Review of Dell Vostro A860

Full review of Dell Vostro A860

An affordable option that will fit into any budget, the Dell Vostro A860 Laptop offers great mobility and connectivity for the individual who needs a little more versatility from a work computer. Recently offered at $399 through Dell as part of a late 2008 push, there's arguably no better computer for your buck. The Vostro A860 offers three upgrade packages for more user customization. However, no unnecessary trial software is in the mix to clutter the hard drive or the desktop. The amply spaced 15.6-inch widescreen LCD display offers enough room to view multiple tasks and projects, with the ability to stream media or DVDs on the standard drive.

Dell Vostro A860 Tech Specs

The Vostro A860 comes with a lower-end Intel Celeron M processor at 2.16GHz and Vista Home Basic Service Pack 1. The optical drive offers a 24x CD Burner/DVD combo, with the option to upgrade to an 8x DVD+/-RW drive. The basic package offers users 1GB of memory, a 160GB SATA hard drive and the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100. Out of the box, the laptop is wireless capable, and includes the standard one-year basic limited warranty.

Features
Ultimately, the Vostro A860 is perfect for transitioning from a desktop to a capable laptop, catering to those in need of the technological mobility. Aesthetically, the computer offers a low-profile look, without the overly glossy finish found on many black laptops. The full keyboard allows for maximized user efficiency and comfort, and with the four-cell battery, the weight is just over 5 lbs. The only real drawback, when considering the unbeatable price, is the size and the power-pull of a four-cell Li-Ion battery. Yet, when reviewing the pros and cons, an under $400 price tag far outweighs the drawbacks to this entry-level laptop. Dell Vostro A860

Technical Specifications

• Processor Celeron M 2.16GHz
• Memory 1GB DDR2
• Harddrive 160GB
• OS Vista Basic
• Weight 5.4lbs
• Screen 15.4 inches
• Screen resolution 1366x768
• Graphic Card Intel GMA X3100
• Battery Life 2.5 hours

READ MORE - Review of Dell Vostro A860

Dell Latitude XT2

The Latitude XT2 is Dell's multitouch-enabled business convertible-notebook that now includes Windows 7. The XT2 starts at $1,909 and offers a very thin and lightweight business-rugged chassis with an attractive brushed-metal finish. In this review we find out if the XT2's system performance or multitouch support has improved under Windows 7.

Dell Latitude XT2 features the following specifications:

• Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 1.4GHz (800MHz FSB, 3MB L2 Cache)
• Microsoft Windows 7 (64-bit)
• 12.1" Premium WXGA (1280 x 800) LED-Backlight Display with 2-finger Multi-touch
• Intel X4500MHD Integrated Graphics
• 3GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM (2GB + 1GB)
• 120GB Toshiba 1.8" 5400RPM HDD
• 8X CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive) through docking station
• Dell Wireless 1510 A/G/N, Bluetooth, and 1Gb Ethernet
• 6-Cell 42WHr Battery
• Limited 3-year standard parts and labor warranty with on-site service
• Dimensions: 11.7 x 8.7 x 1.1"
• Weight: 3lbs 13.6oz
• Price as configured: $2,830 ($2,262 Street)

Build and Design

The Dell Latitude XT2 has a very professional or industrial appearance with an all dark-grey design, sharp lines and edges, and even exposed screws. This notebook is definitely not targeted towards those looking for the next designer laptop. Instead, it is aimed squarely at those who just want to get down to business. The brushed metal surfaces are actually specially painted covers that give the look of metal but with the ease of maintenance that paint gives. The finish resists smudges and is much easier to wipe clean than most brushed metal exteriors. If it was painted matte black and had a Lenovo logo printed on it, you would swear it was a ThinkPad.

I personally love the side profile of the Latitude XT2, which is almost perfectly square at all corners. It has no sloped surfaces, no rounded sides, and sits very low to the desk surface. If you are carrying the tablet around in one arm it takes up such a small amount of space that you really don't mind holding it.

Build quality is excellent, and probably the best construction I have ever seen on a Dell notebook. Panels feel solid with very little creaking or squeaking plastic, and fit and finish are impeccable. Surfaces meet with clean lines and nothing feels out of place. Paint quality is great on every part of the body, with no specs of dust, unpainted edges, or any type of imperfection. The screen hinge is tough and rugged ... giving you the sense that it should hold up well over time. The chassis feels very durable with barely a hint of flex if you squeeze the palmrest or put heavy pressure on the keyboard. The screen lid has some minor wiggle, but the screen doesn't show any signs of color distortion unless you really try to twist the panel

Access to user-serviceable components is easy through two areas. The hard drive is located underneath the battery and has four screws and a frame holding it in place. The RAM, Wi-Fi card, and WWAN card are located under a single access panel held in with two screws. Most upgrade needs can be taken care of in less than five minutes or however long it takes you to swap out a component. One interesting feature that Dell puts front and center under the access panel is a user removable BIOS chip (with a handy pull tab). This lets companies replace it in the event of a failed BIOS update, instead of sending the entire machine in for repair.

