First thoughts on e6420

So my lovely e6420 just came in the mail and I'm playing with it now.

So far, these are my thoughts:

• The screen bezel truly is huge... but it's not that annoying.
• I miss seperated 'chiclet' keys... also, these keys seem a touch oversized, though that may just be me... as always, it takes a long time to get used to a new keyboard, but going from a seperated keyboard back to a standard keyboard is rather difficult
• I'm having a love-hate relationship with the trackpoint - I was using an older latitude 'loaner' laptop while I was waiting to get this one and, during that time, I kind of got in the habit of using it. The touchpad just feels too far out of the way now, but it is still very much superiour IMO... I don't know if I like either that well, but I'm sure the trackpad will loosen up with use - at the moment it's kinda 'sticky'.
• The screen isn't as bad as I thought... certainly when the screen is all black it looks bad, but once there's color it looks fine. It's a little washed out, and the viewing angles are hard to please though...
• The whole unit does get kinda warm with normal use, but fortunately it doesn't get particularly 'hot' at any point.
• Not as heavy or as big as I had imagined... which is nice
• Some of the dell utilities seem rather buggy, but in my experience that is common... now to see if I can remove them or make them less annoying (like the popups for sound bar/brightness, etc)
• The wrist rest is extremely comfortable... I like the rubber texture
• Seems reasonably durable... the screen locking mechanism requires a little help to close (have to actually push the lid and body together).
• Some of the levers are "creaky"
• As expected, scrolling with the trackpoint is pretty much FAIL... I wonder if the driver Dell used for the fingerprint reader can be manipulated so that it's a dedicated scroll bar...

So, as expected it will take some getting used to... however, it's probably a keeper.

 

Does anyone else have trouble with the ODD being rather picky on how it's pushed in? Like mine you really need to push it at the right angle or it won't latch closed... also, if you hold it almost closed, it will start to spool up assuming you did close it. Strange, but I don't intend to use the ODD much... indeed, as I've said before, eventually I'm going to order the USB 3 Media Module to replace it with

Edit: Upon further analysis, this is the ODD's fault and not the chassis. It appears that there are more snap-in points than on drives I've seen before, probably to ensure that the drive stays closed... When pushed in, a slight upward (toward the keyboard) force will stop it in it's tracks, but a slight downward force while closing it will make it go quite smoothly.

Some other thoughts: it isn't as hot as I first thought... it was probably just charging (duh!). Also, the Fingerprint reader and security stuff are all BIOS based, so I'll have to look into this later. I seem to be adjusting to the keyboard quite quickly, and the touchpad seems fine now (though occasionally it's a little too sensitive

Viewing angles are narrower than expected... blacks seem to "underflow" or whatever the right term is extremely quickly (within just a 1 or 2 degrees) - that is, they seem to invert or get kinda shiny. However, I'm not bothered by it as much as anticipated either. I do wish the colors were a touch more vivid, but I appreciate the nice matte screen more than I do colors I suppose. The interesting (and rather sad) fact is that the D380 I've been borrowing actually has a nicer screen...

Another thought... why did Dell choose to put their logo in mirror finished chrome immediately above the keyboard? It's very weird seeing the reflection of your fingers as you type...

Presently waiting for my SSD to finish cloning to an old drive so I can get it in this baby

 

Alright... as far as the touchpad is concerned, it seems to be alright now... the "drag log" was what was giving me troubles. It still doesn't scroll very fluidly, but that's probably just the driver. Also, perhaps it's just me, but the physical buttons seem rather "soft"... they don't always register the clicks unless you really push them which can be annoying for double clicks, etc.

 

Speakers are proving quite nice... *much* better than the Samsung Series 9 I had for such a brief time

USB Ports are quite stiff... I was actually afraid I was going to break something when my flash drive wouldn't go in without a good deal of force...

Edit: Indeed, even after some fiddling it's still not looser. Pushing in isn't so bad now, but pulling out is absolutely insane... you need a full five finger grip, dry hands, and a good tug to remove the flash drive. The same drive fits actually rather loose in most other machines it's been in. Just a standard Sandisk Cruzer Titanium.

It's really quite amazing having the 2720QM after using Core2Duos for so long... you can't even read the text fly by during installers.

There seems to be a random, obnoxious squeal that occurs from time to time... it seems linked to HDD usage, but I swapped it out with an SSD which means there shouldn't be any noise at all. I suppose it may be a fan spinning up, but this will require further investigation. It's about the same sound as that made by a power brick which is getting old.

 

Somebody had to say it, but for a "business" laptop, it games just fine Around an hour of Battlefield Play4Free... the vents were getting warm, but it wasn't like: "this is so hot something is going to break"... which is good Readjusting the screen is still a touch annoying though... seems like there isn't a spot where the entire screen can appear evenly lit due to the viewing angles.

 

Hmmmm... first dead pixel... 2 days is much too soon to be having dead pixels. Top, dead center beneath the webcam - can't miss it Debating my next move since I don't really want to return it and wait. Considering utilizing the on-sight repairs and having them fix it, but I suspect their policy is 1 is not enough (especially since this is a 'dark' type pixel, not a 'stuck' or 'full bright' pixel).

Also, there's still a slight squeal sound coming from the inside of the laptop - I've never had a laptop which made anything but mechanical noises before, but this one sounds like a modem only very quiet

 

how do you compare the track pad and the overall speed of the CPU to the Samsung nine

 

We've had E6400, E6410, and now E6420's ... the only different that we heard right away were the orange trim, that the screen looks wider, and the palm rest is grippy.

I hate that they don't say E6420 on them in the top left though, like their predecessors.

 

Was there some sarcasm here?

It's actually quite easy: Samsung Series 9 has a ULV dual core processor with an unprecedented touch pad. The e6420 has a full voltage i7 Quad Core processor with an average quality touchpad It took a while but I finally decided that processing power was more important than the other factors.


As for the label, it does indeed lack the model number on the frame which is annoying (I work at a university and this makes for a pain in imaging). All it says now is "Latitude"

 

Never had to do that on mine.

I've noticed some devices don't go in easy, but I've never had a device which didn't fit. I suppose it gets better as it gets used, but I have USB keys which are stiff going in and other USB devices like mice that go in "just right".

Pulling USB keys out *is* kinda difficult sometimes, though.

Coming from a first generation C2D, the difference is extremely noticeable.

ME1 is playable but barely.