Jewish World Review July 12, 2002 / 3 Menachem-Av, 5762
By Mark Kellner
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com |
Dell Computer Corp., which is duking it out with the combined
HP/Compaq
colossus for top seller of personal computers, has thrown down a challenge
to the entire computer industry with its new Latitude X200. It's an $1,800
ultraportable that deserves serious consideration by users who spend
time on
the road -- or, for that matter, wandering an office complex going from
meeting to meeting.
Sporting a 12.1-inch LCD screen, a full-featured keyboard that isn't
too cramping for a ham-handed typist and a host of features that a mobile
user will appreciate, the X200 will draw a lot of attention when you
use it,
as I discovered recently.
This is, really, a "presenter's machine," by which I would suggest it
will likely find a home with mobile workers who have to make a lot of
presentations. Detached from the optional media base, the X200 is
eight-tenths of an inch thick and weighs 2.8 pounds. Compared with the
five-, six- and eight-pound wonders I've had to carry, taking the computer
to a lecture at World Magazine's journalism institute recently was a
breeze.
The main unit features a VGA-out port on the right hand side,
making it
super-easy to connect the device to a projector. A press of the
Function-F8
combination shared the images on the display with the projector, and I was
off and running with my presentation. Had I needed to add a DVD-ROM or CD
item to my talk, the media base, which includes a CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive
as an
option, would have added only about 2 pounds to the weight. In fact, I
could
easily imagine a traveling speaker taking the full unit on the road,
peeling
off the media base when presenting, and then plugging it back in to
watch a
DVD movie after a hard day's work.
The X200 is one of those systems that will likely offer little
trouble
to most users, thanks to the presence of Microsoft's Windows XP
Professional
operating system and a built-in 802.11b wireless networking card. The
former, of course, is the latest revision of Windows, and it provides a
stable operating environment and plenty of helpful features to make
using a
computer less of a hassle. It can be easily configured to meet various
needs, supports the Universal System Bus, or USB, interfaces very
nicely and
can also recognize many "plug and play" items a user might connect,
such as
digital cameras. Once that recognition takes place, Windows XP can
bring in
the photos or other external items for storage and manipulation on the
computer.
It's also worth noting that both the main computer and the media bay
sport "FireWire" ports (also known as IEEE 1394 ports), which allow fast
transfer of digital photos and video from devices equipped with FireWire
connectors. The X20O's 30-gigabyte hard drive should satisfy most user
needs.
Intel's 800 MHz mobile Pentium III CPU and 256 MB of RAM seemed
sufficient for the tasks I employed while testing it; buyers will probably
find that amount of RAM satisfactory, although boosting the memory to
512 MB
would seem a very prudent step.
Documentation for the X200 and its components is extensive, and Dell
offers a range of technical support options that should satisfy even the
most finicky of users. I've talked with users who have sung Dell's praises
and those who were less-than-satisfied with the firm's performance.
But the
fact that Dell is close to the top of the PC business in sales volume
speaks
well of the firm. In my testing, the X200 performed very well, and
with few
hassles that could be directly ascribed to the machine.
That said, prospective buyers will be in for a bit of a shock: Using
the "configurator" on the Dell Web site (www.dell.com), adding the media
base, a copy of Microsoft Office XP, a CD-RW drive and enough RAM to reach
the 256 MB of my test unit brought the total price to just under
$2,700, or
$900 more than the base computer's list price of $1,800. That means this
notebook will ultimately serve not only the mobile presenter, but also the
well-heeled one as well. A user could start out with the main computer and
add the media base later -- or just buy a CD-ROM drive and connect that
separately, saving some money.
While it's a shame that all this power has a high price tag, the good
news is that for those who can afford it -- or need it -- the Dell Latitude
X200 lives up to its billing as an ultramobile computer with elegance and
high performance.
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