Screen and Speakers

The 12.1" screen on the Dell Latitude XT2 looks great and is one of the better tablet screens I have seen in person. With the multiple touchscreen and pen input layers that tablets need over the actual display panel, most tablet screens look very hazy or cloudy compared to a standard notebook screen. The 1280 x 800 display on the XT2 looks slightly hazy compared to a normal display, but much nicer than the average tablet screen. One important feature of a tablet or slate screen is wide viewing angles for using the screen from multiple positions without having lots of color distortion. The display on the XT2 is above average in terms of horizontal viewing angles, but still suffers from some distortion when viewing the screen in landscape mode and pushing the screen back.

Backlight levels on this screen are about average with other business notebooks, but not as good as "sunlight readable" displays. Dell does offer a brighter panel for daylight use ... which should hopefully be bright enough to not be washed out in direct sunlight.

The Dell XT2 includes a capacitive touch-screen with a built-in digitizer for pen input. The pen gives excellent traction and feedback on the screen similar to a ball-point pen over a glossy hard cover book. The texture allows precise movement, and it stays consistent across the entire screen. Oils from my fingers touching the screen didn't seem to affect the pen traction too much, although for the best writing surface possible I would suggest taking a microfiber cloth to the screen first. The pen includes two side-mounted buttons for the second mouse click and erase functions. I found them to both work well but the second mouse button is slightly too sensitive ... activating with the slightest touch.

The XT2 supports two-finger multitouch with its capacitive touch display. We didn't see much improvement between the multitouch environment in Windows Vista compared to Windows 7. Scrolling and zooming in Internet Explorer 8 still feels choppy, which makes it very easy to overshoot your intended mark. Switching to other web browsers didn't seem to help much and Google's Chrome only interacted with the zoom feature. I feel when it comes to multitouch Apple's hardware and software support is by far the best. Dell also didn't include any OEM-specific touch software on our Latitude XT2 besides ControlPoint which felt out-dated and redundant compared to Windows 7's own controls.

The audio system on the XT2 consists of a single mono speaker located on the left side of the chassis. It works well enough for listening to the occasional song or movie, but it sounds really off-center because the single speaker is located on one side. Peak volume is pretty loud, but it also distorts when it tries to produce bass or midrange audio. Headphones are a must.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The XT2 keyboard looks and feels great with slim keys and high visibility labeling. The layout is easy to follow with full-size primary keys and appropriately sized function keys. Compared to other notebooks the keys have a shallower throw, which is a side effect of the thin chassis. I actually found the keyboard to be quicker to type on compared to the ThinkPad X200, since the shorter throw means less travel before a key activates. The individual keys have no wiggle when you try to move the top of the key side to side.

The touchpad is an ALPS model running proprietary Dell software. Compared to the average Snypatics model it does show some minor lag, but it still feels responsive and easy to use. I think Dell could have gone with a larger touchpad surface, since the XT2 has enough space to incorporate it if you move the buttons more towards the lower edge of the palmrest. Dell also includes a pointing stick, which worked, but doesn't feel as fluid or responsive as other alternatives I have used.

Ports and Features

Port selection is excellent ... even when compared to larger notebooks. The Latitude XT2 offers two USB ports, one eSATA/USB combo, audio in/out, FireWire, VGA, LAN, and a proprietary power socket for some Dell accessories. If you need more ports or an optical drive, the docking station gives you four USB ports, serial, DVI, VGA, LAN, headphone out, and of course an optical drive. The docking station feels extremely well built, and has one of the nicest latching mechanisms I have seen. It has a sturdy metal latch arm, which when extended and released has a delayed motion where everything slowly clicks into place.

Front: Lower edge of battery

Rear: AC Power, VGA, LAN, one USB + power jack, tablet controls on display lid

Left: Pen holder, one USB, FireWire, speaker

Right: Wireless On/Off, Wi-Fi Catcher, USB/eSATA combo, SD-card slot, ExpressCard/54, headphone/mic, Kensington Lock slot

Performance

Compared to our previous review of the XT2 running Windows Vista, the same configuration running Windows 7 seems to have taken a performance hit. Under normal day-to-day activities the system doesn't feel up to speed even when compared to new thin and light notebooks. We feel some of this could be blamed on the 5400RPM 1.8" hard drive that is half the speed of common 2.5" 5400RPM drives. Opening up applications such as iTunes felt sluggish and lengthy boot times -- even with the standard bloatware removed- were still near one minute. This could be alleviated by configuring your XT2 with one of the SSD options, but that upgrade drives up the price. The Latitude XT2 also has the disadvantage of slower processor options compared to the Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Tablet, which negatively impacts the system performance of the XT2. Gaming performance was weak with the Intel X4500 integrated graphics, but this is true of almost all tablets on the market. HD movie playback was good for 720P and 1080P video, but multitasking in the background while watching an HD movie wouldn't be the best idea with the 1.4GHz processor.

