Dell Latitude C600

Choosing between a notebook and a desktop has never been harder. The technological gap that once yawned between them has been reduced to a sliver, with even the more exotic desktop features like 3D graphics being duplicated on these smaller machines. Couple these specifications with an LCD screen that's still as viewable as a 17in CRT monitor, and you don't just have a desktop substitute, you've got the whole desktop.

Dell's Latitude range is a great example of this, and the C600 has everything you'd expect from a high-end notebook these days. The guts of the machine are top notch, centred round a Pentium III/850 SpeedStep processor, 128Mb of SDRAM, a 10Gb UltraDMA/66 hard disk and 8Mb of 3D-accelerated ATi graphics. This combination helped the C600 to churn out a more than respectable overall PC Pro benchmark of 2.32. However, the C600 still suffers from the bottleneck of the 440BX chipset, so the 815-based Dell Inspiron 8000 850UT (reviewed issue 75, p161) is still the performance king with its 2.51 benchmark.

All this hardware is neatly mounted on a business-like chassis, which looks a bit like an iBook redesigned by an IBM technician; all rounded corners and cool-looking buttons. As with many of IBM's notebooks, the Latitude C600 features dual mouse control as well. At the front of the generously wide wrist rest is the traditional glide pad, with two rather strangely shaped, but perfectly usable buttons underneath. Above that you'll find two more buttons, which work in conjunction with the trackpoint nestled in the middle of the keyboard.

The only reason I mention this dual mouse control method is because it created the only problem I had with the C600 - the trackpoint getting in the way while you're typing. Even if you're a professional touch typist you'll probably hit it more than a few times; and every time you do with any force, your cursor repositions itself to wherever you last left it. This can mean you find yourself typing in the middle of your document. It's annoying, not that serious, but a flexible driver could have sorted it out - as it is, I just removed the trackpoint cover, which still didn't quite solve the problem.

That niggle aside, everything else about the C600's design is acceptable, and aimed towards the corporate user. The modules that slip out of the front are backwardly-compatible with previous Latitude models, which is good news if you've bought a lot of these notebooks in the past. In this case, an eight-speed DVD-ROM drive and lithium ion battery are included, and the floppy drive can run externally with the supplied cable too.

Working around the outside of the C600 reveals all the ports you could want. On the right-hand side below the three indicator lights are headphone and mic jacks, next to the V.90 modem, RJ-45 and infrared ports, and an S-Video connector. Around the back you'll find serial, parallel and docking connectors, plus a VGA port, USB connector and PS/2 port for a mouse or keyboard. Finally, on the left there are two PC Card slots, and the hard disk drive, which is removable with a screwdriver.

On top is the rounded keyboard, which is firm, but not too hard, and easy to get used to. It's well laid out as well, and with the wrist rest, getting up to typing speed on the C600 is possible in just a few minutes. One small extra is the AccessDirect key, as Dell has dubbed it, which is a programmable button above the main keyboard. However, these can be a waste of space depending on your priorities, and being so small, this one's certainly no exception.