Why did you buy the E6400? Are you pleased?

I am interested to know the main reasons that made you buy the E6400.

What were the main reasons for you getting the E6400?

Were any of these reasons not realized by the E6400?

Were there any pleasant surprises?

Overall are you very pleased with the E6400?

Also: Do you feel that it is easily portable or is it portable but it is a pain?

 

For me, I was needing a reasonably portable (under 2.5 kg) laptop that offered decent screen space and powerful CPU and lots of RAM. I wanted something that was very durable and would last 4+ years (my PhD basically). I would use it mostly for work, namely MATLAB and writing scientific papers in LaTeX. I would also want to play the occasional game, although that was a secondary concern, so a dedicated graphics card was relevant but not necessary.

I weighed the E6400 against the T400 and one HP Elitebook model I can't remember (2790 or 2370 or something like that). The Dell was the cheapest of all, it has eSATA and DisplayPort which are two bonuses relative to the competition. It lacks the switchable graphics like the T400, which are unimportant to me but may matter to people who rely on battery more. In the end, all my main reasons were realized: this laptop is as fast as the desktop I have at work for doing MATLAB computations, and it has more RAM.

The most pleasant surprise I had with the E6400 is the extraordinary quality of Dell's service here in Finland. They have twice serviced the laptop over structural and cosmetic flaws, and did it at no charge, next business day, and no questions asked. They are "only" doing what they have to under the warranty terms, but that's still way better than most warranty repairs. The other pleasant surprise is the battery life of 5 hours with the Nvidia graphics, quite high for a 14-inch laptop with a dedicated card. Also, it is very quiet under light usage.

The least pleasant surprise is the fact that the graphics card heats up considerably while gaming, up to 100 degrees. It is only a secondary activity but still that shows that the cooling system could still be better.

Overall, I am quite pleased with this laptop and would buy it again. I feel it is easily portable, although the weight advertised by Dell is wrong. With the 6-cell battery it weighs around 2.3 kg, not the "starting weight" of 1.9 kg on their website.

 

>>What were the main reasons for you getting the E6400?

Mainstream, current generation, business serious, matte screen, right size, x64 notebook with clean, no-nonsense design and Dell's reputation for solid support.

>>Were any of these reasons not realized by the E6400?

No.

>>Were there any pleasant surprises?

Besides generally being what I shopped for, the minimalist yet sturdy enough physical design... it's a lean build compared to tank notebooks from the past.

>>Overall are you very pleased with the E6400?

Yes.

>>Also: Do you feel that it is easily portable or is it portable but it is a pain?

Very portable given you want a 14" screen. The 1440x900 maximizes the usable screen real estate.

GK

 

My buying reasons and initial impressions are here.

My impressions after over 7 months of daily use (including trips to several countries) is in this thread.

The definition of "easily portable" depends on where you are coming from. The E6400 is more than twice as heavy as my Toshiba R500 but is a little lighter than my previous 14" notebook. However, the solid build quality of the E6400 means that I don't need to cocoon it in a heavy and bulky bag.

John

 

Conceivably you should take a look at the Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge or more recently, this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=372828

I bought my E6400 because my D830 was too big and too chunky. I've got absolutely nothing against the D830; it was my fifteen-inch "experiment" and it was simply too big for me. My replacement had to be a Dell (because I'm a fanboy and have hoards of Dell computers and power adapters) and it had to be a fourteen-inch machine. When they revealed the E6400, it was "Zomg, I have to have it!"

Concerning what wasn't good or what I'd change, I'd like to quote myself:

And yes, I have quite pleased with mine all things said and done. It is way more portable than my D830 and lighter than the Inspiron 500M I owned before that. Nonetheless, I think a fourteen-inch machine is the maximum size for a portable machine; your mileage may vary.

 

Thanks. I am aware of the very long thread about the E6400 but it is just too long to be useful to certain simple questions (I read about 40 pages and it was enough).

Yes, I am aware that the feeling that it is portable is subjective but I have the impression that most people that answer this question will have a similar idea to mine. Spec wise the weight is the main thing that has me worried.

In one of the threads recommended here, there is a person that complains that his laptop did not behave as it should when he received it and others agreed that it was a common problem. If so what are the things I should check and do as I start working with the laptop (are there any must do)? What are the most common problems?

 

From all the posts I've read, I'd say that most of the problems people are having are with software and/or heat and/or noise problems with the Nvidia GPU and/or a dock with external monitors.

A clean install will go a long way to fixing software issues, but the latter is a bit harder to fix. The best solution would be to get the Intel IGP if you don't need the graphics power.

 

Main Reason: I got a fantastic deal from the Outlet store. I was considering the Lenovo T400 also, but the price advantage of the E6400 was too significant.

Second reason: I really like the WXGA+ display. I also like the looks of this laptop: business like, yet more stylish than the T400.

Third reason: the battery life with the 9-cell battery and Intel graphics has been phenomenal. Easily meets my needs for all-day computing.

Fourth reason: Dell Business support has been fantastic. So much so that I ended up buying 2 E6400 and a E4200 within the last two months.

 

for me, it's a choice between thinkpad's sl400, hp's 6230 & dell's e6400

upon playing and typing with the models for about 2hrs, i decided that it was e6400 for me.

better typing with it's keyboard
better screen brightness and contrast
lightest among the three
emits less heat among the three
aesthetics came 2nd from the sl400

 

Well before I go about why I bought the E6400, lets just talk a little bit about me. I promise to keep this short, so kindly bear with me. Well to start with I am sort of a laptop freak and have had 4 laptops all in great working condition at one point in time.

My first laptop was the Inspiron E1705, reasons for buying it at that time were the nvidia Go7800 and WUXGA display; was one of the best bang for buck systems that offered decent gaming on a laptop.

Then I bought the XPS M1530, was tired of carrying the heavy E1705 around so the XPS M1530 was as powerful (if not more) as the 1705 and also was more portable. Once again I had the WUXGA display this time on a 15". You probably know by now that I am a sucker for HD displays.

Then bought the Sony Vaio Z; just wanted to try a portable solution for once without a compromise on power. The Sony had excellent built quality a bright and crisp display and I was really happy for the money I put into it. But then after using the Vaio for a while I felt it was a little to small for my comfort and I found the lower screen estate uncomfortable. Also I was not happy with the 16:9 ratio.

So at this point I sold my old E1705 which was just lying around the house; hadn't used it in over a year got some decent change and then bought the Latitude E6400.

The E6400 had by far the finest build quality on any Dell laptop that I have seen. The machine screams serious business. The size is just about perfect for me. The keypad is great (still not as excellent as the Vaio Z) the battery life is outstanding and the laptop although looking understated has a certain element of style that I find more appealing than the Vaio Z. Also the system is pretty much future proof with support for about 8GB of RAM.

Currently I am using the E6400 as my primary laptop with the XPS M1530 occasionally for some casual gaming and Blue Ray movie playback. The Vaio Z has found its rightful owner, my wife (somehow get the feeling Vaio's are for ladies) and she absolutely adores the cute little powerhouse.