Wprime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 measures overall graphics performance for gaming (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune storage drive performance test:

Heat and Noise

Thermal performance of the XT2 is excellent, and the XT2stayed only mildly warm throughout most of our testing. While under a higher load during our benchmarking, system temperatures crept up slightly, but still stayed within very reasonable levels as shown below. Fan noise is minimal, and I can't actually recall the fan coming on once during the review. If it was on, it was spinning slow enough that it was barely moving any air. Overall Dell did a very good job cooling the internals of the XT2.

Battery Life

The Dell Latitude XT2 has lower power consumption under Windows 7 than it did in our previous review running Vista. In our battery test with the screen brightness set to 70%, Windows 7 on the Balanced profile, and wireless active the system stayed on for 3 hours and 59 minutes before going into standby mode. This is up from the previous 3 hours and 24 minutes we saw under the same conditions running Vista. For extended battery life Dell offers a 45Wh "slice" battery which is an external battery that attaches to the bottom of the notebook. This more than doubles the power capacity of the system but would also substantially increase its travel weight.

Conclusion

The Latitude XT2 is a good looking and well built business convertible-notebook that seems to lag behind the competition. Compared to its main rival, the Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Tablet, it uses a slower 1.8" hard drive, slower processor, and offers much less battery life unless you also use an add-on battery slice. One of the XT2's biggest flaws is the use of much slower 1.8" 5400RPM hard drives ... making the performance much slower than other top-tier business machines. Windows 7 multitouch support didn't fix the problems we had under Vista. Simple gestures such as scrolling or zooming feel jerky and make it easy to overshoot your intended mark. Sensitivity adjustments for multitouch in this situation would make a world of difference. Overall the Dell Latitude XT2 would lose many of its downsides if it included faster hard drives or processors and its price came down compared to competitors.

Pros:

• Good looking and thin design
• Great build quality
• Improved battery life under Windows 7

Cons:

• Slow 1.8" 5400RPM hard drive
• High pricetag

READ MORE - Dell Latitude XT2

Dell Studio 17 (1747)

The Studio 17 is a 17-inch multimedia and gaming desktop-replacement notebook from Dell. This system can be configured with Intel Core i7 processors as well as high-end ATI Mobility Radeon graphics cards to compete against powerhouse systems like the Acer Aspire 8940G or Asus G51J. Dell has one trick up its sleeve with the Studio 17: it's the first large consumer notebook to offer an optional multitouch display.

Attentive readers might notice that we already reviewed the Dell Studio 17 last year. However, this isn't the same Studio 17. The system we're reviewing here is the new Studio 17 (1747) which uses a completely new chassis with 16:9 ratio widescreen display, new speakers, and support for the latest processors.

Dell Studio 17 (1747) Specifications:

• 17.3" HD+ (1600 x 900) TrueLife WLED
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel Core i7 720QM processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L3 cache)
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 1GB
• 4GB DDR3 RAM (2x 2GB)
• 320GB Western Digital Scorpio Black 7200RPM Hard Drive
• Dell Wireless 1397 802.11g
• 8X DVD burner
• Three-year limited warranty
• 9-cell battery (85Wh)
• Weight: Starting weight of 7.87 lbs
• Dimensions: 16.28 x 11.04 x 1.1-1.54"
• MSRP: $1,164

Build and Design
The Dell Studio 17 has a sleek wedge-shaped side profile that helps mask its large footprint. The sloped design reduces the thickness of the notebook, and if you don't count the bulging 9-cell battery, it is basically as tall as my ThinkPad T60 when closed. The red screen cover looks very nice and is also available in other colors if you custom configure the notebook. The painted cover has a great rubbery texture that gives the notebook a soft feel and helps to increase grip for your fingers. The inside of the Studio 17 is glossy plastic and a flush-mount color-matched touchpad. The palmrest trim is painted with a silver metallic finish with the trim directly surrounding the keyboard being glossy painted black plastic. Both finishes appear to resist light scratches, which is a godsend for glossy notebooks that need to be wiped down constantly to look clean and smudge-free.

The one Dell-specific design element that really bugs me is the battery design. I greatly prefer the method of extended-life batteries that extend out the back of the notebook. The lower-mounted method used with the Studio 17's battery prevents the notebook from sitting perfectly flush on your desk surface. The only problem with using a battery that extend out the back with this notebook is the hinge design which would interfere with extended batteries.

The chassis feels very strong and when the notebook is closed it feels stiff enough to stand on (though we don't recommend standing on it). Dell did an excellent job perfecting the solid frame and really nailed it with the precise fit of the body panels. Every panel is securely held in place with even gaps around mating surfaces. The panels themselves feel durable and resist flexing under moderate pressure. The only surface on the notebook that seems to have any flex is the keyboard tray that flexes slightly under strong pressure.

The bottom of the notebook has a clean appearance with a single access hatch to user-replaceable components. Users looking to upgrade the Studio 17 will find two hard drive bays, three mini-PCIe slots, two memory slots, and the BIOS battery. Our configuration left one hard drive bay open, as well as slots for a WWAN card and TV tuner card. The graphics card and processor were not accessible through the main access panel, so to change either of those would require further dismantling of the notebook. No "warranty void if removed" stickers were found anywhere inside or outside the computer.

