Dell Latitude E4200 Info

Let me guess. You didn't get the Promise Pink one, right?

 

There were a couple on the outlet, pretty nice! Don't tell my friends, I said that!

On a different note, I was looking underneath the service panel at the space where the LatOn chip is supposed to go. There are a couple of wires that normally double as antennas with ends that are wrapped in plastic. I don't get it. If the Latitude ON chip is a snap-in (like a mini card) with its own plug-in area (which it is clearly, since the actual connector is there), why do they need these wires? If they are antennas, what are they for? Anyone know?

 

The latitude ON card has its own WIFI chip onboard, Hence the 2 wires you see.

 

Anyone have the Latitude ON card? What does it cost to add it? Worth it?

 

LOLOL blue all the way!! lol

 

Okay I know dumb question but what is the difference between the Latitude On verse what we have now the reader that turns on with the
little nob on the left?

 

No one has the card yet. This has been an unfulfilled promise of Dell's. No one has the cost structure. We don't even know if we are going to be sent these for free or we have to pay a nominal fee for them. Heck, we don't know if it will EVER be released to the public (the betas have been there for sure, though). There is no full version of Latitude ON that supports instant ON OS and full web-browsing support along with the ability to compose and send emails.

I would have thought that it would use the existing WiFi card for connectivity but according to guillakunst, this isn't the case. This is news to me and it makes no sense unless the WiFi on the card just sips power as opposed to cards we use with Windows. The best thing about Latitude ON is that if you use it, it doesn't drain the battery like Windows does. This is by a factor of several times as long. Don't know the exact numbers. May be it is time I RTFM'd.

 

Latitude ON Reader that currently is the function for the button is a Linux software running on the current hardware (Intel CPU, Ram, disk, etc.) which will drain the battery as fast as running the regular OS (windows for most of us).

The Latitude ON will run on a small extra "computer on chip"-hardware that will be installed as a snap in. It will have its own CPU, RAM and storage (and even WLAN as we learned by this thread). This will make the battery last much longer (at least in theory). So the chip will run a specially crafted Linux with Browser, e-mail etc.

Since this product is not yet available from Dell there is still a lot of speculation regarding what it will actually contain and how it will work...

 

Bit of a tease regarding Latitude on..... the hardware does exist, it is being tested by select customers, it is not available for general release yet.

The card does currently boot into a customized linux kernel and give access to onboard WLan and Mini PCI WWAN card (if installed)

In terms of having onboard WIFI, it is to conserve power, as the "card" is designed with ultra low power usage in mind.

Cant say much more, but it is still actively being developed and AFAIK should be launched in the US sooner rather than latter.....

My advice at the moment, is if you are looking for the quick boot for the time being (aka instant on functionality) install windows 7 RC and use an Intel X25-M SSd (yes i know they are expensive) you can un-hibernate in less than 30 seconds and be on the network in less than a minute (WWAN or WLAN)

Edit - Just realized my suggestion above might not be the most useful for production use as most users will not want to run RC code on a production machine -

 

Thanks for your thoughts.

I think most readers of this thread are enthusiasts though I have done my fair bit of testing Dell enterprise hardware for corporate use. Your advice for installing the Intel X18 (not the X25 as that form factor will not fit in the E4200) is theoretically sound but in reality it just doesn't work that way. Waking up from hibernation with ANY SSD, though Intel is better than most, introduces a delay that is far longer that a standard HDD. I think it has something to do with the write speed of the SSD but I am not sure about that. However, SSDs are a problem for some notebooks that come out of hibernation.