Latitude E4200 first impressions w/ photos

E4200 First impressions

My first thought was ***(too small to be fully functional?) -> Oh I see (when I started typing few keys, I noticed keyboard was full size) -> wow I love it.

1. Size and weight
Simply amazing. It is smaller than XPS m1330 and maybe half the weight. Compared to Latitude X300, this is smaller and lighter, while having bigger full sized keyboard.

I noticed typing is slightly awkward while docked because of short palm rest. Most corporate users will have proper keyboard while its docked so it's not a big issue. I just felt palm rest is too short and I can't type well while it is docked and raised a little bit. This is noticeable when using common keystrokes like CTRL+C and CTRL+V as well as Alt+C (for Vista).

2. Keyboard
Even though laptop is super small, it has a proper full size keyboard. They squeezed every inch of laptop to put this keyboard in. I really miss backlit keyboard on E6400 and I will look into upgrading it when it becomes available.

3. Speed
I can tell it is slightly slower than E6400. Windows setup took slightly longer but for the weight, I'm more than willing to keep this laptop over E6400.

4. Screen and others
Screen is very good and it is bright. Hinges have less resistance than E6400 hinge. 45W adapter shipped with laptop is amazingly small as well. I won't be carrying 65W slim adapter anymore with this new addition.

5. Would I recommend it?
Yes, definitely. Dont' forget to get a leather folio.

 

Nice,thx for pictures

 

Hi
thank you for this pic`s
anyone got a blue one?

^^
thanks for the video link! down this page, I`m editing my post not to make this tread too long...

Marcel

I`ve one another question:
It may be stupid but I`ve not seen the Keys üöä on this Layout... (I`m using an german layout on my m1330)
is it the "english" layout or the "small" form factor of the Keyboard?

thanks

 

Check out this Latitude Press kit B-roll movie. It gives you a pretty good idea of what it will look like in real life. Movie file is over 100MB. I suggest you use "Save as" instead of trying to load it in browser.

http://content.onstreammedia.com/content/dell/content/Non_StudioDell_Videos_08/E_Family_Broll.mpg


Update after using it for a half day
1. Battery life is just average with 3 cell. I already called account rep to look for a 6 cell. I am getting two and half hours with medium usage (brightness 8/10, word and internet surfing).

2. Did I say it is light?

3. This laptop is an head turner. Color finish is more scratch resistant than black matte finish. It feels like a shiny cell phone surface rather than XPS color finish.

4. I am getting used to "short palm rest" design. I can type mostly fine at this point. Page up/Page down key are right next to arrows and if you are in hurry, you can easily skip a page or two. It's something to get used to.

 

I'm looking for a leather portfolio for my E4200. Can you recommend anything? Pics would be nice...

 

The Dell one is nice but I went through three before I got one that wasn't marked up out of the box. It's also a little annoying that you can't fit the power adapter in there. They really should make a tubular adapter or something because there's plenty of room at the top for something 1" in diameter.

 

the pics look sweet. And that red is sharp looking.

 

I received my E4200 last week, unfornately it looks different than the picture on Dell's website, I don't like the design of screen edge (compared to what Dell shows on website), and I really feel that Dell's picture is kinda misleading (on a $2000 some laptop). I am now considering to return it back to Dell.

 

Hm I need one where I can fit a power adapter also... Anyone?

 

You sure you weren't looking at images of the E4300? The E4200 I've got looks identical to the Dell images.