Screen and Speakers
The 17.3-inch display on the Studio 17 looks above average with good color saturation and excellent contrast. Dell picked an in-between resolution of 1600x900 in this model, which is better than WXGA but still less than the 1080P displays that are standard on almost all competing models. With that said Dell does offer RGB-LED display upgrade options for this model where none of the competing models offer similar displays.

The standard display has good vertical viewing angles where colors don't start to invert significantly until the screen is tilted 15-20 degrees forward or back. Horizontal viewing angles are better with colors staying true to roughly 80 degrees in each direction. Backlight levels are pretty good in terms of even brightness and peak brightness. With the screen displaying an all-black background there is minimal bleed around the edges at normal brightness levels. As you increase past 80% the black levels start to appear washed out, but that is normal for bright panels. The backlight is strong enough to comfortable view the display in bright office conditions or outdoors if you find a spot of shade.

The Dell Studio 17 includes JBL stereo speakers with a bottom-firing subwoofer. The primary drivers are top-firing through the corners of the palmrest which is much preferred over lap-firing speakers which can sound muffled. In our tests the Studio 17 speakers rated well above average when playing both movies and music. Midrange and high notes came through clearly and the subwoofer added some bass which is usually lacking from many notebooks. Peak volume levels were above average and more than capable for filling a small or medium sized room with sound.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard on the Studio 17 is very nice and very comfortable to type on with such a massive palmrest. With the notebook sitting on the edge of a desk or on your lap your wrists are fully supported to your forearms. The soft rounded edge of the front of the notebook doesn't seem to cause any pressure points, which can be a problem with some notebooks. The keyboard layout takes full advantage of the massive surface area of the Studio 17. The keyboard is full-size with no condensed keys and it includes a four-key wide numberpad. The layout is Dell-standard with the function keys being secondary and the access keys being primary. To give you an example you can adjust the brightness directly by pressing F4 and F5, but to refresh a webpage you would need to click FN+F5. You can notice some flex of the keyboard under strong pressure but under normal typing it isn't that apparent. Individual key action is smooth with a very soft click emitted when each key is fully pressed. The configuration we reviewed doesn't offer a backlit but it can be included as a $25 option. After using the Studio 17 a few nights in front of my TV I really found myself wishing that the backlight came standard.

The touchpad is a very large Synaptics model with some multitouch support. Advanced gestures include two-finger scrolling, rotating, pinch zoom, and a three-fingered flick. Sensitivity is excellent with the touchpad picking up even the slightest touch without a problem. This did cause some problems if you barely brush your palm against the touchpad while moving the cursor towards a target. The touchpad would detect the second input and make the cursor freeze until you let off. No amount of adjusting the settings corrected this but with enough practice you learn to move your hand farther away from the touchpad boundaries. Touchpad speed is great with no discernable lag noticed even during quick movements. The surface texture is a light matte finish and very easy to slide your finger across dry or moist. The touchpad buttons are also very nice with a deep throw and a soft click when pressed.

Ports and Features
Port selection is very good even with no ports or slots added to the front or rear edge of the notebook. Dell included two USB ports, one eSATA/USB combo port, VGA, HDMI, and Displayport-out, LAN, two headphone jacks, audio-in, LAN, and finally a FireWire-400 port. Expansion slots include an ExpressCard/34 slot and SDHC-card reader. One additional port that wasn't used in our configuration is the antenna jack that connects to an internal TV-tuner. We did have one problem with the USB port layout; the right side has spacing far enough apart from each other to prevent you from using some dual-pronged cords.

The Dell Studio 17 includes an accelerometer to protect the hard drive in the event of a physical system crash. If it detects the notebook is dropped it will rapidly park the hard drive to help minimize damage. This is common in many business notebooks, but unlike every other implementation we have seen, this one was the first to cause problems. If you tilt the notebook too far in any direction it will directly alter the direction movement on the screen. We first noticed this during our testing phase when the notebook was resting on an elevated stand. If the Studio 17 is tilted forward dialog box selection will randomly switch back and forth. If you tilt the notebook to one side it will start moving the selection box up and down. To only way to correct this is to uninstall the ST Micro ScreenDection driver. This problem is also reported on the Dell Community forum.

