Dell Outlet Latitude e6400 Review

Posted by Johnny on January 20th, 2009 filed in Reviews, Technology, Tips & Tricks

Having recently lost the MacBook Pro I had along with my job, I was faced with deciding between buying my own MBP, or finding a cheaper alternative. Dell Outlet was having a 15% off promotion on all their Small Business laptops at the time, and with a 30 day money back guarantee, I decided to give the Latitude e6400 a try, after reading lots positive comments.

Note that all the laptops in Dell Outlet are refurbished – but as a result of this, you can find some truly amazing deals with enough effort (their search interface is completely inadequate for anything beyond simple searches). I myself have no qualms with refurbished laptops, not having run into any issues with my previous refurbished Dell Inspiron 700m. Some even argue that refurbished laptops are better quality products, as a technician has gone through to ensure a defect-free product. New products, on the other hand, will likely only have a small number tested for defects.

The specs of the laptop I picked up were as follows:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 (2.53GHz, 6M L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
• 160 GB Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive (7200RPM)
• 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz (2 DIMMs)
• NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M With PC-Card
• 14.1 inch WXGA+ LED Laptop Screen
• 8X DVD +/- RW w/Double Layer Write Capability
• 9 Cell Battery, Primary
• Intel WiFi Link 5100 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card
• Back-lit Keyboard
• Fingerprint Reader Internal
• 0.3 Megapixel Integrated Webcam with Digital Microphone
• Genuine Windows XP Pro with Vista Business License

Which, with the 15% off, came out to $796.38. A similarly specced e6400 goes for a little over $1700 right now – more than double the cost of mine. All that was left was to decide if a MacBook Pro MB134LL/A, available for about $1300 at the UCLA student store, was worth an extra $500. (Note that all these prices are after California tax)

Having used the e6400 for about a month now, I can safely say that I’m satisfied with my decision in keeping the Dell. Being a Scratch & Dent from the Outlet, it came with some minor cosmetic defects on the lid and near the touchpad, as well as a slightly bent chassis, but the latter was easily fixed by applying slight pressure to straighten it. The quality of the webcam, which I had doubts about with it being such low resolution, was acceptable and not as bad as I’d feared. Noise isn’t much of an issue either during normal use, but be warned that the optical drive is rather loud. Heat dissipation is better than the MBP, with temperatures generally around 44-50°C per core, 45°C for the GPU, and 55-60°C for the chipset in Windows, while the GPU runs around 55-60°C in Ubuntu, since I have all the eye candy turned on. What this translates to is that your palms might feel a bit warm, and you probably won’t want to keep it on your lap either, but it’s no different from my experience with the MBP.

It’s not without its flaws though. The touchpad is a bit small, and the presence of vertical and horizontal scrolls restricts the space even further. They can also be frustrating to use at times, with the touchpad not always picking up my scroll attempts. I do miss the MBP’s Multi-Touch trackpad, which is probably the best touchpad I’ve used to date. The built-in speakers can also sound a bit harsh at times, though I acclimated quickly. Also, while the LED screen looks great, its slightly bluish tint might be an issue to those concerned with color accuracy – it may be possible to color calibrate though. Lastly, and I feel this is true of most mass-manufactured laptops, the Dell comes pretty bloated with what I feel is a lot of unnecessary software. My next post will cover the process I went through to reformat and dual boot Windows XP and Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex.

For those looking for more information, either before or after getting a e6400, check out the Latitude e6400 Owners Lounge over at NotebookReview.com. And if you’re looking for photographs, I’ll be adding them to this post when I’m back in the States – I’m not able to get proper shots without my photo equipment.