Latitude E4300 first impressions

hello everyone. I ordered a E4300 loaded to the hilt. If there was an option, I bought it including the docking station.

I am an engineer in Houston, Texas and need lots of memory. I travel from time to time and so I bought the 128 Gig SSD just in case I drop it.

Looked at the sony Z and Lenovo X but because of the repairs warranty (next day on site) I decided that I could live with a slightly noisey fan as has been discussed in your blogs and maybe not the best screen resolution ( but it's good enough for me), so I bought the E4300.

 

I wonder, I see that the E4300 has an option to have a smart card reader and finder print reader. I know that the E6400 comes with it (no choice). Perhaps without it, it makes the E4300 more empty and could explain the keyboard flex and noise.

 

I doubt that e.g. the fingerprint reader takes much space, so I can not imagine things like that do have something to do with the flex of a keyboard.

Besides: anyone knows where to find any other review about the E4300 than phoenix's ?

 

Just order it. If you don't like the feel of the keyboard, you can always return it.

They took mine back last week. I'm done with it for good.

 

Actually my worries are mostly about the screen, not the keyboard. I think I can arrange with any keyboard which isn't completely bad. But if the screen is as bad as shown on these several pictures~ eugh.

 

I ordered for my office 3 E4300 in the end of September and the delivery date is for beginning of December.
Maybe it is due to the fact that of the 3 ordered, 2 are coloured (red & blue).
Does anybody there have been notified such a delay before delivery?
I hope that at least if I have to wait this will be for a better quality of the finishing as it seems there is like a little problem...
What I am more anxious is about the weight with the 6 cells battery. According to Dell it was supposed to be around 1,5kg, but some persons there announced around 1,8 if not more.

 

I just saw a colleague's new E4300 equipped with the larger battery....first impressions should always be taken with a grain of salt...and of course what's acceptable, nice or ugly is in the eyes of the beholder...this is only a "first looks and feel" impression..nothing on performance or real use....

So, with the larger battery the 4300 "feels heavy" (but I use a Panasonic R4 laptop - 2 lbs)...it felt almost the same as the new Macbook (4.5 lb) that I tried out the other day....the larger battery also "sticks out" from the back...it looks cheap and out of place.....being only 2 days old, the laptop was already full of finger smudges already....it looked like it was a year old! I was pretty disappointed with the "looks and feel" for my first impression.

 

Yup. That's what happens. You can't touch the back of the laptop with your fingers too often, or have to wipe it.

 

The 14inch model, I was told the 9cell battery doesn't stick out. However, I never saw for real or picture.

 

I think that's the 6-cell for the 14inch model. The E6400 comes with 6 or 9 cells, the E4300 with 3 or 6 cells, with the larger ones sticking out on each model. At least that's what I read and what the pictures look like...