Performance and Benchmarks
The Dell Studio 17 is no slouch with its Intel Core i7 720QM processor and ATI Mobility Radeon 4650 graphics. While playing Left 4 Dead at 1600x900 resolution with high settings we saw an average framerate of 60FPS, a max of 87FPS, and low of 38FPS. Even with hordes of zombies around the main characters the notebook never dropped below 30FPS. Although this system is more than capable of playing Left 4 Dead at high settings, it still fell behind the ASUS G51J and Acer 8940G which included better graphics cards. Since the Studio 17 is a notebook more focused on all around multimedia performance we didn't have a huge problem with this. The downside is users need to upgrade to the Alienware M17x or switch to the Studio XPS 16 to get better graphics cards options from Dell. Both alternatives have a much higher starting price - around $1,600- that could be hard to swallow if you are working on a smaller budget. HD video was not a problem for the Studio 17 with the 1.6GHz Core i7. The CPU never broke a sweat playing 720p and 1080p video with plenty of overhead room left for other activities.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

3DMark06 comparison results against netbooks @ 1024 x 768 resolution (higher scores mean better performance):

HDTune hard drive performance test:

Heat and Noise
Thermal performance of the Dell Studio 17 is above average when you consider that a single fan is handling the cooling for a quad-core processor and mid-range graphics card. Under normal use the case temperatures stay within very reasonable levels with few hot spots. Under stress some areas near the processor and touchpad warm up, but still not up to uncomfortable levels. Fan noise during all conditions is minimal, but it does get higher pitched and more frequent under load.

Battery Life
Our configuration of the Studio 17 included a 9-cell battery that helped squeeze out some impressive time from this Core i7-equipped notebook. In our battery test with the screen brightness set to 70%, wireless active, and Windows 7 on the balanced profile the notebook stayed on for 4 hours and 19 minutes. During the test the Studio 17 consumed between 17 to 19 watts of power.

Conclusion
The Dell Studio 17 performed very well as a multimedia-oriented desktop-replacement notebook. The system includes everything you might want, including great speakers, very nice screen options, a fast processor, and a very capable graphics card. Compared to the ASUS G51J or Acer 8940G which offer NVIDIA 260M and 250M cards respectively, the Studio 17 does fall behind in gaming performance with its lower performing ATI Mobility Radeon 4650. No other higher performing card can be configured with the Studio 17, meaning you would have to jump to the Studio XPS 16 or Alienware m17x which have much greater starting prices. Overall the Studio 17 blows away the competition in custom options -- including an optional RGB-LED backlit panel or touchscreen -- and it offers a very low entry price for its Core i7 configuration. Keep this system on your list if you plan on buying a 17" notebook anytime soon.

Pros:

• Great build quality
• Very good speaker system
• Low starting price

Cons:

• Some minor keyboard flex
• No high-end graphics card option
• Faulty accelerometer driver

READ MORE - Dell Studio 17 (1747)

Dell Latitude E5400

With the new Dell Latitude E5400, Dell has carved out an impressive laptop for your business needs. It hits a sweet spot with regards to solid build quality, the right combination of features, performance, and price tag.

Specifications

Intel Core 2 Duo Processors/Intel Celeron M Processors; Genuine Windows 7/XP Professional/ Vista; Intel 45 Express Chipset; 14.1in Premium WXGA display; 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 Memory, 800MHz; 7200 RPM Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive up to 160GB, 5400RPM to 250GB; DVD-ROM, CDRW/DVD, DVD+/-RW or Travel Lite Module; Intel 4500MHD Graphics Accelerator; 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet, 56K v924 Internal Modem (Optional); 802.11g/a/g/n; Intel WiFi Link 5300; Bluetooth Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth 2.1; steel-reinforced Cable Lock Slots, Media Module and Hard Drive Locks; 2.54kg; 338x244x37mm; 4-cell, 6-cell or 9-cell extended life primary batteries

Verdict

For a 14-inch laptop, the Dell Latitude E5400 weighs 2.56kg and is well worthy of your choice for a business laptop.

Dell Latitude E5400 review

With the new Dell Latitude E5400, Dell has carved out an impressive laptop for your business needs. It hits a sweet spot with regards to solid build quality, the right combination of features, performance, and price tag.

First off, as is the case with most Dell notebooks, design matters. Despite its all-black industrial design, the Dell Latitude E5400's looks aren't lacklustre. With a metallic hinge and latch system, Dell has improved stability and security of the notebook, and the chassis is rock solid as well. The 14.1-inch matte screen (max resolution 1280x800), encased in a lid with smooth metallic finish, is average at best.

Powered from the Intel Core 2 Duo P9500, clocked at 2.53GHz (1066 MHz FSB, 6MB L2 cache), the Dell Latitude E5400 has a very fast processor. Complementing it is a handy bunch: 2GB of RAM (expandable to 4GB), 160GB (7200rpm) hard drive, and Intel X4500 HD graphics accelerator, along with an 8X DVD writer. All this is based on the latest Centrino 2 platform, Mobile Intel 45 Express chipset. Packed with this potent combination, rest assured you won't face a dearth of processing power and should be able to multitask with ease.

The Dell Latitude E5400 came pre-installed with Windows XP Professional only, though it included a Windows Vista Business disc. This initiative from Dell caters to satisfy both who are happy with XP and folks eager to try out Vista. We ran our benchmarks on Windows Vista and realized just how good this laptop is. WorldBench 6, our in-house real-world benchmark suite, pegged the Latitude E5400's overall performance score at an impressive 98, falling a point shorter than the 99 garnered by Dell Studio 15.

