Dell Latitude C400 - Great size but better choices are available
Written: Apr 20 '04
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Pros: Small size, light weight.
Cons: Clumsy cabled media drives, USB port problems. Tiny keyboard.
The Bottom Line: Decent choice if you rarely use media drives. USB port will not support some common devices. Stick with a machine that does not required media drives to be cabled.
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| mccorma's Full Review: Dell Latitude™ C400 PC Notebook |
The Dell Latitude C400 was my first venture into a laptop computer to use around the house, mainly for web surfing. I bought it new (refurbished) in July of 2002. While I have not had any problems with it (other than with some USB problems which I will mention later) and it has served me well, I believe there are better choices available.
I was attracted to the Dell because of it's slim profile and light weight. My particular machine has a P3 processor at 850mhz and came with 256mb of memory, which I upgraded to 512mb. The screen size is about 12" and the hard drive is a very usable 30gb.
Unfortunately, the slim profile of the C400 requires that the drives for removable media (CD/DVD and floppy drives) come separately and must be connected to the machine by a cable about 6" long. This is tolerable if you are working on a desktop or table, but if you are trying to actually use the machine in your "lap", you will be stuck with a cumbersome device hanging off the side. To get around this, I went to EBay and found a Dell docking station for the C400 for only $12, and leave it in my home office. The docking station accepts the media drives as well as all the normal peripherals so this might work for you.
I typically use my C400 to surf the web via wireless connection from various parts of the house. For this application, the small size and weight are nice, again provided you don't need to pop in a CD or DVD.
Battery life is so-so, even fully charged the life meter shows only around 2 hours (against specs of 4 hours) but I've found the meter to be inaccurate. It may show an hour of time left and then maybe only 15 minutes later, the yellow warning light comes on, telling you that battery life is critically low. I saw this problem mentioned by another reviewer also. Dell has released quite a few BIOS upgrades on their website; the latest (A12) does mention some improvements in the charging system but I have not been running the new BIOS long enough to say that there is any real improvement.
The C400 has only one USB port, and it is the older, slower version (USB 1.0). The output of the USB is apparently inadequate to sync and charge some devices, most importantly my Dell Axim handheld PDA. If you plug in a device that (evidently) draws too much power, the USB port shuts down with an error message about a "USB power surge". I've seen this complaint logged on several support websites, with no solution. My advice is that if you use the USB ports on your machine for anything beyond a basic mouse or other low-powered device, definitely avoid the C400!!
The small size of the C400 means that the keyboard is extra tiny and hard to navigate. The small screen (12") is ok but may be a bit small for some. Of course, there are always tradeoffs for less size and less weight when it comes to portables.
I bought my C400 from Dell from their Dell "Outlet", which sells refurbished products. I've owned several Dell machines, and the only one I have had problems with was the one that was NOT a refurbished product so go figure. I don't believe that the C400 is a current model now, it has been replaced with other versions of the Latitude series. I see that used C400's can still bring $600 or so on EBay, but my advice would be to investigate a new or refurbished Inspiron series which can be bought for under $1000 and will have the media drives mounted in the machine. The size and weight might be slightly more but the convenience will be worth it.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 1600(refurb)
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 801-900
Screen Size: 12 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 31-40
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Epinions.com ID:
mccorma
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Location: Atlanta, GA
Reviews written: 35
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
Financial professional, age 52, male.
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