Dell Latitude E6500 Review With Pictures (Updated Constantly)

Dell Latitude E6500 Review




After showing my dad practically every decent laptop out, we decided on the Dell Latitude E6500. Keep in mind that this is my dad's laptop, but I got to spend a good amount of time trying it out. These are the specs that me and him (mostly me, he isn't too tech savvy, but he does know a decent amount of stuff) decided on:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8600 (2.40GHz, 3M L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate SP1, With media
3 Year Basic Limited Warranty and 3 Year NBD On-Site Service (included with the EPP)
15.4” UltraSharp™ Wide WXGA+ (1440x900) LED Display-Brushed Metal Black
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M
2.0GB, DDR2-800 SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
Internal English Backlit Keyboard
Digital Microphone
80GB Hard Drive, 7200RPM with Free Fall Sensor (he said he only wanted 80GB...)
8X DVD+/-RW w/Roxio and Cyberlink Power DVD™
Dell Wireless™ 1397 802.11b/g Mini Card


The system would usually cost $1,855 before tax and shipping. We used Dell's Employee Purchase program and got a little over 20% off, plus free next day shipping by calling in to order, so it came out to a bit more than $1400 before tax, which was a great deal. We ordered it on August 24 and it took Dell 16 days to ship it.


Build Quality/Design



The build quality on the E6500 is flawless. There is no flex anywhere on it and it feels very solid. I have no doubt that this thing could survive more than a few drops or heavy abuse. The E6500 definitely has the best build quality of any notebook I've ever tried, it's even more solidly built than a Lenovo Thinkpad or Dell's previous Latitude line-up. That being said, it still keeps a thin and light size, one of the smallest and lightest in its' class.

The design on the E6500 is amazing. It raises the bar for the design on a business-class notebook and it's a huge step above Dell's last Latitude line-up. I've spent a good amount of time playing with Dell's last latitude and this one is built a lot better in terms of everything. I think there's only a few laptops out there that look better. Dell definitely put a lot of thought into the build quality for the E6500 and it really shows. I have no complaints with the build quality at all. Taking its' weight and size into consideration, its' build quality is as close to perfect as you'll find on any notebook out there.


Screen

I was completely blown away when I saw the 15.4" WXGA+ LED screen on the E6500. It looks much better than any screen I've seen on a laptop, though it's debatable if the Apple MacBook Pro has a better display. That being said, the screen on this is a huge step up from any CCFL screen you'll find. The screen is extremely sharp, crisp, and vivid. It gets more than bright enough in a fully-lit room and there's no reflection from the matte screen. I usually prefer screens to be set with a warmer color temperature rather than cooler, which I would have no problem changing if it were mine. That's more of a personal preference, though I think that colors look more accurate and vivid on a warmer display. One thing I liked about the LED display on the E6500 is that is doesn't have a weird blue dominance like a lot of other laptops do.

Horizontal viewing angles are great and you won't notice a huge difference from viewing it straight-on. Viewing from up top leaves a little to be desired, but I don't think that's a big deal for most people. Another thing worth mentioning is that the screen doesn't creak or wobble when you move it around, which is great for taking it with you to business meetings, especially if you use your laptop a lot on planes, subways, trains, etc. Overall, the LED screen on the E6500 is one of the best you'll find on any notebook. You really have to see it to know the difference, which is huge from any regular CCFL screens.

Speakers

I thought that the speakers on the E6500 sounded really good for what they are. They sound crisp and don't sound "tinny" like the speakers you'll find on most other notebooks. Bass is lacking, but that's something to expect. They get loud enough for any presentations you might want to do on the laptop and I think that most people won't have any problem using them as their main speakers.


Keyboard/Touchpad/Trackpoint




The keyboard feels great to type on. Key travel is great and key presses feel crisp and provide a satisfying click. There is no flex anywhere on the keyboard. It's also backlit, which is good for typing in the dark. It's one of the better keyboards I've typed on, especially on a laptop.

The touchpad is textured with a soft, yet rigid texture and is great to use. My only complaint with the touchpad is that it could be bigger, but it's a good size for what it is. The touchpad buttons provide a great feel and spring up quicker than a lot of other laptops out there. The trackpoint between the G and H is a little more accurate and responsive than Dell's previous Latitude line-up and is a little more comfortable to use. Personally, I'm not a fan of the trackpoint, but that's a personal preference. No matter which one you regularly use, you can't go wrong with either.

