The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Dell Laptop Questions

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by kneehowguys, May 17, 2014.

  1. kneehowguys

    kneehowguys Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    391
    Likes Received:
    7
    Trophy Points:
    31
    I looked at Dell e6540. It looked great just battery not great.
    Dell Latitude E6540 Review & Rating | PCMag.com

    Is there a way I can make it have a better battery life? I heard about things called "sheets" or "slices" how do I know if those things will fit on device?

    What would you recommend if you wanted

    - 14+ inch screen
    - Long battery life + removeable battery or sheet/slice battery option
    - easy to read screen (no glare, good viewing angles)
    - 1080p screen
    - plenty of ports including full sized HDMI and ethernet

    and also less important
    - number pad
    -
     
    kneehowguys, May 17, 2014
    #1
  2. Commander Wolf

    Commander Wolf can i haz broadwell?

    Reputations:
    2,962
    Messages:
    8,231
    Likes Received:
    63
    Trophy Points:
    216
    Their test system has a quad core, discrete graphics, and a mechanical hard drive... of course the battery life is going to be mediocre. If you had the same system with a dual core, integrated graphics, and SSD I'm sure you can get runtime closer to 7 or 8 hours.
     
    Commander Wolf, May 17, 2014
    #2
  3. kneehowguys

    kneehowguys Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    391
    Likes Received:
    7
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Could you explain to me what gives you the most oomph in terms of snappiness?

    People talk about how i3vsi5ivs7 matters of SSD vs something matters vs dual core vs quad core matters or RAM matters

    I don't have a good sense for how much percentage of the pie each accounts for the speed/snappiness.
     
    kneehowguys, May 18, 2014
    #3
  4. Commander Wolf

    Commander Wolf can i haz broadwell?

    Reputations:
    2,962
    Messages:
    8,231
    Likes Received:
    63
    Trophy Points:
    216
    For general usage an SSD will improve performance more than extra RAM or a quad core.

    If your use case involves lots of 100% CPU utilization or 100% RAM utilization, then obviously those two will help more in the respective situations.
     
    Commander Wolf, May 19, 2014
    #4
  5. shea2812

    shea2812 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    149
    Likes Received:
    9
    Trophy Points:
    31
    When you choose the light and thin route, batt life will suffer. I am sticking with E6430 with a mediabay batt and another spare for a couple of years more at least. Quite responsive for me even with 7200 spinning disc.
     
    shea2812, Jun 10, 2014
    #5