This review is a comparison of the HP Compaq nc6220 and the Dell Latitude D610 notebook computers. Both of these notebooks are classified as thin-and-light business class machines. The Dell is my personal system for school, and the HP is the system that I have for work. This comparison is very timely because I just bought the Dell several months ago and I was writing a review on it when my employer plopped this new HP on my desk. That was awesome, because now I can write a comparison review!
Before I get into this review I want to describe the criteria by which I will rate these notebooks. Firstly, I mainly use my work and personal notebook for email / Excel / Word / internet, so office application performance is more important to me than gaming/graphics performance. However, because I don't get a say in how I want my work notebook hardware to be, the HP in this comparison is configured very differently from my Dell. Therefore, I cannot perform an apples-to-apples benchmark comparison. Secondly, I obviously don't have the price nor can I comment on the customer service of the HP notebook, since I didn't buy it and I use my company's internal IT department for support. Lastly, I consider factors like ergonomics, usability, screen quality, build quality, battery life, and size to be just as important to outright performance, so I will weight these factors evenly in my summary.
Ok, let's get down to what you came here for! The two machines are spec'd out as follows:
HP Compaq nc6220:
- Intel Pentium M 1.6 GHz (533MHz FSB)
- 512 MB DDRII ram (single channel)
- 14.1" 1024x768 resolution screen
- Intel media accelerator 900
- 40GB, 5400rpm HDD
- DVD/CD ROM
Dell Latitude D610:
- Intel Pentium M 1.86 GHz (533MHz FSB)
- 1 GB DDRII (dual channel)
- 14.1" 1024x768 resolution screen
- Intel media accelerator 900
- 40 GB, 5400rpm HDD
- CD-RW/DVD ROM
- Intel Pro/Wireless BG
I won't get into the nitty-gritty details here, for complete specifications please go to the Dell and HP websites.
As you can clearly see the Dell trumps the HP in terms of ram and processor speed. I bought the Dell online for about Cdn $2,200, which includes a three year CompleteCare warranty. I highly recommend getting a minimum of three years on the warranty, since you never know what will happen to notebooks on the road, especially for the business class machines that are going to take a lot of abuse. At the time of the Dell purchase I was considering Lenovo ThinkPad and this HP as well, but I did not buy them for cost reasons.
Figure 1: HP Compaq nc6220 (left), Dell Latitude D610 (right). The Dell logo under the screen is covered by a strategically placed fortune cookie fortune :-) (view larger image)
Build and Design
Both manufacturers picked colour schemes that are low key, subdued and suitably business-like. The exterior of the Dell is silver with a lighter silver coloured latch. Inside, the keyboard and touchpad is surrounded by a plastic bezel of the same light silver colour. There is a row of buttons on top of the keyboard, consisting of the power button, mute, and volume up/down buttons. The HP has a dark grey exterior and interior, with the keyboard and touchpad surrounded by a black plastic bezel. There are more buttons on the HP: Power, information, wifi on/off, presentation mode, mute, and volume up/down. I like the deeper colour of the HP - it reminds me of Lenovo's ThinkPad design and looks richer.
When it comes to build and design, the low key colour themes of the two machines are the only qualities they share. In every other way the nc6220 is miles ahead of the D610. The build quality of the components that we can see and touch on the Dell looks second rate when placed next to the HP: there are large gaps between the light silver bezel and the rest of the shell above the keyboard (so much so that when I first saw it I thought there was a part missing or that something was not snapped in properly during manufacturing), between the HDD module and the rest of the exterior, between the screen bezel and the screen in the lower center location just above the Dell logo, and between the screen and the body of the notebook when it is closed. Also, the battery was loose in its compartment, even after it has been latched into the chassis. I had to wedge some duct tape in the battery compartment to make the battery sit stable inside the chassis. Furthermore, the Dell's exterior material (all plastic, with the exception of a kind of metal alloy over the LCD screen) is so smooth that I cannot get a good hand hold on it. This makes the handling of the notebook a very delicate exercise every time I transport it from one spot to another in my house. Finally, the latch on the Dell is just plain cheap. The spring action in the latch does not lend itself to the natural closing motion of the lid, often requiring extra effort to close and snaps violently when it engages. After a few months of usage, the latch is showing signs of paint chips.
