Desktop or Mobile Computing at its best
Written: Jun 12 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: high quality, excellent peripheral, large hard drive.
Cons: any maintenance will take at least an hour.
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| dbodily's Full Review: Dell Latitude Cpi A400XT |
The Dell Latitude CPI-A400 is one of the best best laptops that Dell Has ever put out. Our company starting deploying these laptops and servicing to our client. I have found that these laptops take windows of all flavors without any problems. I have installed windows 95 and windows NT and have seen windows 2000 on one of the CPI-A400 laptops. Having a C-dock or port replicator or docking station allows the CPI-A400 to emulate a desktop machine.
I am most familiar with the CPI-A400 running windows NT 4.0 since I am in an NT shop. I have helped deploy over 90 of the CPI-A laptops since march. The CPI-A400 laptops are replacing a number of different laptops that have been deployed in the past. My clients for the majority have lauded the fact that they are getting these laptops over the Micron Millenia laptops that they Had previously.
The Dell Cpi-A400 laptops are lighter than many of the laptops that are out on the market of equal size. Having a light laptop for travel is great. Having a laptop that not only can function like a desktop and a laptop is even better. The Cpi-A400 can do just that.
Each laptop is deployed with 128MB of ram, Psion Gold PC CARD, 3COM 10/100 Ethernet PC CARD NIC, 24X CD-ROM, Floppy Drive, 2 batteries, C-Port II, and a 6.4 GB hard drive. In addition the laptop has a 13.3 inch XGA display, allows the use of both batteries to allow the 4 hours of battery use.
The latitude Cpi-A400 Laptop screen is very good allowing for excellent viewing with little glare. The Cpi-A400 laptops use high quality screen to allow a greater viewing angle.
I have also had to perform maintenance on the Cpi-A400. I have replaced laptop screens which have been attributed to user abuse. I have replaced replaced the cooling fans as well. The maintenance on the laptops are not user servicable. All laptops need to be taken to an approved service center or to an authorized repair person.
So for the good about this laptop: Sturdy case, large hard drive, excellent screen, C-Port II, 3COM 10\100 ethernet card, Psion 56K gold card modem, and the ability to use 2 batteries at the same time.
Drawbacks: CD-ROM and Floppy drives are not hotswappable (can not be removed and installed and be recognized on the fly.) Seemingly simple repairs like a fan requires a motherboard replacement.
The Dell Latitude Cpi-A400 Laptop is a high quality laptop that I wish I was putting ON MY workstation rather than my clients. so i am giving the laptop 5 stars for quality, 5 stars for ease of use, 3 stars for ease of maintenance. for an overall 4 star rating.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 69/month lease over 3 years
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 301-400
Screen Size: 13"
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: CD-ROM
Hard Drive (GB): 4-6
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Epinions.com ID:
dbodily
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Member: Douglas
Reviews written: 72
Trusted by: 28 members
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