Dell Latitude D630 Review: Old, But With Decent Performance

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Dell Latitude D630: At First Glance

Before writing this review, I thought that affordable laptops would hardly impress me. However, although the Dell Latitude D630 is cheap, it wowed me in many areas.

First of all, for an affordable laptop, its Intel Centrino Duo CPU and Verizon’s 3G mobile broadband are irresistible features. However, we don’t expect everything to be perfect on cheaper laptops as much as we do for costlier ones.

Nevertheless, the Dell Latitude D630 is only a few steps away from perfection. Impressively, you will only need to spare about $90.99 (price applicable in May 2022) to buy the Dell Latitude D630.

What else is so good about this laptop apart from its CPU architecture and mobile broadband? Make sure to read this article to the end if you want to find out.

Dell Latitude D630: Design, Display, and Sound

The Dell Latitude D630 looks anything but attractive. This is due to its bulky and thick magnesium alloy body.

On the bright side, its magnesium alloy body gives it some extra strength and makes it able to withstand rough handling. In fact, a first look at the laptop will convince you that it is not the fall-and-break type.

As for color, the Dell Latitude D630 is gray on the outside but black on the inside when you open the lid.

If you are familiar with Dell laptops, you should expect to see a silver Dell logo at the center of this laptop’s lid. If you expected to see that, then you got it right.

Now, I believe you can correctly picture the Dell Latitude D630 in your mind. Nevertheless, I will go ahead and tell you other things to expect from this laptop.

The two hinges supporting the lid are as wide as the hinges of a door and, at the same time, very strong. Hence, the lid should be far from being shaky even when nudged with force.

That said, let us quickly talk about the display of this laptop, which will come to view when you open the lid. With just a glance at the display screen, you can tell that this is an old laptop.

This is major because the 14-inch display of the Dell Latitude D630 is enclosed in wide and thick bezels. Disappointingly, despite how thick the bezels are, there is no webcam on the top bezel.

However, you will find a white “Dell” logo on the bottom bezel. Appreciably, there are some rubber fittings around the bezels for smoother lapping with the laptop base.

For the laptop’s display, it comes in two resolution options. Specifically, the display can have a WXGA (1280 x 800 pixels) resolution or WXGA+ (1440 x 900 pixels) resolution.

Interestingly, the WXGA (Widescreen Extended Graphics Array) display resolution option is a widescreen version of the traditional XGA. However, the major difference between WXGA and XGA is that the former fits more icons and texts.

Therefore, the content on a WXGA display is usually smaller to read.

In line with that, the WXGA+ resolution option should fit even more content than the WXGA resolution option. Nevertheless, both resolution options can’t compete with FHD or UHD resolutions.

Moreover, both display resolution options have a 16:10 aspect ratio and 220 nits maximum brightness level. This brightness level is fairly good but may not be enough in well-lit areas and outdoors.

Moving to the base of the laptop, we see a standard keyboard without a dedicated number pad. As for the keys on the keyboard, they are tapered (half pyramid in shape), just like you will find on desktop keyboards.

As one would expect of such keyboards, there’s plenty of key travel. By plenty of key travel; I mean that the keys can press down very deep before they get registered.

Consequently, professional typists may find the Dell Latitude D630’s keyboard easy to use as it offers accuracy and comfort. Besides, the keyboard has dedicated functional buttons for volume control and sound mute.

Meanwhile, as Dell’s custom, the Dell Latitude D630 has a blue Trackpoint between the G, H, and B keys. This Trackpoint serves as an alternative to the touchpad, and it has dedicated click buttons below the space bar key of the laptop’s keyboard.

Speaking of the touchpad, the Dell Latitude D630’s touchpad is underneath the keyboard and features its own dedicated click buttons. Performance-wise, this touchpad offers a smooth plastic surface that allows navigation and cursor control to be seamless.

Impressively, there is a fingerprint scanner in-between the touchpad’s click buttons. This fingerprint scanner is for security purposes and allows for easy login into Windows.

Moving on, the Dell Latitude D630 features two 2.0 W stereo speakers with built-in microphones. Although these speakers deliver decent sound quality, their sounds can get distorted at a very high volume.

When you look around the sides of this Dell laptop, you will see some essential ports for wired connectivity. Starting with the right side, there are two USB 2.0 ports mounted horizontally (one above the other) and an optical disk slot.

On the rear side, there are two more USB 2.0 ports and a modem port. Also, on the rear, you’ll see an Ethernet port, a charging port, one serial port, and one D-Sub port (for connecting an external monitor).

Meanwhile, on the left side of the laptop, there is a microphone jack, one headset jack, a 4-pin FireWire port, and a SmartCard slot. For wireless connectivity, the Dell Latitude D630 features Bluetooth 2.1 and WiFi 802.11 a/g/n.

