CelticWonder wrote:Inconceivable!

You keep on using that word...

kmontrose wrote:I wish it did come with Win 7PRO. I'm seriously considering it but would have to upgrade to use it for work. Anybody know how much it would cost to upgrade?

Also, I'm a fan of business Care support from Dell. I have had good experience with them. Wasn't aware there were different tiers for support, but it makes sense.

Same system specs with pro for $849 at tiger direct. that me be a better choice for you since you want 7pro.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1990178&CatId=4939

We deploy these in our corporate environment, and they are solid laptops. With the SSD, they are ripping fast. This price is pretty reasonable for these units. In fact, I'm typing this on one of these right now...

I just configured this on the Dell website. Other than the fact that it comes with Win 7 Pro (no option to downgrade) I think I have the specs right and it priced out at $1733. And that's with a $493 discount.

I am concerned about the level of support. It says 3 year warranty but are we getting business level service? This is what showed up as the default (free) option.

Hardware Support Services:
3 Year Basic Hardware Service with 3 Year NBD Limited Onsite Service After Remote Diagnosis

mtracy2 wrote:Same system specs with pro for $849 at tiger direct. that me be a better choice for you since you want 7pro.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1990178&CatId=4939

Thanks - I'll check it out!

wesrob66 wrote:Just thought I'd ask if this puppy has a backlit keyboard? I always work with Dell and see this line of latitude in my office a lot lately. They're very nice machines!

This model does not come natively with the backlit keyboard, but you can obtain one fairly easily (eg. here is an Ebay link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Backlit-Dell-Latitude-E6320-E6420-E5420-E6420-ATG-XT3-CN5HF-0CN5HF-Keyboard-/320820934821?pt=PCA_Mice_Trackballs&hash=item4ab26af8a5 ). I work with Dell laptops and I can tell you firsthand that swapping the keyboard is unbelievably easy on this amchine.

3 year warranty... does that include accidental damage?

Tough call one of these or 2 of the lenovo's.
SSD is really nice but the Intel graphics scare me.

This looks like a pretty good deal once you get some more memory. Dell makes great stuff as I am still using my XPS m1530 even though it got dropped and bent up a corner, still works just fine.

As for their customer service it is what it is but they do offer a decent basic level and you can always pay to get a higher level.

migizi wrote:Buy at your own risk. My company switched away from Dell because the E-series has had so many issues. The E6420 may have fixed that issue but we switched before deploying more than 20 of them. I know we have still had a bunch of the E6420s in for repair. Customer support also took a huge dive in the last few years and we were paying for gold support.

Interesting. We have about 500 e6420's laying about being used. Support has been phenomenal and fast, and we have had few issues. Parts/service arrives quickly and even dropped units are serviced and returned in under 2 weeks typically.

darck wrote:Tough call one of these or 2 of the lenovo's.
SSD is really nice but the Intel graphics scare me.

Runs 1920 x 1080 video playback effortlessly. Lots of folk at the office play League of Legends on them just fine.

Duukdkarn wrote:I bought a $3000 XPS Laptop from dell as a gaming rig for my wife. It lasted only 3 years before overheating the battery and the vid card. Video card became obsolete after 3 years yet Dell wanted 800 bucks just to put in a refurbished vid card of the same model. I told them to shove it. Dell is notorious for crappy heat management and I had tried to keep this thing alive after the first battery died by getting the FanGUIGold program. It was specifically written for dell laptops to control the fans for heat mangement. Never buying a dell again. I bought a really nice Samsung i7 laptop (17 inch) that only weighs 4 lbs from MS Store for $1000 and got a free Xbox 360 4GB with it. Stay away from this laptop.

Here is an equivalent Laptop at 20 bucks more without the dell problems... and $200 gift certificate. http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/pd/Acer-Aspire-S3-951-6464/productID.237488800/vip.true

That is because it is a consumer grade laptop. This is a business grade laptop. The few XPS machines we have are sh*t build quality and servicing them is painful. In fact I am arguing with Dell about getting an XPS serviced right now.

radi0j0hn wrote:As much as I dislike moving parts in my storage, I still think SSDs are in the "early technology" stage and don't trust them in computers.

They have been out for about 5 years now. What don't you trust? Did you stick with Punch cards because you didn't trust hard drives too?

The sheer experience in boot times makes an SSD worth the investment alone.

I buy laptops for my group at work, and this is one of our standards, along with Lenovo and HP. Dell had some issues some years back, but the current models are great. I have the previous model of this one (6410) and love it. Bear in mind that technology does not like me, I should be a tester with what oddities happen. I have not had any issues with my Dell, and of the 10+ people in my group that have this exact model that's up on Woot - all of them are extremely happy with their purchase. Having an SSD drive should be mandatory from now on, they are so much better and make the performance of the machine faster. My only complaint is the orange piping, but that's aesthetics and nothing more.

verucht wrote:I thought the second gen i5 chips where quad core?

