The thin-and-light Latitude D600 series, based on the new Pentium M processor, marks the start of an ambitious new corporate look for Dell. Not only has the company redesigned all of its popular Latitude laptops, it has also reworked its docking stations, port replicators, and media modules.

The notebooks carry the very latest components, including ... read morePentium M processors and Intel’s new 855 chipset. The D600 series isn’t always a true-blue Centrino, but it can be. The company offers either the Centrino-completing Intel Pro wireless mini-PCI card, known as Calexico, or Dell Computer’s own TrueMobile Wi-Fi mini-PCI cards, supporting 802.11a/b/g. If your corporate budget includes money for a new laptop line, the Latitude D series is a wise way to spend it.

The old Latitude C600 was the comfort food of corporate computing, then the new Latitude D600 series would be the dessert. The silver D600 is a smaller, sleeker version of the gray C600, measuring 1.2 by 12.4 by 10.1 inches and weighing an easy-to-tote 5.3 pounds. It still includes an internal swappable bay that houses a second battery or one of various drives: CD, DVD, CD-RW, DVD/CD-RW, floppy, or a second 40GB hard drive.

Like the C600, the Latitude D600 series includes both a pointing stick in the middle of the spacious, comfortable keyboard and a touchpad centered in the wrist rest. There are four mouse buttons: two below the spacebar (you’re supposed to use these with the pointing stick) and two below the touchpad. Three handy buttons for volume--Up, Down, and Mute--are located in the upper-left corner above the keyboard.

Dell’s new D/View monitor stand ($69) and port replicator ($199) make it easy to connect them. And in a unique twist, the monitor stand lets you use the notebook’s screen as your main monitor, though setting it up takes some getting used to. First, attach the notebook to the monitor stand, place that on the port replicator, then lift up the back of the port replicator (there’s a hinge in front). Open your notebook and slide the system up or down until the display reaches eye level. Next, connect an external keyboard and mouse, and voilà--you have a desktop-PC-like setup. The two downsides to this setup: you might tire of looking at the laptop’s keyboard propped up in front of you, and you might find the whole setup difficult to use.

The Latitude D600 has all of the standard ports and slots required for everyday business applications. Headphone and microphone jacks, an IrDA port, and one Type II PC Card slot line the left edge. The slot includes an embedded smart-card reader that lets employees store and read their passwords and other info on optional smart cards (the cards are available in a number of sizes and prices from various third-party manufacturers). Two speakers with middling sound occupy the front-edge corners. Two USB 2.0, S-Video-out, 56Kbps modem, 10/100/1000 Ethernet, parallel, VGA, and serial ports stretch out across the rear edge.

Product Features

• Remanufactured to like-new condition; includes 90-day warranty
• 1.6 GHz Pentium M (Centrino) processor with 1 MB L2 cache, 400 MHz FSB
• 30 GB hard drive, 256 MB installed RAM (2 GB max), 14.1-inch LCD screen, CD-RW drive
• 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 serial, 1 parallel, 1 infrared, 2 PCMCIA, 1 VGA, 1 S-Video
• Windows XP Professional