Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

sweet jebus, thats cheap. how tight is it, exactly? i have one right now that i am using and like for the 9-cell, but it is really tight and kind of a pain sometimes. is that one padded on both sides? i think ill buy it anyway, at <$5 lol.

 

you can. i use my coa to install from a retail disc. you may have to call M$ to activate though.

 

LOLOLOL !!!!! I think you are bad luck.

 

After playing around a little with my E6400 i decided to make a review, hopefully avoiding things already said many times, so this will be a subjective review. I will start with its downsides straight away. These are three in my opinion. The first, and the least important, is the low quality of the palmrest plastic. However, i don’t know why I still find it suited for this laptop. Anyways, it’s still not the cheapest plastic in the world, it simply feels not as tough and rigid as on some other laptops. The second flaw is the speakers, to put it simply, they suck. I won’t comment much on these, I will simply pass to the next one, which is, at least for me, the biggest downside on this laptop – colors on the LED screen are really lame, they simply ruin your pictures, so even though it has its major advantages (brightness + power consumption) I must say that this is one of the worst screens I’ve seen on a laptop. Be it a business laptop, everybody likes to enjoy their photos, even the businessmen.
Now, although i said those things, if I were to rate this laptop I would give it 10 out of 10. I could say that, normally, the REAL score would be maximum 9/10, but REALISTICALLY speaking this is a perfect laptop, at least for me that is, because in real life there is no such thing as an abstract perfect laptop – you must consider that each company must take into account a large numbers of things, like the cost of production, the implementing of a certain technology in a certain type of design, the effective process of manufacturing the item, and other small details that finally decide the way the laptop will come out. This laptop is made in Malaysia for example, and that is probably because it’s a lot cheaper than to produce it in US or whatever, so you must take into account that low cost production can sometime produce flawed products. Also, there is the balancing problem: you want a screen that conserves energy then you go with the LED but you get lame colors, you want a business-looking laptop, then you get lame speakers and so on.
As always, there will be some unlucky fews that will get a flawed laptop, but that is naturally and it happens everywhere. I must admit that I was lucky with my refurbished laptop, which came with a few light scratches on the palmrest, but everything else is simply perfect. The webcam works excellent – no problems with drivers or anything, the keyboard is excellent, the laptop is dead silent and doesn’t get hot. I’m also very pleased with the nvidia video card, although it’s the “most” basic of all gaming cards. This is my fourth laptop (I also had some other latitudes - C600 and D610) and I can say that dell really did a marvellous job with this one, it’s the first laptop I fully enjoy without caring about its downsides.

 

Yes, red means a red cover.

This is a top-of the line E6400 bought from the Outlet Store for under $900 with the 20% discount:
-- T9800 Processor
-- 4 gb memory
-- 250 gb 7200 HD
-- Intel 5300 Network card
-- Bluetooth
-- Backlit keyboard
-- WXGA+ screen, LED from AUO, a large LCD manufacturer from Taiwan.
-- Webcam
-- 9 cell Battery

The colors are perhaps more vibrant as they often are on a glossy screen, but the screen is definitely shinier than any of the other Lattitudes (E6400 and E4300) I have seen. On a darkened screen, I can see a reflection of my ceiling light; for the other screens, it is just an amorphous ball of light.
Upon further research, Dell seems to offer both Anti-Glare and "TrueLife" glossy screens for certain lines such as Vostro. (Consumer lines are mostly all TrueLife.) However, you don't get the option for a non-anti-glare (double negative?) when you order a new Latitude. I assumed that I was getting the Anti-glare and there was no mention in the Dell Outlet description or my invoice of a glossy screen when I bought it.

Can the screen be easily swapped out or does the unit need to be returned?

 

good review. i absolutely agree w/ you on the led screen. it is bright which is excellent for multi-purpose uses such as laptopping it out by the pool on a sunny day, however the clarity of the pictures and videos are less than average. the viewing angle is also another issue, you have to tilt the screen to a very exact angle to see it most clear, if you are off a few degrees the change of clarity in pictures and colors is dramatic.

like you i also am able to deal with it and i feel the good far outweighs the bad, particulary the value of this laptop for the price you pay. performance wise this thing kicks butt! i will be posting an in depth review soon. stay tuned!

 

I know that Dell like to make you happy the best they can in a reasonable business point of view, way.

So, try you can say that you were miss informed as the details are confusing, that you love the laptop, but the screen is a serious issue... and perhaps other arguments... if it fails, as for the supervisor, else well you can return it or exchange it. I don't have glossy screen option at Dell Canada, but if there is a price difference, were anti-glare is more expensive, expect to pay the difference.

When you get your non-glossy (anti-glare) screen expect to have less vivid colors (possibly wash out at max brightness) and reduce view angle. So... you have to choose, which is best for you. For me, I am super happy with my display. I use my desktop if I need color accuracy. For me a laptop is for me, not the 12 people around me, and it gives me the power and everything I need to program and do temporary UI pictures for my software.

 

Just got my E6400 with T9400/250GB 7200rpm/WXGA+ LPL0140/4GB from outlet. I want to add a 370 Bluetooth mini-card to it but is it difficult to install?

 

search back a few pages in this thread and you will see 2 different people say it's very easy to put in the bluetooth upgrade by yourself. it sounds like all it is, is pushing in a piece in the expansion bay and then downloading a couple drivers from dell's support site.

 

8GB... 2x 4Gb PC5300 G.Skill SODIMMS. About $500 AUD.