Latitude E4300 first impressions

If you were talking to first-level sales or tech support, the probability that they actually know about these issues, much less that they were resolved, is very slim.

 

Well, I'm still waiting for my machine. If it sucks (most likely), I'm probably going to return it and wait for the next generation of laptops and stick it out with my D820. So awaiting your updated review.

 

Can anybody else confirm the weight and noisy fan problems? When you see tech. parameters, it seems to be a good notebook, but if it is a general problem, I will cancel my order and buy another Asus (to have the same design sucks, but better then a problem machine).

 

Sorry for the delay - been a little distracted by whats been happening in the markets and some of our banks ...

Updated the photos in the original post - the plastic been removed this time!

Thought I'd give the Latitude ON feature a try and see what it was like but when I pressed the little button beside the main power switch all I got was a blacktop reader not installed error messge.

Checked the bios settings found it disabled so set it on, rebooted and still got the same error.

After some foot tapping and a few uncharitable thoughts towards dell I downloaded the service manual and following its instructions opened up the memory bay to have a look and found that yep the latitude on card which I paid for was not installed.

To be fair to dell I may have just lucked out on the assembly quality control stakes and the flickering hard disk light,keyboard flex, electronic buzz ,missing card will not be the typical experience of other e4300 owners.

I wonder also if this notebook was initially designed to run on vista and the software provided for Windows XP SP3 is half hearted at best.

I was half tempted yesterday to replaced XP with Vista Business SP1 and see if it made much difference but after discovering the missing latitude on card I'll think I'm going have a long chat with dell instead.

Will keep you posted.

 

As far as I know, Latitude ON is not available until November. Until now you can only order Latitude ON Reader which doesn't feature full internet access.

See here: Latitude ON Reader Discussion

I also found some Dell leaflet on the internet about Latitude ON and Latitude ON Reader, but I misplaced the link, sorry...

EDIT: This is the information I found on Dell's homepage: Staying connected with Latitude ON

 

I almost forgot: Thanks for the first impressions.

 

thanks for those new pics cof, that looks much better. i think we are all a bit dissapointed after the waiting..., which is bad news actually, i am not seeing a lot of contenders with a 13" screen.

 

I'll get my E4300 tomorrow. I will post a few impressions as soon as possible.

 

we shouldn't base our opinion from just one review. And the OP is right, maybe he was just SOL. but anyway, so far I am not impressed by the e4300, considering HOW MUCH the costs.

to the OP, do you think your money was worth it?

 

Mcfils: I await your review. Two back to back negative reviews, and I'm out to get my Sony Z.