Dell Latitude D820 Review (pics, specs)

by Vikram Rao

Introduction

As a high school graduation gift, my parents bought me a Dell Latitude D820 15.4" widescreen notebook. While Dell's Inspiron line is squarely aimed at the consumer market, the Latitude line is geared more towards the academic, small business, and corporate user. This is evidenced by the Latitudes' superior build quality, sober styling, lack of media-centric features, and higher price. Price-wise and size-wise, the Latitude D820 sits atop the thin-and-light 14" widescreen D620 and the budget oriented 14" standard-aspect D520 in the Latitude lineup. The D820 is an updated version of the D810 and features the Intel Core Duo processor to replace the D810's Pentium M as well a significant weight reduction from the D810. According to CNET Labs, "While the 3.2kg [7.05lbs] Latitude D810 was more of a desktop replacement, the 2.8kg [6.17lbs] approaches the more portable thin-and-light territory." This newfound svelteness, coupled with the D820's impressive computing power, makes it a formidable contender in the mid-size business notebook category.

Dell Latitude D820 (view large image)

Features Overview

My Latitude D820was configuredwith the following major options:

• Core Duo T2400 CPU @ 1.83 GHz, 667MHz front side bus, 2MB L2 cache
• 15.4" WSXGA+ (1680x1050) display
• 1024MB DDR2-667 RAM (2x512MB DIMMS)
• NVIDIA Quadro NVS 120 graphics solution with 512MB TurboCache
• 60GB hard disk @ 7200RPM
• 8x CD-RW/DVD RW dual layer drive
• Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN (802.11b/g 54Mbps) Mini Card (Broadcom)
• Bluetooth radio (Toshiba stack)
• 6-Cell/56 WHr Primary Battery
• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
• 3-year Economy Plan warranty
• Weight: 6.17lbs
• Dimensions 1.39 in (H) x 14.21 in (W) 10.34 in (D)

Reason for Buying

Soon after I began my research for a notebook computer, I came to the conclusion that I wanted a business-oriented machine. Since this laptop was going to have to last me through at least four years of college, it needed to be able to take a beating. I was also attracted to the clean lines and underplayed looks of the business machines (I was put off by the white bumpers and garish silver that clad Dell's Inspiron line). I was interested in only the 14" or 15" screens in either widescreen or regular aspect ratios. Additionally, I wanted some sort of dedicated graphics solution to be Windows Vista-ready, run engineering and CAD applications in college, and do a little light gaming. I narrowed my selection down to three offerings: IBM/Lenovo (ThinkPad T60), HP (nc8xxx), and Dell (Latitude D620/Latitude D820).

Dell Latitude D820 (view large image)

While the HP had the nicest graphics card of them all (ATI Radeon x1600) and would have allowed me to play the latest games, I ruled it out because of price (>$2,000). My budget was limited to ~$1,500 max.

The IBM ThinkPad has long been legendary in the corporate world for its durable portability, excellent support, and strong management software suit. I came to the decision, however, that I did not want to pay the significant premium for the ThinkPad's class-leading ruggedness, which I probably had no use for anyway. The ThinkPad T60 was aimed more towards the road warrior. I, however, was not going to be traveling much with the laptop save for the occasional trek from the dorm to the library and back.

That left me with the perennial value-king Dell. For hundreds of dollars cheaper than a similarly spec'd 14" ThinkPad T60, I was able to price out a 15.4" Dell Latitude D820. A comparably equipped D620 checked in at about $150 less. I settled on the D820 because I figured I wouldn't be traveling much with this notebook and would not be carrying it to class on a daily basis. Thus, I thought I would benefit more from the increased productivity of the D820's 15.4" screen (and higher resolution) than the increased portability of the D620.

Shopping Experience

When we purchased my machine, Dell was having a sale which involved a $350 instant rebate on all Latitudes, sweetening the deal some more. I configured the machine on the Dell Small Business website. Almost every component of the machine was highly configurable, something that IBM/Lenovo and HP could learn from, and the online shopping experience was, overall, very pleasant. After having pulled the trigger, I realized that I did not select the option for the Bluetooth card. I called up Dell Small Business and asked them to add the card. It was too late to modify my original order but the associate was very helpful. Though the sale price was no longer in effect for the new order, she let me add the discount retroactively. The wait times to speak to an agent were negligible (definitely not the case with my past experiences with Dell Home) and the agent herself was polite and helpful. The total price for my D820 (after adding the Bluetooth card) came to $1496.25, which I felt was a good deal, especially since the Latitude line rarely goes on sale.

