New Latitude and Precision's

Correction on my post above: I said 90WHr for the 3 year battery, but I actually meant 81Whr, so the battery last a little less then the normal 9-cell battery of 85WHr of the E6400, and obviously less than the 90WHr E6410 battery.

Why would Dell offer 2 DIFFERENT 9-cell batteries, one of 90Whr and the other 81Whr, where the least one has a 3 year warranty as you say?
It would be better for anyone to buy the normal 9-cell 90Whr + 2 additional year warranty (total 3 years) than the 81WHr 9-cell with 3 year warranty battery, so why offer this new battery option, other than to fool the 2-3 people that will order it? It's not the few dollars that would be interesting from a company like Dell.

 

I agree - that's why I posted. From the "pop-up":


"Dell 3 year battery is designed to reduce total cost of ownership for highly mobile notebook users. The 3 year battery sustain longer life span compare with standard or high capacity battery. With standard 3 year warranty, Latitude 3-year battery provides a reliable, consistent performance over a longer period of time."

But, as indicated in the battery options the 81WH 3-yr battery is $150 over the baseline 6 cell battery while the 90WH battery + extended warranty is $80 + $90 over the 6 cell baseline. Again I agree, why even offer the 3 yr battery option.

 

Doesn't the warranty only cover significant changes in the battery time? I think the 3yr one covers ANY reduction in battery life, but I'm not positive. That was my interpretation.

 

My guess would be the extended warranty would cover any reasonable degradation - i.e., if the battery time drops to only an hour or two, it would be replaced.

The few times I've had a battery issue, Dell sent a replacement without any hassle.

 

The 90Wh battery with extended warranty does seem to be a better deal.

 

I'm seriously considering E6410 as my next computer. A couple of questions...

1. My girlfriend uses E6400 at work with 1280x800 screen. Is the higher res screen any better regarding brightness and contrast, cause the ones she uses at work look washed out to me. (in comparison to macbook pro, which I have and is a fine enough computer but I'm just not into mac, my girlfriend has taken it over as her home computer...anyway...)

2. Can I believe that 'high quality speakers' are an upgrade since they use this language for E6410 and not E6400.

Thanks,
ebg

 

The screen should look nice with the 900p version. It will completely depend on your preferences though. I wouldn't be able to stand the 1280x800, that's for sure. The brightness of the screen is very nice though (the e6500) so I can only imagine that this one is similar or better. I tried a MBP for a couple weeks and preferred the screen on the E6500.

It's difficult to know on the speakers, but you can assume that the speakers will be better since it has been 2yrs since the introduction of the e6400. However, keep in mind that this is a business notebook. If you want to fill the room with great sound then these probably won't do the job. However, they'll definitely suffice for normal listening activity. I would bet they're gonna be better than the E6400, but probably not as good as any multimedia laptop.

At this point it's pretty speculative though since nobody has one yet.

 

About the speakers, to say the truth, I really don't care.
I mean even though they were "good" speakers on the E6400, nothing beats real speaker 2.1 system (stereo + sub) computer speakers.

If I am home, then I have my speakers (well I have my desktop computer... but ignoring that). On the go, I don't use my speakers. I mean I don't go in coffee shops and play my music out of my laptop, I don't play any music at the library, airport, or class room. The current speakers of the E6400 are powerful enough to fill a room nicely at max volume. And on those moment, no one in the room (ie: meeting) cares about sound quality.

What I used the most is the headphones. I like to listen to music when I work or hear in-game music/sound when I play. What sucks on the E6400 - or well should I say - any laptop, is the built-in sound card. THAT is what is annoying. Of course, dedicated sound processing unit (SPU's), consumes more power, and cost more, so no OEM's implements one. Of course, the solution is those add-on card or USB sound cards. I would get one, if I had no desktop.

Anyway, my point saying, that I believe the worrying of laptop sound quality speakers is kinda of silly. Speaker output strength I understand perfectly, built-in sound card quality... perfectly, but sound quality of speaker... not at all.

 

Check what brightness she is using. Dell has set a relatively high maximum brightness on the E6400 displays so they can be used in sunshine. However, a brightness of around 75 to 80% is, in my experience (LG-Philips 1440 x 900 panel), gives good contrast in normal use. I would also recommend the 1440 x 900 display because of the extra real estate it offers.

We don't know about the speakers until someone has got their hands on the E6410. However, it shouldn't be difficult for Dell to improve on the E6400's tweeters although there's not a lot of space at the sides of the keyboard. The E6510 looks to be better in this respect - there's a lot more space at the sides of the keyboard.

John

 

Aaargh. Why does Dell continue to play games with the configurator and not let us mix and match components? (I am looking at the U.S. site)

I was all excited to check out the E6510, but the i5-540M config only goes up to 4GB... yet the i7 config goes up to 8GB.

The i5 permits integrated Intel graphics, the i7 does not.

The i5 has a "15.6" HD+(1600x900) Wide View Anti-Glare LED with Premium Panel Guarantee" screen option, while the i7 has a "15.6" UltraSharp™ FHD(1920x1080) Wide View Anti-Glare LED with Premium Panel Guarantee" ... there's no specs in the "Help me Choose" pop-up box on either of these screens.

The i5 max HDD is 320GB (a joke)... the i7 allows a 500GB

Blu-Ray a $500 upgrade?

I guess my dream of a nice cool running, low TDP E6510 with i5, Intel graphics, 500GB HDD, 8GB RAM, is out of the question...