On the other hand, the HP is like a carefully crafted piece of precision timepiece next to the Dell. Every gap and every adjacent component is placed just where they should be, with minimal gaps and smooth, un-interrupted transitions from one part to another. For example, the bezel above the keyboard is a separate piece from the rest of the bezel surrounding the bottom of the keyboard and the touchpad. However, the engineers at HP designed the interface with small gaps and styled features that blend the components into each other and into the overall look of the keyboard. I could hardly notice the interface. All major components like battery and DVD-ROM are attached rattle-free. The latch engages in a fluid, smooth motion as you close the lid, providing a soft but positive feedback that it is shut. There is just the right heaviness of texture on the exterior so that you can comfortably grab the notebook without applying too much pressure. That, my notebook PC friends, is paying attention to the details.
Figure 2: Front view Dell top, HP bottom. Both notebook's speakers are forward facing (view larger image)
Size-wise, the HP is the winner here as well, if you do not use the extended life battery. Without it, the HP is thinner and looks trimmer then the Dell. The sharp and edgy styling also gives it a more up-to-date look. However, the extended life battery wrecks this design. It is a wedge-looking thing that attaches to the bottom of the notebook. This results in two things: one, it tilts the notebook's keyboard towards you, which can be good or bad depending on your preference, and two, it destroys the clean style of the notebook by adding an ugly and bulky piece to the chassis. It is hideous. I like Dell's execution of using the media bay for the extra battery much better. Sure, you lose the use of the CD/DVD when running with the battery, but I don't use it much anyways, so I much prefer Dell's solution to HP's.
Both machines feel very durable and sturdy. They both have tough metal panels that protect the LCD screen, have beefy hinges, both chassis are strong enough for the machine to be picked up by the corner without any noticeable flexing, and both have spill-proof keyboards and shock mounted hard drives. I did notice that the palm rest on the HP is just a little stiffer than Dell's. Again, I give extra kudos to HP for paying attention to details. There are two additional rubber bumpers on the keyboard, directly under the left and right alt keys, that serve to protect the screen from hitting the keys when the lid is shut. With that said however, I would not hesitate taking either one of them for a cross country trip.
Screen and speakers
Neither of these screens are anything to write home about. They are XGA resolution, matte screens with subpar off-axis visibility. The HP's screen brightness is rated at 150 nits, and at maximum brightness (with the ambient sensor disabled) it is just barely adequate for the office environment. Dell does not publish the tech specs for their 14.1" screens, but by observation it is just slightly better. Neither screen has any dead pixels.
I will give the edge to the Dell here because its colours seem more vibrant, and the brightness control is better then the HP. The Latitude's seven brightness levels cover a wide range, although I found that only the top three are usable.
Figure 3: Dell left, HP right. Maximum brightness setting. Ambient light sensor disabled on HP. The Dell looks really bright compared to the HP in this picture, but in real life both are not very competitive (view larger image)
Figure 4: Dell left, HP right. Dimmest setting. Ambient light sensor disabled on HP. The HP has a very narrow adjustment range as you can see from figure 3 and 4. Notice the uneven lighting near the bottom of the Dell screen (view larger image)
Compared to the new generation of LCDs that can pump out 200nits or more, these screens are simply not competitive to what you can get from the new ThinkPads or even Dell's own Ultrasharp screens.
The speakers are also mediocre on these machines, as expected from notebooks of this class.
On a side note, this particular D610 suffers from unfiltered electronic noise through its headphone jack, a problem I understand common in the Latitude line of notebooks. Also, every time the notebook kicks into maximum performance mode, it seems to emit a high pitched electronic noise. If anyone knows a fix to these problems, please get in touch with me!