Ports/Performance/Heat/Noise




The Latitude E6500 comes with all of the ports you'll normally find on a business-class notebook. I won't go through them all, but I don't think anybody will have any problem with the amount of ports on it.




The E6500 runs on Intel's latest chipset, Montevina, which runs faster, cooler, and more power efficient than any of Intel's past CPUs. I didn't get a chance to test out the performance on the E6500, but it does boot up fast and is quick at launching programs. The Quadro NVS 160M definitely won't be fast enough if you're looking to play a lot of games on the E6500, but it should be fine for running older games and some modern games on lower settings.

3DMark 06 Score

The E6500 gets a 1943 3DMark06 score with stock drivers. You could probably get a higher score with better drivers. If you're really looking for 3D performance in benchmarks and games, you could try flashing the Quadro drivers into Geforce drivers, which would raise the score higher. I would say that it should get around 50% better performance than the 8400M GT, though it's still a bit below the 8600M GT. It's definitely a great video card for a business-class laptop.

The E6500 stays very quiet while doing regular tasks and still won't go above a whisper when running some more demanding programs. It also stays very cool, much cooler than Dell's previous Latitude. The heat and noise, or lack of, shouldn't be a problem for any users.

Conclusion



The Latitude E6500 is Dell's newest laptop, and it's their best by far. It's very obvious that Dell put a huge attention to detail on the E6500, and it really shows. If you're looking for the best 15" business-class laptop, you won't be disappointed with the Dell Latitude E6500.


A Few Things To Keep In Mind:

Since this is my dad's laptop, which I've spent a good hour trying out, some of the parts of the review aren't as good as I'd like. Here's a few things I'd like to change over the next few weeks, along with some stuff you should keep in mind about the review:

I'll add much better pictures next week, along with a few new ones.

I won't be able to comment on the exact battery life that you'll get.

I'll add a few benchmarks next week. Update: Added!

I'll keep updating my review over the next few weeks as I get to use the laptop a little more.

A lot of the pictures in the review don't do the E6500 justice, the materials look a lot more solid in person, and some of the colors are off. The cover on the E6500 (the picture in the conclusion) looks like a brushed black metal, but that doesn't show too well in the picture I have now.


If you have anything you want to know or see about the E6500, let me know and I'll try to update the review as much as I can. Like I said in the title, the review will be updated constantly as I get better pictures and use the laptop a bit more. Thanks guys !

 

Great review! I got one question for you. What does Windows Vista's Experience Index rate for the laptop? Can you give the sub-score's? Thanks

 

Nice review, its such a beautiful machine. The m4400 and the e6500 are like twin brothers with a different shirt on its back and a [clever analogy for different GPU here].

I love this machine.

BTW - The lower the windows experience rating, the better the computer. That rating is crap and goes up when you fill your OS with pretty features. Mine was 1.0 or lower, but I'm getting boot times of 12-15 seconds .

 

How can that be? Your machine specified in your siggy looks like it could rate the experience index at the maximum 5.9 (weird that this is the maximum, but its Microsoft so...).

The 12-15 second boot up time is astounding.

 

Weird, it was 1.0 before I disabled one of the services when MS help says 2.6 is the lowest and now I get 5.9 for primary hard disk, graphics, memory and 5.4 for CPU...Also got 896.4 / 900.0 in passmark (wish I had PCMark). Overall the E6500/M4400, whatever one you want to call it since they are pretty much one machine, is a high-end system as claimed =/

For the boot time, I've been stripping Vista into bones for the past 2 days. I wish I knew about vlite before.

 

Sweet, I'll have to look up vLite.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=241305

Look at the options, I'm reformatting with it this week.

 

could you run 3d mark 06? im curious on the score for that card

 

Two questions: Which battery did you buy, and could you post the exact weight of the laptop with the battery please?

I'm still torn between the 6400 and 6500... Resolution would be the same, I know, but the smaller model has such thick bezels around the screen, so I think the actual case size difference between both models isn't that big, is it?

 

Hey, nice write up Michael.....

Can you post pictures of the bottom when you take more....
Thanks...