E6410 Owner's Thread

it is most def a windows setting. in the power options, you can choose the action windows takes upon closing the lid. and there you can also set when windows will hibernate etc. (this works if you don't manage power settings via control point. idk what happens if you do happen to use control point.)

 

Thanks. The problem is that although the machine is set to sleep or hibernate when the lid is closed, occasionally for no apparent reason it does not do it. Instead, the lid just closes and the machine just keeps on doing what it was doing all night long.

 

Nobody wants, but I'm gonna give anyway. After a week of use, here's my take on this laptop. First, its specs:
- i7-620M
- 3GB DDR3
- Nvidia 3100M, 512MB
- Express card slot
- Backlit kbd
- 500GB, 7200rpm HDD
- WXGA+ 1440x900 screen, AUO
- Intel 6200 WiFi
- DVD RW optical drive
- Windows 7 Pro 32-bit
- Webcam, bluetooth, HSPA card
- 6-cell battery

From reading many of the other posts here, I suspect I'm not as critical as many, but here goes with my impressions anyway. Overall, I like this laptop. I think I'll keep it.

I like its speed; it's the fastest PC I've used to date. It's faster even than my home theater PC that I built two years ago to be a screamin' machine. Of course, it's now two years old so perhaps that's why it can be beaten by a laptop. My laptop's Windows Experience Scores are
Processor 6.6
Memory (RAM) 7.1
Graphics 4.9
Gaming gfx 5.9
Primary HDD 5.9

I like its size. As Goldilocks would say, it's not too big (for traveling) and not too small (for ease of use and having a decent-sized screen). Just right. I like its weight; it seems lighter than other 14 inch laptops I've handled recently. I like that the battery doesn't stick out in back. I like its appearance: understated yet classy. The silver top is cool, the black remaining parts are crisp and clean. Businesslike. I like that the whole case is metal, and am looking forward to more ruggedness than the plastic laptops I've used have had. In particular, I'm looking forward to hinges that don't break after a couple of years.

The blue LEDs are nice. Blue is my favorite color; I'm glad I'm starting to see blue LEDs on everything. Soon I'll long for some variety though. I would have preferred the blue glowing ring on the power plug to be not quite as bright.

I like the keyboard. Mine flexes only a very little bit in the middle. I think it's the best laptop keyboard I've experienced. I seldom need the backlighting but when I do it's great to have it. I touch type, but it's handy to be able to easily find all the special keys that are in different places on different keyboards.

As others have noted, it does get warm on the bottom. Sometimes, very warm. I guess the whole metal bottom piece is a major heatsink for the CPU and GPU. It'll be great in the winter. In August, not so much. From reading, I see that I probably would have been better off had I ordered an i5 CPU, which would have been plenty fast enough for me, instead of the i7. An i5 would probably have been a bit cooler and had a bit better battery life.

Speaking of battery life, I'm getting 3 to 4 hours. This is with me taking care to keep the screen brightness as low as possible, setting the backlighting to turn off after 5 seconds, and keeping other settings pretty aggressive in the power savings category. Dell has a special power plan for max battery that might be better; I haven't tried it yet.

Last but not least, the LCD screen. I chose the WXGA+ resolution because it's what I like. I'd go to a greater resolution if it were available. From reading, I gather that Dell uses two suppliers for this item: LG and AUO. I haven't seen the LG screen but I have read that it has a very matte surface. My AUO screen is not very matte at all; it's kind of a cross between matte and glossy I'd say. I'd also say it's surface is excellent; I like glossy screens because they can look so great under the right viewing conditions (no bright lights around to cause reflections). I like matte screens because they work better under the wrong viewing conditions. I think this AUO screen is a good compromise. It looks great inside, and I took it outside for a test and found it readable at the higher backlight settings in direct sunlight. (I'm in Georgia, USA, where we're in the middle of our subtropical summer. Moisture immediately started to condense on the laptop so I hightailed it back inside without really testing it thoroughly.) Maybe the LG would be even better. The color reproduction of the screen is like other laptops I've seen: mediocre. No match at all for my Dell 2007WFP monitor. The gamma is good, however. The horizontal viewing angle range is decent -- the guy in the next airplane seat will have no trouble at all. The vertical viewing angle range is poor. At, say, 18 inches away, I can easily detect a difference from top to bottom of the screen without moving.

I've got a couple of minor (probably software) issues. I'll post those separately, later.

 

Radiophile, enjoyed reading your thoughts. I just became an owner of an E6410 as well, so I'll add a few comments of my own.

I agree with Radiophile on the backlit keyboard. It's the best laptop keyboard I've ever used and I don't understand why some people on this forum reported switching to a T410 because of the keyboard. Of course, the keyboard is not on par with my desktop keyboard (with mechanical key switches) but still, typing on it is very much a pleasure. The layout is great, too. But maybe I'm a bit biased in that regard, I've used Latitudes since the first "Banias" models came out.

Overall, the WXGA+ display exceeded my expectations. Only the vertical viewing angles are disappointing, as I anticipated.

I over-estimated the performance of this thing (specs: i5-520m, 4GB, 250GB 7200rpm HDD). I thought it would be more-or-less indistinguishable from my X58-based desktop during everyday use (of course, I correctly anticipated it would be slower when running more intense stuff) but it is clearly way slower. I hope this is due to the fact that, for now, I picked a HDD. My desktop runs dual Intel SSDs, though, and I'm afraid I'll have to get another SSD for my E6410.