Keyboard, Touchpad, and Point stick
In this area, the HP shines again. First, I will dispatch with the keyboard part of the review, as I feel that both are extremely well done. They have no flex, the keys feel just right and the location of critical keys are well placed. The keys on the Dell are smooth whereas the keys on the HP have a slight texture. I like both.
When you look at the touchpad and point stick on the Dell though, I am again reminded of the lack of attention to details Dell has paid in designing them. The D610's point stick is an eraser head type rubber nub with a furry head. This ancient design feels cheap and it wears out quickly. I am only starting my sixth month of ownership of this machine, using the point stick sparingly, and I am already on my second nub. I will be on my third nub by early next year. (Dell sells packages of three replacement nubs for about $10). At this rate they will make another $50 off me before my warranty is over! The touchpad is a slightly recessed area, with good maneuvering space. However, the cursor motion using the touchpad is choppy and sensitive, and my hand would brush it accidentally while I type. I tried to decrease sensitivity to reduce the problem, but the cursor control with the sensitivity reduced was horrible.
The mouse buttons on the Dell are a little perplexing. The feedback on the buttons that are paired with the point stick is completely different from that of the ones paired with the touchpad. The touchpad buttons push with such a loud click that I thought something under the button was going to break. In stark contrast, the point stick buttons are soft and had a nice feel. This may not be a problem for some, but since I often use both point stick and touchpad simultaneously, the disjointed feeling just doesn't lend a quality feel to the experience.
Figure 5: Trackpads. HP left, Dell right. Note the different button styles on the Dell. They feel different when clicked, too (view larger image)
Ah, the nc6220. The touchpad/point stick combo on this machine is almost perfect. The point stick is a soft rubber nub with many little baby nubs on top for a good grip. The mouse buttons are made of the same soft rubber material, with a soft but positive click. The touchpad movements are smooth and fluid, touch clicking is easy, and the buttons feel identical to the point stick buttons. It is also recessed deeper into the chassis to reduce the possibility of a user's hand accidentally brushing it while typing. The scroll bar is responsive and its dedicated area on the pad is ingenious. The only problem I have with this setup is that the spacebar is situated just a little bit too close to the point stick buttons. My thumb would actually hit the buttons while I type if I'm not careful.
Figure 6: Pointsticks/Keys. Dell left, HP right. Note the grain on the HP keys and the nice grippy pointstick (view larger image)
Input and Output ports
Dell scores a big one here. While both notebooks sports a similar set of ports, there are a few significant differences that set the Dell apart in this comparison
I will start on the right side of the machines. Dell has the media bay and 2 USB ports on this side, while the HP has the media bay, 2 USB, headphone, microphone, and serial ports. Dell smartly placed the USB ports towards the back, where peripherals plugged into these ports will not interfere with your mouse-toting right hand. The HP, however, placed them near the front making mouse usage very awkward when anything is plugged into them. Why didn't HP put them in the back?
Figure 7: Right side view. Dell top, HP bottom (view larger image)
The left side of the Dell has the lock slot, headphones, microphone, IR port and PCMCIA/smartcard slots. The HP has the lock slot, LAN, modem, 1 USB, and the PCMCIA/smartcard/SD memory card reader slot. The IR port on the HP is in the front.
Figure 8: Left side view. Dell top, HP bottom. Note the large gaps between the harddrive housing and the rest of the notebook on the Dell (it is situated below the PCMCIA slot) (view larger image)
On the back of these machines you will find the power, monitor, serial, parallel, 2 USB, LAN, modem, and S-video on the Dell, and the S-video, power, and monitor ports for the HP. Though not many people use parallel port-connected peripherals anymore, it is nice to know that Dell actually cares about backwards-compatibility. It is a life saver when you run out of ink on the inkjet and have to dust off your old parallel-connect LaserJet II to finish a paper.