Interestingly, this WiFi module makes internet surfing fairly fast and enjoyable.

Asides from Bluetooth and WiFi, some other versions of this laptop also feature a fast 3G mobile broadband from Verizon. Impressively, this mobile broadband can download a 1 MB file in 13.2 seconds and can upload the same file in 17.1 seconds.

Finally, in this section of the Dell Latitude D630 review, we will look at the laptop’s dimensions and weight. Speaking of the dimension, the laptop measures 337 x 238 x 32.3 mm (W x D x H).

As for the weight, it weighs either 2000 g or 2300 g, depending on the battery configuration.

In comparison, the Lenovo Thinkpad T61 measures 312 x 255 x 24 – 27 mm (W x D x H) and weighs 2500 g. Thus, even though the Dell Latitude D630 is significantly thicker and bigger than the Lenovo Thinkpad T61, it weighs lesser.

Therefore, I will rate the Latitude D630 an eight out of ten in this design review section.

Dell Latitude D630: Processor (CPU) Performance

Dell equipped the Latitude D630 with one of the several Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs. The most powerful processor configuration for this laptop is the Intel Core 2 Duo T7800.

This CPU should perform well with its 2 cores and 4 MB of cache memory. For your information, CPU cores are several locations on the processor where individual tasks can be processed.

Thus, the more cores a CPU has, the higher its processing power. Meanwhile, cache memory is a small part of the CPU that stores data temporarily during program execution for faster access by the CPU.

In addition to the specs mentioned above, the Core 2 Duo CPU runs at a base frequency of 2.60 GHz. However, its speed cannot turbo boost beyond that.

Overall, this CPU has a modest number of cores, cache memory, and base frequency. However, we don’t conclude on a CPU’s capability based on its specs only.

Instead, we verify its performance using a benchmark test. To do that, let us consider its result in a Cinebench R10 test performed by notebookcheck.net.

For better understanding, a Cinebench R10 test assigns some difficult tasks to one or all of the CPU cores. Then, it measures how fast the core(s) can perform these tasks.

Depending on how fast they’re able to complete the tasks, a resultant value is assigned to the CPU. When a single processor core is used in the test, it is called a single-core test.

Meanwhile, if all the processor cores are used, it is called a multi-core test. Moreover, the higher the score in either the single-core or multi-core test, the better the performance of the CPU.

On that note, the Dell Latitude D630’s Intel Core 2 Duo T7800 CPU got 2663 points in the single-core test. On the other hand, it got 5014 points in the multi-core test.

In comparison, the Lenovo ThinkPad T61‘s Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 CPU got 1971 points in the single-core test. It also recorded a total of 3600 points in the multi-core test.

These scores by the Lenovo ThinkPad T61’s Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 are far below that of the Dell Latitude D630’s Intel Core 2 Duo T7800. Hence, the latter should offer a better processing performance than the former.

Thus, I will rate the Dell Latitude D630 a nine out of ten in this processor review section.

Dell Latitude D630: Memory (RAM) Performance

The Latitude D630 has two RAM slots and comes with a 512 MB RAM stick on one of the slots. Obviously, 512 MB RAM is very poor for a laptop considering the fact that smartphones come with larger memory than that nowadays.

Therefore, it is necessary that you upgrade this RAM as soon as you can for better performance. Meanwhile, while planning to upgrade, just know that the maximum RAM capacity the laptop supports is 4 GB.

Also, note that the RAM type the laptop supports or uses is DDR2 SDRAM with a frequency of 667 MHz. Before moving further, it is important to mention that this review is based on the Dell Latitude D630 with 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM.

With this amount of RAM, the Dell Latitude D630 should be able to perform light multitasking. Speaking of which, the laptop should be able to run 5 Chrome tabs simultaneously without lagging too much.

However, constantly switching between the tab or adding more tabs will make the laptop’s performance drop significantly. Also, opening other applications while the Chrome tabs are running might make the laptop lag seriously.

To give you more insight into the Dell Latitude D630’s performance with 2 GB RAM, I will now highlight its PCMark 5 test result. Before doing that, let me remind you that a PCMark 5 test measures the overall memory performance of a laptop by simulating everyday tasks.

Moreover, a high score on the PCMark 5 test is an indication of good RAM performance and vice versa. Basically, the higher the score, the better the memory performance of the laptop.

Thus, in the test, the Dell Latitude D630 scored 4159 points. Impressively, this score is about 100 points higher than the 4036 points obtained by the Lenovo 3000 N200.

However, the Dell Latitude D630’s score is less than that of Acer Aspire 5920’s 5015 points in the same test.

All in all, I will rate the Dell Latitude D630 a seven out of ten in this memory review section.