First Impressions

When I first uncased the D820 from its Styrofoam packaging, I was impressed by the solidness of its build. It felt sturdy and the laptop casing didn't flex when handled. The case is billed as being magnesium alloy and most of the notebook's body looks as if it is. The laptop was about as thin as I expected but it was a bit heavier than I thought it would be. It's not an uncomfortable heft but one that implies a certain quality of build. At first glance, the notebook is not awe-inspiring but it is pleasing to the eye with an understated charcoal gray finish. At first blush, a tastefully styled (though by no means beautiful) and well-built notebook. Also included in the packaging were the user manual, software and OS CDs, and the AC power adapter.

Build & Design

The D820 has a magnesium alloy body that is supposed to protect the laptop from flexing and the wear-and-tear of corporate travel and use. The whole underside and lid of the laptop feel like metal but, unfortunately, the wrist rests are plastic. Thus, there is some amount of flex when handling that area but by no means is the amount of flex disturbing. The rest of the notebook, however, is very rigid.

Dell Latitude D820 lid (view large image)

Out of the box the screen hinges are quite stiff. In fact, to fully open the screen I have to hold down keyboard half of the notebook. Obviously these hinges will deteriorate over time but they look to be well-made. The screen locks down with two clasps which are retracted by a latch. These are also metal but there is some play in these clasps when the notebook is open. Some laptops these days (like the MacBook) have a closing mechanism which completely eschews these latches and clasps for a magnetic closure. That would have been a nice if unessential feature to see in the D820.

In this picture you can see the ambient light sensor on the screen that adjusts screen brightness automatically, screen hinge on the left (view large image)

Another minor issue is with the amount of play in the WiFi catcher switch (a nifty feature that allows me to detect WiFi networks without booting up more on this later). I know I'm being picky but an expensive corporate-grade laptop should not have a rattling switch.

Pictured above on the left side you can see the wi-fi catcher, the orange glowing light indicates no wireless access points have been found after pushing the catcher (view large image)

The screen has a high degree of torsional rigidity thanks to the magnesium alloy panel backing it resulting in little flex and no screen distortion when twisting the screen frame. When I apply pressure to the lid of the notebook no ripples appear, a common occurrence on poorer built machines. From my brief experience with an IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad T43, I have to say that the IBM felt slightly more solid (I would feel more comfortable throwing that notebook around) but the Dell is definitely close behind.

Another notable design feature of the D820 is the StrikeZone protection for the hard disk. In a drop situation, the StrikeZone acts as shock-proofing to minimize trauma to the disk drive and hopefully save your data.

Underside shot of the Dell Latitude D820, the hard drive and stike zone can be found here (view large image)

There is not much to say regarding the aesthetic design of the notebook. The D820 uses a charcoal and black motif that works well not to draw attention to itself in an academic or corporate environment. The notebook is attractive but it is not going to win any design awards. It sports inoffensive aesthetics from an experienced manufacturer of corporate notebooks.

Screen

The screen is most likely the Achilles heel of the D820, if it has one. The screen is 15.4" diagonal and is matte, not glossy. The trend in most consumer notebooks is towards the glossy screens which feature vivid colors and higher brightness for the benefit of gaming, movie-watching, and photo-viewing. Most business machines, however, still come with the old-style matte screens which are more suited for office rather than multimedia tasks. Unfortunately, the D820's matte screen is not very bright and the higher brightness settings drain the battery quickly. A cool feature is the automatic light-sensor which adjusts screen brightness based on ambient light conditions. This is useful when running on battery power or when using the notebook in different settings but I ended up turning this feature off because it oftentimes results in an unacceptably dim screen.

Moview being viewed on the D820 screen(view large image)

Web page being viewed on the D820 screen, there's lots of room (view large image)

Using Dead Pixel Buddy, a freeware program, I detected one dead pixel, five short of Dell's return policy of six dead pixels.

Setting the screen to black, there is little apparent light leakage. There is less light leakage than on my Dell 2005FPW monitor and significantly less than other notebooks like the Dell Inspiron e1405.

There's a slight amount of light leakage at the bottom of the screen (view large image)

Setting the screen to white, there is definitely some uneven backlighting. The bottom edge of the screen is brighter and there is some shadowing on the corners of the screen, though nothing readily noticeable in everyday use.

