Comment on Dell Latitude D630 14.1-Inch Notebook PC (Refurbished) Silver by The Man.
Bargain Workhorse,
I bought this laptop directly from dell Financial Services auction on ebay. I did not even know that they have it here on Amazon Marketplace too. Even though the description said manufacturer refurbished the laptop I received looked like new. It came with power adapter and a Dell Windows XP Reinstallation CD and built in Intel PROSet Wireless Card. Absolutely no bloatware is included.
Now this may not be a top of the line machine but it is pretty adequate for home and school or even Small Home Office use. The neat part is that once you boot up the machine for the first time it would automatically install Windows XP after going through some preliminary steps. It even gives you option to enter setup and configure things but you are better off leaving the machine alone to do its thing and install windows XP or whichever operating system it is bundled with unless you’re techie. Once windows finishes installation you can pretty much install anything you want. I have so far installed Open Office, MS Office 2003, Firefox, Chrome, Avast Anti Virus, Trusteer Rapport security Software and many other productivity softwares and the machine boots up and runs smoothly.
It does not come with webcam so I installed Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000 and Microsoft Lifecam Cinema and either camera runs smoothly even on HD modes. I use Lifecam Cinema more often because it’s stand is perfect fit for D630 bezel as opposed to the Quickcam Pro 9000’s stand which tend to wobble.
I will advise you buy this laptop directly from Dell either here on Amazon Marketplace or on ebay where it is listed under Dell_Financial_Services. You will likely receive a laptop that will be like new but more importantly you will get 30 days warranty.
This laptop is of right price, size and specs: 14″ bright LCD, 2GB Ram, 80GB harddisk space and 2GHZ Intel Dual Core processor that is more than adequate for most home, school and or Small Home Office use. It is sturdy and sleek looking too.
There is one thing that Dell scrimped on here: the tiny single speaker that is barely audible! I use an external Frisby USB laptop Speakers. I also use headphone when I am on the road. It is worthy to note that this tiny speaker belies a powerful sound card that only becomes apparent when you put on a headphone.
NB: Don’t forget to switch on the wireless radio or you will not be able to use the wifi connection. The switch is on same side and next to the headphone jack. It is switched off by default. Once you switch it on it will detect a bunch of wifi hot spots including yours, if any. Select your SSID from the displayed options and enter your router’s WEP Key and you will be good to go. I have at&t 2WIRE Wireless Gateway and the WEP Key is the ten digit number directly below the serial number located on the side or bottom of the router depending on whether it is standing vertically or lying on it’s side. The built in wireless card is powerful. I highly recommend this laptop to anyone who may be on budget but not willing to compromise on quality and performance.
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