Now here's the biggie imo: the aesthetics of the Latitude stinks. I thought my D620 looked horrible, especially with the lid closed, and the E6410 ain't much prettier. I feel other manufacturers do a better job disguising the odd form factor induced by 16:10 (or even 16:9) displays. Actually, I think the D600 was the best-looking Latitude I owned (again, purely talking about aesthetics here). Feel free to discuss.

 

My laptop before this one was a T42. That keyboard kicks the crap out of this one as far as feel goes. Of course that one wasn't backlit and just because of that I'll never go back

Also reading Radiophiles comments, I'm glad mine came with an LG screen. I can't stand glossy screens.

After having my E6410 (14in WXGA+ i7 Nvidiafor a couple months now I think I can contribute some comments of my own. Overall I'm satisfied with the performance of the laptop although it does have some things that bother me quite a bit

• The ridge on the palm rest makes my arm hairs get stuck in it which is quite painful. I had to tape it up with hockey tape. The ridges and also the speaker grille on the sides of the keyboard get a lot of dirt and crumbs stuck in them. This is very annoying.
• While I've gotten more used to the trackpad now, I think it is still inferior to the Synaptics ones. I think most of the issues could be fixed by software however the drivers for it don't offer enough customization. For example, when doing the spiral scrolling, switching scrolling direction by moving your finger in a certain way will confuse the software which ends up messing ip the scrolling motion direction (clockwise vs counterclockwise)
• Can't manually control CPU clock speed /voltages. This isn't Dell's fault but it would be nice to be able to underclock and undervolt to increase battery life and reduce fan noise
• The default Windows installation has DPC latency issues. For example when watching videos or playing music the sound will freeze intermittently for about half a second. Also the mouse will skip and stutter on occasion, especially when booting or coming out of standby. When coming out of standyby for example, the stuttering persists for about 10 sec after the computer has woken up. These problems might go away with a reformat but I haven't had time for that.
• The opening mechanism for the display (pressing the button) is extremely frustrating to use. You pretty much need both hands to pop open the display since just pushing the button without holding the back will cause the laptop to slide on the table.
• The chrome DELL logo below the display is distracting since its so shiny. I filled it in with black marker for now but eventually I want to cover it with black tape that fits the letters perfectly.

Now for the good parts

• The 14in form factor is the best combination of portability and usability
• The screen is nice, clear and bright with no glare (WXGA+ LG screen). However vertical viewing angles are horrible.
• Overall the system runs surprisingly quiet on idle given the powerful CPU (i7)
• Apart from the issues above, the system is quite speedy and responsive. No problems watching HD video. Even some recent video games run playable at decent settings
• The Dell power manager is quite useful since it will automatically turn off Aero for you.
• Even though the laptop itself if quite thick, the aesthetics overall aren't too shabby.
• The display hinges are made of metal and feel solid. Not like some other cheaper laptops that the display ends up wobbling after a while.
• Overall it is solidly built. No creaks or groans from the chassis during use or opening the display.

 

Thanks to the last few posters for their reviews. It's nice to see what others are thinking. I'd love to get an SSD drive for my E6410, but will have to wait until the prices come down.

In the meantime, I have a question about upgrading. I bought my E6410 at the Dell Outlet and it came with a DVD drive, which I'd like to replace with a DVD-RW. There are very few on-line for the E6410. Would it be okay to buy the model that fits the E6400? Any advice would be most welcome.

 

Reading jasperjones's and dr. zoidberg's comments makes me realize I forgot to comment on the trackpad. Well, it could be worse: my spouse's Inspiron 1420's is. Worse, that is. But, that said, the E6410 trackpad is not very good. My main problem with it is that it seems buggy. I use the 'tap to click' gesture all the time in preference to the trackpad button. Every once in a while it will simply stop responding to that gesture. The failure seems, also, to be somehow related to a particular instance of a tap-to-click "spot" or function on the screen. For example, say I have a browser with lots of open tabs. I tap on the 'x' to close a particular tab, and nothing happens in multiple tries. So I switch to another tab (by tapping to click on the other tab, which works fine). I close this tab by tapping on its 'x,' which again works fine. Then I return to the first tab, and tapping on its 'x' still doesn't work! But I can click it with the trackpad button, and it works with no problem. This kind of thing happens over and over with various on-screen functions that I'm trying to execute with a tap. So I find myself reverting to the button every so often, out of necessity. Annoying. Have any other tap-to-click users noticed this?

And...

Now that would be annoying. My arm's not that hairy on the underside, so I skate by on this one

I've heard a couple of glitches when playing mp3 files, so I may have this issue too. Unfortunate. I really don't want to start over with a format c:. I don't have time for that either.

Yes! I really like that about this laptop.

 

Yes, the units are interchangeable. Look for 9.5mm thick burners with an SATA interface. It is probably cheaper to buy a bare drive and then swap the latch mechanism from your existing DVD drive. Any of the DVD-RW models listed under the E6400 optical drives firmware updates should work.

John

 

Thanks, John.

And Radiophile, I'm having the same issue regarding tapping the trackpad, which is a shame since I really like that feature.

 

have to push it

nobody experiencing similiar noises from their power supply?