Latitude E4310 sneaks onto Dell's e-tail pages, 'coming soon'
By Vlad Savov 
posted May 4th 2010 4:32AM
posted May 4th 2010 4:32AM
[Thanks, Jason]
posted May 4th 2010 4:32AM
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thinkpad is got some competition
IMO the Latitude E4300 was one of the best Dell had to offer. We had no problems with them in the company I work at. E6400 and E6500 was another story.
Hoping the E4310 is just as good.
@BakerT There was a batch quality issue with the hard drives on the 4300 - not really Dell's fault but many people received slow laptops with a knocking sound coming from the HDD. And yes the 6400's had quite a few issues, mainly graphics card related. These kind of 3rd party issues can happen to most notebook manufacturers though, where Dell wins through is how well these laptops are designed for corporate use; relatively inexpensive, but everything is made as easy as possible for the administrator.
@BakerT Probably, I have an e6400 here (XP version) works great although sometimes it has problems with battery-heat. Opinions,, http://bit.ly/dell-latitude-e6410-prev
I'm impressed with their aesthetics - particularly the E6410 ATG. But why would they create such a sleek, high-performance package and give it such a weak screen resolution (1440x900 on the 14").
It seems every maker is outdoing the other on the opposite features, but no one has made the total package yet. My money stays in my pocket until they stop falling short on consumers.
@Coswyn
Not everybody wants higher resolution than that, the reason being font sizes and other things. I'm actually not sure if Windows 7 does things differently, but on previous versions of Windows, at least, going to "large fonts" really messes up a lot of stuff. I don't actually see how Windows 7 could do anything about that, because web sites, for example, are designed around certain font sizes, so changing them in software will often screw up formatting.
I have a 1280x800 screen right now and I just ordered a laptop with a 1366x768 screen - that's plenty. I already have a hard enough time reading stuff like the "please keep your comments relevant" box to the right of this comment as I'm writing it.
@badasscat Agree completely. I sent my last Tecra back and switched to a Portege with a lower screen res so I could read the fonts.
@badasscat : That's understandable, and I'm not speaking for everyone, but I'm not saying high resolution should be standard on every laptop, just optional. It's a real stick in my craw that they offer 1920x1080 on the 15.6" (with 1366x768 being standard on it), but the most they go to on the 14.1" models is 1440x900. Being in the market for a notebook right now I would likely put the E6410 ATG at the top of my list if it had a WSXGA+ (1680x1050) option, or something close - but emphasis there is on 'option', as I support a lower resolution being standard for the reason that you stated. I hope manufacturers will consider this more seriously.
http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/blogger/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/dell_dude.jpg
@ddddd When you say "beautiful" do you mean really beautiful? God. horrible design. quality may be good, but compared to Apple (or even Sony) design is under 0.
@Onil What? Go jerk off to a unibody mac. I'll be here enjoying my slick angled ridges and seams.
These laptops are beautiful. If only I could order one with a consumer graphics card instead of a business one...
Understated functional industrial > minimalist quasi-futuristic, in my book anyway.
Look pretty sleek and pretty outside but price/performance ratio is ugly.
@cdf74dc9
it's a latitude; people quickly paid $1700 for the last 13 inch latitude, and this ones even better.
Oh Dell, can you please get rid of that optical drive? This thing could've been a bit thinner and much sexier.
@pika2000
Well you can always replace it will a extra hdd, and do a raid setup
@pika2000
TIehat, and it's their business line; people actually work on these cough*macbookair. Have you ever had a non-psychological problem where your laptop was too thick?
@Failbait Fail. I have the Latitude 4200, no optical drive. And who's talking about the MBA? Do you love Apple so much that you have to mention Apple in a thread about Dell?
@pika2000
I was ripping on the MacBook air as being a computer no one does any real work on. My post barely demonstrates love for the fruit company.
@Onil
Apples design is pretty gay, sorry to break it to you
its nice but 1100 for an i5 seems kinda pricey. HP is selling quad i7 (not the dual like apple) for 800 with a coupon. If it runs cool and has good battery life it could be worth it.
@PrinceAli Dell Latitude (business) line is more expensive because they have proper support (unlike the consumer side).
@PrinceAli
Dell sells plenty of i5 laptops for less. I just ordered a Vostro 3500 with an i5 and a GeForce 310M for $740.
The Latitudes are more expensive because they're built tougher and they come with 3 years of full support standard. The Vostros come with only a 1 year warranty and more limited support, and they don't have the steel hinges or anything (they're "zinc-reinforced"). But if you want a cheaper i5, get a Vostro.
@badasscat
Thanks, but I'm not on the market, although I'd love to get a new laptop right now. I don't like the build quality of HP, are the Vostros built any better?
@PrinceAli yes.
@PrinceAli
I actually don't know yet, but I'm banking on it. I ordered the Vostro in part because they have an aluminum lid and at least partially aluminum chassis, plus those zinc-reinforced hinges. So Dell's at least making them out to be somewhat tougher than most laptops. But obviously they want to sell Latitudes too, so I'm not expecting my Vostro to be as tough as that.
I break all of my laptops (seriously, I've never owned one that didn't break), so I definitely need something that's above average in toughness, and that's why I didn't go with a consumer laptop from HP (or Dell). Then again, that's also why I bought my current ThinkPad, and it is now broken in three separate ways. (I can barely use it - I have to tilt my screen forward for the backlight to come on.) So I'm not totally sure the Vostro's going to be tough enough for me... if not, I'll get a Latitude next time.
UWB radio? Ummm ... for what? Is Dell referring to Wireless USB?
Our Dell account manager said that Dell is (already?) retiring all ??00 models(ie E4300, E6400, E6500, etc). They are switching totally to ??10 line.
So folks, no point in buying anything but these new 10 models.
I question the wisdom of the trend of ever increasingly wider screen. consumer, fine, better movie watching (though really?).
It doesn't really make whole a lot of sense in a business computer. most of application are vertical design: web page (scroll down, not sideways), word documents, etc. Spreadsheet or Presentation might be OK, still I don't see really benefits here, especially on such a small screen.
the only reason might be the you can cut more panels with this size, thus increase profit.
@spacemonkey5
All creative apps benefit from a wider screen. So do Excel, Vizio, Project and a lot of other business-oriented apps.
Pretty much the only things that *don't* benefit are web browsing or programming.
one usb port.....cooomooon !!!!!!
and i thought apple was laughing in my face
@Zslap Nope. There are 2. One port doubles as USB and eSATA. The other is USB only.