Dell Latitude E6400 First Look

Thanks for your quick and helpful answer - now I can buy a 120 GB HDD with a clear conscience

 

Anybody knows about the whining by the e-series?!

 

I've not heard anything, but that might be because my ears have aged.

John

PS: I have now swapped the Samsung HM160HI hard drive for a Fujitsu MHZ2320BH which is both warmer and noisier.

 

Are all the drives you can choose in the Dell configurator Samsung ones or are they completely different ones?
I'm especially interested in the 250GB@5400rpm and 200GB@7200RPM... Do you think the 7200RPM-drive will make a big difference in power consumption?

 

See this thread in the Dell forum.

John

 

For the price of the 160GB upgrade + $10 you can get a faster 320GB drive from NewEgg and know what you are buying.

 

I presume your right side is when the computer is upside down?

Now you mention it, my E6400's battery also moves in and out slightly at that end, but I would estimate the movement to be no more than 1mm. If it starts to annoy me then I'll glue a little cardboard in the bay tol take up the slack since, when the battery is pushed in, it is slightly inset from the surface of the hinge.

How does the movement of your battery relate to the hinge surface?

John

 

sry for late reply, i got banned on my other account and i dont know why.. anyways I ment upside down yea. battery moves as i move the laptop around.

 

Do you know(or maybe can test) if there is Audio-Outupt over Display-Port ??

Thanks a lot!

Greetz Alex

 

That's a lot more movement than I see with my battery.

You will have to wait for one of the people who have ordered the appropriate cables.

John

 

i hope a new battery will solve that moving.. this is my first dell and i would be really disapointed..

 

I've got the same problem with my 6-cell!

 

Oh man, now I think the new battery wont help a bit

 

mh. I could easyly test this, if I already had my E6500...my DP-->HDMI adapter already arrived today!

 

I understand it's not nice but is it really a problem? if so, why? It seems to me like 2mm.

 

Any word on when the full review will be up? Thanks.

 

For me it is a problem because it shows a poor build quality. Laptops costing half the price have fittings so snug and parts having perfect alignment, whereas we're staring at something that costs much more, and is targeted at the business market! No offence!

 

Not to be a pain (and no, I do not like wobble batteries)...but most of Sony's line of laptops have this issue I think. I think.

Hasn't hurt them . They just have problems with mild explosions .

 

Where's the full review??

 

That's exactly what I think. If I pay good money for a business class laptop I expect it to be built better than this.

 

I would not make the assumption that 1mm battery wiggle equals bad build quality.

If that were true Sony Z would be poor build quality, while the opposite is true in my opinion. I felt it in person and these videos show some of it : http://www.sony.com.sg/microsite/vaio/products/vaio_z/f5.html

I would prefer to get my hands on it or see a thorough review of the E6400 before I judge it to be bad build quality.

Edit: turns out even Lenovo X200 has battery wiggle: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=296363

 

I confirm that Displayport carries audio through. Actually, I have connected my E4300 with an ePort plus base, and it works well on my 40" SONY LCD with an Displayport to HDMI cable. It should be the same with a E6400

It seems that it onlt carries a stereo signal. I couldn't get better like an AC3 sound from a DVD or anything else.

I'm using Vista.

 

What problems does the gap between notebook and battery cause? Do you constantly shake around the notebook so it makes a rattling noise? Does the battery lose contact? Does it even fall out? Plus it's easily fixable using some tape. For me (and I'm kinda picky) this wouldn't count as a con.

 

E6400 First Anniversary

Yesterday was the first anniversary of my E6400 first look. What do I think one year on?

First, I don’t regret my purchase and, unusually, I can’t think of anything better that is currently available to buy as replacement.

My E6400 has clocked up a few miles travelling to and in various countries such as Yemen, Afghanistan, Kenya and Ethiopia as well as in UK with operation tested in ambient temperatures between 0°C and 35°C. My E6400 failed as being a good hand warmer in winter time. One feature I am currently missing is the built-in modem (which was not available when I placed my order) since I am currently working where dial-up internet access still reigns supreme. However, a USB modem costs much less than the parts for the internal modem.

There is limited wear after one year of heavy usage: There is now about 8mm wobble in the hinges when the display is vertical but in other respects the hinges are still tight. One cosmetic problem has been scuffing of the palm rest caused by the display bezel. I have fixed this by investing in three rubber bumpers which I have stuck on the top display bezel. A little paint has worn from the front corners.

The issues (other than the weight being more than specified) that were identified during my E6400 review link) have substantially been resolved. Updates to the Intel Matrix Storage driver resolved the optical drive problem and also the audio latency issue which troubled some people. Dell fixed the BIOS so that it no longer complains about using a 65W PSU with the E6400 with Intel graphics: The ability to use the smaller PSU offsets the higher than advertised weight of the computer. The bugs in the various Dell software packages have been substantially eliminated. However, one issue which is currently troubling some E6400 users is the throtting of the CPU long before temperatures have reached a critical level. (There is a work-around using RMClock to stop the throtting). The audio, using a pair of small tweeters, remains as bad as ever, but I always travel with some portable speakers (mainly for use with an MP3 player).

The keyboard has proved to be very comfortable during long term use and the backlighting is a feature that I would not want to lose. It improves readability under poor lighting and is invaluable during power interruptions. My one complaint about the keyboard is that I would have preferred to have the navigation keys and the delete key somewhere more accessible than the top right corner. Far too often I am using a mouse in my right hand and then having to reach across the keyboard to press Page Down or delete with my left hand. The touchpad remains another area of potential improvement. Dell would do well to offer the option of a bigger touchpad instead of the trackpoint with a second set of buttons.

The capacity of original 6 cell battery had dropped about 15% but I then did a deep discharge and most of the lost capacity reappeared. I would consider up to 20% capacity loss in one year to be reasonable. I have, however, recently invested in a 9 cell battery because I am working somewhere where long power cuts are currently a feature of daily life. The 6 cell battery could easily provide 5 hours of working time, stretchable to 6 hours with care. The 9 cell battery adds 50% to this and provides a useful buffer.

I have also progressively upgraded the storage from 160GB through 320GB to 500GB and recently treated my E6400 to a 256GB Samsung SSD as a birthday present. This has both boosted performance and reduced power consumption. The 500GB HDD is now attached to the eSATA port. The RAM was initially upgraded to 3GB and then to 4GB which RAM prices were at rock bottom. The next upgrade would be the CPU. However, it would need to be at least 25% faster to be noticeable and that doesn’t currently exist.

The hardware upgrades have boosted the PCMark05 score from about 4400 to 6000 - see the attached for details.

I have not yet needed to trouble Dell support.

John