Upgrading from a Latitude D830

Hello everyone. I have been out of the laptop scene for a while now and would like your expertise in helping me pick my next laptop.

I currently have a Latitude D830 that is issued from work and I really don't like it. Its far to big, heavy and I just in general don't like it. I have always had personal laptops in the 12 inch range so going to this beast was not a good upgrade. Here is what I am looking at in order:

1. E6410
2. E4310
3. Latitude 13
4. E4200

I think my best option would be the E6410 with the Nvidia card since I use dual displays at work. I really like the E4310 because I have a 13.3 inch screen on my home laptop (Dell Studio XPS 13) but I think I might regret getting the smaller screen for office work. Then of course followed by the awesome Latitude 13 and yes I can live without an optical drive, I cannot tell you the last time I actually used it. Then the E4200 would be my favorite pick but it is far to expense and I cannot get a discrete graphics option.

So what does everyone think? I am leaning toward the E6410 over the E5410 because of the graphics card options, should I not be? Any others I should look at?

Thanks!

 

For me the key advantage of the E6410 is the WXGA+ display. There is a weight saver module which will reduce the normal (with 6 cell battery) weight from about 2.3kg to 2.2kg by replacing the optical drive (or you could put the HDD in the media bay and get a small SSD as a boot drive). The extra screen space that provides is very useful I you will be using the screen a lot. The E4310 is about 1lb / 0.45kg lighter than the E6410 but I wouldn't like the reduced vertical space of a 1366 x 768 display (the Latitude 13 also has this deficiency). The E4200 is in a different (and lower) performance league to either of these two. Among the compromises to get the weight down are a 1.8" disk drive (but not a compromise if you can afford the SSD).

A dedicated GPU will only bring benefits if you do 3D graphics. The Intel HD graphics in the E6410 is more than adequate for general office use.

John

 

go with e6410 or e4310

with a strong leaning towards 6410, in general overall
but especially with the graphics option which sounds very
important to you

build quality is outstanding
slim and sleek
and strong

i had the D830 and although i liked it
it was big thick and bulky

i have the E6510 and i am in love

hope that helps

 

Thanks for the input, I am about 99% sure that I am going to order an E6510. Mainly because of the graphics and screen options. Also I love that you can get a backlight keyboard as well so that will be another option that I will want. I am thinking about getting one from the outlet since I can get a fully loaded one for around $800 instead of $1,600.

Thanks again for the help it has pretty much steered me in the right direction I think.

 

no worries and yeah def go with the backlit kb

i did and it rocks !!

also, i went thru the outlet myself and couldn't be happier
only way to go
and right now there is a 25% off coupon for outlet latitudes
so you will REALLY save a bundle

bol

 

You have got me a little confused here. The E6510 wasn't on your original list. I'm sure it is lighter than the D830 but it will weigh about 1lb more than the E6410 (which, in turn, weighs about 1lb more than the E4310).

I agree about getting the backlit keyboard. However, if an otherwise good Outlet configuration lacks this feature then you should be able to find one on ebay. The E6410 and E6510 share the same keyboard which is identical to the E6400 / E6500 keyboard.

John

 

Sorry I mistyped. It was suppose to be E6410 instead of E6510. I purchased two E5410's from the outlet today with the 25% off coupon. Great deal, but I have one kind of stupid question if no battery is listed in the specs does that mean it did not come with one or that its whatever size the stock battery is?

 

I would assume that it has the 6 cell battery (or whatever is the default for the E5410). One cannot configure a Dell notebook to be shipped without a battery.

John

 

What is the concern of the smaller screen of the E4310? You state at work you use dual screens which that machine will do perfectly fine.

Now when you say office work I presume you mean when you decide to work from home or away from your desk? If so I can understand but then I think the weight will be the next factor.