Dell Latitude Question

How durable are the Latitudes? I am concerned because though the special designation of road ready was reassuring, it now seems all dell laptops have that label? So how tough are they? More durable then the Inspiron line?

And does the 6 cell battery stick out or just the 9cell?

 

The Latitudes are more durable than the Inspirons. They have steel hinges, magnesium alloy LCD covers, and magnesium alloy interal structures.

The 6-cell battery does not stick out. Only the 9-cell sticks out.

 

Ok thankyou, just a few more questions. Being a business computer will the Latitude lack much in terms of multi media or anything that me, a student, would miss?

And what is the deal with this:


Establish Second Partition Format
When choosing your secondary partition option, you must also choose a primary partition option.
Select options below

Dell Configuration, Format 2nd partition to NTFS add $0

Dell Configuration, Format 2nd partition to FAT32 add $0

Dell Configuration, 2nd partition is unformatted add $0

Establish Hard Drive Partition
Help minimize the risk of damaging crucial operating system files and help increase flexibility by storing your data on separate partitions with no need to purchase and install expensive disk partitioning software.

Select options below


Custom Hard Drive Partition, 20GB Primary, Remainder Secondary [add $10]

Custom Hard Drive Partition, 40GB Primary, Remainder Secondary [add $10]

Custom Hard Drive Partition, 60GB Primary, Remainder Secondary [add $10]

Custom Factory Partition, 50 percent Primary, Remainder Secondary [add $10]

Custom Factory Partition, 90 Percent Primary, Remainder Secondary [add $10]

Custom Factory Partition, 80 Percent Primary, Remainder Secondary [add $10]

 

The Inspiron has stereo speakers while the Latitude has only a mono speaker, but realistically speaking, the difference is minimal, and you will probably want to buy external speakers for music and movies anyways.

The Inspiron also has media direct buttons that allow you to play media files without booting into Windows. I'm not sure how helpful these are.

The partition options give you 2 partitions on the HDD - one for Windows and one for data. This way, if you need to wipe out Windows (usually because of corruption from a virus or other malware), you won't loose the data on the data partition. This could be helpful, but I prefer to keep my documents and other things backed up on a USB key. Having a second HDD doesn't protect from mechanical HDD failure.

 

that's the case for the d620, the batteries don't stick out for the d820

 

Ok, one more question: I like the sound of the 620 over the 820. But with Vista comming will the 256 MB NVIDIA® Quadro NVS 110M with TurboCache3 be enough or should i go for the 820 with the 512 MB NVIDIA® Quadro NVS 120M with TurboCache3?

Are there any other major differences (besides high end options and screen size) between the 820 and 620?

 

Regarding Media Direct buttons, the point is moot if you restart from Hibernation since the 'time savings' is minimal.

With regard to Vista, if you have enough RAM the amount of video RAM is not an issue, since the video RAM is shared (the 110 is actually 64 MB with the rest being shared with your RAM).

The major differences between the 820 and 620 is the screen resolution:

D620: WXGA and WXGA+
D820: WSXGA+ and WUXGA (1920x1600)

The D820 is not light but the D620 is not saving that much in weight either.

If you consider the D820, you might as well look into the Precision M65 (my wife has this one which looks very nice) which has a 512 MB card option, firewire capabilities and more USB ports.

 

Do you think the screen differences are worth the added heft of the 820? I have heard poor things about the 620 screen.

 

I would also check out the Precision M65. I would say look at the M70 since it has a better GPU, but it is a bit outdated and does not offer a Core Duo, only a Pentium M. Latitudes are very good from what I hear. I have a four year old Latitude C640, made before the days that Dell quit using so much plastic, and it has held together nicely for four years. Sure a hinge is broke and the CD-ROM doesn't work, but the computer still boots up and runs fine. It's quite heavy for a 14" though.

 

Why the Precision line? They just seem to have faster processers. I am just a student, I dont think I need those?

For background info: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=68193

By the way, any insight on the screens is very welcome.

 

The Precision line is not worth it unless you need a GPU with Independent Software Vendor (ISV) certification for use with specific applications, which are mostly CAD tools.

The D620 display is IMO more than good enough for general use. A lot of people go for the glossy displays on other notebooks, but those have an annoying tendency to show reflections. The biggest complaint with some of the D620 displays is that the matte anti-glare coating creates a texture that is sometimes visible against light backgrounds. This seems to bother some people but it never bothered me.

D820 is a bit heavy if you intend to travel a lot with your machine.

 

I think I will be going this route. Thanks for all your help.

I am thinking about pretending I am a large business so that I can get ride of the finger print tab which I dont need. Any downside to thiss?

 

You can customize the D620 without the fingerprint reader even if you are buying from the small business website.

 

The D620 screen is good (WSXGA+). I personally do not like the smaller text of WUXGA.

If you like the notebooks in the stores (ie Compusa/Best buy), most have WXGA anyways. I never saw a WUXGA in a store.