Dell m2400 versus e6400, advice please?

Besides the video card, is there any difference?
How weird is the top of the laptop (as closed) with those lines on it?

I would like to have the slightly smaller/lighter one, which is e6400, but I am worried about using the docking station with 2 external displays over the weaker quadro nvs 160m.

I do mostly office work with some photoshop, but all of my work is done on external displays. I plan to use mine 2 x 22" LCD (each 1680x1080) with the laptop, so the video card should be able to pull this with no problems. I do not know how will one or the other laptop do in this case. I would like to stay at 14" for portability mostly, so jumping to m4400 or anything with a stronger video card it's something I would like to avoid.

Is the m2400 webcam and microphone as bad as in the e6400 (0.3mp, with very bad noisy in the mic)? I searched and read the forums a little, but there are like 99 pages on just e6400, sorry if I skiped info but I only read like 30 of them. Then I decided I could just post, and ask some actual owner of this 2 laptops.

Basically, I need your input on what to choose please. Thanks !

 

Even the Intel X4500 can drive a pair of 1680 x 1050 monitors. See here and here. There's no need to invest in a GPU that has extra 3D power, unless you need it.

John

 

I own a M2400 and drive 2 22inch Dell monitors via the dock. It works fine
only thing is it won't do both monitors in DVI for some reason. Normally that
would be a problem for me but the 2nd monitor is just as crisp as the DVI one.
Can't comment on the Web or mic thing. I have it I just never used it.
Its fast enough for the all crap I do from network security to audio work and web. Although its "light" it typically stays in the doc and I use my Thingpad x300 most of the time in the field. I wouldn't stress to much about it. Either it works for you or not. You wont know until you get one and find out.
Good luck!!

ym

 

thank you, really good info ..
so the dual external displays works fine, that's really nice, no other docking stations can do that from what I researched.

Maybe anyone can tell what is the resolution of the e6400&m2400's webcam? I do a lot of video conferencing and I rather use the integrated than get an external webcam. Easier and less cables to mess with. Forums I searched (here, NBR) show a 0.3mp webcam, but dell customer service say it's 1.3mp. So, I am a little confused, but I guess I should trust the dell own people.

 

I really like the smaller one, you should have no problems with 6400

 

The webcam on my E6400 is low resolution (640 x 480) and low quality. I think Dell were targeting low bandwidth. It's just about OK for video conferencing but no good for photos. The spec sheet says VGA which, I recall, is 640 x 480.

John