Latitude E7240 and E7440

New touchpad drivers today
Driver Details | Dell US
Version 8.1206.101.109,A06

 

e7240 1080p has really grown on me. If they could make it so you can customize the fan speed (I don't mind a low fan speed on all the time) or if I could find a program to do this. Also a matte 1080 screen and I could switch the e7440 keyboard with trackpoint to it, it'd feel like my thinkpads.

 

Dell has a 30% coupon for the 7240s in the Outlet.

Coupon Code:
J5S6M$C98H4MWM

I can share since I got my pick: Core i7 2.1Ghz, 8gb (1x8), 12.5” 1920x1080 touch display with webcam, 256gb SSD, Windows 8 Pro, smartcard + fingerprint reader, backlit keyboard, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ad + Bluetooth, vPro enabled, 4 cell battery

$1,689.00 - 30% coupon + shipping + tax = $1276.88
I get 3% back pre-tax ($35.46) from an affiliate site and another 1% back on total ($12.77) from my credit card. Total cost is $1,228.65
Now my E7440 has a baby brother. Let's see if my wife steals it. She has been mentioning she wants something smaller than her E6320.

 

I got an E7440 on the same Outlet deal.

i5-4300U Processor (3M Cache, up to 2.90 GHz), No SmartCard
Windows 8 Pro
128 GB Full Mini-Card Mobility Solid State Drive
4GB DDR3L at 1600MHz
14 Inch FHD (1920x1080) LED-backlit LCD Touch Panel, WiGig Capable
Intel HD Graphics
4 Cell Battery
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 802.11ac/a/b/g/n 2x2 + Bluetooth 4.0 LE Half Mini Card
Light Sensitive Webcam and Noise Cancelling Digital Array Mic, Touch Screen
Internal English Backlit Dual Pointing Keyboard
Certified Refurbished, 3 year warranty with onsite.

$1059 minus 30% = $741.30. I also picked up a 4 gig RAM stick to enable dual-channel.

 

looks like you guys got some great deals. Maybe I'm late but what's left of inventory doesn't seem like a great deal even with the 30% off. Or they raised the prices on some and sent out coupons?

 

Possibly. Often when they run good coupons there is little interesting inventory, or the pre-coupon prices are high. And sometimes lesser configs are priced higher than better configs, there is little rhyme or reason to it. You just have to keep checking. I use Slickdeals email alerts to tip me off when a good coupon for a model of interest comes out, but some luck is still involved in snagging a good configuration.

 

My E7440 will arrive Tuesday. I knew about the keyboard flex issue when I ordered, but in reading more reviews now the issue seems more widespread and serious than I had realized. I don't mind flex that is only evident when pushing a key down super hard --even Thinkpads do that -- but I can't stand flex while typing normally. Seems like there is a very good chance I'll experience this with the E7440.

Looking at the hardware manual, it appears it shouldn't be too difficult to remove the keyboard and put shims (thick two sided tape or whatnot) underneath it to reduce flex. Anybody tried this, and was it successful? It seems like swapping keyboards isn't likely to help, so if flex ends up being the only significant issue I have with the machine I'd want to try a fix along these lines while it is within the return window.

 

I have not tried to shim the keyboard, but I can tell you that the non-backlit keyboard has significantly less flex than the backlit keyboard (at least on the three units I've seen). The flex doesn't bother me too much, but I am curious to know if shims would make it better.

 

Yeah I read that.....and I'm getting the backlit keyboard.

 

I did not have any problems with keyboard flex on my E7440 (I did have the backlid version). I had bigger issues with the bad fan control and coil whine.