I've been on a laptop hunt for months now. I've been lugging an Inspiron 7500 around. It's a great laptop, but I needed just a bit more CPU speed in order to do my work. I wanted integrated 802.11, I was tired of unplugging my PCMCIA ethernet card when on the go, and I was sick of dealing with broken dongles. I still curse Dell for not including an integrated NIC in the Inspiron 7500.

Since having the bleeding edge of technology seems to mean less and less, I felt my new laptop should include a portability upgrade. I could rarely open the 7500 on a plane. But I wasn't ready to give up what I was used to with my Inspiron 7500: Battery life, a real serial port (a must in my field), a high resolution screen, and a fast hard disk. Oh and of course, a built in ethernet jack.

I almost overlooked the C640 and Inspiron 4200 laptops, simply because they were lower numbered models. I finally found a review of the C640 and realized it had everything I wanted. It even has better rated battery life than it's big brother! It's all there - wireless, a high resolution SXGA screen, a good, but not overkill 3D accelerator, a fast 40GB 5400 RPM hard disk, expandability to 1GB of RAM, it even takes the same fast P4M 2.2ghz that the 8200 can, all in a "thin and light" package that can really be used on your lap. Just like my old Inspiron, I can swap out the DVD (now doubling as a burner!) with the second battery I purchased.

The C640 and the Inspiron 4200 are, apparently, the same laptop. The Inspiron has more personality features, the Latitude is more business oriented. The one other thing I wasn't thrilled about with my 7500 was that it's construction felt a bit sloppy. The price of the two came out to be about the same so I went for the Latitude. Most of the comparisons between the two show the Latitude as being a more solid case, and I have to say this is a nice tight package.

The screen's 14.1 inches, but I still find it comfortable to use at 1400x1050. It doesn't feel that I've lost much from my old 15" 1280x1024 screen. I need all that resolution for programming, so I'm most thankful to have this excellent option in the smaller footprint package, even though I'd recommend the base 1024x768 screen for most general users.

Another review of this laptop mentioned that the fan was too noisy or aggressive. Mine has only come on a couple times when pushing it hard, and when it does, it's a nice soft blowing noise, compared to the loud screeching of my old Inspiron 7500's fan.

Very happy!

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 2500
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 14 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40