Latitude D420 vs D430 questions

I'm actually looking for something for my girlfriend to use at school as her Toshiba M400 has died. The M400 was a core duo 2.0Ghz tablet/laptop that was big, bulky, heavy as crap with the extended battery, and had terrible battery life. I'm not buying another one even though it did convert to a tablet that she never used. It did seem fast enough for her as she mainly ran/runs MS Office applications and youtube on it. I want an upgrade from the M400, but that doesn't necessarily mean it has to be faster. I'm choosing either the D420 or D430 based on many factors such as batter life, size, weight, etc.

I'd like to understand the difference between the two in terms of battery life and battery weight/size.

Does the D420 get better or worse battery life than the D430?

Does the 6-cell battery stick out of the front of the laptop on both models or is that only for the 9 cell battery?

What is the expected battery life for the D420 when using 4, 6, or 9 cell battery vs the D430?

I'm also curious as to the difference in overall speed, I'm sure the Core 2 is faster in the D430 but, by how much? Is it worth spending an extra money for the added power?

You can try and persuade me to get something different as long as it costs under $350, get's 4-5 hours battery life, weighs under 4lbs, has a screen size under 13 inches, has a trackpad, a decent looking display with at least 1280x800 resolution, and has a good feeling keyboard.

 

Well you have a pretty large list of requirements for a low price. I have a D430 so I can not do full comparisons since I never dealt with a 420.

What I can say is on my machine, even out the box with 2 gigs of ram it still will not be the fastest thing on the market in that size range. So yes I would want the fasteast processor as possible.

Only the 9 cell sticks out the front of the machine, and I recommend this because even with the biggest battery I would say I probably get 4hrs with web surfing.

Best thing I did for mine was a SSD and W7 that helped alot with the speed. I do warn though these things get toasty.

 

4 hours doesn't Sound terrible. I suppose you could under-volt the CPU and get a bit more. What other options do I have though? Even if I could afford $500 I Still Can't think of anything.

 

If you wait for the appropriate coupons, you can probably get an Outlet dual-core Latitude 13/Vostro V13 for less than $500. Even used at $350 it's a bit tough, I guess... maybe look at the HP equivalent of the D420/D430?

 

I looked at the Vostro, but all the ones at the outlet were large screens over 15". Also, I read the battery life isn't any better that the D430 and the keyboard is worse. Since she will be doing a lot of typing she wants a good keyboard. I'm also pretty certain a replacement battery for the D430 can be had on the cheap which is another plus for the machine.

sigh... If only the D430 had decent sound.

I know I can get a D430 Core 2 Duo 1.33 with 2GB ram in near mint for $300 with XP Pro. The only issue I have is the sound and maybe the 4200rpm HDD.

Thanks for the suggestions though, those Vostros do look pretty sweet.

 

Buy a new Vostro. The poor old D430 is limited to 2GB of RAM and has a weirdo 1.8" HDD, just like an Ipod classic. Truth be known, you could build your own D430 out of new components for not much more, but would you really want to?

 

The Vostro simply does not fill my requirements with the not so great keyboard, plus it costs around $500. If i'm going to spend that I'll just pick up a refurbished Lenovo Think-pad Edge 13 that would also come with a radeon graphics chip. Sadly, it doesn't have firewire though.

You have to understand the both of us are living on unemployment right now and she simply needs something to get her through school. She was quite happy with the big bulky 7 pound Toshiba M400 that only had 512MB of ram and core-duo chip. A D430 would be a tremendous upgrade for her, give her a nice keyboard, weigh 2-3 pounds less, offer better battery life, and be extremely strong and sturdy for her to throw in her backpack 4-5 days per week. The screen, while not as nice as my old LE1600 tablet should still be nice enough for her to use.

I really hate compromise.

 

That would be a 12" HP 2510P. It can be had for your under your pricepoint and be extensively modified for higher performance and functionality. Even has an optical drive. Way more bang-per-buck imho. Likely why there are so few of them on ebay compared to D420/D430 units.

See sig link for modification possibilities.

 

Sometimes you give things to get others. I have a few vostros at my company and although as you said things like the keyboard will not be the best they come with alot of other great features.

I have no comment on the Lenovo thing because I will never own one after the bunch I have dealt with.

If you are so stretched on money then maybe being so specific on what you want it sort of over the top. What is wrong with even 14" laptops if she already had a tank before. Those you can get alot of power for very cheap since you can find like D630s all over.

The Hp recommended above looks interesting to, although as with Lenovo I did not have such nice experiences with so I do not use those either.[

 

I've decided to just spend the extra money and get something that is more up-to-date based on the help and suggestions I got here but, ultimately from my own research.

The Lenovo Thinkpad Elite x100e with the AMD Turion Neo X2 processor. It actually received the Editors Choice Award from this website. They are selling refurbished ones for under $450.

Another one I considered was the Dell Inspirion 11z but, the touch pad looked absolutely horrid, battery life did seem ok or on par with the d430 but, for the difference of about $50 more dollars the Elite x100e just completely kills it in every aspect. The only fault with the Elite x100e is the battery that sticks out from the back of the computer.

piker28: I had considered the D630 but, battery life was terrible, screen size is way too large, and the weight was a bit much. As to whats wrong with 14 inches or above is that she could not take her last one to school at all. I think the larger screen laptops completely defeat the purpose for most people, although 14 inches might be ok for many people. It's just that when they get to be 14 inches and larger they start to push the boundary's of not being portable. Her M400 was too heavy, too big, too weak, and had horrid battery life to the point that she may as well leave it plugged in all the time. In my opinion, a D630 wouldn't even be an on-par replacement from what she had before and wouldn't cost much more than a D430. However the 12" HP2510P does look like it fits the bill.

Nando4: Thank you so much for the input.
That 12" HP 2510P does seem to be nearly the same thing as the D430, including the terrible speaker but, with better battery life and a built in DVD drive which is pretty damn amazing and pretty much nails every single thing I'm looking for in a laptop. I followed some of your signature links and bravo on all the work and documentation you've done on the 2510P. It's also VERY tempting especially considering the price and the mods. I'm just still leaning towards the refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad Elite x100e which isn't that expensive at under $500 since it does come with a Windows 7 license, a newer battery, radeon gpu, more powerful turion dual core, and good sounding speakers.