PC Mark 2005 score of 5350, PC Mark Vantage at 3498, and 3D Mark 06 score of 814, all agree to the fact that the Dell Latitude E5400 is a very good machine. Seldom is gaming associated with a business laptop, but F.E.A.R and Doom 3 played at medium settings averaged 15fps and 19fps, respectively. It has the potential for handling casual gaming well, if the rigors of a tiring day call for a quick stress buster. However, the six cell battery fell short of the four hour mark, lasting 3 hours 50 minutes on MobileMark 2007

In terms of usability, input devices become all the more crucial in a business laptop. Those who have never navigated using a trackpoint don't know what they're missing. On the Dell Latitude E5400, once you get used to controlling the cursor with your index finger and the touchpad keys with your thumb, it is crippling to shift back to a traditional touchpad. Apart from that, the Latitude E5400's keyboard was well laid out, with full-sized keys and minimum flex. However, the traditional touchpad lacks palm detection, and led to berserk mouse movements whenever my palm encroached on the area while typing.

The speakers are mediocre and positioned vertically on either side of the keyboard. A fingerprint scanner is tucked away on the right. A well-looked after software bundle includes Dell ControlPoint (similar to Lenovo's ThinkVantage), useful for installing a host of recommended system apps and utilities. Among the standard input-output ports, the inclusion of an S-video, PC Card Type II and 3-in-1 memory card is especially handy, along with VGA, Gigabit Ethernet, Firewire, docking port and draft-N Wi-Fi.

READ MORE - Dell Latitude E5400

Dell Vostro V13

The Dell Vostro V13 is a slimline, 13.3in business notebook with plenty of style and a very sturdy body. It feels great to use and it has a decent amount of power under the hood. Best of all, it only weighs around 1.5kg. It's an almost perfect combination of size, speed and mobility.

An Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 CPU powers the Dell Vostro V13, and its 1.3GHz clock speed and two CPU cores help move things along swiftly. You can multitask, watch high resolution videos or create media-rich presentations without getting bogged down. Helping the CPU are 4GB of DDR3 SDRAM, a 500GB (5400rpm) hard drive and integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics.

In our WorldBench 6 benchmark suite the notebook scored 67. This means that, in terms of overall system performance, the Dell Vostro V13 is over twice as fast as a typical netbook with a 1.66GHz Intel Atom CPU and 1GB of RAM.

In our iTunes MP3 encoding and Blender 3D rendering tests, which primarily test CPU speed, the Dell Vostro V13 was approximately three times as fast as netbook. The hard drive's performance was also impressive, recording a speed of 35 megabytes per second in our transfer tests. However, it is a big drive and it will inevitably slow down somewhat once you start to really fill it with files.

You can use the Dell Vostro V13 laptop for just about any office task. What it won't do is display 3D graphics smoothly. Its Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics adapter is fine for viewing videos, but it won't give you much grunt for real-time 3D rendering - it scored only 573 in the 3DMark06 benchmark. You will be able to play games on the laptop only if they are not graphically complex - think board games, stacking games and card games to pass the time with.

The Dell Vostro V13 is one of a number of ultraslim laptops to hit the market in recent times, but its design is a little different to the norm. It actually looks a lot like the Adamo by Dell. The screen is mounted almost 1cm in from the spine of the notebook, so its metal hinges are not located directly on the spine itself.

The spine acts as a handle of sorts. The location of the screen gives the notebook more strength and changes its centre of gravity. It feels beautifully balanced; when the notebook is lying flat on a desk, the screen can be lifted using only one hand (it doesn't have a latch). The hinges have just the right amount of resistance to allow precise adjustments.

Poor image editing skills aside, you can see that the Dell Vostro V13 (the right half of the image) shares the same hinge layout as the Adamo (the left half of the image). They also share a similar slim profile and sealed design.

The Dell Vostro V13's screen has a native resolution of 1366x768, plenty of brightness, and adequate viewing angles. The lid is made out of aluminium and does a good job of protecting the screen. You can press down on it or twist it and puddles won't appear on the screen. The chassis is only 1cm thick and feels equally strong (the Vostro V13 is only 1.8cm thick with its lid closed).

It's also made out of aluminium, while the palm rest is plastic. The notebook doesn't creak, nor does it bend when you hold it from either of its corners. Some vents are located on the bottom of the chassis, so if you use the Dell Vostro V13 on your lap it might get a little warm, but overall it won't be too uncomfortable. There is an air vent on the spine of the notebook that you should make sure you don't block.

The slim profile makes the Dell Vostro V13 look very elegant, while its light weight makes it easy to cart around without breaking your back. Even its power adaptor is only 15mm thick.

There are some drawbacks to the design of the Dell Vostro V13. The USB 2.0 ports are located on the spine of the notebook, rather than the sides, which makes them hard to access. The laptop only has two USB 2.0 ports - it could use at least one more. You also don't get any digital video output ports (you do get a VGA port, however). Perhaps the biggest drawback is that the battery is sealed in the chassis, so you can't just slot in a unit with a longer life.

