Latitude E7240 and E7440

my line item was the same as yours but it is the plain 4600 not 4650 with iris. although that would have been cool.

 

I ordered an E7440 from outlet last week and when it arrived the keyboard flex was so bad that when I typed it was as if I lay down on a bed. The entire keyboard flexed big time. So that machine was sent back and seeing the outlet coupons again last night I ordered another E7440 but this one was listed as “Dell Outlet New,” and I am hoping for different results.

So, a couple of questions I have regarding keyboard flex since I am getting mixed reviews. Some folks saying they experience minimal flex, while most reviews say otherwise.

First, is anyone reporting not much flex using the backlit version? Is there a non-backlit version? I remember back when I bought an E6410 there were many suggesting keyboard flex issues were resolved when buying the backlit version.

Second, those who are reporting keyboard flex, has anyone tried removing the keyboard and sort of flexing (bowing it out a bit) to minimize the flex? I also remember reading folks reinstalling their keyboard after bowing it out a bit. I have an E6410 with no backlit, and very minimal keyboard flex so I never had to do any of the above.

I have been desperate to replace my E6410, but I cannot find a worthy upgrade. Always seems to be a compromise and it is no different with this machine. Any comments or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

I think tolerance to flex just varies from person to person.

The only way you can know is just to try it. If I watch the keyboard I can see it flex but does not really affect my use or typing on it. I really don't look at the keyboard hardly ever.

 

I agree with jazzman.I have a backlit keyboard and I see the "flex" if I watch it. If I am touch-typing, I don't notice it. Plus....how much flex could there possibly be? The base of this laptop is not that thick!

 

If you were to see the flex on the first model I got I am sure you would notice. However, on my current Latitude E6410 there is keyboard flex if I want to see it, but when typing on this there is nothing noticeable. It is surprising to me to see it after using my 6430u keyboard. Too bad the wife claimed it for herself.

 

I have seen two backlit keyboards and one non-backlit. There was significantly more flex in the backlit keyboards. I don't really notice it too much when I type, but I'm surprised at how much the middle of the keyboard deflects when you actually look at it.

I haven't tried anything to improve the flex of the backlit keyboard, but I'm interested to know if anyone has had any luck.

 

Thanks for following up with me. I will wait and see what I get and maybe try to buy a non-backlit keyboard worst case scenario.

 

Does anyone have a display calibration profile for the touch display e7440? I know it always varies from unit to unit, but having a better baseline would be nice.

 

Running kernel 3.14.0-pf on this E7440 I got last night. Things are looking stable so far.

5570 WWAN is trouble on Linux. ubuntuforums have been struggling to get this CBC-MBIM card working for a while. It seems it needs to be somehow magically "powered up" and of course only Windows knows how to do that.

Question: can I retrofit 5560 in the E7440? AFAICS the 5560 Ericsson has confirmed functionality with Linux. Form factor shouldn't be an issue, but I notice these compatibility lists attached to different WWAN card models. What's that all about? Just a way to extract money from people?

 

what linux desktop are you running on the e7440? I am running LinuxMint 16 w/ cinnamon, I get video corruption inside scrolling windows, especially in thunderbird (also when I run the mouse over the open apps in the bar along the bottom). I also have issues getting out of suspend mode quite a bit and I Have to hard-power cycle the machine. Besides the wonky video artifacts and the crazy keyboard flex it's a nice light machine Unfortunately I haven't tried an WWAN cards. I do think that compatibility list is for extracting money afaik, I don't think dell has a whitelist of boards in bios you can use like lenovo does.