Dell Latitude X300 review

Jon L Jacobi & Charles McLellan 0

Published: 03 Sep 2003

Although it's a touch larger and heavier than its X200 predecessor, Dell's Latitude X300 is handsome and fast, and it's backed by an impressive three-year warranty. Improvements include a 1.2GHz Intel Pentium M processor, the Intel 855GM chipset, standard integrated wireless, and the ability to use the Latitude D-series external modular bay to reduce IT overhead. We loved our hands-on time: the keyboard, the touchpad, and the screen are a joy, as is the notebook overall. The X300 offers a wide variety of affordable upgrade and docking options, but its memory is overpriced -- we recommend buying a base 128MB configuration and upgrading it yourself.

Design

The Latitude X300 is a bit larger than the older Latitude X200. It's now 27.5cm wide by 23.4cm deep by 1.98-2.4cm high. Weighing 1.38kg without the AC adapter, it still fits easily into the sub-2kg ultraportable category, although with the bottom-mounted MediaBase -- which provides extra I/O ports and a modular drive bay (occupied in our review system by a DVD-CD-RW combo drive) -- the weight rises to 2.21kg. Adding the AC adapter to this lot takes the travel weight to 2.7kg, and if you opt for a second battery in the MediaBase, you'll be toting around 3kg.

Styled in two shades of silver, the Latitude X300 has an understated elegance. The input devices on the Latitude X300 are top-notch: the touchpad is responsive, the mouse buttons have just the right amount of stiffness, while the keyboard has a crisp tactile response. We also liked the keyboard's layout, which doesn't shrink important keys, such as right-Shift and Backspace. The Latitude X300 runs exceptionally cool, too, which enhances its usability.

The front edge of the Latitude X300 sports two tiny speakers and a set of status lights. The speakers -- like those on many small notebooks -- lack bass response and volume, but they're adequate for system sounds. The right side houses infrared and USB 2.0 ports, plus an external VGA connector. The left side offers a single type II PC Card slot, an SD card slot, headphone and microphone jacks, a mini four-pin FireWire port, a D-series external modular bay connector, an AC jack, plus the modem and 10/100 Ethernet ports. The back is occupied by only the unit's dual-latched 14.8V, 1,900mAh battery (a larger, 65WHr battery is available for £106 ex. VAT). A single, two-screw panel on the bottom of the unit opens to the Latitude X300's SoDIMM memory slot, mini-PCI slot, and modem.

A cheaper alternative to the MediaBase is the external USB 2.0 D/Bay, which can house several removable storage devices -- CD-ROM, DVD/CD-RW combo or DVD-rewritable drives. Because it's the same external bay used by the Latitude D series, businesses can save money by using existing D-series peripherals instead of the X200's proprietary FireWire modules. A D/Bay with the DVD-CD-RW combo drive would cost you £64 compared to the MediaBase's £214.

Features

The Latitude X300's configuration options range from a bare-bones, £1,198 model to a jam-packed model costing over £3,000 (ex. VAT). There's only one CPU available, but it's a good one: a 1.2GHz Intel Pentium M processor. A 12.1in., 1,024-by-768-pixel screen is the only display offered; it's a bit on the small side, but the picture is crisp, the colours are vivid, and it's viewable from wide angles.

Intel's 855GM chipset handles both I/O and graphics chores, dynamically allocating up to 64MB of system memory for graphics. The standard 128MB on the Latitude X300 isn't enough; our review sample was fitted with 256MB, but we recommend at least 512MB. Don't pay Dell's exorbitant prices, though: we found the 1GB SODIMM module that Dell sells for £750 (ex. VAT) elsewhere on the Web for less than £600.

Dell prices its hard drive upgrades (from the standard 20GB) more reasonably: £35 for 30GB (as fitted on our review system); £75 for 40GB; and £145 for 60GB. An external USB floppy drive and cable will cost you £39 (ex. VAT).

The Latitude X300's standard integrated wireless is Intel's PRO/Wireless 2100 802.11b Mini-PCI card, making this a true Centrino notebook. However, we recommend using Dell's TrueMobile 1300 802.11b/g, which is the free alternative, so that you can have two bands for the price of one. You want three bands? Pay an extra £30 for Dell's TrueMobile 1400 with 802.11a/b/g. Our review sample was fitted with extra wireless functionality -- Dell's TrueMobile Bluetooth Module, which is normally a £19 (ex. VAT) option.

The Latitude X300 comes with your choice of operating system: Windows XP Professional, XP Home or Windows 2000. Choosing XP Home or 2000 will save you £40 or £20 (ex. VAT) respectively. No productivity software is offered -- Dell assumes that the Latitude's mostly business customers will buy their own.

Performance & battery life

Our review sample of the X300 came with 256MB of RAM, of which 8MB was configured for use by the 855GM chipset's integrated graphics subsystem. Application performance from this 1.2GHz Pentium M-based system was good -- at least when running mainstream programs: the X300 delivered a creditable Business Winstone 2001 score of 46.8; unfortunately we were unable to get the high-end Content Creation Winstone 2002 test to complete.

As expected, the X300's 3D graphics performance isn't anything to shout about, thanks to its integrated 855GM chipset. However, 2D acceleration with mainstream applications is just fine.

Battery life with a single standard 1,900mAh battery was a disappointing 2 hours and 25 minutes under BatteryMark 4.01 in desktop mode. You can fit a second standard battery in the optional MediaBase for an extra £79 (ex. VAT), or use optional high-capacity battery (£106 ex. VAT) on the main system unit. The latter course will be worth considering if you don't want the MediaBase.

Service & support

The Latitude X300 comes with a three-year, next business day, on-site warranty. You can upgrade to a four-year warranty for £90 and add Client Gold Technical Support for £45 (ex. VAT). Rounding out the package are free telephone support and excellent paper and electronic documentation, plus copious online support.

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