More importantly, you can't carry a spare with you to prolong your productivity away from a power outlet. This probably isn't much of a concern for travellers spending time in airport lounges or on planes, but it would be nice to have the option to give the Dell Vostro V13 more juice. It's a 6-cell battery and it lasted two hours in our video rundown test, which is an average result.

The sealed design of the Dell Vostro V13 means that you can't replace the battery, nor access the memory and storage areas unless you take apart the entire unit.

Because the unit only has two USB 2.0 ports, the included ExpressCard/34 slot will be handy handy for installing a 3G adapter while leaving the ports free for external storage devices. It sits next to an SD card slot. The front of the Dell Vostro V13 has headphone and microphone ports, while the rear includes a Gigabit Ethernet port in addition to the two USB 2.0 ports and VGA port.

One of the USB 2.0 ports doubles as an eSATA port, which is very convenient for quickly backing up data to an external hard drive. We love the keyboard on the Dell Vostro V13: it has keys that are 18mm wide and have just the right amount of resistance. The keyboard bounces only slightly when you hit it, so it's not as solid as it could be; that's understandable given the relatively low price point of the laptop. The only thing the keyboard could use to make it better is backlighting. The touchpad is big (81x44mm) and it has soft buttons that don't make a sound when you press them.

The Dell Vostro V13's keyboard and touchpad are very comfortable to use.

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Dell Unveils Powerful 11 Inch Alienware M11x Gaming Laptop

Let's begin with a cliche: big things come in small packages. Rarely has that statement been so fitting when it comes to Dell's crazy new 11-inch gaming laptop. Pulling from the design of its bigger and beefier brothers, the M15x and M17x, the Alienware M11x packs a lot of power into a little box. Read on for our first impressions.

Given some of Dell's recent efforts, we were wondering if they'd be able to pull off any big tricks in terms of exciting new products for CES. It's nice to not be disappointed—frankly, the M11x is anything but. Dell is pushing the device as something of a 'best of both worlds' gaming laptop. The biggest problems when it comes to gaming laptops are typically the immense size/weight of the systems and the generally terrible battery life. The M11x tackles these issues with its diminutive size–it's heavier than most ultraportables, but very manageable–and its hybrid operating mode.

The hybrid graphics mode works similarly to the systems introduced in other laptops. Essentially, when you're looking to get the most battery life out of your system, just surfing the web and sending out emails or listening to music, you leave the system using its integrated graphics chips. Hitting a switch, however, engages the much more powerful NVIDIA GeForce GT335m. Dell claims that the system will run Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 at more than 30 frames per second at the panel's native resolution (as yet unknown, but either 1280x720 or 1366x768). In integrated graphics mode, the company says users can expect to get around 6 hours of battery life, while in high-performance mode, users can expect around 2.

The M11x is surprisingly capable and fun to use. It looks a little chunky in the pictures, but it feels a lot thinner in person. Let's be honest, we can't really expect a gaming laptop to hit eleven inches and still maintain a super svelte figure. Dell takes advantage of that extra thickness, too, by adding USB ports, FireWire, VGA, HDMI, DisplayPort and a card reader. It also features the same design stylings users have come to expect from the new Alienware lines—the industrial, squared-off edges, backlit keyboard and even AlienFX lights shining through the front edges of the machine.

What can you expect to pay for the laptop? Well, you might be surprised. We were informed that users will be able to buy the Alienware M11x for under a thousand dollars, which, as most people will guess, probably means we'll see it available for something close to $999.99. Expensive for an 11-inch laptop these days, sure‐but given its unique feaures and abilities, I've no doubt it'll be a commercial success.

Stick around for more exclusive coverage of CES 2010 here in Las Vegas from NotebookReview.com and the rest of the TechnologyGuide family!

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Review Dell Inspiron 11z

After our less-than-enthusiastic review of the Dell Inspiron 11z, we decided to take a second look at this budget-priced ultraportable notebook. The "new" Inspiron 11z promises to kick things into high gear thanks to a new low-voltage dual-core processor, Windows 7 and an extended life battery. Should this updated ultraportable be on your holiday wish list? Keep reading to find out.


Our Dell Inspiron 11z Specifications:

* Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
* Intel Pentium SU4100 (1.3GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2MB Cache)
* Intel GS45 + ISH9M chipset
* 11.6" WXGA LED-backlit display at 1366x768
* Intel X4500 Integrated Graphics
* Dell 1397 ABG Wireless
* 2GB DDR2-800 SDRAM (1 Slot)
* 250GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
* 65W (19.5V x 3.34A) 100-240V AC Adapter
* 6-cell 56Wh 11.1v Lithium Ion battery
* Dimensions (WxDxH): 11.5" x 8.43" x 0.92-1.8" with 6-cell battery
* Weight: 3.48lbs with 6-cell battery
* 2-year limited warranty
* "Jade Green" lid
* Price as configured: $663

Build and Design
Nothing has changed about the build and design of the Dell Inspiron 11z since our original review. The 11z retains a very simple design with a solid color glossy lid, matte black chassis, and a silver painted palmrest. When closed the shell is nearly flat, with few items sticking out the bottom cover, making it easy to slide into a slipcase or backpack. Inside the 11z keeps things equally simple with just the touchpad, keyboard, power button, and power indicator light. There are no media buttons outside of function keys on the keyboard, and there aren't even activity lights or touchpad buttons. Dell wanted the design of the 11z to be as simple and straightforward as possible ... and they succeeded in making this netbook clean and easy to use.