My D820 came with the WSXGA+ (1680x1050) screen. The other options were the base WXGA+ (1280x800) screen and the ultra-high resolution WUXGA (1900x1200). I am used to the WSXGA+ resolution on my Dell monitor and I chose it because I thought it was a good balance between screen real estate and legibility of fonts and icons. I could have gone with the highest resolution option and increased the Windows DPI and font sizes (indeed the WSXGA+ and WUXGA models ship with 120 DPI setting out of the box) but browsers and other applications do not always adhere to Windows settings. I changed the 120DPI setting to 96DPI because it made Windows fonts too large and screwed up graphics on web pages. I think I made the right choice here because the WUXGA display would have yielded fonts and icons too small for even my young eyes.

Sound & Multimedia

It is no secret that laptop speakers are bad. They usually feature tinny sound, distorted highs, and nonexistent bass. The Latitude D820's speakers are no exception though admittedly not the worst I've heard. The D820 being a business machine, I didn't expect any better. At least on the D820 you get stereo sound with a speaker on either side of the keyboard; on its cousin the Latitude D620 there is but one speaker. The volume is adequate for me but I don't like to listen to music at high volumes. Using Sennheiser HD-202 headphones plugged into the side-mounted headphone jack, the sound improves significantly and is clear, accurate, and mostly distortion-free. The sound subsystem on the D820 is controlled by the Sigmatel audio chipset.

The D820 provides just volume control and mute buttons above the keyboard as opposed to the various media buttons found on most consumer laptops. While not absolutely necessary on a business notebook, it would have been nice to have a few more control buttons like play, pause, etc. for controlling Windows Media Player, PowerDVD, or WinAmp.

Processor & Graphics Performance

My D820 came with a 1.83GHz Core Duo processor and by all measures it's a speed demon. I choose two 512MB sticks (total 1GB) to take advantage of dual channel memory capability which in theory doubles the bandwidth of the pipe from the RAM to the memory controller. I also chose the 667MHz RAM over the standard 533MHz. I wasn't sure of the utility of this faster memory but my logic was that the Core Duo has a 667MHz front side bus and I would need the RAM to match that speed if I were to maximize performance. Startup times on my D820 are fast but not as fast as I expected. The machine takes 28.34 seconds to reach the login screen from a cold boot. Thus far the laptop has been snappy in every day usage such as internet browsing and word processing as well as during benchmarking. Applications load quickly as do Control Panel and My Computer and there's a good degree of responsiveness to all user inputs. I have not had a single hang, lockup, freeze, or BSOD so far. I haven't installed any games on this machine so I cannot attest to the performance of the Quadro NVS 120 graphics solution, the workstation version of NVIDIA's consumer GeForce 7400 graphics solution. Do not expect stellar game performance out this card however my D820 received 670 3DMarks on the 3DMark06 benchmark.

Benchmarks

SuperPi

Notebook	Time
Dell Latitude D820 (1.83GHz Core Duo)	1m 20s
Dell Inspiron e1705 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 12s
Lenovo Z61m (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 16s
IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s
IBM ThinkPad Z60m(2.0 GHz Pentium M)	1m 36s
Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 (1.73 GHz Pentium M)	1m 48s
Dell Inspiron 6000D (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	1m 52s
Dell Inspiron 600M (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	2m 10s
HP Pavilion dv4000(1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 39s
Asus V6Va(Pentium M 1.86 GHz)	1m 46s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s

PCMark05

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Dell Latitude D820 (1.83GHz Core Duo)	3,589PCMarks
Fujitsu N6410(1.66GHz Core Duo)	3,487 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60)	5,597PCMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Panasonic ToughBook T4(Intel 1.20GHz LV)	1,390 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400)	3,646 PCMarks
Toshiba Satellite M70 (Pentium M1.86GHz)	1,877 PCMarks

3DMark06

Notebook	3DMark 06 Results
Dell Latitude D820 (1.83GHz Intel T2400, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 120)	670 3D Marks
Dell Inspiron e1705 (2.0GHz Intel T2500, ATI X1400)	926 3D Marks
Dell XPS M1710 (2.16 GHz Core Duo, nVidia 7900 GTX 512MB)	4,744 3D Marks
Apple MacBook Pro (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB	1,528 3D Marks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	794 3DMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60 Nvidia GeForce Go7800GTX)	4,085 3DMarks
Asus A6J (1.83GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB)	1,819 3D Marks

Battery Eater Pro

Classic stress test (reports lowest expected battery life): 2h 14m 22s

Heat & Noise

For the most part I was very pleased by the amount of heat and noise emitted by the D820. When idling or performing everyday tasks the fan speed is very slow resulting in relatively silent computing. When performing more demanding tasks (such as during the Battery Eater Pro burn-in and battery life test or rendering 3D graphics) the fan speeds up but it is not at all offensive. The only caveat is the Philips DVD-RW drive. Compared to the rest of the notebook, it sounds like a turbofan engine spooling up when it reads a CD or DVD. Moreover, the drive is not well damped causing the whole notebook body to shudder as the drive spins.

