Review of Dell Latitude D505 Laptop Personal Portable Computer

The Dell Latitude D505 wireless laptop computer is the first and only laptop I’ve ever owned. I received it as part of a college scholarship, and have had it for just shy of two years now. As of now I’ve had the motherboard replaced (surge problem, not Dell-associated), the hard drive exchanged, and the LCD inverter replaced. Bottom line: at only $1,357, the D505 has a surprising amount of features for the low cost (including a FireWire port and a swappable bay), but so-so screen and processor; buy for practical use, i.e. business or school, with a long warranty.




The big deal about the first emergence of the D505 was its use of the then-new  1.2-GHz Intel Celeron M processor chip. The chip, which helps contribute to the inexpensive cost of the laptop, is based off of its predecessor, the Pentium M, but only has half of the L2 cache (512K), and a slower processing time. The Dell Latitude D505’s memory (256MB DDR SDRAM) is slightly small but par for the price course.




The list price for a Dell Latitude D505 is $1,357, which makes the fact that it includes a side FireWire port both unexpected and pleasing. It comes with Windows XP Professional already installed, and also sports two USB 2.0 ports in the back, one of which might have been more conveniently placed on the side for easier access. Additionally, the D505 contains a swappable bay that can service an optical drive or a second battery (approx. $99), which more than doubles the battery life to 10 or 11 hours. Its combination DVD/CDRW drive is another plus for the cost. The Dell Latitude D505 laptop computer comes with a built-in 802.11g wireless card, providing strong, dependable wireless connections and easily portable and accessible Internet.