The Dell Latitude D630 exceeded all my expectations

I have purchased "off-lease" and "refurbished" laptops before, and they were usually disappointing, to say the least: some looked as if they'd been run over by a T-Rex driving a steamroller and performed minimally. Typically, they come with batteries that will not hold a 30-minute charge, so the immediate purchase of a new battery was required. None of these faults applies to the Dell Latitude D630 I received from this seller.

First of all, the price was exceptionally low for the quality of the machine, the size of the hard drive, and the amount of RAM it came with. The laptop arrived quickly, securely packaged, and I received my first pleasant surprise when I extricated it from the layers of bubble wrap: the computer looked brand new. Once I opened it, this impression was confirmed: there were none of the typical signs of wear on any of the most vulnerable places (palm rests, space bar, et al.) to indicate that this computer had been "rode hard and put away wet." The second pleasant surprise came when I fired up the computer: it booted quickly, came up with a clean, uncluttered screen, and functioned perfectly from the start. When I checked the battery's charge, it showed a full charge of over 3 hours, of which I was admittedly skeptical; as it turned out, I had no reason to be.

As I began to load the software I would be using most frequently, I found that the battery included did indeed have a long useful working life. The Latitude came with its original-equipment charger, which fully recharges the battery in less than two hours. I have now logged well over two months' constant work on this machine, and I have yet to experience any reason for complaint. I am tempted to buy another one just like it and store it away until I need it; however, by that time, Dell will probably be producing Latitudes that run on anti-matter cells, so I guess I'll wait. Meanwhile, I couldn't be happier with the D630.

Oh, what do I dislike about the product? There's nothing negative I could say about the Latitude D630 that I couldn't also say about any other laptop by any other manufacturer: it doesn't have a 50-inch screen; the keyboard is in a weird place, requiring the user to type at a weird angle; it doesn't come pre-installed with the American Film Institute's Top 100 movies; and so far, it hasn't guaranteed the sale of any of my screenplays. Other than that, it's everything a laptop computer should be.