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- Thanks for the reply. If you use a lot of CD's a single spindle machine is definately not a good idea. If you want a 12" display, 4.x lb wt and a CD/DVD the AVeratec 3270 or one of it's brothers is a good one. The problem with them is that they don't have much battery life and you have to buy the extra years warrantly that the Latitude comes with. From the Dell list, it sounds like the 610 would be a better choice for you than the 410. Appart from the external CD, do you have any other comments (good or bad)?
Thanks, Jim - I haven't had to work on any D410's yet and we do not have a lot of D400's where I work. Everyone seems to be happy with them though other than the cd issue. I do realize their are some changes between the 400's and 410's as far as the system boards and the intergrated hardware. Not sure if that helps or not.
- Thanks again Whitt. That is what I was looking for. I have had a lot of small laptops over the years when I was traveling a lot but never a Dell. My last one was a small HP and it was not very durable. Now I am retired, I am still traveling and am looking again - but on my own nickle. Jim
duffyanneal
59 Posts
790
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Posted August 4th, 2005 18:00
@MauiJim wrote:
Thanks for looking at this post. Any comments +/- about the D410? Heat? WiFi? Display? Reliability? Anything else. I am seriously considering one and would value your comments.
Thanks in advance
I've had my D410 for a couple of weeks now. It's a been a great machine so far.Heat: The machine runs very cool. Rarely do you hear the fan turn on. When the fan does turn on it only runs for maybe 30 seconds then turns off. I'm really sensitive to fan noise and the D410 passes all my tests. The fan is whisper quiet...you'll have to listen closely to hear it.
WiFi: My unit shipped with the Intel b/g solution. I despise the Intel WiFi card (yes I really do!). As soon as I got the D410 I installed a Broadcom WiFi card (ebay) and I've been happy since. Reception and range are fine.
Display: The machine ships with a matter finish normal aspect display. That means that you don't get the super saturated colors and high contrast of the glossy screens. What you will get is a display that you can use in varying conditions whether that is at home or in a brightly lite airport. The matte finish reduces glare so you won't see reflections and it reduces eye strain. So if you use your machine quite a bit in mixed conditions your eyes will thank you. The display itself is quite nice. It is very bright and the colors are quite vivid for a matte display. The backlight is white as opposed to some displays that have a muddy yellow or bluish tinge. The display does not sparkle like some other Dell models. The viewing range is about typical to slightly better than average. It's not a wide angle display, but you won't spend all your time moving the display around trying to find the sweet spot. All in all the display is very good.
Reliability: The machine is very well built. The entire bottom case is rigid `magnesium. The palm rest is made out of high quality fiber reinforced plastic (cheap kind flexes...the D410 does not). The display cover is magnesium. When you hold the D410 it feels like a well built machine not a toy. You can tell that it was built to last. In my hands it feels more rugged than even the venerable IBM X series. The D410 does not have any port covers that can break off. The display lid actually curves slightly around the palmrest when in the closed position. This helps the the base and the lid to meld into a more solid object when folded. This prevents damage to the display lid and helps to keep objects from wedging in-between the display and the keyboard. The display lid also has a good number of rubber bumpers that prevents the keyboard from rubbing against the display (which can leave oily marks on the display). The keyboard is rigid so it doesn't bounce when you type. It's sealed so if it takes a spill the liquid has less of a chance of getting into the electronics below.
Battery life: The machine runs around 4+ hours per charge. This is with ordinary surfing/word processing with the WiFi enabled and the display on 1/4 brightness. That is with the standard 6 cell battery.
- Thanks Duffy. What a great post! You should moonlight writing reviews! Most of your comments confirm suspicions I have had. I didn't realize they went with mag. top and bottom. I was thinking about an X1 but everyone said it was very hot. I have heard that the internal WiFi cards on the Dells (and many others) have short range because the antenna is in the base. A few high end mfg.'s put it in the screen to solve that problem. 'makes sense. Once again, thanks for your comments. Jim
duffyanneal
59 Posts
790
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Posted August 4th, 2005 20:00
The X1 does run a bit warm. Really depends on how you use it. Regular office work and web browsing doesn't seem to warm it up too much. The nails in the coffin for me was the speed (mostly due to the 1.8" harddrive) and lack of a PC card slot.
Most manufacturers put the WiFi antennas in the display cover now. As far as I know most of the Dell notebooks (don't know much about the entry model Inspirons) have the antennas mounted in the display. One easy way to tell is to look at the top (when the display is opened) of the display lid. On models with metal covers (like the Dell Latitudes) the top 1/2 inch is plastic. You can usually see tell because the plastic is a little different shade of color. The WiFi antennas are mounted behind the plastic (metal would block the WiFi signals). Take a look at the links below to get an idea what I'm rambling on about.
http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/5224.jpg
http://img.dell.com/images/global/products/latit/d410_top_314x314.jpg
One last thing. I like the look of the D410. It looks very professional and not cheap. The color scheme works for me.
- I agree with you on the look and feel. My business experience is that the 12" lightweights are used by some people that have an image to maintain so Dell was smart to go this way. Directors/VP's that do mostly email and reviewing "Office" documents. No need for CD's or 2000 cell spreadsheets. They have people with them that do that.
So if the D410 has the WiFi antenna in the cover (I agree - thanks for the correct skinny), why is the Intel WiFi card on your "list"? Is the Dell card better or should I just order mine sans-WiFi? What about 802.11a? Is it worth the investment? I hear over and over that the PCMCIA cards are better because of the antenna-in-the-base problem with internal WiFi hardware. PCMCIA also gives you the growth necessary for the next standard - which seems to be close - - - another strike against the X1...
Sorry for dragging this on but your insite is very useful and I appreciate your sticking with me on this.
Jim duffyanneal
59 Posts
790
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Posted August 5th, 2005 05:00
The Intel card(s) have been a bit flaky since the very beginning. On some access points the Intel cards work great. In that I mean the throughput and ability to maintain a connection with an access point is good. On other access points the throughput drops to a snails pace and/or the connection drops constantly. This isn't due to signal strength because the Intel cards will drop connections with access points only a few feet away. This has been observed by many, many people. If you do an earnest search at the various notebook forums you'll see a lot of complaints about the Intel cards. It seems that just about any other manufacturers cards work just fine. I tend to like Broadcom and Atheros cards. I'm currently using a Broadcom b/g card in my D410. 802.11a is a standard that is in limbo. Unless you have .a access point it's not worth the effort. MIMO is the next standard that looks like it's going to catch on. You can't get a MINI-PCI card with MIMO that I'm aware of. You would have to go with a PC-card solution. Not exactly elegant but if you need that type of throughput I guess it's worth it. Personally, I barely utilize the bandwidth of .b so any card will do for me (as long as it works!).
whitt
30 Posts
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Posted August 3rd, 2005 13:00