Dell has designed the D820 for excellent heat dissipation. There are two exhaust vents: one on the side and one on the rear. The left wrist rest heats up a tiny bit after a long period of operation and the right wrist rest stays completely cool throughout. Touching the underside of the laptop after the ~2 hour Battery Eater Pro stress test I found that the laptop was warm but certainly not hot enough to preclude lap-top usage for an extended period of time. The power brick stays cool even after days of keeping the notebook plugged into the wall. In short, Dell has done a superb job of managing the heat emitted by the D820's high performance components.

Input Methods

Dell Latitude D820 keyboard and touchpad (view large image)

Like most corporate notebooks the D820 comes with both a touchpad and a pointing nub, the latter of which has long since disappeared in the consumer market. The touchpad is small to medium sized and has a grippy feel to it. Below the touchpad are the mouse buttons which are decently sized. If you order the optional fingerprint reader, however, be aware that the touchpad mouse buttons are reduced in size to accommodate it. The pointing nub is located at the intersection of the "G," "H," and "B" keys. It is reasonably sized and has little pimples for added grip. Since I haven't used a notebook with the pointing nub before, it took some time to get used to typing on the D820. Whenever I went to press the "G" or "H" key I invariably ended up hitting the nub instead which was a minor annoyance. Below the space bar reside the separate mouse buttons for the pointing nub, a nice touch.

I found the D820's full-sized keyboard to be more than adequate. There is enough tactile feedback and a perfect amount of auditory feedback. The key travel is not as shallow as in other notebooks and there is no flex in the keyboard. When I press down on one key, the surrounding keys do not flex at all, a hallmark of high quality notebook keyboards. Dell has also made smart choices in button size and choice. The F keys are all half size as are the infrequently used Print Screen, Pause, Num Lock, and other keys. I would, however, have preferred omitting or relocating the Windows key in favor of a larger space bar.

I/O & Connectivity Suite

Front side view of D820 (view large image)

Left side view of D820 ports (view large image)

Back side view of D820 ports (view large image)

Right side view of D820 ports (view large image)

The D820 comes with a decent selection of modern I/O ports and wisely omits certain legacy connections like the parallel port. On the right side, the D820 sports two stacked USB 2.0 ports. On the left, there is a PC Card and ExpressCard slot, an IrDA port, dual 3.5mm jacks for headphone and microphone, and a 4-pin IEEE1394 "Firewire" port. The rear of the notebook features three USB ports, a COM port, a VGA out port (I was disappointed to not find a DVI out), a modem connection, an Ethernet connection, and the power port for the AC adapter. On the underside there is a SmartCard reader for corporations that use it, though SmartCards are far more popular in Europe than in America.

Wireless

The Dell/Broadcom 1390 wireless card has performed well so far. It instantly detected our 802.11b network and connected to a router that was on another floor on the other side of the house. I haven't tested the range of the card by going outside but I'm able to pick up our network's signal in all rooms on all floors of our house.

The Toshiba Bluetooth stack works flawlessly. I paired it with my Bluetooth headset and Dell Axim Pocket PC with no issues. The Bluetooth management software is simple but gets the job done.

There are indicators for both WiFi and Bluetooth located on the right hand screen hinge of the D820. This same panel also contains indicators for power, battery warnings, and hard disk activity.

Light indicators for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (view large image)

There is an IrDA port on the left side of the notebook but I have not yet used it.

Battery

I ordered the D820 with the standard 6-cell battery. The 9-cell battery was optional for an additional $20 but I didn't think the added weight was worth it. The battery takes about two hours to charge absolutely fully (though the meter reaches 100% before that time). Dell touts something they call ExpressCharge which optimizes the time to charge the battery. This lets you charge the battery to 80% in only one hour for time-critical situations.

Running a stress test which maxes out the CPU, GPU, and screen brightness, I measured a battery life of 2 hours and 14 minutes. This represents the absolute lower limit. Under normal usage like word processing, web browsing, and a little light movie-watching you can expect times of about 4 hours or possibly even longer.

