulge...) so that the CRT/VGA out is next to the power/AC jack port...
- slightly revised look of the track-pad which makes the trackpad look a little better (not that I ever use it except for scrolling)
- WiFi/Bluetooth on/off indicators on indicator panel on D610
- Other misc ports in different order on the backplane on the D610
- Left hand side has the PCMCIA slot above the hard disk and the audio jacks to the left of the hard disk carrier on the D610. The D600's layout of this is much akin to the T20 series and other ThinkPads that have the audio jacks 'below' the hard disk carrier and the PCMCIA slot further back alongside the hard disk carrier.

--

Now this serial port location business. The serial port is as ever a male jack (which means it has pins instead of holes... and it cannot drive *jk* ) and the CRT/VGA port is a female port which means you could put a power adapter up to it and nothing would happen. Sadly with the serial port right next to the AC/Power in jack on the D600, it means that if you were fumbling to insert the latter adapter blindly (how many of us plug things in without looking because we know where it is?) and maybe after a couple of Corona beers, you could accidentally jam that AC plug into the serial port which is not too forgiving of 12v DC into it.

As such, I managed to fry the motherboard, but no other components were harmed and a very cheap motherboard replacement sorted that, now I am much more careful. You should not encounter this on the D610 unless you misjudge the AC port's location by 1 1/2" or so.

Otherwise my D600 feels well built (I'm not trying to delude myself on this), the keyboard is sturdy and firm - not as good as a ThinkPad keyboard but close enough for me to be able to actually like it. It is laid out much like a ThinkPad keyboard with the addition of a Windows key (small and out the way) and the popup menu key is alongside Prt Scr which I love - as it doesn't compromise space bar size, Ctrl and Alt. Alt Gr's size does suffer from the windows' key's presence but being little used this is bearable! The LCD does wobble if you wobble it at the top which I have never witnessed on any Thinkpad but it doesn't wobble when typing or such like.

The D600's lid is aluminum which whilst can dent; provides excellent protection to the LCD screen. The LCD screen is streets ahead from the SXGA+ panel in my T23 which was a bit dim and washed out colour wise in comparison. The D600 has been as stable as the T23 as well.

In terms of sturdyness, I can pick it up with one hand and I don't fear the thing flexing and causing damage. The bottom of the case is not as firm as a T23 or T20 series' laptop chassis, especially if the modular device is not plugged in, but with it in, I'm not concerned that the things will die an untimely death (again).

It does get quite hot sometimes mind, but not unbearably, I can use it just fine even when it does get hot. This is supposedly improved on the D610 but I'm sure this is one area where the T40 series is better in terms of cooling and heat distribution.

In summary (whew, what a long post) - the T40 series is better, but good D600s and D610s aren't that far behind and I am very happy with mine having only ever used ThinkPads before and I am not a purveyor of crap As such I can recommend them but I have had an overall good experience.

I did write a big review too, to help such decisions, although many comparisons are towards the T23 series, not the T40 series.

http://www.lilserenity.com/new/interest ... ting00.php

Hope this helps!

FWIW - the D600 I own is as follows:

1.5GHz Pentium M Banias, 32MB ATI Radeon 9000, 14.1" SXGA+, 512MB PC2100, CDRW/DVD Combo (with floppy module too, which is one thing the T40 series can't have internally...), 60GB 5400RPM Travelstar drive, 10/100/1000 Ethernet, v90 Modem, Serial/Parallel/CRT, 2 x USB 2.0, SVideo Out, 6 cell 48Whr Battery, 1 x PCMCIA Type I/II, 1 x Smartcard slot, 802.11b Intel 2100B Wireless.

Vicky