thanks ChaosX2,

i have been scanning the forum and there are a few threads about the 600M and 8500. one of the problems right now is that the SXGA+ screen is causing system delays. only the XGA screen is available now for faster shipping. are you saying that it would probably not be a good idea to get a 600M with an XGA screen?

i do have a nice 1 year old desktop right now that works very well so my primary interest was to have a more portable notebook that i could take with me and not use as a desktop replacement. but after pricing it out, the 8500 with a 15.4 WUXGA screen only costs about $200 more than a 600M. and the 600M has a 1.4 Pentium-M while the 8500 has a Mobile Pentium 2.4. and of course the 8500 has the Nvidia 64M graphics card while the 600M has the Raedon 64MB 9000.

also, does 2.5 pounds make that big of a difference? because i have seen and held the Sony VX505B with its 12" screen and its weight of about 4.4 pounds and even the 600M is a bit heftier than it.

man i hate these kinds of decisions!! LOL :-)

The Ultra-Sharp and the SXGA+ will probley have around the same size fonts and images since the Ultra-Sharp screen is bigger but the resolution is higher than the SXGA+. Here is the thing, LCD's are optomized for a certain screen size meaning if the max res is 1400x1050, then it will look best at 1400x1050. This also means the screen will look a little blury at lower res. I have a 600M with the SXGA+ screen, it took me 2 days to get used to the high res and now I wouldn't want to do without it. What you really need to do is go down to a local store that sells laptops and check out the different screens. As far as your decision between the two laptops, if you want a desktop replacement go with the 8500. If you want a good mobile computer go with the 600M. I got the 600M since I already have a good desktop system and I wanted a good portable system. Right now I am using my laptop for 95% of the stuff that I do. My desktop is now basically a CD-Burning machine. Hope this stuff helps... but you'll find a bunch of topics on this exact same topic if you do a search.

2 pounds makes a lot of differnece. also, the physical size of the 600m is more managable.  the pentium M processor the 600M has also gives you great battery life.  I routinely do 4 hours (on one battery) on my 500m (600m with intel graphics instead of radeon).  I got a second battery "free" deal and i'm very happy, i take my computer to school without any attachments and charge the thing at home overnight, very much like a mega cell phone =)

The font size of the XGA vs SXGA+ is kind of interesting, there are software ways to compensate for it, the SXGA+ gives you much nicer images than the XGA due to the density of pixels.  I for one would not get less than the maximum density of any laptop i were tempted to buy.  I didn't look at any xga's when i was looking =)

If your worried about small fonts then you will probably want the XGA screen. If you need more screen realestate like me then the SXGA+ is the one to go for. the ATI M9 64 vid card can run most games out right now, and if you have a good desktop system then the lappy won't be your primary game machine. The 1.4 Pentium-M is pretty close in performance to a 2.4 Pentium 4-M, so you won't knotice much of a difference. If your worried about the shipping time and having that detirmine your screen XGA or SXGA+ remember that the shipping time is only a small percent of the time your going to own that laptop. Don't make your descisions based on shipping time (unless the shipping time is more that 2 months ;) ).

I would agree that the 2.5 does make a big difference if your carrying it around all the time. Ask any buisness travelers. My last laptop was about 7 lbs and this 600M is about 5 lbs. I will have to say it made a big difference for me.

thank you guys for all of your responses!

i thought you all made a lot of sense. and frankly i agree with both the arguments for the 600M and also for the 8500 and that is what makes it tough.

i was just looking through some more specs, and i notice that the 8500 comes with an IEEE1394 port which is nice because i have a Sony D8 camcorder and i could transfer digital video directly to the 8500 and then burn the videos with DVD+RW drive that i plan to get with the laptop too.

i also checked what it lists for the battery usage times and it says the 600M does between 3-4 hours while the 8500 can do "up to 3 hours." does this mean that both machines can be run longer if doing less intensive stuff like web surfing or chatting online? i realize that playing high-end games will undoubtedly reduce battery consumption by a large amount (is it a lot?).

the other thing that caught my eye was that none of these batteries for either machine are rated at more than 300 recharges. that seems like an awfully low number to me. i do plan on getting an extra battery though.

oh and Chaos and Anglete, i totally agree with you that "settling" for a lesser display choice just because it takes less time is not a smart thing to do. so if i do order a 600M, i will be sure and get the SXGA+ display. :-)

and caboosmoose, if they put an ultra-sharp display and Nvidia graphics card and firewire port on the 600M then they would have a sure winner in my book! ;-) :-)

i really can't wait to try the Wi-Fi capabilities of these notebooks either! that has to be very nice (if you can get it to work properly).

thanks again for you input

Message Edited by Delicious64 on 07-04-2003 06:44 PM

The 8500 is available with 3 different LCD panels (1280x800, 1680x1050 and 1920x1200) so if you are worried about fonts being too small go for the WXGA (1280x800) LCD. It has the same viewing angles and brightness as the other 8500 panels, but will display fonts at approximately the same size as the XGA panel on the 600m. I have an 8500 and I used to have both a 4000 and an 8100. The 8500 is considerably lighter than the old 8100/8200 models and in my view it is a very portable system and I would not buy a 600m for portability reasons, the difference isnt that huge. The one advantage the 600m has is longer battery life. If that is vital, then I guess you have to buy the 600m, but the 8500 is so much nicer in most respects it would be a shame to go for the 600m. Oh, I agree that in cpu performance terms, there's not much between the two systems, so i would buy one or the other on those  terms, but the 4200go is a much better video card than the ATI 9000 that comes with the 600m. Until (and if)Dell starts shipping Ultrasharp panels in the 600m, i wouldn't buy one.

A note of caution: if you buy the 600m do not purchase the full centrino (intel wireless) as the drivers are horrid (cause the system to crash if you use the wrong access point(!!!!)) and the truemobile 1300 is only ~$10 more...

I have the full Centrino package, and I do not have these crashes.   I use a Linksys wireless router.   Bottom line is make sure you don't havea cheap router, if anything.

I have to agree with Gregg, I have never experienced a problem with the Centrino package, so upgrading to the Truemobile card really comes down to whether you plan on using 802.11g in the near future. I also use a Linksys wireless router/access point, so maybe there's something to that.

thanks for the info about Wi-Fi you Anglete,Gregg,tbran, and Alan!

because i (stupidly..LOL) ordered an 1184 router (for $72) i think i pretty much will get the 1300 TrueMobile card for compatibility sake. if i had known that you guys were having good success with the Intel Centrino card then i would have probably gone the way you did. but the ability to use the 802.11g standard in the future does sound appealing too...

can you 600M guys confirm to me that you LOVE your SXGA+ screens??...LOL any problems with that "screen ripple" i have heard mentioned on here in other threads and also do you get good DVD performance and how do digital photos look?

i really do like the idea of the smaller and lighter 600M. but the features of the 8500 keep pulling my strings too. maybe you guys could tell me what about the 600M sold you versus the 600M? or was it an easy choice for you?

thanks so much for your input,

Paul