E6410 Owner's Thread

I have the nVidia, 6300, webcam, and Bluetooth. All works fine. My desktop habit of buying up on CPU and video has always served longevity, but risks heat generation and power consumption on a laptop... so far, no regrets.

The 6300 has been solid. And works well with a dual band router. I recall it may have the latest Intel power efficiencies?

Webcam is handy.

Bluetooth mouse is handy.

GK

 

Yup. Viewing angles always suffer with an anti-glare display, which goes a long way towards explaining why glare displays have become universal in the consumer market.

 

Considering all of the NVIDIA related issues of the last couple years, stick with the integrated Intel HD graphics - unless you use a 3D application. For streaming 1080P content, the Intel solution is ideal.

The 6200 seems to be almost universal in business quality notebooks. Not much info out there, but it seems as if the 6300 doesn't offer greater performance unless you're connecting to a 3 antenna N standard router. Even then, some people question whether the Latitude E-series has a three antenna setup - the Alienware M17X comes with the 6300 and Dell states that it has 3 antennas, but no similar claim is made for the E6410?

It's only 20 bucks, but still, I can't prove the 6300 does anything better than the 6200.

If you don't use a webcam, do you really want the driver taking up resources in the background?

As far as bluetooth, we live in an era when you can get a USB bluetooth dongle for 99 cents? I'd be tempted to get the cheap dongle, although I don't have any direct experience. All I can say is that if you really need it, get it.

 

When it comes to notebooks, the heavy and power consumption issue are always killers. The ho-hum NVIDIA GPU is an underwhelming power hog, and considering the NVIDIA issues a couple of years back, it's worth avoiding. I also have doubts about the higher end i5 and i7 processors. If they're really neccessary, I'd say buy them. However, I'm inclined to say the the formerly standard i5-520M seems to be a great compromise between performance and battery life. It depends on what you really need.

But is it any better than the 6200?

Only if you use it.

Anyway, it's nothing special. I have a feeling that the new 720P on the XPS line might be interesting, but not the low end webcams on the Latitude line.

But is there any advantage over a conventional wireless mouse? Oh, and bluetooth is a poor substitute for a simple cable when it comes to audio.

 

When it comes to notebooks, the heavy and power consumption issue are always killers. The ho-hum NVIDIA GPU is an underwhelming power hog, and considering the NVIDIA issues a couple of years back, it's worth avoiding. I also have doubts about the higher end i5 and i7 processors. If they're really neccessary, I'd say buy them. However, I'm inclined to say the the formerly standard i5-520M seems to be a great compromise between performance and battery life. It depends on what you really need. If I really needed a quad core processor and dedicated graphics, I'd go straight to the Precision line of workstations.

But is it any better than the 6200?

Only if you use it.

Anyway, it's nothing special. I have a feeling that the new 720P on the XPS line might be interesting, but not the low end webcams on the Latitude line.

But is there any advantage over a conventional wireless mouse? Oh, and bluetooth is a poor substitute for a simple cable when it comes to audio.

 

I like bluetooth and the dell BT Travel Mouse is a really nice size. But maybe once a week (I use my 6410 all day, every day) the mouse stops working and I have to disinstall it (from the bluetooth panel) then relocate it which reloads the driver. Then I'm good for another week or so.

Hunting around the internet I found I wasn't the only one with this issue.

 

I had that problem several years ago and the otherwise very nice Logitech Bluetooth mouse got put to one one side.

John

 

My E6410 review has finally been published. I have tried to include some useful comparisons with the E6400.

John

 

Excellent review! I agree with most everything, except the keyboard. I installed my ebayed back-lit keyboard into my 6410. It seems to have just shifted the flex to a different area. So, the question becomes, do I order a different one and see if that works, or perhaps try placing foam tape under the flexing areas to see if that helps? Of course I would be open to other suggestions, but I would be unable to send the machine back to Dell, since I use it everyday for work.

 

I never noticed much flex. Could it be an install issue or warped assembly or a bit of some device blocking a proper install?

Are you being picky about flex... that's fine, but it would explain a tiny bit of normal flex.

GK