Dell's Latitude 13 business laptop now available, looking businessy

Hey, if you're in the market for a beauty of a thin and light, and you mean business, you're in luck today. Dell's Latitude 13 laptop marketed for the business type (with a preinstalled Citrix client, simplified virtualization options and so on) is now available on the Dell site. With three customizing options -- base, economy, and productivity packages -- with a choice of Celeron M or Core 2 Solo CPUs, Linux, Vista, or Windows 7 OSs, up to 2GB of SD-RAM, and a 160GB hard drive. The starting price of one of these bad boys is $559. Hit up the source link to check it out.

[Alex Posted Mar 2nd 2010 1:37PM]

Nice... very simple and professional.

I'm so sick of slim-in-the-front, fat-in-the-back, wedge-shaped laptops. Give me something flat like this and I'm happy.

[Old fogie late bloomer Posted Mar 2nd 2010 2:22PM]

@Alex

It looks nice, sure, but spec-wise, how is this a good deal? $550 would get you an ULV proc, 4GB of DDR3 (four times as much as this), a 320GB HD (twice as much as this), and Windows Vista/7 half a year ago!

[High Posted Mar 2nd 2010 4:07PM]

@Alex

Apple's had flat, non wedge shaped laptops for years now, only they don't have the hideous chunky booty.

[Alex Posted Mar 2nd 2010 4:20PM]

@High
Sorry, I don't include laptops that cost $2000 for $750-level hardware. But I could pick on plenty of other eyesores in Mactops, like the glossy screens and the chiclet keys.

[norarobined Posted Mar 2nd 2010 7:19PM]

@Alex The machine ships with a Citrix client installed making it ready for virtualization right out of the box. Other features include WiFi, WWAN options, and an optional external Blu-ray drive. The machine lacks an internal optical drive. Pretty classy indeed. More: http://bit.ly/dell-latitude-13-edge

[AlfaCat Posted Mar 2nd 2010 8:43PM]

@Alex

I love the shape and design too. I hope it's made of metal too. I'm sick of flimsy plastic cases. If I ever buy a Macbook, than it would be mostly due to its aluminum unibody.
A nice metal sturdy good looking laptop with clean simple design is what a market is in need for.

[BrownSound Posted Mar 2nd 2010 11:50PM]

@Alex

an apple

[Prevacator Posted Mar 2nd 2010 1:39PM]

I'm really getting tired of having that bulge out of the back for all of Dell's new laptops. It's even caught with Asus' new gaming laptop the G73.

Really getting sick of that design.

[cc82 Posted Mar 2nd 2010 1:55PM]

@Prevacator
I have a Thinkpad w/ similar back-bulge (due to the battery), and have found it actually makes the laptop easier to hold when laying on the couch, propping it on your knees.... it allows you to swivel the screen back further.
Just a thought.

[Pguard Posted Mar 2nd 2010 3:00PM]

@Prevacator

The bulge is necessary to make laptops as thin as this one because the battery can make use of the screen thickness.

[yulebellow Posted Mar 2nd 2010 1:41PM]

Baby got back

[Oscarv77 Posted Mar 2nd 2010 1:43PM]

I have the Vostro equivalent and it is a nice, slim, and light laptop. It's probably as thick as a deck of playing cards.

[JeanLuc Picard Posted Mar 2nd 2010 3:02PM]

@Oscarv77
How do you like the V13? I'm considering it, does it feel slow like an atom CPU would? And can it play WoW on low settings?

[Oscarv77 Posted Mar 2nd 2010 3:17PM]

@JeanLuc Picard
I really like it, it replaced an ancient Dell X1. I got the one with the SU7300, but I've also messed with one that had a Celeron processor and it feels faster than my MSI Wind.

I haven't loaded any games on it, but the integrated Intel 4500 might have some trouble with games.

[andrewjking Posted Mar 2nd 2010 1:44PM]

It's a Zune HD laptop.

[brokensticks Posted Mar 2nd 2010 1:45PM]

This is the same hardware as the Vostro V13, right?

[Xbits Posted Mar 2nd 2010 1:47PM]

Laura - Up to 4GB RAM are possible...thank god ;-)

[DRoizman Posted Mar 2nd 2010 1:47PM]

ok I don't know about you guys, but the automatic replies on Engadget is pretty frickin' ridiculous. People reply to the first post in order to get their posts Highly Ranked, and end up ruining the comments produced by other member of engadget.

http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/691/screenshot20100302at214.png
Engadget staff listen up!
Please give us the option to hide replies, or at least automatically hide them for us.

[archkron Posted Mar 2nd 2010 1:50PM]

I really love Dell's business line styling. Clean and simple - no nonsense, no needless gloss or ricer lights.

I reckon they look better than Dell's consumer laptops, in fact.

[BeingBoston Posted Mar 2nd 2010 1:50PM]

"2GB of SD-RAM" That's going to be expensive as hell!

Why not DDR3?

