Review Dell Latitude XT2
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Dell Latitude XT2 – convertible notebook business class, which supports multiple touches and a special pen. It has a slim square case and does not look as cool as some consumer notebooks, but it is easier to endure. With a minimum price of 64 000 rubles, this is one of the most expensive notebooks on the market. Worthy is a laptop such high prices? Read the full review, and you will find answers to these and other questions.
Dell Latitude XT2 has the following characteristics:
- Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 1.4GHz (800MHz FSB, 3MB L2 Cache)
- OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Business (32-bit)
- Display: 12.1 “Premium WXGA (1280 x 800) LED, with support for multiple touches
- Video: Intel X4500MHD, built
- Memory: 3GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM (2GB + 1GB)
- Data Warehouse: 120GB Toshiba 1.8 “5400RPM HDD
- Optical Drive: 8X CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD + /-R Drive), external
- Networking opportunities: Intel 5100AGN WiFi, 1Gb Ethernet, Bluetooth,
- Battery: 6-Cell 42WHr
- Warranty: 3 year warranty on-site engineer
- Dimensions (W x D x H): 29,7 x 22,1 x 2,8 cm
- Weight: 1,74 kg
Construction and Design
At Dell Latitude XT2 a professional business appearance in dark-gray color, body with sharp edges and lines. This notebook is not aimed at users who prefer to admire the appearance, it is designed for those who want to immediately start work. Metal surfaces are actually just colored by the metal that makes it easy to care for them. The spots will simply fade ordinary cloth, without using special tools.
Personally, I liked the side profile Latitude XT2, almost perfectly square corners. He has inclined surfaces, rounded sides, and being placed on the surface of the table, lay on it very low. He also takes up little space during transportation.
Build quality excellent. This is the best assembly we met on notebooks the company Dell. Plastic is felt as a whole, flawless finish. In any part of the notebook color quality plastic just fine. Screen securely in place. Housing barely perceptible creak under heavy pressure. Lid of the screen a few bends, but the display is not affected.
Access to the component parts is very simple. Under the battery is the hard drive. In another compartment under a single cover hides the memory card and WiFi card WWAN. Upgrade process will not take more than 5 minutes. There is also another interesting point – the BIOS chip removable and an unsuccessful upgrade will allow the company to quickly replace it.
The screen and speakers
12.1-inch laptop screen looks very good, this is one of the best screens with touch screen, which we have ever seen. In the resolution of 1280×800 laptop screen looks a little big. One of the advantages of this device are very high viewing angles.
The display on the XT2 above average in terms of viewing angles, but still suffers from some distortion when viewed in the mode with the format, positioned horizontally, and with the rejection of the screen back. In other provisions of viewing angles are very good, with a slight shift of colors at more acute angles.
Screen backlight is at the level of class notebooks for business, but the sun screen is not read. Dell offers a brighter panel for use in the daytime, the image on which we hope, will not wash out in direct sunlight.
In Dell XT2 uses a capacitive touch screen, with the support of a special pen that makes better use of the screen.
Perot excellent moves on the screen, it can be compared with a ballpoint pen, rolling on the book in a glossy hard cover. Texture allows precise movement. Greasy fingerprints on the screen is not much influence the movement of the pen. The pen has two side buttons, one simulates the right mouse button, the second – the erase. We felt that these buttons are too sensitive.
Multiple Response slightly retarding. At the Apple notebook, multiple alarm work immediately. At XT2 they twitch, and there are delays. If you tear off a finger from the scroll and began to scroll again, it may be delayed for a few seconds. Zoom also been poor, resulting in a scale increases or decreases by accident. What we believe is associated with the software and drivers that will improve with the transition to Windows 7.
Sound system consists of a single mono speaker on the left. Its volume is sufficient for listening to music and watching movies, but it sounds like he is somewhere in the side, which is a bit unpleasant. Peak volume is good, but it becomes noticeable distortion. Headphones are an indispensable accessory for this notebook.
The keyboard and touchpad
Keyboard XT2 with small keys and bright graffiti there and it looks great. The layout is simple, the keys are normal size. Because of the slim depth of pressing a little less than most laptops. But it does not cause any inconvenience.
The notebook uses a touchpad ALPS and the company’s own drivers from Dell. Compared with the touchpad company Snypatics, felt a slight delay, but it does not cause unpleasant sensations. We think that Dell would install a larger touchpad, so both the XT2 enough space.
Ports and Features
A set of ports is excellent, even compared with large laptops. Latitude XT2 equipped with two USB-ports, a combined eSATA / USB-port, audio ports, FireWire, VGA, LAN, and port for accessories Dell. If you find this is not enough, the dock will give you four more USB-port, serial port, DVI, VGA, LAN, headphone port and optical drive. The docking station is made very well and has excellent metal latch.