The battery features a thoughtful external indicator that consists of five LEDs to indicate the approximate charge of the pack. This allows you to determine how much battery you have left without booting the notebook.

Operating System, Pre-installed Software, and Management Suite

I was pleasantly surprised to find the Windows XP Home install free from the bloatware that so often plagues notebooks these days. Bundled applications were limited to DVD viewing software, DVD burning software, and Dell's QuickSet management suite.

Included in the packaging were the CDs for Roxio Creator burning software, PowerDVD, and the full install of Windows XP Home SP2. A disturbing trend these days is for manufacturers to charge extra for the Windows XP CD whose license you already own! Thankfully, Dell includes the full install CD at no extra cost.

The QuickSet management software allows a wide range of control over the D820's features. You can configure the WiFi catcher to show only unencrypted or preferred networks, you can set wireless profiles, you can adjust any number of power management settings, and you can fine tune display settings all from the QuickSet menu. While I have heard that the Dell software is not up to par with IBM/Lenovo's, I have never had a corporate machine before so any management suite is better than nothing as far as I'm concerned.

The D820 also ships with the Wave Systems EMBASSY suite of security software which provides Trusted Platform management, digital document signing, and a private information manager among other services. I have not had a chance to use this extensively but it looks like a nice, enterprise-grade security suite.

Customer Support

I have not yet had to deal with customer support and I hope I never have to. If that does become a necessity, however, I will update the review to reflect my experiences.

Conclusion

In summary, the Latitude D820 is a very nice choice for the desk jockey professional or student. This machine, with its 15.4" widescreen, is not meant for world travel but for flexibility, productivity, and a little bit of portability. At a pinch it can be used on a plane or on a lap but, for the most part, I would not travel extensively with the D820. For its form factor, however, I do not think you will find a better balance between portability and build quality than the Latitude D820. I would wholeheartedly recommend this notebook to anyone looking for an effective tool to get some serious work done.

Pros

• Superb build quality
• Computational performance
• Good heat management
• Dual mousing options
• Thoughtful touches like WiFi catcher and battery life LEDs
• Price (relative to other corporate notebooks)

Cons

• Lackluster screen
• Optical drive noise
• Poor graphics performance plus no option for a better card

Pricing and Availability

 

Great review huggybear. Nice notebook. But a very disappointing 3dmark05 score I had a higher score with the 6200 TC of Sony Vaio S-series.

Charlie

 

Nice review! + Rep 4u

@ Hitman about the 3dmark05 score... I bet you might be able to get some better drivers or something. Some regular Nvidia drivers, instead of Quadro drivers. The score could actually increase quite a bit. Btw is the Quadro NVS based off the 7600? If so could you flash it to a 7600? That would rock!

 

A very nicely written and informative review indeed, I've been waiting to see somebody's thoughts on the D820. I like the look a lot, it's much better than the older D810. Since I've used the D620 I'm familiar with the build and know that it will certainly hold together and can serve you well for 4-years. Just don't let any roommates go spilling apple juice on it and the likes.

Your take on the wi-fi catcher is interesting, I agree that it is a bit flimsy (as I saw on the D620) but was willing to overlook that because no other manufacturer offers the feature.

Too bad about the screen not being quite as bright as you'd like, overall doesn't look bad though.

 

Nice review!
Don't forget that you can get a docking station for less than $100 from ebay if you need dvi and some extra ports..
Enjoy!

 

Thank you for your kind words, guys. Just to clarify, though, I ran the 3Dmark06 benchmark, not 05. I am now on the hunt for some updated or better drivers for the Quadro NVS 120. I know it's not meant for gaming-type graphics but I can't help but wonder if a simple driver change will improve its performance.

 

Nice review. Would you be able to do a 3DMark05 also? That should give people some sort of a gauge to compare against other notebooks as most reviewers tend to run 05 instead of 06.
Thanks!

 

Sorry huggybear! I didnt see it was 3dmark06. That is a nice score then. That means around 2000 3dmark05. Well that is the score of a Go7400. Nice.

Charlie

 

Great review!

I've had my D820 and D620 since launch of the models and love them both! My D820 is mostly docked in the office to the D/Dock, while my D620 travels with me in the house from room to room to my patio.

Just a few random notes regarding both models from my experience. Both my D820 and D620 are very similarly equipped - Core Duo 1.86ghz/80GB 7200RPM on both; 2GB RAM on D820 and 1GB on D620; Quadro NVS 120 on D820, 110 on D620; 1680x1050 screen on D820, 1400x900 on D620; Intel 3945 wireless card on both.