Figure 9: Back view. Dell top, HP bottom (view larger image)
If you've been keeping track, you'll notice that the Dell does not have an SD memory reader, which is a sin nowadays. However, it has four USB ports compared to the HP's three. In my opinion it is more useful to have more USB ports, for all of our USB connected components. At last count I have eight (mouse, keyboard, PDA, inkjet, laser, external harddrive, MP3 player, digital camera).
Battery
Because the machines are not configured identically, I cannot run a meaningful head-to-head battery run down test. Based on general usage, however, I would say that the Dell has a slight edge on battery life, averaging a little over 3 hours with full screen brightness and general business activity (email, excel, word processing, surfing) before requiring a charge. A quick glance at the battery pack on the Dell indicates that it is rated at 53WHr, while I calculate the HP to be about 51.2WHr. It is possible to extend battery life on both machines by purchasing an extended life battery. As discussed earlier, the HP's is a hideous-looking wedge that attaches to the bottom of the unit, and the Dell is a unit that swaps into the media bay. With the extended life battery it is conceivable to put in a 6 hour work day without a visit to an electrical outlet for both units.
One thing often overlooked when evaluating the battery on a notebook computer is its charge time. For people on the go, access to power outlets are few and far between, and when there is one available the user may not have much time on it before he/she must get moving again. Quick charge times are therefore essential to maintain the freedom of not having to tie yourself to an outlet during the work day. In this area the Dell is also a winner. Its main battery charges in about an hour, with the computer on. On the HP, it is nearly one and a half hours.
Figure 10: Bottom view, Dell (view larger image)
Figure 11: Bottom view, HP
Performance
I was able to run Super Pi and HDTune on both systems. In general use both of these machines feels very capable in multitasking between my mail client, several browser windows, and office applications.
Below are the results gained from running Super Pi, a program that forces the laptop's processor to calculate Pi to 2 million digits of accuracy:
| Notebook | Time |
| Dell Latitude D610 | 1m 44s |
| HP Compaq nc6220 | 2m 00s |
| Sony VAIO FS680 (1.86 GHz Pentium M) | 1m 53s |
| IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz Pentium M) | 1m 45s |
| Asus Z70A (1.6GHz Pentium M) | 1m 53s |
| Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 (1.73 GHz Pentium M) | 1m 48s |
| Dell Inspiron 6000D (1.6 GHz Pentium M) | 1m 52s |
| Dell Inspiron 600M (1.6 GHz Pentium M) | 2m 10s |
| HP Pavilion dv4000 (1.86 GHz Pentium M) | 1m 39s |
| HP DV4170us (Pentium M 1.73 GHz) | 1m 53s |
| Sony VAIO S380 (1.86 GHz Pentium M) | 1m 45s |
HD Tune:
Dell:
HP:
However, as a business user a different type of performance ranks as importantly as a tenth of a second in SuperPi or 200 points in 3Dmark. I'm talking about boot times, recover from sleep/hibernation times, and recover from sleep/hibernation reliability. How many times have you recovered a notebook from sleep, only to be greeted by a blank screen with a blinking cursor? Or tried to revive a machine from hibernation, but had to wait about 15 minutes ( an exaggeration) while the machine goes through its bios check, and then slowly reads 1 gig of data, literally byte by byte, back into its RAM? We've all been there, and we've all had to live with lost data and time wasting boots while your boss is waiting for some vital piece of information or when your paper is due in fifteen minutes.
For this section of the review I timed five sleep/revive and five hibernation/revive procedures. The results are summarized in the table. The machines are rebooted for each test. I begin timing when the standby/hibernate button is pressed and stop the watch when I can see the desktop and begin to use the mouse. I could not compare boot times because the Dell has XP installed and the HP has W2k. For now I will assume both OS uses the same sleep and hibernation routines. But if anyone knows a difference between the sleep and hibernation functions between XP and W2k please drop me a line.
