Diff between E5400 &n E6400?

Yes and no. I am currently running Access 2003 with a database but we do have plans to switch programs and I have purchased one we are demoing. So... Maybe and probably not. Good catch.

Also, I am more interested in the E6400 if I can get it down in price. I checked the outlet and the deep discounts on the refurbished but I would like to get a 3 year warranty if possible. In fact 3 year pro in house would be perfect for our situation. While I am wishing, add the Led screen, backlit keyboard, and all the bells

 

However, I don't think anyone has actually seen an E6400 with the 4.3lb weight. Mine, with 6 cell battery, and optical drive, weighs 5.1lbs. The normal weight of the E5400 may also heavier than advertised.

John

 

I should have labeled it "Starting Weight", you're right.

 

Have you seen this coupon for 15% off any Latitude from DELL Outlet? If not, it'd save you at least $150 or so- http://www.techbargains.com/news_displayItem.cfm/145865

Just glancing thru the Outlet inventory, there are plenty of E6400s with Vista Business/XP downgrade, WXGA+ LED and most/all of the other extras for under $1100. With 15% off, that'd be $935! All you'd need is the MSO software...

FYI- the E6400 has the 3-year Mail-In Warranty STANDARD. If you need some reassurance-

Select an E6400 from inventory to add to your cart, then click the "Add Selected Items" button at the bottom of the page
Enter the Cart Validation sequence (shown on screen)
Then you'll see the warranties- the 3-year Mail-In will be selected by default and shows as "Included". Upgrading to the 3-year NBD On-site is $99, just like the regular site.

 

The E5400 has the same screen resolution choices as the E6400: 1280x800 and 1440x900. The difference is that the E6400's screens also have the option of an LED backlight as opposed to the E5400's standard CCFL backlight.

One other question- is the OP a student, buying this as a business laptop, or otherwise able to get MS Office at a reduced price by getting their copy separate from ordering it with the computer? If you are a student, MS offers the entire MS Office suite for $59 and if you are a business, you probably have a volume license agreement that makes each copy of Office less expensive than paying standard OEM prices to Dell. Also, do you absolutely *have* to run MS Office and only MS Office, or could another office suite like Sun's free OpenOffice.org suite work for you? I run OpenOffice.org 3.0 and it works very well for general office use and handles literally any document format out there, MS Office from version 5.0 through MS Office 2007 as well as WordPerfect, ODF, and several others.

 

Not a student. 1 person business and we don't have a license. I am aware of open office. Not sure how it agrees with other people using MSOffice. I have '02 running right now.

 

In my experience, OpenOffice.org 3.0 almost always handles .doc/.xls/.ppt files better than MS Office 2007. MS Office 2007 sometimes has issues with the .doc/.xls/.ppt files since it really is set up to use its XML files (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx) rather than the older formats. About the only things that OpenOffice.org does not like so much are complicated VBscript macros in Excel and certain formatting objects in MS Office 2007 files, such as floating text frames. So it should be a good drop-in replacement for you if you use Office XP/2002 and do not use a bunch of macros in your spreadsheets.

 

You're right, I was thinking of the E6500. It offers a WUXGA display option that the E5500 does not. But the only two resolution choices on the E5400 or E6400 are 1280x800 and 1440x900 (CCFL backlight on E5400, the 1280x800 can be CCFL, LED, LED w/Privacy Filter on the E6400).

 

Thanks for this information. On the official specsheet:

E5400- 5.58 lbs with 6 cell and DVD combo drive
E6400- 4.3 lbs with 4 cell, 2.5" thin SSD, LED, and travel light module.

The advertised weight when comparing those two are misleading if you don't read the footnotes. When both laptops have 6 cell and DVD drive installed in the system, weight difference is actually only .5 lb.

 

Absolutely. It's quite pathetic that Dell advertises the weight with a 4 cell battery and travellite module, considering that they sell neither of them (it is possible to hunt them down, but they're so obscure, maybe 95% of users will never know about them).

In reality, a base E6400, with standard HDD and LED display will probably run about 5.3lbs. Add some stuff like 9 cell battery and Nvidia GPU, and you're pushing 6 lbs.