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Dell Latitude D430 revealed, offers little more
Dell's business ultraportable, the Latitude D420, is getting a slight bump and a new model number soon, but those hoping for something a bit more cutting edge will have to look to other laptop manufacturers to get Santa Rosa happy. As spotted on the Dell Taiwan site, the upcoming D430 will be out July 2nd, and sport new Core 2 Duo U7600 and U1400 processors. There's also a new option for the Intel 4965 802.11n wireless card, and the SSD option is playing a bit more of a featured role this time around, but otherwise Dell is playing things pretty safe and leaving well enough alone with most of the chassis and internals. We'll see if that pays off for them soon enough.[Via laptoping.com]
Dell joins the fray, offers SSD in Latitude D420, D620
Not a moment too soon, Dell has finally decided to bite and offer up solid state disc drives in a couple of its Latitudes. Joining Sony, Fujitsu, and Samsung (just to name a few), the Texas powerhouse has just announced that users can satisfy their SSD cravings by snapping up a D420 or D620 ATG laptop, both of which can contain a 1.8-inch 32GB SSD drive from SanDisk. According to the release, the drives should be available right now as an add-on option for the US market (Europe and Asia to "follow soon"), but opting for one of these suckas will cost you $549 more than a traditional HDD.[Via Electronista]
Dell throws down the Sprint EV-DO love
Hooo boy, there's nothing we love more than faster internet access available everywhere we go. Dell's just announced a new deal with Sprint to provide integrated EV-DO access on its D420, D620 (pictured), D820, XPS M1210 and M65 lappies. (Of course, Dell has offered EV-DO and HSDPA on the D620 and D820 previously, but this brings it to a few more models.) Alternatively, you can buy a Dell Wireless 5700-S internal mini-card for your existing lappie for $180 (whether Dell will also offer an ExpressCard version for Sprint remains to be seen) -- but in either case, you'll have to pay $60 per month for a two-year unlimited data access contract (if you have a voice plan, otherwise it's $80 a month). This'll give us yet another reason to consider forking over the coinage for serious connectivity; that EDGE stuff is getting real old.
Dell's new D420 ultraportable
Dell's got a bit of a hit and miss history with ultraportables -- especially in the last couple of years, with the sleeper X1 (a rebadged Samsung Q30), and the 700m, a successful machine by all accounts, but one we just never really bought into. Their latest foray into the form factor comes as the D420, a three pound widescreen that appears to fall some place in between the D410 and the X1; expect a 12.1-inch display with Cingular or Verizon support (as expected) in the US and Vodafone overseas, as well as "802.11n ready" status (whatever that means), the Wi-Fi Catcher switch (that turns your shut-down computer into a hotspot finder), SD slot, three USB ports, one FireWire port, a Core Solo ULV processor, seven hour battery, and $1,379 base price tag. Not too shabby, but is it enough to take on Gateway's NX100X?
Dell has another Latitude on the way
We almost thought we were off the hook with these Latitude updates, after seeing the D520, D620 and D820 all receive Core Duo goodness fairly recently. Well Dell just revealed another Latitude in the works, the D420, which has a 12-inch screen and seems to hold up the ultracompact end of the spectrum. Not to be outdone by its larger siblings, the 420 will also include 3G data, but that's all we know for now. The notebook, which is due in about a month, was casually revealed during an on stage conversation with Michael Dell during the Future in Review conference today. Dell also mentioned that the company is doubling its India staff from 10,000 to 20,000 over the next three years, so get ready for some (more) hilarious phone support hijinks.
