Dell Inspiron 500M Notebook for Home

First off, don't let the 1.3 MHz fool you - as the ...

Strengths: Very fast boot time, long battery life, extremely stable software, excellent wireless range.

Weaknesses: Less than solid construction, no FireWire.

Summary: First off, don't let the 1.3 MHz fool you - as the benchmarks show, this is a very fast machine. When used on batteries, the CPU speed is cut in half. You can notice this, of course, but performance is still quite good.

I don't know how PCWorld got a 500m that costs $1,699. You can get one for hundreds of dollars less.

I've used this laptop (it's my 5th in 12 years) day in and out for 3 months without a problem. My system has the DVD/CD-RW drive. I usually swap this drive with the optional 2nd battery I purchased, which gives me over 7 hours.

A word about some of the upgrades - think carefully. More than 368 MB of RAM MIGHT improve performance, but it DEFINITELY will increase the hibernate/resume times. A faster CPU MIGHT increase productivity, but DEFINITELY will eat into battery life.

Construction quality is not great. It doesn't have the solid feel of the $3,000 IBM T40, but it's half the price, so I'll buy another when this one breaks.

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