First, DEFINITELY pay the extra $29 or $39 for the Intel 3945 wifi card rather than the standard Dell card. My first D620 was with the Dell card. In my garage, side by side with the D820 with the Intel card, signal strength showed all 5 bars with the Intel card, *only 1* bar with the Dell card! I returned the first D620 and ordered another D620 with the Intel 3945 card, and now I get 5 bars in my garage or outside on my patio!

My first D620 came with the onboard Intel video (the reason why I returned it) as Dell cancelled all orders in the beginning with the Quadro NVS 110 video upgrade. Battery life was noticeably better with the onboard video than the Quadro 110. I have the 6 cell in the D620. With the onboard video I got ~4 hours of just surfing. With the Quadro NVS 110 it's closer to 3 hours. This is OK with me since I have a DBay battery. With both batteries in there, I get around 5 hours with the Quadro NVS 110, over 6 hours with onboard video. Also, the bottom of the D620 definitely gets warmer with the upgraded video than onboard video. The D620 with onboard video never bothered me on my lap with shorts on even after extended use; with upgraded video it bothers me a little. I'm not really a gamer so I kind of wish now that I'd stuck with the onboard video. The Intel GMA950 should run Vista Aero anyway.

I just love the sharing of DBay devices - I share between the two DBay battery, DVD burner, second hard drive, docking station. It's the main reason why I have both D820 and D620.

My D820, and the first D620 I had, both have the finger print reader. I tried it a few times but chose not to use it. I thought you can swipe your finger and log on to web sites and stuff, doesn't work that way - you have to enter a password to open the password vault stored in the security suite. Basically defeated the purpose of me getting the finger print reader. The only thing the finger print reader allowed me to do is to lock the laptop in BIOS - swipe your finger during power up to start booting. Please correct me if I'm wrong. My current D620 does not have the reader, which makes the mouse buttons much easier to press.

My D820 was ordered with the 7200RPM drive, while the D620 only the base 40GB 5400RPM drive. Opening of applications is noticeably quicker with the 7200RPM drive, which is why I bought the new D620 with the 80GB 7200RPM drive. Definitely worth the money.

About two weeks ago, Dell dropped the price a lot on CPU upgrades on the Latitude D620 and D820 (NOT on other models for some reason). But still I resisted paying the extra $100 (compared to the 1.83 cpu) to get the 2ghz cpu. The T2400 1.83 is plenty fast.

Both the D620's make a faint buzzing from the bottom of the screen. Sounds like an electric shaver. No noise from the D820.

Both laptops are very very solidly built. Love the feel of the magnesium alloy, no more plastic laptops for me! If I *had* to choose only one between the two, I'd choose the D620 (with Quadro NVS 110 if I can't have the D820) for its better portability. I can comfortably palm the D620 and type with one hand. Not so easy to balance the D820 on one hand, and it gets heavy on one hand fast.

All Latitudes come with 3 year warranty (though mail-in) standard. This really gives me a piece of mind. If you buy an Inspiron and upgrade to a 3 year warranty, it will close the price difference quite a bit. I don't care for the onsite warranty, because most parts that can go bad Dell will just send you the replacement parts anyway. So in most cases you don't actually have to send your laptop in. IMHO it is well worth the price difference to opt for the Latitude instead of Inspiron, unless you specifically want a feature only available on the Inspiron. Dell offers the integrated SoundBlaster on all Inspirons now as a $25 option which I wish is available on the Latitudes.

Dell gave me the D820 for $1220 with 1.83CPU, 512MB RAM, 80GB 7200RPM drive, 9 cell battery, 1680x1050 screen, Intel 3945 card, bluetooth. They gave me a good discount for cancelling my order on the D620 because I ordered it with the Quadro NVS 110 video. They never told me why orders with the NVS 110 were cancelled. This was back in early April. I received my new D620 with the NVS 110 video two weeks ago.

Sorry I don't have the time to write an elegant full review like you guys do but I hope this was helpful for those considering between the D820 and D620.

 

huggybear, thank you for the great review and andye39s, thank you for the comparison between the D820 and the D620.

andye39s, I wonder how much the different hard drive (7200 RPM vs. 5400 RPM) affects the battery life of the D620 and the heat that it produces. You said that the reduced battery life and increased heat are both caused by the video card but it could also have to do with the faster hard drive.

