Dell Latitude E4200 Info

I have been see-sawing between the Sony Z and the E4200 (two very different machines) but being a Dell customer for the past decade, and having access to Premier and EPP, tipped the decision in favor of the the smallest E in the new Dell portfolio.

I thought I would start this thread as a 'catch all' place for all the folks who are ordering the new E4200. I have been looking for info on the E4200 in particular but there isn't much to be found though a few folks have indeed received their E4300s. There seems to be some disappointment with the E4300. I am holding out until the backlit keyboard as well Latitude ON (hardware-based) are widely available. It does seem that some of the kinks still need to be ironed out from the lilliputian E-class Dells. Here's an early review that pretty much sums up the disappointment that some new owners are feeling:

http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_general&message.id=291041
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What are your thoughts? New owners, please post here. Also let us know if you are thinking of ordering. Thanks!

 

Typing this on my new e4200, previously owned a D420.
Very light machine (battery weighs more than the actual machine, so it feels), very silent and the 64GB SSD is very fast.

Have to get used to the keyboard, and disabled the 'circular' scrolling immediatly on the touchpad, didn't like it at all (YMMV).

Overall the laptop feels a bit more 'plastic', my D420 felt nicer (might also be because of rounded edges on D420, and very square E4200)

Screen looks better (mights also be of absense of smear on screen )

Biggest issue to date: The Intel 5300 AGN has troubles connecting to the wireless. Takes half an hour to get a connection to my home network, while my D420 has immediate connection. Network is seen, but simply can not connect. Divers on Dell&Intel site are the same (initial release), waiting on these to get updated, as this kinda sucks.

Battery life unknown yet, it says "4:03 hours, 77% remaining" right now, I have the one that sticks out of the back.

Removed Vista btw, and am working on XP.

 

JP where are you located? How did you receive your e4200 so early? Mine's not expected until oct 30th

 

I'm curious about order dates and locations as well. I'm in the US and I placed my order the day it was released and mine isn't scheduled to ship until the 15th.

As to that initial review, none of those negatives will really bother me.

 

If it ain't Dutch, it ain't much

Had it ordered about 3 weeks ago, immediatly when it became available. Received it on monday last week, was not in the office though, so picked it up on friday.

 

Ahh our friends from across the pond are getting things earlier for a change. I wonder if the folks in Limerick are too busy in the pubs before and after they assemble our E-Class units!

JP, can you weigh your unit if it is possible? Thanks.

 

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but what does the Latitude ON feature do?

 

JP can you paste your specs? I'm particularily interested in what CPU you ordered...

 

* Lattitude ON: Don;t know. Pushing the button basically gives an error, and it then boots into Windows. Might be that our sysadmin has decided to kill it though?
* Will see if I can find a scale to weigh it
* Specs: From belarc advisor:

Dell Inc. Latitude E4200
1.40 gigahertz Intel Core2 Duo
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
3072 kilobyte secondary memory cache
Board: Dell Inc. 0X529G
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: Dell Inc. A00 08/21/2008
SAMSUNG SSD Thin uSATA 6 [Hard drive] (64.02 GB) -- drive 0 3024 Slot 'DIMM_A' has 1024 MB
Slot 'DIMM_B' has 2048 MB
Ricoh SD/MMC Host Controller Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family [Display adapter] (2x)
Toshiba 12.0 [Monitor] (12.0"vis, August 2008)
Bus Adapters Multimedia
Intel(R) 82801HEM SATA RAID Controller
Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2934
Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2935
Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2936
Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2937
Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2938
Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2939
Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 293A
Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 293C IDT High Definition Audio CODEC
Intel(R) High Definition Audio HDMI Service
OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
Microsoft AC Adapter
Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery (2x)
Broadcom USH CV w/o Fingerprint Sensor
HID-compliant consumer control device
USB Human Interface Device (2x)
HID Keyboard Device
Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Dell Touchpad [Mouse]
HID-compliant mouse
SDA Standard Compliant SD Host Controller
Generic USB Hub
USB Composite Device
USB Root Hub (8x)

 

I have a short question about an order option from the E4200.

Under CPU, i have the possibility to choose:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo SU9400(1.4GHz,800MHz,3MB) with Latitude On Reader and WWAN.

Does that mean, that a WWAN module is included? But why can I choose a WWAN module unter the point CPU?