A Good Attitude Toward the Dell Latitude
Written: Jun 22 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Light weight, fast, easy to use
Cons: Keyboard is small, fingerstick hurts
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| KCFemme's Full Review: Dell Latitude CPx H500GT |
My company currently uses two types of laptop computers, the IBM Thinkpad and the Dell Latitude CPx. I have had the opportunity to use both of these, as well as the Gateway Solo, and have found that Latitude has definitely surpassed the others.
Weight - The Latitude weighs almost 7 pounds. Not too shabby if you are carrying it from one room to another. But if you are going to travel with it, add another 2 pounds for the accessories (plugs & floppy drive) plus another 2 for the carrying bag, it could be a little cumbersome if you have to walk from one end of O’Hare Airport to the other end. However, on a lighter note (yes, pun intended), it does weigh less that the bulky IBM Thinkpad.
Speed - I love the speed of this machine. The Latitude comes with a Pentium III processor and we ordered ours with 128Mg of memory. I usually use T3 access at work so web pages just pop up immediately. However when I take it home and work off line I don’t have to wait too long for things to happen. Applications are quick to open and close, and even surfing the Internet goes quickly. The speed is very comparable to my desktop at home which is a Pentium III with 128Mg of memory.
Video - The LCD screen on the Latitude is a 14.1” viewing area. It does not put off a lot of glare that a lot of screens do. I do prefer a larger viewing area so I usually hook it up to my 21” monitor, but on the occasion that I need to use it away from the big screen, at least I’m not squinting to see what I’m doing. In addition, it is very easy to switch back and forth between the two monitors or even have them both running at the same time.
Floppy Disk vs. CD-Rom - The Latitude came with both a CD-ROM and Floppy. However, only one can be locked into the machine at any given time. If you want to use both, you can hook up the floppy with an extra cord, but not the CD. Unfortunately, these two are NOT hot-swappable (changing devices while the computer is on). If you take one out while the computer is still on and replace it with the other, not only will the second device not work, but the first won’t either. You must shut down the computer and install which device you want to use before turning the computer back on. I did like the Solo for the fact that it was hot swappable.
Input Devices - Of course the Latitude comes with input devices … you have a built in keyboard and mouse! What more can you ask for? Well, for anyone with larger hands … ask for a regular keyboard and mouse to hook up to it! Don’t get me wrong, the keyboard and mouse (touch pad or finger stick) are useful when in the situation of traveling or needing to something quick. But when it comes to the long haul, using the computer for hours at a time, definitely get hooked up with a different keyboard and mouse.
The keyboard is small, and if you are a regular typist it might through you off because the spacing is different than normal keyboards. In addition, the keys are rather flat so you might accidentally be typing in different letters than you wanted. And when it comes to those mistakes you make, and you go to hit the backspace button or the delete button, it may take you a minute of searching.
As for the touch pad and the finger stick … I don’t mind the touch pad, but I really don’t like the finger stick. The finger stick is very rough (obviously so you can get a grip) and will leave your finger somewhat callused after long periods of use. The touch pad is very responsive though. Not nearly as accurate as if you had a Microsoft Intellimouse Optical hooked up to it, but it holds it own. The nice part is that if you have an external mouse hooked up, the touch pad automatically shuts off so you don’t have any accidents just by brushing against it.
Other Peripherals - Other than just the computer, what else do you want to use? Do you have a printer? Want to dial into your ISP? Do you have a Palm Pilot? The Latitude accommodates even those of us with lots of gadgets! It has two PCMCIA slots for your network cards or your modem cards. If has an extra serial port and USB port so you can hook up your Palm Pilot, and a parallel port so you can hook up your printer too. What about that extra keyboard and mouse? Plug them into a Y-splitter and hook them on it too!
The Dell Latitude is definitely a good buy in my book. It may have a few small downfalls, but those are easy to work around and the other benefits of using it definitely outweigh them. If you travel a lot or work for a large company that changes a lot (meaning you move cubes often) then I would definitely recommend this easy to use and very portable laptop computer. And you only sit at your desk or work at home, and don’t ever move your computer, it would still be a really good deal because it doesn’t take up nearly as much space as some of the desktops and towers do. This would also be great for the student that works on homework in the dorm, at home on Christmas break or in the Student Union (just so they can get away from their room-mate!)
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): Approx. $3000
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 501-600
Screen Size: 14"
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: CD-ROM
Hard Drive (GB): 4-6
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KCFemme
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