Dell Latitude D630: Storage Options and Performance

The Dell Latitude D630 comes with SATA HDD and supports a maximum storage capacity of 160 GB. Although the max storage space of this laptop is disappointing and insufficient, it is not strange to see it on a laptop at this price.

Thankfully, this laptop has a CD/DVD drive that can read both ROM and WR compact disks. Hence, you can use CDs to back up non-frequently used files.

This will free up some primary storage space for other files on the laptop. Meanwhile, just like most old laptops, there is no SD card reader on the Dell Latitude D630.

For performance evaluation, let us look at the laptop’s performance in a PCMark 5 storage test. In order not to get confused, you should be aware that this test is a subset of the PCMark 5 test.

However, the PCMark 5 storage test is specifically for evaluating the storage performance of a computer. Just like the two benchmark tests previously discussed, a higher score in this test indicates better storage performance.

Disappointingly, the Dell Latitude D630’s HDD did not do so well in the test. It scored only 3672 points on the test, which isn’t up to the category average of 3700 points.

Besides, compared to the Lenovo 3000 N200’s HDD, the Dell Latitude D630’s HDD has poor performance. Specifically, on the PCMark 5 storage test, the Lenovo 3000 N200’s HDD scored 3931 points.

Therefore, I will rate the Dell Latitude D630 a seven out of ten in this storage review section.

Dell Latitude D630: Graphics Card Performance

Dell made the Latitude D630 available with two GPU options. These GPU options are an Intel GMA X3100 and an NVIDIA Quadro NVS 135M.

The Intel GMA X3100 is an integrated GPU and has a base frequency of 500 MHz. For clarity, an integrated GPU is embedded into the laptop’s CPU and shares the system memory with it to carry out graphics-related tasks.

Thus, when the CPU has too much data in the memory, there will be little memory left for the GPU. Consequently, the performance of the integrated graphics card is limited – it won’t be able to handle graphics-demanding apps and games.

On the contrary, the NVIDIA Quadro NVS 135M is a dedicated GPU that has a base frequency of 400 MHz. As a dedicated GPU, this graphics card isn’t embedded into the CPU.

Also, it has a dedicated GDDR3 VRAM (Video RAM) of up to 256 MB. Hence, in order to smoothly carry out light graphics-associated tasks on this laptop, you will be better off with the dedicated GPU option.

As per our tradition at www.itechguides.com, I will now give you a better picture of the laptop’s graphics performance. To do that, I’ll go back to the PCMark 5 test result by trustedreviews.com.

This time around, we will be focusing specifically on the graphics aspect of the test. Before that, let me inform you that the Dell Latitude D630 tested has the integrated GPU configuration, which is the Intel GMA X3100.

So, in the test, the laptop got a score of 1737 points. Comparatively, this laptop was significantly surpassed by one of its closest competitors (Lenovo 3000 N200), which scored 3931 points on the same test.

However, despite falling below its competitor, the Dell Latitude D630 still outperformed its predecessor – the name of its predecessor is the Dell Latitude D620.

Specifically, the laptop’s predecessor recorded just 1165 points in the PCMark 5 graphics test. Thus, I will conclude this GPU review section by rating the Dell Latitude D630 an eight out of ten.

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Dell Latitude D630: Battery Life and Performance

The battery that comes with the Dell Latitude D630 can either be a 4-cell 32 WHr battery or a 6-cell 56 WHr Li-Ion battery.

Moreover, an external 3-cell battery can be added to the 6-cell battery on this laptop. In that case, you’ll see the battery extending outward from the base of the laptop.

Certainly, the laptop’s weight will increase, but that will also amount to a total of a 9-cell battery.

Moving on, Dell should have specified how long these batteries last but did not. Therefore, we need to find out how well the laptop’s battery can retain its charges.

To do this, we will be using a DVD battery drain test result from cnet.com.

In this test, a movie on a DVD will be played continuously until the battery completely runs out of power. However, you should note that depending on the tasks performed, your laptop can last differently than it did in the test.

Also, note that this test was carried out with the highest battery configuration for this laptop (a 9-cell battery.)

According to cnet.com, the Dell Latitude D630’s battery lasted for 6 hours and 45 minutes. That is way better than the Lenovo ThinkPad T61‘s 4 hours and 29 minutes.

Therefore, I will rate the Dell Latitude D630 a nine out of ten in this battery review section.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Judging from all I have said in this review, the Dell Latitude D630 offers more value than its price. This is evident in the performance of its CPU and battery, which are notably strong.

Also, I won’t forget to mention the various options of Windows Vista or Windows XP OS you can get on this laptop. These include Windows Vista Ultimate, Business, Home Basic, Windows XP Professional SP2, Home SP2, as well as FreeDOS.

You’ll likely doubt if you’re told that you can get a brand-new laptop with all these features for under $100. However, the truth is that you can.

Therefore, why not place an order for a Dell Latitude D630 today?

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