 

I almost bought this but decided against it for the following reasons

No 4-in-1 card reader
No Svideo
Poor Screen quality
Heat issues as reported in the forums

I think this is the only dell laptop which I think has good build wuality

I ordered Lenovo z61t for the same prize with EPP discount.

 

Yes good point there about the 7200RPM drive drawing add'l power. That with the Quadro NVS 110 probably draw that much more power. However, I don't believe the extra heat felt on my lap is generated by the hard drive. Where the heat is felt is directly under the fan/heat sink. Where the hard drive is, I don't actually detect it to be any warmer than the returned D620 with the 40GB 5400RPM drive. But I suppose being in this small chasis every little bit of extra heat add up.

I meant to point out that the D820 never gets much hotter than slightly warm, even with the Quado NVS 120 and the 7200RPM drive. I guess the bigger chasis allows for better ventilation.

Someone mentioned the heat being an issue on these Latitudes. I don't think it's an issue.

Also, even though it only has one speaker, the D620 sounds better than the D820. D620 has a little more oomph from its single speaker, whereas the D820 sounds very tiny and harsh.

BTW, I ran the Doom3 timedemo on both. 800x600 resolution, medium quality, AA off (of course ). D820 with Quadro NVS 120 scored 47FPS. D620 with Quadro NVS 110 scored 39FPS. Good enough for me. In comparison, I ran the same test on a Precision M90 with Quadro FX2500M (like GF 7900GTX), 1600x1200 resolution, ultra quality, with AA off was 92FPS 4x AA was still over 70FPS All results were with stock Dell drivers and no tweaks. I'm not the tweaker that I once was, don't have the time any more You should get a bit more performance out of these Quadro's with some other drivers and tweaks. The Precision M90 is too much laptop for me so I sold it.

 

andye39s, you made some nice observations there and some useful comparisons to the D620 I forgot to mention the 3-year warranty (which you did). That was a major factor in my decision to go with a business notebook as well.

 

That is a bit of a bummer for me. I really really like the D820, but I also want a nice screen.

 

Very helpful review huggybear. Comprehensive and very well written. After putting your D820 through the paces, in hindsight, is there anything you would have done differently in configuring your laptop for your purposes? I am helping my daughter select a laptop for her first year in college and her first choice now is the D820. The system she has modeled is close to yours with the following differences: WXGA screen (because she is used to that resolution and doesn't want the small fonts, etc.); Quadro NVS 110 graphics (she is not a gamer; will this be sufficient for general Word, Excel. Powerpoint, internet browsing?; would the integrated Intel GMA 950 be just as good?); 80GB hard drive @ 5400RPM (selected 5400RPM to help preserve battery power, but is the 7200RPM a definite must-have upgrade even if it may contribute to battery drain?) I'd love to get any and all opinions on these choices. Again, many thanks for the great review.

 

TBComp, the Intel GMA 950 is just fine for the tasks you indicated. Dropping the Quadro NVS 110 will also give you longer battery life. With the money you saved you can upgrade to a 7200 RPM hard drive. Programs will load faster and it will affect battery life less than a dedicated video card, as andye39s indicated. You should also make sure to have enough RAM, perhaps 1 GB.

 

Yes, I generally concur with "Fred from NYC." For everyday tasks the 7200RPM HDD will make its presence known from booting up to loading applications. Fred is right that 7200RPM drive won't suck up too much more battery (especially as compared to the discrete graphics chip) and the noise and heat gains are myths at least from my experiences. Also 1GB should be the minimum amount of RAM. 2GB won't hurt but you'll start to see diminishing returns. The only thing I'm not sure about is whether the GMA950 will be able to handle Windows Vista ultra-GUI-super-duper edition (don't even know if this is a concern). But for college-type tasks and movie watching the GMA950 is just fine.

As far as regrets, some people have said that the Intel WiFi card is superior to Dell's. While I haven't been unhappy with Dell's for the extra price perhaps the Intel is worth it as WiFi is probably the most essential feature on a laptop. After some use, I kind of regret not going for the WUXGA 1900x1200 screen. At the time of the review, I felt it made text too small but now I'm thinking otherwise, though I'm plenty happy with the WSXGA+ screen.

 

Huggy, how is your screen's quality? I've had no end of troubles with the XGA screen. Bad light leakage on the bottom on most blacks. Not sure if I'm going to return the laptop or get an upgrade to wsxga+. I preferred the lower res for gaming but the screen is just too washed out in many applications/games.

