E6320

I debated heavily between a E6320 and E6420, but the ~$300 premium to get a smaller, equally-equipped computer pushed me to the E6420. The 1600x900 was a close second.

 

Yes, that $300 premium is a tremendous mystery. The slightly smaller form factor can't cost all that much more than a 14 inch?

 

The feature that you get by paying that premium is "weight reduction" and smaller footprint. Naturally that is worth different amounts to different people.


p.s. you also sacrifice some options, like the ability to upgrade screen real estate as was mentioned above. Hopefully they will fix that next year, because 1366x768 is frustrating

 

Looks like the E6320 is released on the US page.

Dell Latitude E6320 Details | Dell

 

I'm using the E6320 for two weeks now:
My setup: Core i5 2520M, Win7 Prof x64, 8 GB RAM, Crucial SSD, USB3 Bay

Typing on the backlit keyboard feels great. Best notebook keyboard I had so far.

I'm happy that I got rid of NVIDIA GPUs (after all the M1330 overheating issues). Sandy bridge is performing great and my E6320 is almost always completely silent and cool, even when playing HD video for a long time.

Coming from a XPS M1330 glossy LED screen, the E6320 screen looks very poor. Color accuracy, black levels and viewing angles can't compete with a good glossy screen (as expected). Actually the only good thing about the matte screen is that you can use it in direct sunlight.

The trackpad is a great addition. Even if you don't intend to use it, you can still remap the buttons as hotkeys.

Power consumption (with USB3 bay):
when turned off: ~0.7 W
idle, screen off: ~8 W
idle, full brightness: ~12 W
HD Video Playback, full brightness: ~20 W

Weight:
6 Cell Battery (sticks out!): 345 g
USB3 Bay: 94 g
DVD Drive: 145 g
bare E6320: 1595 g

PS: My E6320 feels very solid and doesn't suffer from the corner popping issue, reported by some E6420 users

 

Have you had a chance to evaluate battery life under various operating conditions? Since the 6 cell size is the maximum you can get, I'm hoping that the battery life is still decent.

Thanks,
Harvey

 

I'm working at full brightness with Win7 and a Unix VM running (low CPU but high memory load) and battery life is between 6 and 7 hours. Right now, Win7 shows me 65% battery and 4h 35m remaining. When I set the screen to lowest brightness, I get 5h 40m remaining.
(Consider that I'm using an SSD, Intel HD Graphics and USB3 Bay)

When watching HD video, battery life decreases to around 4 to 5 hours (two NBA playoff games )

I haven't had the chance to test under full CPU load.
We'll also have to see how the battery deteriorates over time.

 

That's pretty decent. I'm still waiting for Dell to release the 12" E6220 so I can compare price/specs, etc. with the E6320. I'm trying to decide if the E6320 is still small enough for convenience while traveling.

Thanks for the input.
Harvey

 

So compared to the xps m1330 are you satisfied that it is a good replacement for the xps? How is the weight compared to the xps m1330?

 

The E6320 is just a bit wider and bulkier, but feels just as light as the M1330, even with the 6 Cell Battery attached.

E6320: 1595 g + 345 g battery + 94 g USB3 Bay = 2034 g
XPS M1330: 1582 g + 327 g = 1909 g

Everything except the back cover and the keyboard frame looks like plastic on the E6320 (although it's magnesium aluminum alloy), but when you hold the E6320 in your hand it actually feels much more solid than the M1330.

If you can live with the usual quality of a matte business notebook screen, then the E6320 is a great improvement (Sandy Bridge, keyboard, touchpad, build quality).