Our first glimpse of Dell’s new Latitude E-series was the E6400 ATG (web ID: 217854). With a burly build and carefully focused business features, it was a promising debut for the range. But, while some users will relish the extra resilience of Dell’s ATG laptops, we can see most preferring a more lightweight option.
This is where Dell’s standard Latitude E6400 steps in. Strip off the ATG’s layers of metal and you’re left with a far more portable 14.1in laptop: it weighs 2.33kg to the ATG’s 2.98kg heft.
And where the ATG looked a touch too brutish to be truly attractive, the E6400 is more alluring. Its stark lines and magnesium alloy chassis look plain to begin with but after a few hours we couldn’t help but admire the elegant simplicity of it all.
The looks are matched with reassuring solidity. The lid catch keeps the laptop snugly closed in a bag, and it took a huge amount of pressure to produce any show-through on the screen. Finished all in black, the clean lines are destined to become a design classic, and any attempts to twist or flex the chassis produce little result.
Ergonomically it’s well on song, and although the presence of an all-new keyboard might be enough to put a lump in the throat of those weaned on Dell’s superb D-series, there’s nothing to fear. Each key has a firm but pleasingly positive action and the anti-slip finish helps keep typos to a minimum.
The combination of touchpad and trackpoint are a staple of business laptops, but there are no slip-ups on this front. The trackpoint offers precise cursor control, and the touchpad and its horizontal and vertical scroll zones behaved perfectly during testing.
The 14.1in screen is kitted out with an LED-backlit 1,440 x 900 panel which, in our eyes, should be the de facto native resolution for all 14.1in and 15.4in laptops. There’s plenty of desktop space, and the supreme brightness and fine image quality is marred only by colour reproduction that errs on the side of dullness: a minor complaint, more than made up for by useful features such as the automatic brightness sensor to the left of the chrome-effect Dell logo.
The E6400’s connectivity and security features are beyond reproach. Three USB ports are complemented by an eSATA port and mini-FireWire, and businesses can opt for PC Card or ExpressCard/54 slots. The inclusion of a DisplayPort output is welcome, too.
A standard SmartCard slot is complemented by a contactless SmartCard reader, to the right of the touchpad. There’s also a fingerprint reader next to the cursor keys and a TPM 1.2 chip deals with encryption duties.
In terms of specifications, our review unit struck a sensible middle ground.
An Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 running at 2.26GHz, with 2GB of memory and
a 160GB hard disk scored a capable 1.15 in our benchmarks. Of course, the beauty of the Dell sales model is its flexibility. Drop to a slower processor, and you’ll save a good few quid. If you’re buying these in bulk, a bit of careful spec trimming will pay dividends.
The final feather in the E6400’s sharply tailored cap is stamina. With the standard six cell 5,400mAh battery, light usage saw the Dell last just over five hours; heavy usage saw that drop to a still-reasonable 1hr 39mins. If long life is essential, the $70.40 for a larger nine cell 8,500mAh battery is worth spending.
There’s no doubt the E6400 is an unmitigated success. Where 15.4in laptops turn any bag into an albatross hung round the average business worker’s neck, the E6400 strikes a great compromise between weight, ergonomics and durability.
The daunting price is bound to take the wind out of the sails of those with smaller budgets, but with a three-year, next business day warranty attached to such a fine product, the price looks more attractive.