Dell's ruggedized Latitude ATG D620 launched, reviewed
If you're interested in getting into the semi-ruggedized laptop game, but aren't quite ready to sacrifice those Dell, um, good looks, then you might dig this new ATG D620 Latitude from your boringbook manufacturer of choice, which claimed to be considering going rugged late last year. The new laptop plays off of that plain vanilla D620 we saw early last year, but beefs up the exterior, shock-mounts the hard drive, spill-resists the keyboard and covers up those ports to defend against the harsh outdoors and / or occasional board meeting skirmish. The 1280 x 800 14.1-inch display is the same as its non-rugged counterpart, with the notable exception of 500 nits of brightness, making the display much more viewable outdoors. The laptop also includes ATG task lights for finding the keyboard in the dark, and that lovable selection of WWAN options Dell is so fond of providing these days. No pre-loaded Vista here, but the laptop does come Vista ready, and with Core 2 Duo processors and room for 4GB of RAM, there should be plenty under the hood to manage the new OS. Prices start at $2499. The folks over at Notebook Review already got their hands on one of these, and they seemed to enjoy the 500 nit screen, thought the battery life to be good with the 9-cell option, and found the rugged feel to be "convincing." Downsides of the laptop include the lack of dedicated graphics, the 1.8-inch HDD (since the full-size drives don't fit with all that padding) and a few other more minor quibbles.
Read - Dell Launches its First Ruggedized Notebook
Read - Dell Latitude ATG D620 Semi-Rugged Notebook Review
