Dell Latitude ATG D630 14.1-Inch Notebook

by Dell

Product Details

• Item Weight: 12 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 15 pounds
• ASIN: B001D9TZV2
• Item model number: ATG D630
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 17, 2008

Product Description

Dell Latitude D630 Windows XP Laptop Notebook

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sturdy machine, August 22, 2009

By 

Travis Molony - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dell Latitude ATG D630 14.1-Inch Notebook (Personal Computers)

I've had a Dell Latitude D630 for almost 2 years now and there's one key feature that needs to be pointed out first. It's solid. Although I've never dropped it, it has been through a lot. It's very difficult to warp the LCD screen by applying pressure to the back of the display, and the screen is recessed a fair bit from the outside edges. I've seen quite a few people crack their screens but you'd have to try pretty hard to break this one. At first glance it appears thin, plastic, and flimsy; but when you pick it up and hold it you can tell there is a strong network of metal bracings underneath the surface.

When I bought mine brand new from Dell, quite a few technical things went wrong. First the touchpad never worked well out of the box. It skips, freezes and stops working intermittently. I understand this is a big problem with Dell laptops. The other joystick style mouse works well, but after a year started occasionally drifting to the top right of my screen at slow speed so I had to disable it. I usually use an external mouse anyway. After having the laptop for about a year, a section of the motherboard fried and the computer kept giving me video driver errors, but after I called Dell they politely came to my home and swapped the defective part free of charge. I play my fair share of PC games and this thing gets hot. Sometimes the bottom of the laptop will become uncomfortable to set on your thighs so I'm not surprised the board burned out. It's important to note that this machine only gets hot when it's running a video game. It usually runs at normal temperatures doing everything else. I invested in a fan cooling pad which does a good job keeping it cool.

Other than the mouse and heat issues, it's a good machine. It's a nicely sized laptop as well. Personally I feel like it's not too big or too small.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Average Laptop, not recommended for home use, February 25, 2009

By 

A. Dent "Aragorn" (Minas Anor, GD) - See all my reviews
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I've been using a Dell T630 for the past 3 days, 8 hours a day while undertaking some intensive training class. I am not going to enumerate the published specs for this machine but, instead I will run the specs against what I perceive as its usability and how that correlates to the price.

It's probably fair to state that there is little remarkable about this machine. So, here they are, my observations:

- Most of the basic featuresc found on cheaper models are found in the T630 as well.
- Some features found in cheaper models, such as biometric (fingerprint) authentication are not supported.
- Max resolution is 1440x900
- Small 60-80GB hard drive - I can't see how equipping a $2000 laptop with a $50 hard drive can be possibly justified (for our class purposes, an installation that included Windows XP, Firefox and some VMWare filled up the disk, leaving only 1GB free).
- Keybord is below average, "molasses" feel, need to strike the keys hard for a keystroke to register.
- Same as above for the mouse button emulators, only worse.
- 4 USB ports (that's a good thing), 2 in the back and to on the right.
- Heavy.

I award this machine 3 stars only because I am ignoring the outrageous posted price because prices can and do change. So, price not considered, it's an average, unremarkable machine. I can tolerate it for another day or 2 of training but, if this was my office laptop, the size of the hard drive and the subpar keyboard would proably have me petition my IT department for a replacement.

Of course, using it with a docking station (and it DOES have docking capabilities) would take care of the keyboard issue but the minuscule hard drive would still be a concern.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dell D630 review, February 19, 2009

By 

Matthew Coffey - See all my reviews
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The Dell D630 is a remarkable machine. I work for a university that is replacing older model laptops with the D630. This laptop was given to me for testing purposes and I must say I enjoy the features and durability it has provided me.
The hardware is more than adequate for the needs of our students. The Core 2 Duo processor isn't top of the line but will run most operating systems flawlessly. I tested this one with Windows XP, Windows Vista and am presently running OpenSuSe 11.1. The machine I am using comes with 2 Gigs of ram but can be upgraded to 4 gig. The only time I notice any ram issues is when I am doing video intensive work while the 3D desktop in SuSe is turned on. The resolution only maxes out at 1440X900, but the clarity of the LCD screen more than compensates for that. The 4 USB ports are also a nice addition to the machine. There are other Dell Latitude's I've experienced that only provide two ports.
The durability of this machine is more than one would expect from a Dell product. With previous Dell laptops I easily pop keys off and have even cracked a screen by dropping only 10 inches. The D630 has given me a new found hope of the durability of Dell laptops. I have knocked it off the table without any issue. I have left it in my vehicle overnight (-10 degrees) and it was just fine. My children have used and abused this laptop. All it seems to require is a nice wipe down and it looks as nice as the day the machine was given to me.
The only things I would like to see improved on is a SD-card reader built in. Maybe a little better speaker set. I believe there is only one speaker built into this machine. There is no S-video port on this machine. With previous Dell's in my possession, there have always been S-video and I have become acclimated to having one on my machine. The D630 also appears to be a little heavier than what I am use to using. I don't mind lugging my laptop around but I other people I talk with say they would never carry anything that heavy with them for work. (mac)