Dell Latitude Z series

It is a wonderful unit. Screen is bright and crisp and clear. It is a tad big, though, especially with the 8-cell battery. The smaller e4300 has a lower res screen, which may or may not be that great for you. If the lower res is OK, why not get a much cheaper Inspiron 11z for notetaking in class? It has a bit higher resolution than the e4300 and is about 1/3 the weight. Then, you could still get the "Z" for at home. The 11z resolution is awesome for an 11.6" screen!

 

Thanks for the advice!

I think the 11z is actually less than half a pound different from the e4300. The laptop is going to be for law school so it's going to probably involve plenty of work in the library, typing exams and other work at school, so I worry that an 11" screen is just too small. I was thinking of having the e4300 and then have a docking station at home with a large monitor for homework and papers. The Z is just might tempting, esp with the refurb prices.

Does the Z have a glossy screen?

 

Matte screen. You JUST missed the "Spring Cleaning" sale at the Outlet! They were giving another 20% off the Lat Z600 (and the e4300)! There were plenty of fully loaded 1.6Ghz/256GB SSD Z600's for $800 after using the coupon code.

Talk about cheap! I picked up "a few" to sell to my clients. If you want one, PM me.

 

Oh damn, those were just temporary prices? Might have to wait till closer to school starting then.

 

You rock! That was exactly the issue!

I'd previously used the older Latitude D6x0 series, so this was a new one to me in Dell's performance management settings.

Personally, I'm unconvinced this actually helps battery life much...especially on the LatZ with its built in Intel GPU.

 

Now that I've used my Z for three weeks, I wanted to weigh in with my experiences:

1. The screen is the best laptop screen I've ever experienced. My previous benchmark was the Macbook Pro 15" 1440x900 screen. The LatZ's screen far surpasses that with the larger resolution.

2. The LatZ's keyboard is THE BEST laptop keyboard I have ever used. The key spacing is perfect, and the keys have awesome travel and a "clicky" feel. It almost reminds me of the old school IBM keyboards. I personally hate mushy keyboards, so that's where I'm coming from.

3. As I've told colleagues at work, the LatZ hits a very specific user profile: frequent business travelers who are power users and need a large screen. It is a large laptop, but the thin profile and light weight offset the large size. Personally, I fit the profile ideally, because I like to maintain a lot of windows and need the screen real estate.

4. The low-voltage Intel CPU does feel a bit underpowered. If you have many browser windows open with Flash content, the CPU will start to work hard and the fans will ramp up.

5. Forget about gaming on this PC. The built-in Intel GPU can barely run Civilization 4 (a 4 year old game with limited graphics requirements). It's unfortunate given the gorgeous screen, but understandable.

6. Battery life is top-notch. I've yet to run the battery all the way down to 0, but Windows7 reports ~6-7 hours on average. Maybe one of these days, I'll actually try and get it all the way down.

7. I've found the touch screen to be a gimmick. After playing with it for 30 minutes, I haven't used them since.

Ultimately, it's not for everyone. It is large, and it is not exactly a performance speed demon. But for the frequent mobile who is mostly focusing on email, document creation, and browsing...I think it's perfect.

 

And, for those lucky enough to have scored Z's from the Outlet last week, the ONLY notebook available for $800 that includes a 256GB SSD!

 

Hello,

I am selling my Dell Latitude E4200 $1100 Canadain

OVER 8 Hrs Battery Life

3 YEARS WARRANTY

* Genuine Windows Vista® Business SP1, With media
* Intel® Core™2 Duo ULV SU9400 (1.40GHz) Lat ON & WWAN ready
* 2.0GB, DDR3-1066 SDRAM, 1 GB integrated + 1GB DIMM
* 128GB Dell Mobility Solid State Drive (FAST & QUITE)
* 12.1" Premium, UltraSharpTM WXGA (1280 x 800) LED Display (BRIGHT & SAVES BATTERY)
* Mobile Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
* Intel® WiFi Link 5300 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card
* Dell Wireless® 365 Bluetooth Module
* Ambient Sensor (NOW THE BRIGHTNESS IS JUST RIGHT)
* Backlit Keyboard
* E-Module w/ 8X DVD+/-RW w/Roxio and Cyberlink PowerDVD™

Making room for the Dell Latitude Z

BTW: Does the Dell Latitude Z comes standard with

*Backlit keyboard
*Dell EdgeTouch™ LCD Sensor
*Magnetic card reader

Thanks !

 

Yes, on the first two, and no on the card reader (as far as I can tell!).

 

That price is nothing short of stunning. Average retail price for a quality 256GB SSD is $700-$800, so you're essentially getting the rest of the Z for free.

FYI for the technical geeks who are Z owners...the Samsung SSD appears to have the revised firmware released earlier in 2010 that enables TRIM. Windows 7 is reporting TRIM as active.