E6420 coming soon?

I've seen a few blurbs online about an upcoming Sandy Bridge-based Latitude E6420. Unfortunately none of them seem to have any real detailed information beyond "Sandy Bridge 14" screen". Is there any real information out there yet? I'm interested to know if the screen will stay 1440x900 and if quad-core processors will be offered (HP offers quad-core chips in the Elitebook 8440 line).

 

The available info and our speculation about the E6420 is in this thread. The info refers to a 14" screen which suggests that it may be 16:9 (but we hope not).

Dell were quite slow to launch the E6410 so it remains to be seen how quickly the E6420 becomes available. It may be announced within a couple of weeks or it may be a couple of months.

John

 

Must have missed that thread. Thanks for the link. Here's hoping that it won't be 16:9.

 

Oh please god no! Almost every manufacturer has beseeched us with 16:9 screens, don't do it on business models too!

 

I'm afraid the 16:9 is coming to E6420. Even the new thinkpad T420 will have it.. :/

 

Pardon my ignorance, but what is the problem with 16:9?

(Note: I also can't wait for the E6420 - http://gdgt.com/dell/e6420/)

 

More vertical scrolling. Typically 768 pixels high instead of 800. Or, if 900 pixels high then the pixels are smaller. One gets some extra display width, but that is of little use except for watching movies.

John

 

That's 4% shorter. Does it really make a difference?

 

By itself, not a lot, but it is one line less per 25 on the display. And by the time that the display manufacturers have repeated this trick a few more times then you get the screen shown here. Also, the physical height of 14" 16:9 is 0.61" less than 14.1" 16:10 so all the pixels are smaller.

John

 

Questions of usability aside, I also think that 16:9 screens on larger laptops look a bit strange: too wide and too short.