Dell Latitude 13: a thin-and-light for big business

Dell is serious about its thin and light class of machines judging by its ability to churn out these lovely lappies from its Adamo design studio. Today we've got the Latitude 13. Oh sure, it looks almost exactly like the Vostro v13 for small businesses but this is Latitude brother, Dell's mainstream business brand. As such, it comes fully IT-ified with a preinstalled Citrix client, easier virtualization options, and baked in know-how for system image and software update distribution. So it's not really new, but it's still "the world's thinnest 13-inch commercial client laptop," according to Dell and that's gotta be worth a second look when it begins shipping in a few weeks.

[Brian Posted Feb 2nd 2010 8:57AM]

Looks pretty good but the price is a little much for the low specs.

[Anticrawl Posted Feb 2nd 2010 9:05AM]

Looks interesting but if the Vostro is any indication this won't be worth a damn. I think Acer has the market dominated in "ultraportables" with it's epic Timeline series. Mmmm gotta get me one of those 11.6 or 13.3 Timelines. Now however if this has dedicated graphics and boasts the same battery we have a winrar.

[boe Posted Feb 2nd 2010 9:44AM]

I'm a huge fan of thin and light but until they get the speed up on thin and light, I find them frustrating. I have a Sony Z right now which is a tad over 3lbs. It is a tad over an inch thick. I'd be happy to replace it with something thinner and lighter IF I could get something with a fast processor and an optical drive. I set up a lot of ultrathin laptops for my clients which I envy in some ways such as the X but I remember why I don't have one the moment I wait for boot up, or try to copy large amounts of data to or from or try to install programs such as Rosetta which will only install from disc. And I remember they can't just pop in a DVD if they are on a flight or stuck in a hotel room.

[toyboytech Posted Feb 4th 2010 11:45AM]

i find the DELL VOSTRO V13 almost perfect for its size and price. But the drawback overwhelms the want of a slim and perfect sized laptop. The battery is integrated directly into the case, now dell...why would you want to do like how Mac Air does it? i would personally get this laptop if its the battery is removable!