Front: Battery
Rear: power, VGA, LAN, one USB-port, power connector, mount screen
Left: stylus slot, one USB-port, FireWire, speaker
Right: button Wireless On / Off, LED Wifi, USB / eSATA, SD-card reader, ExpressCard/54, audio connectors, Kensington lock slot
Performance
Dell Latitude XT2 revealed excellent results in our tests, but his weak point – slow hard drive. XT2 uses a new 1.8-inch hard drive (5400 rpm) by Toshiba, but the jerks from the previous model no.It seems logical to use this model SSD, which would significantly speed up the work laptop. But for everyday tasks such hard disk is sufficient. Even when decoding 720p and 1080p XT2 worked without problems. The slowdown in performance becomes noticeable only for applications that use the hard disk.
The main areas where it would be handy, is to install large applications or moving, copying files. 3D-games are not very relevant when used integrated graphics and power efficient processor SU9400 1.4GHz, also not for the powerful games.
Comparative results of processors wPrime (the lower the score, the better the performance):
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Notebook / CPU
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wPrime 32M time
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Lenovo ThinkPad X200 (Intel Core 2 Duo P8600@2.40GHz)
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32.119 seconds
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Dell Latitude XT2 (Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400@1.4GHz)
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55.663 seconds
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Sony VAIO TZ (Core 2 Duo U7600@1.2GHz)
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76.240 seconds
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HP Pavilion dv2 (AMD Athlon Neo MV-40@1.6GHz)
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103.521 seconds
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ASUS Eee PC 1000HE (Intel Atom N280@1.66GHz)
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114.749 seconds
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Acer Aspire One (Intel Atom@1.60GHz)
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125.812 seconds
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Lenovo IdeaPad s10 (2009) (Intel Atom@1.60GHz)
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126.406 seconds
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PCMark05 characterizes the overall system performance (the higher the score, the better the performance):
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Notebook
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PCMark05 Score
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Lenovo ThinkPad x200 (2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8600, Intel X4500)
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4,298 PCMarks
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Dell Latitude XT2 (1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400, Intel X4500MHD)
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3,098 PCMarks
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Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600, Intel GMA 950)
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2,446 PCMarks
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HP Pavilion dv2 (1.6GHz AMD Athlon Neo, ATI Radeon HD 3410 512MB)
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2,191 PCMarks
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ASUS n10 (Intel Atom 1.60GHz, 256MB NVIDIA 9300M)
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1,851 PCMarks
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Toshiba Portege R500 (1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600, Intel GMA 950)
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1,839 PCMarks
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Acer Aspire One (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)
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1,555 PCMarks
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ASUS Eee PC 1oooHE (1.66GHz Intel Atom N280, Intel GMA 950)
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1,535 PCMarks
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3DMark06: A comparison of graphic performance with laptops with 1280 x 800 (the higher the score, the better the performance):
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Notebook
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3DMark06 Score
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HP TouchSmart tx2 (2.4GHz Turion X2 Ultra ZM-86, ATI Radeon HD 3200)
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1,685 3DMarks
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HP Pavilion dv2 (1.6GHz AMD Athlon Neo, ATI Radeon HD 3410 512MB)
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1,355 3DMarks
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Lenovo ThinkPad x200 Tablet (Intel Core 2 Duo 1.86GHz, GMA X4500)
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921 3DMarks
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Dell Latitude XT2 (1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400, Intel X4500MHD)
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655 3DMarks
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Apple MacBook Air (1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7500, Intel X3100)
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502 3DMarks
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Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Core 2 Duo U7600, Intel GMA 950)
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122 3DMarks
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Results of performance hard disk HDTune:
Heat and Noise
The cooling system works fine, the laptop was only slightly warmer in our tests. Even under high load temperature increased slightly. Fan noise is almost unnoticeable. Dell engineers have done an excellent job on the cooling system.
Battery life
Runtime Chart Latitude XT2 is not impressive, especially considering the appointment of a laptop. Thin housing restricts the capacity of the battery. In our test, when the brightness of the screen was 70%, the profile is switched to the mode of “balanced” and was included wireless connectivity, the laptop lasted 3 o’clock, 24 minutes. Dell can offer an additional battery pack 45 W / h, which in theory would increase battery life by half.
Conclusion
Dell Latitude XT2 a great laptop, equipped with the latest developments in touch screen, and with fantastic build quality. The keyboard is very comfortable. The system performance level, but it slows down a little bit slow hard drive. If you are looking for a portable laptop with touch screen display for everyday use, the Dell Latitude XT2 – your choice. The only significant drawbacks of this model are the high cost and weak battery.
For:
- Excellent build quality
- A slim profile and the classical coloring
- It is easy to upgrade and maintain
Cons:
- Slow disk
- High price
- Weak battery