D620 vs D820

Well, I'm pretty much deadset on Dell's Latitudes.

The problem though is, I keep tip toeing around screen size - as it seems to be the major difference among the D820 and D620 (I know there are other differences, but they don't affect my pursuit of a laptop or conflict with my needs).

At first I'd been looking at videos and pictures all over the internet of the D620 14.1" laptop. I started feeling it would be a comfortable viewing size. But, I'm always highly skeptical about things, I like to be able to see them up close for my own personal closure of size comparison. In the videos & photos the D620 looked pretty good in proportion to the people using/holding it.

But, I went ahead and looked around at CompUSA and Best Buy at other laptops of the same size (some were 14.0", some were 14.1") and I realized that it was a lot smaller than I'd expected. I'm 6'5", and those laptops were very small in comparison to me. I'm glad I decided to scope out a real-life comparison of size before just straight up ordering a D620. The 14.1" screen just doesn't seem large enough or comfortable enough for me.

So, I shifted gears and began looking at the D820. The 15.4" laptops of various brands that I saw at CompUSA & Best Buy looked more like the size I had in mind.

However, when customized down to the equivalent specifications, the D620 & D820 varied almost $300 in price. If you look at it a certain way, it's like you're paying $300 extra for 1.3". So, i'm really unsure if it will be that much of a noticable difference. It looked like it in the store, but now I'm even more skeptical about which screensize would be best for me. I know both would "cut it", but then my preference kicks in, and I like a larger screen size.

I'm torn between the 2. The laptop's main focus will be for college & business. I'm a finance major, and most of my finance-related software could probably run on a stone-age computer, but I am also a web & multimedia content developer. I'm a casual gamer, but my PC can handle anything my laptop wouldn't be able to.

I just don't know if it's really worth that price difference for the bigger screen. As of now I'm just planning to meet the higher price and go with the 15.4"

Weight is not a concern to me. Maybe I'm just thinking too hard about it. But, when spending large amounts of money on things like laptops, you always want to make sure you'll be happy with what you spent so much money on.

 

I'm not sure about the latitudes.. but I had to use my friends 14.1" HP for a week... I about went out of my mind because not only was the screen smaller.. but the resolution was also littler so I didn't have near as much screen space, Just something to consider when trying to decide. But like I said, I'm not sure how it is with the Latitude.

 

yeah, go D820, better battery life, much higher res screen, and since its basically the same speed/specs but it has more room its gonna run cooler and the fan will be on even less. I'd go 1680x1050, or 1920x1200 if you can afford it, might be a bit hard to read though without increasing windows font size, but then you get mad desktop space...

 

The biggest difference is the higher resolution screens and the larger Video RAM with the D820. The D620 is comfortable on an aircraft tray table; the 15.4" is a little too big.

 

Sounds like the D820 is the way to go - the taller you are the more important the size of the screen. The 15.4" is a good compromize, though many prefer going up to a 17". A further consideration is that the wide-screens are lower than the old standard aspect ratio screens: the 17" wide-screen is the same height as the old 15" standard screen. I find the 15.4" fine for carrying around (I am 6ft), but wouldn't want to go any bigger. And in practical use, I wouldn't want to lose any screen real estate in a further trade-off for portability.

 

I agree with you completely, antskip. Thanks everyone for your replies.

 

I too am having difficulty deciding on these two.

It looks like I can get a d620 with 4 Gigs of ram for about the same price as a d820 same specs.

Any advise is appreciated.