Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

Have they told you when the 6-cell would be available since they received the dimensions before the 9-cell? I've been brining mine around, but I feel like I need at least a sleeve. Thanks.

 

My E6400 came today, much faster than I expected (since it shipped friday). Still getting used to it. Even though it is approx the same weight as my old machine, it feels heavy because it's built like a tank - in fact I threatened to use it as a weapon on my coworker when he repeatedly asked when we could order one for work

On that same note, the sharp corners are hard on unsuspecting elbows when turning quickly at your desk, beware

I'm currently loading vista, but a quick run of Pandora under XP didn't reveal any popping problems (though the audio quality through headphones was definitely sub-par - if other reports are any indication, it should be better under vista). I have the nvidia video, fwiw.

The LED screen is decent - not up to par with a desktop display still, but at least a bit better than the old dell laptop displays. We'll see how it is after I do my standard (and rough) calibration

Looking forward to tweaking for the next few nights

 

devwild


what manufacturer screen did you get? Eveyone w/ the LED screen has been raving how great is is - except you.

TIA

 

I can't tell at the moment, still loading drivers, but I suggest not reading too much into that, as my expectations are a bit different from others:

1) note that I was comparing to desktop displays, which are still well ahead of most laptop displays in terms of color reproduction and contrast

2) I'm not impressed by brightness. Most people underestimate how hard bright screens are on your eyes, and it's one of the most overrated features of LCDs unless you are using them outdoors. I'm more interested in color accuracy and good contrast at low, comfortable brightness levels.

3) I plan on using this laptop for photography oriented photoshop work, which makes me pickier all around.

The display clearly has some of the common shortfalls of laptop displays, such as washed out near-white shades at any brightness, and just as much variance at different angles as my 600m - that in particular is kind of disappointing, I was hoping for some improvement so I don't constantly have to adjust the screen angle as I work. My desktop display (also Dell) is much better in this regard.

In short, I'm being picky

 

Andrea, who lives in the Control Panel, is in charge of echo cancellation. Pay her a visit.

John

 

Devwild,

Thanks for the input about the LED screen. Dell's specs the viewing angle on the e6400 LED and CCFL the same:15/30 vertical viewing angle - 40/40 horizontal. The e6500 LED display has much better viewing angle specs:45/45 vertical, 55/55 horizontal.

 

For those of you getting crackling audio, how obvious is it? I thought I was in the clear but i realized that maybe every minute i get a crackle.

 

I've also been rather unimpressed with the LED screen (I got a Samsung). Sure it's bright, but viewing angles and contrast are significantly worse than my 4 year old hp wxga 15.4". I was expecting better given the positive reviews, but it really isnt that good. After doing more research, I realized there isn't a single 14.1" that doesn't have awful vertical viewing angles.

I also experienced the terrible audio quality (makes my decent headphones sound like $1 headphones) through the headphone jack in xp. I do not think this a hardware issue though since the sound is normal in linux. After uninstalling and reinstalling drivers multiple times, my sound actually was normal in xp once until I rebooted then it was back to sounding like crap. I'm not really sure what is causing the problem...

I'm still debating whether or not to return it...The build quality and battery life are very impressive (near 6 hours on the 6-cell) and I really wanted a matte screen, but it appears the only matte screen with decent viewing angles/contrast is the macbook pro. Perhaps the upcoming latitude e4300 will have a great screen since ALL of the LED backlit wxga 13.3" screens I've seen have had good viewing angles and decent contrast.

btw, where do you find dell's specs for screen viewing angle, etc?

 

When I press on the bottom of the laptop, in certain areas I get a popping sound. Does anyone else get this. It is by the fan outlet and the fan areas that I get it. I have to say that it might be just mine but I think the build quality of my d620 is better than the e6400.

 

4 or 5 years ago, they were using much better LCD tech ejcf...now everyone is using cheap crappy TN LCD screens. You can't change that .