Dell Latitude 6430u Review

This business class ultrabook offers a well-rounded mix of performance and portability. But is this Latitude laptop worth its $1,500 price tag?

Read the full content of this Article: http://www.notebookreview.com/notebookreview/dell-latitude-6430u-review/

 

It would be useful if more manufacturers provided the USB / eSATA combo port. eSATA beats USB 3.0 for external storage. However, with the E6430u having such a poor screen (both quality and real estate) it won't get on my shopping list.

John

 

Don't expect to see too many eSATA ports in the future. It takes board space to route the connections and small is in. Anything they can shave off is gone (and to most people eSATA is something they never used).

 

Am I missing something? How is this even worth 1500 with those specs. For what I've seen on the market, this is not competitive.

 

Check the outlet. This baby goes for $750 on there, or $900 with a 900p screen. Before coupons.

And it's an ultrabook (thin & light), 14" screen in 13" chassis, MIL-SPEC sturdiness, and 3 year standard warranty.

Well worth it to me...just not the MSRP, which isn't really an indication of what it's going for.

 

No DisplayPort, monster disappointment to me.

Looks like I'm going with the HD+ version of HP 9470m.

 

Including Windows 8 doesn't classify it as a business notebook, in my opinion.

I wonder how the 1600x900 screen is; I can easily believe the 1366x768 screen is garbage (like nearly all screens with that resolution).

The Dell Outlet is certainly the way to go.

 

I'd like this laptop with regular HDD space and separated mSata and with better GPU than HD4000. For additional bad news, even this weak GPU cut with Single Channel DDR3. Dell just do not cares small details, therefore I'll stay tune for the new Samsung Series 5 Ultra...

 

Hi can anyone comment on HD+ (1600x900) display quality that is now available for 6430u???

 

Bought 10 of them with i7-3687U, 128GB SSD, 1600x900 screen... The display is great. It's nice and clear and bright. A little cool toned.

I would recommend these over the E6230/E6330/E6430's if you are ok with the ULV cpu options. very nice, all SSD model lineup, etc.

The 768 screen is total garbage though.

 

Is the display TN with limited viewing angles or a better display technology (IPS, MVA .... )?

John

 

Perfect, thank you!!! I bet it's still TN though but there are also some usable TN panels out there...

BTW how is the noise and temperatures with i7-3687U?

 

I just got one of these and have the 1600 x 900 display. It is nice and bright at the highest setting, but otherwise just a standard TN display with limited vertical viewing angles. One thing that kinda bothers me is the cool toned colors and the anti-glare coating seems a bit overdone, creating a screen-door effect if you really pay attention to it. Either way, I'm guessing this is still much better than the 768 screen.

 

I picked up a refurbished 6430u several months ago, on the whole i am pretty pleased with it. Its damned fast even in with the i5, the one downside really is the standard screen. I've been hunting around for a replacement screen but am having trouble finding out the part numbers.

Overall though i love the machine.

 

Just got mine and love the 1600x900 display. It's almost as good as the 1440x900 LG display on my old E6400.

It is a much brighter, higher quality display than the one used in the ThinkPad T430s also!

 

I got mine 3 days ago, now I'm trying to return it because the fan noise is nonsense and don't stop ever (BIOS updated and tried both windows and ubuntu)

 

I couldn't return it so I'm screwed. I will have to work with headphones anti-noise from now on . I called support and they told me than this model can have easily up to 120ºC eek and the normal temperature is 60-70ºC (are you kidding me?), so yeah fan running nonstop with those crazy temperatures.

 

Something is not right. What is the CPU utilisation and temperature when on idle? Is the fan blowing hot air or cold air? If the latter then the heat sink is probably not mounted correctly.

And I don't believe the 120ºC -the CPU will throttle itself to avoid reaching 100ºC.

John

 

How user-upgradable is this model? I am looking to swap out the RAM and SSD if I buy it.

 

Very much so, for an ultrabook. Heck even the manual shows all the parts and how to get to them: ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-prod...tude-6430u-ultrabook_Owner's Manual_en-us.pdf

 

This is an i5-3427u, which is not a quad core as stated numerous times in this review, but merely a dual core; simple oversight,