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The Dell Latitude D610 is not available through the Home & Home Office section on Dell's site, but through the Business sections of the site. This particular one was purchased through the Dell Small Business section. The D610 is basically your mainstream, thin & light, business notebook.
I bought this notebook for university, and I needed something that could last me for the next five years. With the pace that notebooks are changing, this one is likely to become obsolete long before the five years are up, but it still needed to last that amount of time.
I had considered basically the whole Dell Inspiron line before the idea struck me that there was a Latitude line. The Inspiron 6000 was my first choice, but after seeing my friend's 6000 with battery such as Dell Precision M40 Battery , Dell Precision M4300 Battery , Dell Precision M50 Battery , Dell Precision M60 Battery , Dell Precision M65 Battery , Dell Precision M70 Battery , Dell Studio 14 Battery , Dell Studio 1435 Battery , Dell Studio 1436 Battery , I decided that it was too bulky for my taste, and I thought its design was too... plastic, and cheap; just my opinion, obviously. I had also considered the 600m and 700m models, but the D610 turned out to be of better value than the 600m, and the 700m was simply too small, with the 12.1" screen and Intel graphics.
Note that this was purchased through Dell Canada Small Business, and not Dell US, so I was not able to use any of the $750-off coupons available to US customers. Even so, I thought the notebook was a great deal. Total, including tax (also note that tax in Ontario is a whopping 15%) was around 2570 CAD. Shipping was negligible at 10 dollars.
Now, even in Canadian dollars, the price does seem high, but I'll tell you why I thought it was a good deal: this included Windows XP Pro as its default OS, an option that would run an extra 150 dollars, and at the time, I believe Office Small Business was only around 220 dollars, as opposed to 300+ dollars with the Inspiron 6000. What sealed the deal, is that the Latitude's default warranty was 3-year, Next-Business Day onsite, with CompleteCare. This kind of warranty on the Inspiron models, whose default warranty is only 1-year return-to-depot, would run an extra 200 dollars or more. Hence, it just made more sense to go with the D610 over any other Dell.
I was quoted two weeks for my shipping time; it took half that, and came via Purolator, well packed.
This isn't a flashy notebook like the Acer Ferraris, but it's certainly nothing to be ashamed of, either. It's a simple metallic grey design, with a silver Dell logo in the middle of the top. I really like the design, though, as it has nice curves in the right places, and I don't find it cheap looking like the 6000, which seems to overuse plastic. The chassis of the D610 is comprised of magnesium, aluminum, and steel; overall the notebook feels quite solid. There is very, very little flex to the top (but if you push anything hard enough, it flexes), but the screen does wobble a bit if you tap it while its up. This doesn't cause any "ripples" in the screen, and after a little wobble it goes back into place. The hinges are quite solid, and there is a good amount of resistance when opening/closing the notebook.