I had been looking to replace my 4+ year old Inspiron 1100 with Celeron and
20 GB HD, mostly Dells and HP. I saw Journey's post about helping someone
buy a Latitude D520 and looked at it. Subsequently got an email from Dell
advertising it at $640. There were slight differences in listing on web
site.

I ordered it on 7/16 with est shipping date of 8/17. I received it on 7/25.

Configuration selected was all of the "included in price" items + free
resource disk and drivers and 1 yr on site..
Core 2 Duo T5500 1.66 GHz
15" XGA LCD
1GB ram, 2 dims
80 GB HD
Windows XP Home
65 W AC Adapter
8x DVD+/RW
Wireless 1390
6 cell battery
1 yr on site @+$30 (not wise)

Total cost was $713 with tax. Prices vary week to week.

So far everything is working very good. It's not what you would call real
fast, but its a big step up from the i1100.

Its quiet running. The HD makes a small noise that is not bothersome and the
fan is relatively quiet and doesn't run much except when doing intensive
activity, like install MS Office or defragging.

I doubt I'll later install Vista, but I could run Basic if I wanted to
downgrade (run slower). Anyone wanting to run Vista Home Premium should look
at other models.

The most impressive thing to me is the 15" XGA monitor. Being a senior I
like the larger fonts and the more vertical space. People who like small
fonts and watching movies can find better models.

The overall size does not seem to be increased by the 15" monitor. It makes
full use of the lid. The laptop is probably the same size as the 14". Weight
and size make it relatively east to carry.

The plastic housing seems a little delicate, but with reasonable care it
should be no problem. For rough handling though I would look at other
models.