 

Don't expect the WSXGA+ screen to be much better in the leakage/washed out department, especially when it comes to gaming. I would say the extra workspace is worth it, but I'm not gonna be doing too much gaming.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. The 7200RPM hard drive seems well worth the additional cost and I'm considering upgrading to 2GB memory. I am concerned about the negative comments about the screen. Is this noticeable primarily in gaming or will it also be evident in internet browsing, word processing, etc. As I recall, in other reviews of the D820 I've read (PCMag, cnet) the screen has been described favorably. Is this mostly a matter of preference or should the screen (I would be getting the WXGA) issues disqualify the D820 from consideration? Thanks

 

Hmm, interesting. I've not heard very many (if at all) complaints on the wxsga+, at least in terms of light leakage.

 

Flunar,
Perhaps, having never owned a laptop before, my expectations were too high. Bottom line, though, if multimedia is the top preference the D820's main selling point will not be its screen. You have other options.

TBComp,
By no means is the screen bad enough to disqualify the D820 from consideration. For regular work and internet activity, the screen is more than adequate. Just relative to the superior quality of the rest of the notebook, the screen is not up to par--it is not bad. Maybe I am being overly critical, again, but this stems from my inexperience with notebooks.

 

Well, I expect it to be tolerable and compared to my older 700m with its 12.1 wxga screen and "truelife" glossy look its utter crap. That screen doesnt have light leakage issues hardly at all. I can live with matte screens, typing on one right now but a screen that can't block the light from the bottom such that one can notice the brightness in games/media and just the desktop is not right. Thanks for the input. Sadly its hard to find a decent notebook that has what I want on it these days. The 820 has a great construction and setup but its screen bugs me.

 

I noticed that you said the fingerprint reader would make the mouse buttons smaller. How much smaller would it be? Do you know of any pics comparing the normal mouse buttons and those shrunk b/c of the fingerprint reader? Also, does anybody have a benchmark measurement with MobileMark for its battery life?

 

. . . yesterday I received my dell d820. I think it feels cheap. There is excessive whitewash at the bottom of the display, but the real kicker, it's wobbly! It won't sit flat on any surface--not even a glass table. All the rubber feet are in place, it just seems to be slightly warped or a terrible design flaw. It's going back to dell tomorrow and I am looking at the lenovo z61 or hp nc8430. The dell customer service people were very nice about the return, though I simply can't own a notebook I think may easily warp into uselessness.

 

I have been thinking about buying a laptop - and I like some of HP's and then this one, but I don't like the pointing stick on the Dell D820 so I was wondering if there is any consumer version of the D820?

 

Nice Review! Congratulations on a purchase you are happy with--that's the most important thing.

 

Pretty sure you can just disable it.
you could on the d810.
after some practice, it's easier to use than the track pad

 

Hello everyone! I have one of these D820 for three months now. I was very happy when I got it, as it is my first centrino Duo. I stress my laptop quite a bit as I use it to develop software. However, lately I have had some bad experiences.
1. I get mild electric shocks when I touch on the sides. I also get mild electric shocks when I touch the back of the laptop. I thought this was due to bad wiring at work so I took it home, but the same problem. I went to a different city/different country same problem. So this has convinced me that its not the wiring issues but a laptop issue.
2. If i have the laptop running continuosly for a longtime, it shutsdown, I mean it really shutsdown and the only way I can get it back on is by removing the electric chord and removing the battery and putting it back on...

Has anyone else experienced similar problems with their D820s? Also does it get pretty hot after three to four hours of use?

Thanks

 

net2tech, you should contact Dell support immediately. It would be nice if you could post afterwards how your problem was solved.

 

Thanks Fred. We called Dell and they are sending replacements. I will post again once I get the replacements.

 

I've had an D820 for a couple of months now -- my only complaint is that it behaves badly when connected to a projector. Text scales to 400% automatically in IE and Office apps, text size decreases in Firefox oddly and Powerpoint doesn't want to advance.

I've looked around thinking the Nvidia drivers are doing something "helpful" but no such luck. Any pointers greatly appreciated.

 

I got d820 and I opened the box yesterday. Its with WUXGA 1920*1200 and its very dull guys... dont get me wrong but i have inspiron 5100 which is not with true life screen but the brightness of it is much better than my new d820. I feel bad to part away/sent back my d820. I love it i.e build and look and everything but the screen is really dull man... I love large screen real estate and I was crazy about it but now iam not so happy...

Anyone felt the same with d820 screen? You think dell with give me wsxga+ with truelife glossy screen? Honestly I dont think i can work on my d820. I have maxed the brightness and still it looks dull.

Suggestions are welcome...