Lattitude for student?

Is there any reason buying a lattitude DELL system should cause me any problems? I am looking at the d810 or something along those lines I believe, but I guess my question is are those prices for companies, or anyone that wants the laptop?

 

you are free to purchase a latitude, the price u see on the screen is the price u pay regardless of who you are.

as you make your way thru the config/purchase screens, simply put your name in the 'business name' line

 

the main external differences you will notice are a trackpoint in addition to a trackpad, legacy ports, different design scheme

is there a specific model you are looking at?

 

Ok thanks, thats good to hear! So now that I understand the pricing is the same, is there any other reason to avoid a lattitude compared to an inspiron?

multimedia issues? etc?

 

Well, it depends what you plan on doing with it. I guess maybe the inspirons have more "media-oriented" pre loaded software, more for home users.

 

Since latitudes are meant for business, I think they are more durable and portable than the Inspirons. They were built for people that are always traveling, so if you are going to be taking it to class alot, then I think it would be a good investment.

 

Latitudes tend to be more expensive, but I can verify they also use a more sturdy chassis. For example, I just used the Latitude D410 notebook and it had a tri-metal chassis and magnesium alloy lid...you won't get that with an Inspiron. You also have to pay taxes on a purchase of any Latitude since it's through the Dell SB store. 3-year warranty is standard on any Latitude purchase, which is also what boosts the price.

Right now Dell is running a $400 off on $1599+ Latitude machines so you can score a good deal at the moment.

:dell:

 

That makes sense - the lattitudes have better build quality than inspirons. However, if you want good build quality, seek a Thinkpad or a Fujitsu model.

 

For what it is worth the MIS guy at work says the same thing though so far I have had no problems with my 9300. I use it quite alot and one thing I did notice is that it picks up dust in the fans rather quickly. I would suggest that any notebook be cleaned with canned air every couple of months unless you are working in a clean room. I finally cleaned one of my older onesand chunks of stuff flew out! Looked clean but the stuff was stuck inside.

 

IT/IS departments at companies prefer 'business' computers such as Latitude because they are stable. In this context stable mainly means 'the same model will exist for some time' and 'the same accessories works for many models'. Stability in this sense is very important for companies that buy many computers so that common install images can be used for many computers, the same docking station can be used for different notebook models etc. With a business notebook you pay to be able buy many computers of exactly the same type, even though that means suboptimal performance.

BTW, I have a Latitude D610. I thought about getting an Inspiron 510m instead, but the Latitude was smaller and lighter and that is important for me.

 

The Latitude hardware, though, might be superior graphics-wise. The D810's gpu the X600 is superior for graphics than the X300 on the i6000, its Inspiron equivalent in size. The design of the D810 also has better ventilation for the graphics card.