upgrade to e6400?

well i currently have a studio 1537 but i want to return as there are some problems with it and i still need a laptop for school. so i was wondering how is the e6400? i hear some peoples e6400's are freezing up. so i was wondering is there any major problems with them? or do u reccomenend any other laptop? i was going to buy from the outlet because they do seem to be pretty cheap and i am on a budget...
and how are the e6500's? any major difference except the size?

 

The freezing is rare. While the E6400 / E6500 are not perfect, the hardware is good and we hope that Dell are working on the remaining issues which cause a few people problems.

The E6500 offers a bigger screen, both PCMCIA and ExpressCard slots and, for the nVidia GPU, faster graphics RAM. However, it is significantly less portable. The size is in proportion to the square of the display diagonal. So, if carrying to/from/around school then the E6400 is the better choice.

The E series are business class notebooks designed to tolerate the mistreatment of equipment which is provided by others. They should still be in one piece after three years whereas the consumer notebooks tend to suffer from a lot of travelling.

John

 

My E6400 never froze. Like John said, some people still have minor issues. But the E series launched about 4 months ago and should last several years. Dell are still polishing some of the drivers.

I agree that this is a great machine.

 

My E6400 was selected for and sent off to campus. No regrets. The speakers are functional but not rich. A neoprene sleeve and bluetooth mouse are nice additions.

GK

 

I am very happy with my E6400. I upgraded to 8GB RAM and running Vista 64-bit, no major issues with lockups. The only lockup problem I have is when I connect an ESATA RAID enclosure - that will lock her up everytime. Hooking the same enclosure up via USB, no issues. Also, a single drive ESATA enclosure is no problem. I have checked drivers, changed SATA mode in the BIOS, heck Dell even replaced the MB just for fun - no change. It seems to be a conflict with the Nvidia driver (the lockup coincides with the video driver crashing and then recovering once the enclosure is unplugged).

 

I made the switch to the E6400 from a Studio 1535 (in for warranty motherboard replacement & to replace defective keyboard). When the 1535 started giving me trouble about six weeks ago, I snagged my E6400 from the Outlet and couldn't be happier!

I'd suggest going with either the WXGA (1280x800) LED or WXGA+ (1440x900) LED display. The standard WXGA CCFL-backlit version on some earlier models doesn't deliver the best image quallity or brightness.

The keyboard is amazing (even better than my previous ThinkPads) and the build quality/materials is worlds above the Studio laptops. Go for it, you won't be disappointed!

 

wow thx for all the information, now im even more excited to get it =-)

 

You should. I see no better alternative, even considering the Lenovo Thinkpad T400.

 

i was also wondering hows the customer service for business? is it alot better than home?

 

YES. You get almost as good service as Dell's big customers: next business day on-site service (i.e. at your home or workplace). Plus they don't ask you many questions: I had a scratch on the screen lid when I got it, but only called them three days after I received it, and they took my word that it was there from the start, even without looking at the laptop (it was over the phone).

I had a tech at my house two days later (I couldn't be there the next day) and he replaced the lid. Now it's just perfect The customer support is fantastic, trust me, and even buying from the Outlet you should get it.

Note that this is valid for Europe. US customer service may be different (although I heard good stories too)