Dell Latitude 610 review

As we've said, many refurbished or overstock PCs are current models.

The Latitude, available from Val-U-Computers, doesn't fall into that category: it's a laptop that dates from 2005, and the styling betrays its age. But if you can look past that, you'll be rewarded with a remarkable deal. Three years ago, our sister magazine PC Pro rated the 610 'a fine business machine' and 'impressively fast', and all for a mere - hold on to your hat - £1291. Today, you can buy it for £299. Interested now?

As befits its target market of corporate users, the Latitude comes in a plain silver-grey chassis without the extra buttons and lights we've come to expect. A volume control and the usual hard disk and power LEDs are all that clutter the case.

Like the IBM laptops formerly beloved of business buyers, the 610 has a trackpoint mouse amid the keys; you can use this like a tiny joystick if you prefer it to the touchpad, which is also provided, complete with twin sets of mouse buttons. Both were accurate and comfortable to use, as was the keyboard. It's solid, with a quality feel, and typing for extended periods was easy on our fingers.

Like the Dell's aesthetics, the operating system is a slight throwback. It's the only machine here with Windows XP rather than Vista, but some users will consider this a benefit; many corporates have declined to upgrade, and there's no denying that XP wastes less processing power than Vista.

The Latitude shows its age in other areas, too. Rather than built-in WiFi and Bluetooth (which can be added via the USB or PC Card ports if you need them), it has infra-red, serial and parallel ports, none of which you're likely to use unless you have ancient peripherals. The DVD drive only reads discs, and can't record them; and the screen has a low, non-widescreen resolution of 1024x768.

Nonetheless, the 610 is a capable machine. It scored 88% in our 2D (general) benchmark, which means it'll handle office tasks under XP without breaking into a sweat, and battery life was decent. It's a solidly built system at an attractive price.