Dell enters Centrino 2 era with LatitudesNEW DELHI, INDIA--Business laptops tend to be less sexy than their consumer counterparts. Meant for serious work, other entertainment and exciting features such as facial-recognition Webcam and Blu-ray drives are set aside with the focus rather on reliability and dependability. Even the design tends to be boring, with a chassis that emphasizes hardiness rather than the latest fashion trends such as a glossy finish or color options. At a press event hosted by Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell, he introduced the company's latest improved Latitude E series which has improved on a few things. No longer available in a choice of a single color, the new lineup includes models that come in a range of up to five shades. Backlit keyboards, once the domain of high-end entertainment models, are also making an appearance in Lattitudes. This allows the laptop to be used in the dark without disturbing your neighbors. Even the charger has been revamped and is now a smaller unit which can charge the batteries to 80 percent within an hour. But color and backlit keyboards aside, Dell did not neglect the essentials required by mobile workers. The PC maker's new E6400 has a claimed uptime of up to 19 hours, while the new Centrino 2 platform makes short work of common productivity tools encountered by the cubicle warrior. Security has been upgraded with Dell's exclusive ControlVault, which stores encryption keys on hardware similar to a TPM security chip. But unlike the latter, which requires an installed application to access encryption keys, ControlVault puts the program on the BIOS itself, thus preventing Windows-based viruses or trojan horse from cracking the code. On the Latitude E6500, there is a fingerprint sensor option which complies with Federal Information Processing Standards. There is also a contactless SmartCard option which allows for touch-and-go logins. All Latitude accessories are cross-compatible across the series. At the same time, besides the expected Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios, some new Latitudes come with options for Ultra-Wideband (UWB), GPS and mobile broadband. Let's take a more detailed look at the new business laptops from the Round Rock corporation. MobilityThe Latitude E4200 and E4300 target frequent travelers. Both series come with LED-backlit screens as standard and include options for a backlit keyboard, fingerprint sensor, GPS, mobile broadband as well as an external six-cell battery slice. We like the fact that both models come with an eSATA/USB combo port that offers a good compromise between next-generation connectivity and today's needs.The former is a 12.1-inch widescreen machine which eschews a built-in optical drive but includes a ultra-low voltage processor in order increase mobility. Weighing in at merely 1kg, the E4200 may possibly be the first ultraportable to only allow SSDs (up to 128GB) under the hood. The Latitude E4300 sports a 13.3-inch display, a screen size which is fast becoming popular for offering the portability of an ultraportable with the real estate of a traditional thin-and-light. Based on standard-voltage Core 2 Duo chips, it has an optical drive as well as standard harddisks for those who require greater storage capacity (though a 64GB SSD option is also available.) MainstreamWhile ultraportables are great for traveling, workers who are mostly deskbound need larger screens for serious work. Moreover, discrete graphics power are also required by those dealing with multimedia material. This is where the Latitude E6400 and E6500 step in. These are available with options for mobile broadband, GPS, 64GB SSD, backlit keyboard and Nvidia Quadro graphics card.The Latitude E6400 is a 14.1-inch model with a screen resolution of 1,280 x 800 pixels. This can be upgraded to an LED-backlit 1,440 x 900-pixel LCD. If you need ridiculous uptimes, this is the unit to look out for. Bump up the built-in battery to a nine-cell model and include an external 12-cell battery slice, and the E6400 can give a whopping 19 hours of unplugged computing. For those who need a larger screen real estate, the 15.4-inch display on the Latitude E6500 can be upgraded all the way to a HD panel that supports up to 1,920 x 1,200-pixel resolution. This is great for sharp images and allows high-definition content to be displayed in its native resolution. This is also the only model to sport the Federal Information Processing Standards compliant fingerprint sensor. BudgetThough the Dell Vostro lineup are cheap corporate machines meant for small and medium businesses, some companies require features of the Latitude series but are unwilling to pay for high-end options. As such, the 14.1-inch Latitude E5400 and 15.4-inch E5500 fill this gap by offering value propositions while maintaining business-centric technology.Forget color options, backlit keyboards and SSD. The E5400 and E5500 stick to the basics with strong security suite like fingerprint sensors and TPM security chip (no ControlVault for this series). The E5400 does have one up on the E5500, though, as the former has options for GPS and mobile broadband. RuggedBut what if you need a rugged machine for use in areas such as construction sites and other hazardous areas? This is where the Latitude E6400 ATG steps in. Built to Mil-810F standards for dust, vibration and humidity, you get all the features of the E6400 in a tank-like shell. |
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