e6420/e6520 to release tomorrow?

It was kinda a jokeish thing referring to many people's initial reactions to it hah. I knew they weren't going to just throw a design out there w/out focus grouping it or whatever

 

Actually, the price of a system isn't adversely effected by size until you get a bit smaller than 13 inches. If laptop motherboards were standardized across the industry, you could hypothetically use the same board from 13 inches all the way up to the largest models. In other words, the E6320 doesn't cost all that much more than an E6420 to make, hypothetically.

As far as "fast," I've found that some of the enterprise oriented bloatware makes certain business systems laggier and more latency prone than lower spec retail systems. Unless you're willing to do a fresh install of the operating system, you'll notice inferior performance for a mid range business notebook as compared to lower end consumer systems. How the heck does a smartcard/fingerprint reader driver slow down an entire system?

Of course, the last issue is how "cheap" a system is? In this case, it all comes down to volumes - and whatever the market will bear.

 

Ah, I did not notice the warranty difference. Thanks. I also notice the chipset difference, which isn't an issue for me since I don't require Vpro. Also the optical bay seems useful. Strange that USB 3.0 ports weren't standard, especially seeing as how they are for the new Vostro. Nothing there that I can't live without, I suppose.

I just noticed the layout difference. I actually like the look of the keyboard on the 5420 (the keyboard on the 6x looks like more of a diversion from previous, so it's hard to say either way), and slightly less pronounced silver highlights. So far as the construction and cooling goes, who knows.

True. I expect to pay a premium for the 13", but on most Dell models it's around $100. The 4310 iirc had a premium of $300 or so, which I felt was a bit much as it was, but the price of the 6320 appears (from the previews I saw) to have a substantially steeper premium yet. I struggle to understand the justification of its $1400 baseline in relation to the others. That's Dell's prerogative I suppose. I see others in this thread have expressed the same, so I'll stop beating that horse.

 

Not much plastic in the E6410. Okay, plastic on either side of the battery, a well disguised strip at the top the screen for the sake of wireless reception and the uninspiring latch button. That's about it.

That's not to say there isn't room to improvement. So far, I do have to wonder about the E6420, since it is a departure from the E6400/E6410.

That's not hard. Thinkpads have always had the same rubbery, plastic case. I can never remember a Thinkpad that was as solid as the E6410. Okay, maybe the keyboards were a little better and the track buttons were a little better. But still, the same rubbery, plastic case.

I would hope larger customers are more concerned with reliability and driver support. Quite frankly, I was not impressed by quality control last year. Sometimes there's bad luck, but it did seem as if the Outlet was surprisingly well populated.

Moreover, it was well into the fall before the driver updates managed to catch up with the hardware. The situation was pretty bad last summer. Buggy, laggy systems.

 

Exactly. They price it higher because they will sell fewer. I have seen breakdowns of how many laptops are sold in differing screen sizes in differing countries. In the US we buy many more laptops that are 14" and above. In Japan, they buy many more 13" laptops and very few 17" models.

 

Historically, there has always been a "special." Wish list prices are just that - wishful thinking.

As far as demand, who knows? I was surprised that projected shipping dates actually got earlier in the days after the intro before getting later again. Not sure what that means.

Personally, I'd wait for coupon codes, which were as much as 35% on the E6x10 at times, and as little as 28%, if memory serves correct. There's also good old fashioned negotiation.

 

Was thinking more about the LCD cover. The outer shell of the display feels like plastic. I know the E6410 was beefed up from the E6400 to have a thicker shell over the LCD. It might not be actual plastic though.

I guess what I meant to say is that the new E6x20 machines are a big step forward when it comes to materials, build, and textures. Other people will likely post similar things when they work with them hands on. The pics of the machines do not do them justice.

Keyboard is a big step forward as well.

 

Yes. I'm inclined to say that 14 inches is dominant in Dell's E-series and Lenovo's T-series, although 15 inches has the greatest volume for retail, consumer sales in North America. Perhaps the value equation is also influenced by demand for 14 inch screens in Asia.

 

I can assure you that the LCD cover is metal on the E6410, except for the cleverly matched plastic strip at the top for the wireless antennas. The finish is meant to look like brushed metal, but it's really just cast magnesium, painted to look like brushed metal. Probably lighter and stronger than brushed aluminum.

The pictures raise more questions than answers. I was disappointed when I didn't see the battery charge indicator LEDs. Nice to press a button to see if the battery is full charged without having to turn on the machine.

I'm was also chagrined to see that the batteries and modular bay aren't interchangeable between the E6420 and E6410/E6400. The 2nd HDD really frustrates me as well. Why did they stick with 9.5mm, which irritates a lot of people, if they were going to change the profile anyway?

I really didn't have any complaints. Sure, I have ThinkPad nostalgia from the IBM era. A pity that E5x20 users have to pay for an illuminated keyboard just to get the point stick. Maybe not such a loss. Dell's point stick hasn't lived up to my recollections of former ThinkPad bliss.

 

My college uses Thinkpad T61p's as student laptops in the library, etc. and I've always been struck by the plastickyness of them. There's something about the overall build that I can't put my finger on but personally even my D630 feels better, more solid than a Thinkpad. I was kinda underwhelmed to be honest by the T61p's I've played with, given their "premium" pedigree and status.

The keyboard was great though.

EDIT: Apparently we now have T500's floating around as library laptops....I'll have to try and get my hands on one...