Latitude E5500 Owner's Lounge

I'm surprised the cheaper laptops are targeted at the larger businesses, considering the discounts they get (Latitude D630 for £600!), I wouldn't expect them to go budget.

 

Well, you can always go lower if you sacrifice something. There are the discontinued D series for the clever customer ATM, but that's not the way Dell wants it, of course

The Vostro 1510 is around EUR 100 cheaper than Latitude E5500 with the same configuration. You can't compare them directly to Latitude E6500 price-wise because you pay the 3 years on-site warranty with the base price of the latter. However, it's still around EUR 100-150 you save between Latitude E5x00 and E6x00, and if a company orders 100 of them, that's plenty, isn't it?

 

Here the price gap between E5500 and E6500 with similar config is about $250-300.
But E5500 has no backlit keyboard, webcam, expresscard slot, displayport, esata, smartcard reader...
Although it has COM port and tv-out instead

 

Well... just to compare, in dollars, the price of the configuration in my signature (with 2 years NBD warranty) would be cca 1280, counting with todays price of US dollar... Add cca 50% of this to get the price without my employer discount. Now we have some basic idea on both sides of the ocean.

The E6500 without discount would be... the same or very similar configuration... let me count... about USD 2420. If I'm lucky I can get to 1670, but most people definitely won't get such a nice price. So, that's it.

And now, i must figure out how the hell the Dell touchpad zooming works... if i want to zoom, it never happens, but then out of the blue... wooosh, i nearly cannot read the letters.

 

Check if there is something called Andrea Noise Cancellation in Control Panel.

I had the same with my E6400 when new. The hinges loosened up after a week or two. Now, after 2 months there's 5mm of wobble at the top of the screen when open.

John

 

I also noted the lack of Latitude E5x00 reviews both here and anywhere else online. I took the plunge and ordered an E5400 since it was available with a $250 discount and free shipping, plus my wife has a Latitude D531 we've been very pleased with. I ordered it with pretty much the base configuration since this is basically just a note-taking machine and I have a 2 GB DDR2 module left over from my previous machine's premature death (fried motherboard just out of warranty...grrr...) I did upgrade the screen to the 1440x900 and the CPU to the T7250 because the Celeron Ms have no SpeedStep and burn up battery like crazy- otherwise it is the minimum configuration.

It should be here at the end of the month. I'll let you know how it goes when I get it. I'll keep Vista on there just long enough to do Wprime and get a CPU-Z shot- after that I'll install Debian Linux and give a write-up of that, then go to work.

 

Just bought 2 E5500's for my business partner and I. Latitude E5500, Intel Core 2 Duo P8600, 2.40GHz, 3M L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB, 160 GB 7200 rpm hard drive...windows XP...

So far, so good! Don't really why I didn't look at the E6400...but got this at a great price...and am happy so far...

 

My E5400 shipped yesterday (four days ahead of schedule- yay!) so I should get it Monday. I'll give a little mini-review here when I get it.

 

My E5400 is here (and I am typing on it as we speak!) I am in the process of doing a full review like the ones on the front page. Here are my first impressions:

Highs:
- Solid construction
- Low price
- Reasonable size and performance
- Runs nice and cool
- Better-looking in person than on Dell's website
- High-resolution anti-glare 1440x900 screen
- Completely Linux-compatible (Ubuntu 8.10) out of the box

Lows:
- Overactive fan- it is almost always running at low speed (pretty quiet) and is somewhat noticeable when you load the machine and it kicks on high.
- Previous Latitudes I have used (D420, D630, D531) had better keyboards.
- Narrow optimal screen viewing angles compared to other notebooks.

Conclusion:
- A decent general-purpose notebook for somebody on a budget (I paid $640 for mine.)

 

Just orderd my E5500 today!! See spec below:

Module Description Show Details

Base Latitude E5500 - Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8600(2.40GHz,1066MHz,3MB)
Microsoft Operating System Genuine Windows Vista ™ Home Basic SP1 32Bit - English - with Media
Memory 4GB 800MHz DDR2 memory (2 x 2GB)
Keyboard Internal UK/IR Qwerty Dual Point Keyboard
Hard Drive 250GB serial ATA HDD 5400RPM
Optical Devices 8X DVD+/-RW Drive (with Software)
Wireless Networking Dell WLAN 1510 (802.11a/b/g/n 2X3) 1/2 MiniCard with Core 2 Duo label
Shipping Documents English Shipping Documents
Standard Warranty 1Yr Collect and Return
Enhanced Service Packs No Warranty Upgrade
Order Information Latitude Order - United Kingdom
Primary Battery 4 Cell 37WHr LI-ION Primary Battery
Carrying Cases Targus Campus XL Backpack for laptops up to 17" - Black
Base Options Dual Pointing touchpad with Fingerprint Reader
Google Google Search Assistant
Dell System Media Kit No Resource DVD Selected
LCD 15.4in Widescreen WXGA+ (1440X900) with TrueLife
CompleteCare Declined CompleteCare
Protect your new PC No Anti-Virus Software required
Power Supply UK/IR Power Cord with 90W AC Adaptor 3 pin

Will be installing Vista Ultimate apon arrival!!