Dell Latitude XT Review

Summary

Dell Latitude XT comes as a business tablet PC targeted at business market. It’s noteworthy to say that it is in the higher price bracket among contemporaries, costing in excess of $2500. The highs are a capacitive touch technology, LED backlit display, good keyboard, solid accessories, responsive pen and an overall robust design. The lows are that it’s expensive and the hinge is not very strong as it wobbles when the machine is used in the laptop mode.

Review

Dell Latitude XT marks Dell’s foray into the tablet PC segment. The Latitude XT has a sturdy build with a strong chassis. The strength of the machine and its robustness seems to be in line of Dell’s other popular models. The machine comes in black color and is very good at hiding finger marks and dust particles settled on it. You will find a brushed aluminum finish on the lid. The pen that comes with a XT laptop is square shape and very functional. Latitude XT has a touch pad with a track point.

Latitude XT comes equipped with a 12.1” WXGA screen. The screen is bright and clear without the graininess you would associate with the tablet PC screens. The LED backlit option comes as a great power saver and hence is a good feature for frequent business travelers.

This is the first tablet PC ever to make use of the N-trig technology. The XT uses capacitive touch technology as opposed to resistive touch technology which makes inputting by touch a stress free job. You can enter the information without applying much pressure from you’re the fingers. The screen boasts of good viewing angles. One problem that was observed with the hinge was that it wobbled while the machine was in the laptop mode.

Dell Latitude XT is powered by a ULV C ore 2 Duo 1.2 GHz processor and has 120 GB hard disk drive. Performance wise it is moderate and can perform most of the business requirements like web surfing, emailing, documenting, presentations etc with ease. Battery life in XT is impressive.

The keyboard is strong and black in color with a slippery feel. The letters are white. You won’t find any flex in the keyboard. The touchpad is very basic and small as most of the area is dedicated to the palm rest. It might be a bit inconvenient to get used to the small touch pad. One alternative is to use the track point to navigate. The pen that comes with XT is of square shape and has some powerful features. You can calibrate it as per your writing preferences.

The tablet PC features in Dell Latitude XT is well thought out. The capacitive touch screen is equally responsive to the pen and the finger. You have options of making the screen to respond to pen only, finger only or both. Usually the passive screens with contemporary tablets don’t respond as well to the finger as they do to the pen. So from that perspective Dell Latitude XT is miles ahead of competition. It’s very convenient to write in the tablet PC mode. Carrying the XT is not at all a problem with it weighing just above three pounds.

There are an extensive number of ports available with XT. Incase you need anything over and above that you can very well go for a MediaBase for an extra couple hundred dollars. On the right side you will find one USB port, “Wi Fi Catcher” switch, headphone jack, security lock, wireless on-off switch, Express Card/55 slot, SD card slot and a microphone jack. The second USB port is located at the back. Along with it you will find the Ethernet port, Power adapter and D-sub monitor output. The third USB port is located towards left along with the fire wire port, mono speaker and the CPU fan. The pen is placed towards the left.

Dell Latitude XT becomes warm pretty quickly. The base of the machine becomes pretty warm after few minutes of normal usage. Noise however is not a concern with XT. The absence of an optical drive being the main reason for it.

There is a speaker located at the left side of the machine. It produces decent enough sound for a comfortable listening.

A laptop review without the battery life info is incomplete. The fact that Dell Latitude XT is targeted at business customers makes it more relevant. You can expect 3-4 work hours from the 6-cell battery under normal working conditions. The 9-cell battery could very well give you 8 hours of work time. So that makes it handy for travelling executives.

You will find lot of wireless options with XT. Latitude XT comes with Vista Business operating system.

Overall dell Latitude XT seems to be a good tablet PC but then do the features justify its cost?…well, that’s for you to decide.

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