Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

My E6400 shipped today, well ahead of schedule! Hopefully I'll have it in my hands before the end of the week.

 

Great to hear that Rishi.

Have been surfing the Net + MSN Messenger in school since a while ago... I'm getting an estimate runtime from Vista of about 3 hr 45 min to 4 hr with 75% charge remaining on my 6-cell. Seems great! P8600, 160GB 7200rpm (two platters), WiFi (5300) on, BT off, backlight around 40% on the standard WXGA CCFL.

 

Impressive and more than offsets some other issues. See my review which is now posted.

John

 

Thank you. I did read your review. Thank you for giving up your time for that. After sending back the two D830s I just want a good looking screen. I had read some things in the M2400 lounge about "grainy" screens.

 

Hey folks, look what the nice guys at DHL dropped off today... and in a timely fashion no less!



A little un-boxing for all y'all... total time between order and delivery was a scant five days.



Pieces of foam wrapped around the laptop. Dell's been shipping laptops in this same general fashion for longer than I remember...



Here's the accessory box... not surprisingly, it's missing a lot of accessories that I didn't order. More on that adapter in a bit.



The main course! Brand new E6400 in all it's foam-clad glory. Let's pull that stuff off...



Sadly it seems to be un-photogenic. I couldn't get my camera to focus right on this picture.



Couldn't get a good picture unless I took it from the side. Even then this computer seems to suck all the light out of my flash.



I dunno, people were making some noises about the 90W adapter, but it's puny compared to the old one. New adapter left, old adapter right.



And a little bit of Dell history for y'all. From the left you have the C600, D600, and finally the E6400.



Anyways, I've got some work to do, so I haven't had too much time to play with it. First impression in general is that it lives up to the hype. I thought my old D830 was a big step above the D600, but this is even a bit further up the quality ladder. The screen is thinner than that of the D830, but it's also a bit flimsier so it seems.

First boot was typically a bit slow; Dell's added some new stuff to the traditional Windows initialization. Not too much bloat on the desktop, but there was a bit of junk in the taskbar. Sound does seem a little tinny compared to the D830, but I've only heard a the Windows on and off sounds and a bit of my own music.

Battery life was reported to be 5:30 with screen brightness turned all the way down. I'll try to get some real performance numbers up sometime tonight. Touchpad and keyboard are both pretty solid; even the Thinkpad nib seems to be pretty good. Backlit keyboard was cool as well and I love how these new machines have that whole-bottom access panel.

Some things that irk me: The border around the screen is disproportionately large. Just look at the C600 and D600. Also, the latch for the screen is off-center. Maybe if the screen was a bit stiffer, it wouldn't bother me, but if you pull on the lid without releasing the lock, it flexes a bit. Battery is a bit loose as previously mentioned, but still better than the one on the D830.

Uh yeah, that's it for now. Will come back later to field questions

 

slightly random question...but what does the Quadro 160MS stack up against in terms of the GeForce Mobile line? Also, how come I haven't heard of this flex in other reviews?

 

1865 in 3DMark06 with default settings, stock drivers, and Windows XP.

 

New to forum... Just got my shipping notice a few minutes ago form Dell.

Checked online it it should be here tomorrow! (for those interested its shipping from TN)

Its interesting to read through and see all the shipping time differences. I ordered mine back on 8/13 and my ship date was originally 9/5. That obviously got delayed.

Only one problem so far... blue tooth was left off the order and although I can order it later, I am traveling to the UK in a few weeks and wanted to use it with my GPS. Hopefully can get it ordered and installed before I leave.

I am very interested to see what surprises the graphics card has. I ordered the NVIDIA Quadro, and it is listed like this in the order details:
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M, 256MB With PC-Card

PC-Card? what does a PC card have to do with a video card in a laptop....

Will report back after I receive it.

Specs are below if interested:

Latitude E6400, Intel Core 2 Duo P9500, 2.53GHz, 1066MHz 6M L2 Cache, Dual Core
4.0GB, DDR2-800 SDRAM, 2 DIMM for Latitude
Internal Backlit English Keyboard for Latitude E
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M, 256MB With PC-Card, Latitude E6400
80GB Hard Drive 9.5MM, 7200RPMFFS for Latitude E6X00
Internal Fingerprint Reader Latitude E6400
Brushed Metal Black Wide Screen WXGA+ LCD for Latitude E6500
Windows XP Pro SP2 with Vista Business License, Dell Latitude, English
90W 3-Pin, AC Adapter for Latitude E-Family
8X DVD+/-RW for Latitude E-Family
Integrated VGA webcam with single digital microphone, Latitude E6400/MPWS M2400
Dell WLAN 1510 (802.11a/b/g/n 2X3) 1/2 MiniCard for LatitudeE/Mobile Precision
6-Cell/54-WHr Battery for Latitude E/Mobile Precision
Latitude E6400 Color - BrushedMetal Black
Black Finish for LED BacklightLatitude E6400
Integrated 0.3 megapixel VGA webcam with single digital mic for WXGA+ LCD, Latitude E6400
14.1 inch Wide WXGA+ AntiglareScreen for Latitude E6400
Dell Additional Slim Auto/Air/AC Adapter for Latitude D Series

 

Dammit... Vista won't boot anymore. I'm getting error 0xc000000f, NLS data missing or corrupt. The last time I shut down new updates were installed so I guess vista ****ed me up.... I'll try repair tomorrow.

 

Commander Wolf: If it is not too much trouble, can you measure the height of the E6400 at front and back (if possible in mm/cm, but will take whatever). I'm always sceptical reading these measurements on manufacturer websites as they are rarely completely accurate.

Thanks heaps!