Dell Latitude E6430 14" (320 GB, Intel Core i3, 2.5 GHz, 4 GB) Notebook - E6430

Finally a change in office laptop and here I'm reviewing my 2 month old Dell Latitude E6430. This laptop replaces the HP Elite 8440p. 

Since the specs could differ between similar models of laptops here's some topline specs which might come in handy when reading through performance sections. 

Processor - Intel Core i5 @ 2.7ghz
Ram - 4GB
Graphics - Intel HD4000
HD - 320GB
Display - 14" @ 1366x768 resolution
OS - Win7 32 bit

The construction
The lid comes in gunmetal gray color with the Dell logo at the center. Although it looks good it tends to get fingerprint marks which will stay for sometime unless wiped off. On the curved edges of the body runs a magnesium alloy frame which seem to hold everything in place securely. The lid also has indicator lights for power, hard disk and battery. 

The bottom of the laptop is all black plastic with a docking station bay. The air vent is on the left side which also has the headphone input, VGA display out, 1 USB 2.0 port and smart card slot. 

Back of the laptop has the network connector slot, power slot, modem slot, security cable hole, and HDMI connector. 

On the right side of the body you get 1 eSata/USB 2.0 combo slot, 1 USB 3.0 slot and 1 powered USB 3.0 (where you can plug in devices that can power through USB like printers etc. ). Also you get the DVD drive, wireless on/off switch and express card slot. 

Above the screen you get the mic, camera and camera status light while the sliding latch to release the lid also resides in the front lip of the notebook.  

On the keyboard side of the body you get the power button, decently sized 2 button touch pad, and indicator lights for hard disk, battery and wireless while volume up/down/mute buttons are to the right of the keyboard. At the very front of the user are the SD memory card reader slot and built in speakers. 

What my machine does not have but are available optional features in the Dell Latitude E6430
Backlit keyboard, fingerprint scanner, trackstick, smartcard reader. Also SSD (solid state drive), more RAM (upto 16GB), dedicated graphic card, larger hard disk, HD resolution screen are all optional. 

Now on to performance and what I liked about what I'v got. 
If you are coming from a 2GB RAM system the upgrade to 4GB RAM will definitely show you an increase in overall speed. However with the 32bit Windows operating system the actual usable RAM is restricted to 3.4GB. For full use of 4GB or more RAM you need a 64bit version of the OS. unfortunately for me I cannot reconfigure this laptop since it's my office workstation. 

Plugging in a USB 2.0 portable drive to the USB 3.0 USB slot surprisingly gave a much speedier file transfer than before. However since my previous HP 8440p had an entirely different configuration (Win XP, USB 2.0 slots, Corei3, 2GB RAM etc) the increase in file transfer speed could be coming due to a different factor than the USB 3.0 slot. 

The most used feature of the laptop is the keyboard so a few words on it. It doesn't have a dedicated number pad but coupled with the Fn key there's a secondary number keys on the right side of the letter keys.  These would come in handy if the top row of dedicated number keys fail. The 86 keys are quite adequately large, soft and silent with only the space bar making its usual clicking sound. Another major plus factor is that the keyboard is spill resistant. Although nothing has spilled onto my keyboard yet its a nice feature since I always have my coffee next to my laptop when working or at home. 

The touchpad is smooth with its soft touch buttons however I rarely use it since I use a USB mouse. The plastic palm rest on either side of the touchpad is soft and comfortable allowing for extended typing time without discomfort. 

The 1366 x 768 display is decent although not the sharpest. Colors aren't the liveliest but for a business laptop the display is adequate. The brightness can be easily controlled by the Fn key and the Up/down arrows. The brightness and dim levels are quite good. 

Audio is decent on the dual front facing speakers. Sounds are crisp and loud and doesn't crackle at its highest volume. Is it really loud to watch a movie? No. But for conferencing with a small group of people its adequate. The Volume up/down/mute buttons on the right hand side away from the keyboard comes in handy without fumbling for the audio icon in the notification center but not as quick as a sliding touch sensitive volume controller you find in entertainment laptops. Also the mic being on the top of the front display flap is great since voice goes through loud and clear. Some machines I have used have the mic somewhere near the keyboard which is awful and wrong placement and you end up shouting or looking down at the keyboard when talking. 

Webcam is a standard 1.3MP which as anyone would know serves for very grainy, washed out pictures. I rarely use it. 

My Dell Latitude E6430 came with a 6 cell battery and last approx 4-5 hrs which is great. I tend to keep the laptop plugged in all the time which is not supposed to be a good practice as it tends to deplete the battery sooner. 

My laptop usually stays on for 24hrs on continuous basis most of the time. Because of that I have placed the laptop on a stand which lifts the back of the laptop by about half an inch. Apart from the soft sound of the cooling fan there's hardly any internal noise and the laptop stays surprisingly cool. Hardly any heat build up is felt if you run your hands along any part of the laptop body. Even the cooling vent doesn't really spew out heated air. That's a great plus and an indication there would not be any melting chips inside the motherboard! (I have gone thru 3 laptops which heated over time and melted the on board display chip)

Cons
Being a heavy laptop at 5 pounds for a 14" display I really felt Dell could have made the laptop smaller in size to reduce weight. The frame around the screen is about 1 inch which could have been easily trimmed to make the laptop smaller and lighter possibly. 

Something which never seems to get fixed regarding the placement of the USB and other ports is that they are very close to each other. Plugging in some USB devices such as pen drives with a large body which doesnt have a cord can easily cover the adjacent USB slot. 

Need more info? Leave a comment.


Two of my favourtie software are given below with my review on them.
BitDefender Internet Security 2014 review 
TuneUp Utilities 2013 Review

Recommend this product? Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 800