Intel has released dual core i5 and i7 chips for laptops.

My work issued-laptop is a Latitude E6320 (as opposed to the E6420 on sale)- same case design, but with a dual-core i7-2620M Processor. Any gain in performance from that is probably offset by the fact that my company build is still Windows XP-based and we're still running Office 2003 (and remarkably I have yet to hang myself).

Obviously I can't directly compare speed, but I can speak to the other components and say that this is a very quiet model, the keyboard is decent, the screen is very clear and bright. I am not particularly gentle with laptops and this has so far proven to be very hardy, though I occasionally run into touchpad propblems like I do on pretty much every laptop I've used.

Who said this was a good deal? Whatever.... Dell sucks. And these specs aren't that great. I could go to Frys or Best Buy and get a better Deal. come on WOOT! Get your fertilizer together.

knutzrd wrote:Who said this was a good deal? Whatever.... Dell sucks. And these specs aren't that great. I could go to Frys or Best Buy and get a better Deal. come on WOOT! Get your fertilizer together.

Agreed, after the last over $2k dell laptop I bought was a steaming pile of crap, I won't touch another one with a 10-foot pole. The 3-year warranty I got with it was worthless since dell refused to fix anything.

To clarify the subject computer is a Precision M4400 that was nearly fully loaded (core 2 quad, RGB LED screen etc) and I was dealing with the business support. Though I can't say what their current build quality is...

To anyone in doubt about these computers, let me chime in as we have about 30 of these machines.

First off, if you've had problems with Dell's tech support, I'd bet you were not using a Latitude system. The Latitudes are a business line and you'll find yourself talking to someone who is most likely based in Oklahoma. English is their first language and they are very polite, helpful, and will listen to you if you know what you're doing.

Build quality on these machines is top notch. They don't flex if you pick them up by one corner. They use good materials and feel like a premium product.

As for fan noise, I've rarely even noticed the fan when it is running.

I wouldn't hesitate on picking up these machines for a very good price.

Does anyone know if this comes with Intel vPro (and remote KVM mode)?

Hellga wrote:This is the first time I've seen someone use "discrete" correctly (as opposed to using it in place of "discreet") in well over a year. Thank you for restoring my hope for humanity.

Because all hope for humanity is lost when people can't distinguish between two virtually identical words that sound the same particularly when everyone understands what someone is saying even when they use the wrong one. You sir are the kind of person who makes everyone else lose their faith in humanity.

Also can anybody compare the Trackpoint to IBM ones?

knutzrd wrote:Who said this was a good deal? Whatever.... Dell sucks. And these specs aren't that great. I could go to Frys or Best Buy and get a better Deal. come on WOOT! Get your fertilizer together.

There is a huge difference between consumer level products (like you would find at Frys/BB) and business level products (this WOOT item). Even if they are from the same vendor (Dell)!

It's like you're complaining that a thoroughbred horse can't be that impressive because you went trail riding once at a local farm on a stable nag and weren't impressed with that one. And then bragging that you could find a Kentucky Derby winner at your local pet store.

If you want consumer level garbage, then go buy it. But don't proclaim that it's better than higher-quality items.

Just put together this exact set up at dell.com and it came out to over $1600. So, this is a really good price.

mtracy2 wrote:Same system specs with pro for $849 at tiger direct. that me be a better choice for you since you want 7pro.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1990178&CatId=4939

If you can source a Dell OEM Win7Pro disk from work you can up it to that for the cost of nothing.

ub3rdud3 wrote:If you can source a Dell OEM Win7Pro disk from work you can up it to that for the cost of nothing.

According to Woot, this one comes with Windows 7 Pro.

Dagnamit, WOOT!, you took my money again!

Every day I tell myselft that there is nothing more I need in my life, and yet, all too often, the psychic WOOT! gods post exactly what I've been shopping for - a laptop backpack, a professional-grade laptop, a first aid kit, a robotic pool cleaner. I don't think you read that last one: A ROBOTIC POOL CLEANER. How do the WOOT! gods know I just bought a house and had to fire the pool guy that came with the house for being creepy and so I needed a robotic pool cleaner? Are they watching me?

My relationship with WOOT! is a little weird, I admit, but I think we are working things out. So long as my credit card authorization keeps going through, we seem to be fine.

I have no need of a new laptop, but I want this so hard.

cjpowers wrote:Just curious - have you used a computer with SSD? I have on my work laptop for 2 years and now I wish I hadn't cheaped out on my personal laptop.

It's the size for price constraint that bothers me the most. Sure, an SSD is faster than a traditional HDD. There's no denying that. But a normal 7200RPM drive is no slouch either. And you can get more than double the storage space. I think a slight decrease in speed is a small price to pay for A LOT more storage. Especially with everything going 1080p blu-ray HD 24 megapixel lossless

For the price, this looks like a steal. AND it's not a refurb, AND it has a 3 year warranty.