Our new review unit of the Inspiron 11z includes a "Jade Green" lid which looks a bit more like light lime green to my eyes. The paint quality is quite good, but I'm not crazy about the fact that Dell charges $40 for any color choice other than black. Sure, Dell deserves to make some money on customized options, but an extra $40 for a plastic lid that is painted something other than black seems excessive. Build quality is average with a mix of a firm support structure and flexible plastic exterior. The chassis feels reasonably durable thanks to strong internal support under most surfaces. The palmrest and keyboard showed very few signs of flex under strong pressure, but the area just above the keyboard does suffer from a little bit of loose fitting plastics when pressed. Additionally, the slightest bit of pressure will cause the scree lid to bend and flex, but the paint seems relatively scratch resistant.


Internally the design of the 11z is very friendly for users wanting to upgrade or replace components. At first you might notice there is no bottom access to components. Instead,


Dell put all user-accessible components underneath the keyboard (which can be removed by taking out three screws). With the keyboard off you have access to an open WWAN slot, the system memory, hard drive, and heatsink assembly. The WWAN slot was functional, recognizing the Verizon card borrowed from a Dell Latitude D630; but it lacks antennas to allow the card to send and receive data. Dell currently doesn't offer the Inspiron 11z with broadband wireless access here in the US.

Screen and Speakers

The 11.6" screen on the 11z is a nice step up from the typical 1024x600 netbook screens. The 720p HD resolution of 1366x768 gives you the same resolution as most mainstream full-size notebooks. This means that menus and other items that need more vertical space are no longer a problem. The panel offers good color saturation and the LED-backlighting frovides even coverage and helps extend battery life. Contrast is average, and varied depending on the vertical viewing angle. The vertical viewing sweet spot is quite small, meaning colors quickly look washed out when you view the screen from above and look distorted or inverted when viewed from below. On the bright side, horizontal viewing angles are quite good ... making it easy to share online videos with someone seated next to you.

The speakers sound slightly better than the average netbook speakers. The speakers still don't provide much bass, but you can hear some of the lower tones and some solid midrange. Maximum volume levels are loud enough to fill a small room when watching a movie or listening to music. That said, if you want to enjoy movies in a group setting then you should use the laptop's HDMI port and connect it to an HDTV. The HDMI cable passes both video and digital audio to your home theater system ... and even the worst HDTV speakers will sound better than most notebook speakers.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard on the 11z is basically full-size and very comfortable to type on. The layout is easy to follow, taking no time at all to transition to and start typing at full speed. The key design is flat, similar


to Chiclet style keyboards, but without an inner bezel dividing the keys. Individual key action is smooth, giving off a soft click when pressed. One odd feature Dell has been transitioning to on newer models is the reversed function key layout. If you want to adjust brightness, you press the correct button and the brightness changes. To hit F5 to refresh a page, you now need to hit FN+F5. Thankfully this feature can be disabled for more advanced users.

If you read our first review of the Dell Inspiron 11z then you know we didn't like the touchpad. In fact, we went as far as to call the touchpad on the 11z the worst touchpad ever. Well, the touchpad on our new review unit of the 11z uses the same ELAN touchpad hardware, but this time Dell has updated the drivers for better performance. This makes the touchpad a little more usable, but it still suffers from many of the same problems.

If you hold one finger on the touchpad over the left or right button and try to move around the screen a few things might happen. One of the most common problems is unwanted zooming, meaning you will change the size of icons on the desktop or the size of text when viewing documents or webpages. We also still noticed the speed of the X and Y axis input isn't consistent. Moving your finger side to side makes the cursor move more than if you travel the same distance up and down. A simple test is drawing a circle on the screen with your finger, where the 11z makes wide ovals instead.

Bottom line, we still consider an external mouse to be a must-have accessory with this notebook. Considering that "laptops" are designed to be mobile computing solutions it's extremely frustrating that the touchpad on the 11z can't get the job done.

Ports and Features

Port selection is average for most netbooks, with the exception of HDMI in place of an older VGA port. Dell included three USB ports, audio jacks, an SDHC-card slot, and LAN connector. Users might also notice that Dell went with a full-size power connection on the 11z, the same shared with every other Dell notebook. The power adapter is another change over most netbooks, as Dell included a 65w thin power brick with this model. On one hand it is nice to get a high quality power adapter that will probably hold up better over time than most netbooks' adapters, but on the flip side it is pretty big.

READ MORE - Review Dell Inspiron 11z