Request for Experiences - Dell Inspiron 630M

[Simon Wistow]

I'm in the market for a cheap laptop and I've been looking at the Dell 
Inspiron 630M and I'm wondering if any of you have any experience with 
them. Specifically:

- what are the laptops like in general to use?
- what's the screen like?
- the one I'm looking at has a 1.7GhZ Pentium M. I've never used a 
  Pentium M before ... are they ridiculously anaemic?
- is 512Mb of RAM too little for it?
- what's the battery life like? Both as in "how long can it last between 
  charges?" and "do you need a new battery after a year because it 
  doesn't even hold enough charge to boot wihtout mains like certain 
  other brands *cough* Vaios* cough*"
- what's the customer experience like with the Dell Outlet store?

plus any general comments about Dell and/or suggestions for other good 
circa 500 quid laptops would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Simon