Dell Latitude D610 | HP Compaq nc6220 | Dell Latitude D610 | HP Compaq nc6220 | |||||||
Sleep | Revive time | Sleep | Revive time | Hibernate | Revive time | Hibernate | Revive time | |||
1 | 7s | 6s | 3s | 12s | 1 | 28s | 24s | 64s | 30s | |
2 | 4s | 3s | 4s | 11s | 2 | 22s | 20s | 64s | 34s | |
3 | 5s | 4s | 6s | 12s | 3 | 22s | 20s | 56s | 32s | |
4 | 5s | 4 | 4s | 10s | 4 | 22s | 21s | 57s | 30s | |
5 | 5s | 3s | 5s | 10s | 5 | 23s | 20s | 55s | 31s | |
All times were recorded with the notebooks plugged in.
Hibernation times for the Dell are good, not great in my opinion. It still leaves the HP in the dust. What is interesting here is that even though the Dell had twice the memory of the HP, which in theory should take the Dell twice as long to go into hibernation, its dual channel memory architecture really speed things up when writing contents of the RAM to the harddrive. It is fast enough to beat the smaller memory size, single channel setup of the HP.
Standby times for the Dell are good. I'm a little perplexed by the times posted from the HP. It was very eager to go into standby, but seems to want to take its time reviving from it.
Reliability-wise, I've not had any issues with standby or hibernation on the HP in the three weeks that I've had this machine. If my memory is correct the Dell did not revive after an extended standby/hibernation only on a few occasions.
Customer support
My only encounter with support was with the DVD/CDRW on the Dell. It was dead on arrival. It took about 20 minutes on the phone with Dell support to arrange the shipment of a new drive. The experience was hassle-free, but a dead component on arrival should not be happening in the first place.
I have not had experience with support for the HP.
Conclusion
After tallying up the scores, here is how the two machines fared:
- Build and Design - HP
- Screen - Dell
- Speakers - Draw
- Keyboard and Touchpad - HP
- Input and output ports - Dell
- Battery - Dell
- Processor and Performance -- Dell
- Total: Dell 4, HP 2
I should note though that the Dell just barely squeaked out a victory in the Battery and Screen department.
Overall, my general feeling is that the HP would make a better overall business notebook, because it just has the feeling that it is better screwed together overall, more thought was given to its construction, and the design feels more refined then the Dell. I get more enjoyment working on it. The Dell feels like it is designed and put together rather haphazardly, albeit with durable and rugged components (with the exception of the point stick). As a reader of car magazines, I can't help but think in writing this review that I am comparing a Pontiac Sunfire to a Honda Civic. Both serve their primary function very well, but the refinement that you would find in the Civic will not be matched by the Sunfire.
So if I had the choice again, would I buy the Dell Latitude D610 or the HP Compaq nc6220 for my personal use? The answer is neither. In my opinion, the screen on the HP is simply unacceptable for this day, for this price. Because the LCD plays such a huge role in the purchasing decision of a notebook, I would not buy it for this reason alone. You could option for the SXGA screen which is rated 180nits, but I have not seen it so I cannot comment on how much better it really is. I would not get the D610 because even though it has good performance, durability, and battery performance, I don't believe there is any excuse for its lack of build quality and attention to details, given its cost. I am especially disappointed in the pointstick/trackpad design.
The only notebook currently on the market which will satisfy my entire set of criteria is the ThinkPad T or Z series. Lenovo has recently dropped their prices, so they may now be a worthwhile consideration.
Dell Latitude D610
Pros:
- Solid build
- Good value for the money (if you have a coupon)
- 4 USB ports
- Battery performance
Cons:
- Lack of attention to details: unsightly gaps
- Stiff latch
- A little on the large side for the thin and light category
- Dim screen
- Pointstick not durable
- Annoying electronic noises
HP Compaq nc6220
Pros:
- Solid build
- Sleek styling, compact size
- Great touchpad/pointstick
Cons:
- Terrible screen
- Spacebar too close to mouse buttons
- Poor port locations
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