I would only give pause because my son has a Dell 15" XPS (June 2011) computer with a similar 2nd gen i5 - quite fast and overall it's pretty nice. However on his XPS, the screen has very narrow viewing angles, perhaps only 30° vertically. It looks fine with the correct screen tilt for the user, but others nearby won't be able to see much. (Some consider this a feature.) If this model line's screen is similar, you may want to check one at a local store before making the jump.

In his experience, Dell's warranty service is pretty lousy. He had a bad power switch, computer was only 2-3 weeks old when it had to be shipped back to the factory for a new motherboard. With shipping, that took about 2 weeks. They also wiped the hard drive. (No reason to do so in this case, they just do that to EVERY computer they service.) That wouldn't have been so bad, but they didn't re-install the drivers for the upgraded sound (creative) and video (Nvidia) cards. After getting the computer back he spent HOURS on the phone with Dell because the video drivers would not re-install. They had to remote into the computer and fiddle with the registry and what not before they finally got everything to work. ALL OF THAT should have been done and re-tested before the computer ever left the service center.

FauxReal wrote:Agreed, if only it had a Nvidia graphics in there. I don't get why laptop resolutions seem to be stagnant or even getting lower while our smart phones are doing 1080p + gaming in the palm of your hand.

I want a 14" laptop I can play games and/or hook up to an external monitor and game w/ discreet graphics.

Sounds like essentially you want something like the alienware m14x. With an i5, 4gb 1600 memory, 1600x900 screen, nvidia gt 555m 1.5gb, and a standard hard drive it's right around $1175. Plus the usual excessive variety of customizable keyboard backlighting options. For me personally it was the best bang for the buck option since I wanted a reasonably lightweight/portable laptop that did well at gaming. While a standard 15" laptop would have been okay, most gaming 15" laptops much bigger than that. So the 14" has been perfect and I love it.

One main reason that phones are getting higher resolutions is that the phone OS options do a great job of scaling the interface up to still be functional at the high resolutions. Windows has never been good at that even with Windows 7. You end up with extremely tiny buttons and such.. and attempts to get everything sized up better are very clunky and marginal at best. Windows 8 may change that.

In the case of laptops, I'm sure it's partly due to the fact that any GPUs in laptops aren't going to handle the highest resolutions too well for gaming. So sticking with lower resolutions keeps the prices lower and makes the gaming performance seem better.


As for this Dell.. looks like darn good deal to me. I can't say for certain on the SSD but the 256GB SSD we've been getting in our e6420s has been a good performer. I'm almost tempted to buy this Woot, pull out the SSD to use in my gaming laptop, then stick that drive into this Dell for general use.

holy fertilizer this deal is procreateing fantastic

I just bought 3, I have supported and used this model in 2 different companies.

This is an awesome deal. The differences between this laptop and laptops you can buy at best buy and the like is that these are business rated laptops that are spec'd out and tested a lot better than regular home laptops.

My company pays twice as much for this exact laptop, the only difference is an extended battery and sata instead of ssd.

I cant believe they haven't sold out yet.............

that 7200rpm drive uses nearly twice the power of the SSD, so you'll need the bigger battery.

I've deployed hundreds of these, and excepting some issues with the trackpad on a couple of them, this is an awesome machine. Having worked with all of them, I'll take Dell service any day. my parts arrive overnight, every single time. can't get that to happen with my IBMs, Acers, or Toshibas.

ThunderThighs wrote:Hey all! Just checked with our sales team and our specs have been updated to show this ships with Window 7 Professional 64 bit.

ThunderThighs, are u sure it will ship with window 7 pro since i've ordered 1 this morning ? otherwise, i have to cancel it and order from Tiger Direct.

Does this computer have a backlit keyboard?

I am sure this has been pointed out in comments before this one, but I don't think "infinite" means what you think it does...
In any case, Windows 7 has great support for SSDs, including TRIM support, default settings that limit writes, and a bunch of other stuff. Also, the SSD controllers are smarter, in that they translate the drive mapping tables and write to different parts of the memory, even if the OS thinks it is writing to the same drive location.
I use them in my file servers at work in RAID 1, with a nightly backup to a local HDD and off site cloud storage. Never had a problem, and it is about 100x as fast as a five-disk array of 15k rpm drives, which cost a lot more...

m00z44 wrote:Here's the issue:

You need to have a second hard drive to move the page file and any other swap drive that your software needs in order to keep too many writes to an SSD drive as they have an infinite number of writes.

That infinite number is arbitrary. So your best bet with this system is to ALWAYS keep a current backup. And I mean to do this DAILY.

SSD will always be faster, just never as reliable as a standard SATA drive. While SATA drives do fail, they don't have an infinite number of times that they can be written to.l