Latitude E4200 first impressions w/ photos

I'm OK with paying the price for being an early adopter. Working for an online merchant myself, I understand the process of determining pricing for a new product. Simply put, you don't drop the price until there is either a competing product or until demand starts to fade.

What I'm not OK with is paying that penalty and then being stuck with something that isn't worth the money. At $2000 for a loaded machine I wouldn't be complaining.

In any case, I talked to my Dell rep yesterday and he said that the E4200 and E4300 have undergone hardware revisions since I ordered mine and that he wants to swap it out for a new one. Offered an E4200 or a E4300 if I wanted it. Not sure where to go one this one yet...

Has anyone here used both the E4200 and E4300? Is the screen on the E4300 any better than the E4200?

 

Do you have any information on what changed in the hardware revision and when it was available?

 

Exact details, no, but I was told that the E4300 changes were more significant than the E4200 (which I also don't have any info on, but were possibly just the addition of the header for the back-lit keyboard + whatever other changes were necessary for that). He didn't give a specific reason for the changes so it could have just been a mid-life redesign to fix any little glitches or to lower costs.

EDIT: As to when the revised parts were introduced, all he said was "after mine was built". The first one I had was one of the first off the line and the second was built less than a month after production began, so that probably doesn't help you much.

 

Well, now that I have seen how they have changed the heatsink of the E6400, you might want look more into it. Are you not considering taking them up on their offer?

 

I just ordered an Adamo (more here).

I'm keeping the E4200 I've got for now. My rep told me to call Gold Tech Support and have them replace the screen. He said that if I wasn't happy with the result then he'd make sure that they replaced the entire machine with a new one. I'm not interested in the offer of a E4300 instead as a 1.1" thick system isn't exactly what I'd call ultra-portable.

 

Where and what Porfolio do you/ did you recommend?

 

ive read multi reviews about latitudes having low contrast lcd screens.
notebookcheck.net have it tested at 180:1, 300+ nit.
you know contrast ratio on my studio 17 is 800:1.
180:1 is gonna be all washout, like a old black & white tv screen.
its probably only good for 1 thing, ms works & office.

 

I talked to the ELS Premium Support last Thursday and they decided that they wanted to capture this machine for further study (and probably dissection) so they're sending me a new one and just emailed a special return label that sends the old one to them, rather than back to be refurbed.

This will be my third E4200 and if it isn't any better than the last two then it's hitting eBay; I've already got the Adamo on order and I'm fully expecting that it will not have the same screen issues as the E4200 and that it will be better constructed and not flex every time I touch it.

 

What is wrong exactly with the screen? Am I missing something on mine?

 

Very nice, congrats on RED you got the best color ever

I love the Bezel on this thing....so sleek!