[br4nd0nh347 Posted Mar 2nd 2010 7:42PM]

@BeingBoston

technically I think they are the same
DDR3 is a type of SDRAM

checking the specs it does say:

Memory34
DDR3 SDRAM (1066 MHz) one slot supporting 4GB3 DIMM.

[RayKinStL Posted Mar 2nd 2010 1:52PM]

I don't understand how this is any different from the Vostro V13...I think it has the same look, specs, and price point, unless I am over looking something.

[agahnim Posted Mar 2nd 2010 1:53PM]

@RayKinStL looks like the linux option is slightly more upgradable than the vostro, though they may have changed that too.

[Nitesh Posted Mar 2nd 2010 1:53PM]

Adamo - price - gloss = this?

[High Posted Mar 2nd 2010 1:53PM]

I'm not a very big fan of Dell's recent chunky booty design theme.

[agahnim Posted Mar 2nd 2010 1:54PM]

hrm. i wonder when or if they're going to come out with arrandale for these. did the core i5/i7 ulv get delayed or something?

[xirsteon Posted Mar 2nd 2010 2:11PM]

Dell better be careful because Apple has a patent on slim and extremely thin notebooks. :-)

Apparatus and methods covering "business and consumers notebooks" that are extremely slim and thin.

[chandler Posted Mar 2nd 2010 2:14PM]

Wow. This is absurdly overpriced. I have a 11" Acer AS1410 with similar specifications (SU3500, 11" 1366x768, 250GB, 2GB RAM, Intel WiFi 5100, 7 Home Premium), and it cost half as much as the Latitude 13 with nearly equal specifications (160GB, Vista Home Basic). Unless this thing runs for a gazillion hours on battery, I don't get it. Why aren't the newer dual-core CULV processors (SU2300 etc) available at least?

[MrX8503 Posted Mar 3rd 2010 9:47AM]

@chandler

This Vostro is .78" thin, making it possibly one of the thinnest 13" laptops. How thick is your brick of a laptop?

Thin, Light, Small = Higher cost.

[Fuzzy OneThree Posted Mar 2nd 2010 2:27PM]

What makes this better than the Vostro V13?

[Geckotek Posted Mar 2nd 2010 2:40PM]

Still just VGA out?? Pass.....

[stp147 Posted Mar 2nd 2010 2:44PM]

@Geckotek Because every conference room you've walked into has had HDMI? Remember this is a corporate laptop.

[Geckotek Posted Mar 2nd 2010 2:50PM]

@stp147 Good point, but even the consumer version is VGA and by this time most consumer displays have moved on to DVI or HDMI. In fact, the ONLY place I can think of that I need VGA is in the conference room.

[maxim Posted Mar 2nd 2010 2:56PM]

@stp147
We use 50' LCD TV in conference room in my office. Many people buy business laptops for home use also because they are more robust and don't have flashy plastic cases.

[questionexclamation Posted Mar 2nd 2010 2:44PM]

Great price. Makes me uneasy though. The batterylife of the thinkpads are a must to me as i am still in college and i'm not so sure what "6 cell" equates to in dell's website. Can anyone find any batterylife estimations? My sister is going to college as soon as fall comes around to major in business and next to a thinkpad, i think this would be terrific for her.

[Oscarv77 Posted Mar 2nd 2010 3:20PM]

@questionexclamation
Depending on what I'm doing, I get about 4.5-5 hours out of the battery. I'm sure you could get more battery life if WiFi, Bluetooth, and the screen brightness were adjusted.

[Weiman Posted Mar 2nd 2010 3:35PM]

@questionexclamation The battery is 6 cell but only 30Wh which is less than many 4 cell batteries. Battery life is around 4 hours surfing over Wifi according to notebookcheck.net's review of the Vostro V13.

[questionexclamation Posted Mar 2nd 2010 10:30PM]

@Weiman

Thanks guys! Too bad the battery-life estimations you guys showed me and that i looked seems a little too...average to say it in a less critical way...I was really hoping this would hit around 8 hours like how acer timeline ultraportables are advertised.

Love the form factor though. Hands down.

[itchyeyes Posted Mar 2nd 2010 2:53PM]

I love the design (and price) on this and the Vostro V13. If they had anything other than a POS Intel GPU I'd be all over them.

[admlshake Posted Mar 2nd 2010 3:25PM]

Dell, please PLEASE change the chassis of your latitude line!

[bradsh Posted Mar 2nd 2010 3:43PM]

Resolution is too low. I really hate that 1366x768 is the new standard. 800 pixels of screen height was bad enough, no way in HELL I'm willing to go lower. Dell needs to offer a higher DPI screen on this or its a no go

[MosWundrus Posted Mar 3rd 2010 11:47AM]

I would of been sold on this if it had ion2 this is by far the best looking netbook on the market in my opinion.

[macfly619 Posted Mar 11th 2010 12:52PM]

If you look at Dell's site and look at the specs, it says this model does use DDR3 memory and is expandable to 4GB of RAM.