Latitude E6410

[jwoodfin09]

The Latitude E6410 is one of the latest in the Latitude E-Series from Dell. The Latitude line, for those who do not know, is designed for people in business, government, and education. The business class of laptops from PC manufacturers tend to be more durable and better built. So what is the Latitude E6410 about, and how good is it?

The Latitude E6410 is housed in what Dell calls their TriMetal casing. You can definitely feel the difference when you touch this laptop. It feels sturdy, not cheap, like consumer laptops tend to do. The hinges on the screen are reinforced, which prevents the screen from bending too much when you open and close the laptop. Here's another benefit of the Latitude E-Series: All batteries and AC Adapters are interchangeable, meaning an E6410 laptop can use a battery from say, a Latitude E4300. This is done on purpose to give companies more flexibility.

Like most business laptops, The Latitude E6410 has on option for dock with extra ports. However, I find that the Latitude E6410 comes configured with quite a few ports already. The back side of the laptop contains just three: the AC adapter port on the left side along with a DisplayPort, and on the right side is a single RJ-45 (network) port. A modem of course is optional, and this port would be located on the back as well. Dell does this to allow room for the battery and the docking connector underneath the laptop.

On the left side of the laptop there is (in order): A VGA port, USB port(top), a combo eSATA/USB port (bottom), Smart card slot and hard drive bay. On the right side there are 2 USB ports, a wireless switch, headphone and external mic jacks, optical drive bay, a FireWire port (found on very few PCs), and a ExpressCard/54 slot. A Bluetooth port is built in internally if selected in configuration.

The keyboard feels sturdy, as does the touch pad. The touchpad supports multi-touch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom, scrolling, tap to click, and double-tap to right click. Here's another oddity: There is a trackpoint mouse on the keyboard, just like ThinkPads have. Dell does this so that those who wish to have a trackpoint device instead of a touchpad can use the trackpoint.

As seen in the photos, it is nestled between the G and H keys, allowing for easy access. As someone who uses a touchpad normally, it does take getting used to. In addition, as with most laptops, one has to press a dedicated "Fn" key to access items such as Print Screen.

The screen is pretty standard. It is a 14.1" WXGA Anti-Glare LED screen. It displays decently enough in sunlight, well enough that one can watch a movie (though I would not advise it). There are no other screen options, other than an UltraSharp LED.

Now onto the real meat of this review.

As I am writing this, Dell has only four configurations available in the small business sector, with no real customization options. The large business and public sectors of the Dell website do allow customization.

My configuration is as follows: Windows 7 Professional,Intel Core i5-520M processor(Dual Core, 2.4 GHz- not available in customization anymore), 4 GB of DDR3 RAM (max of 8 GB), Nvidia Quadro NVS 3100M (512 MB Graphics) with ExpressCard, 160 GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive (now upgraded to 500 GB Momentus XT Hybrid), and fingerprint reader/smartcard slot. In addition, a TPM chip for encryption is included, as is internal Bluetooth. The wireless card is an Intel Centrino Advanced 6200-N. This configuration stands at a price of just over 1500 US Dollars and comes with a three-year on-site warranty.

These options are pretty standard, so what sets the Latitude E6410 apart?

First of all, the Latitude E6410 has a vPro configuration that includes a Dual BIOS. The first BIOS is standard, but the second comes from Intel and is known as EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface). This means that this laptop can boot from drives over 2.2 TB in size once they become available for laptops. In addition, faster boot times are possible. EFI uses a mouse/keyboard interface, which is enabled by default for the laptop. If using 64-bit Windows 7, one can now use GPT (Linux-style) partitioning for Windows, meaning no need to use legacy partitioning. This also enables an option to use this machine as a Hackintosh, if one wishes(I will not dive into that option).

Secondly, this laptop has a feature known as Latitude ON. It allows a laptop equipped with it to boot in seconds to access email, etc. As configured, my laptop has Latitude ON Reader, which allows only email access from Outlook (supports Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007, Outlook 2010). A chip can be added later to enable full Latitude ON functionality. The feature is a nice touch if I need to access email quickly.

The performance is strong, but not stunning. As shown in the screenshots, WEI rates this laptop as a 5.0. The dedicated graphics card is strong enough however to run most mainstream games with ease and can handle 1080p video.

The battery of course suffers, as a result of this. The Dell Battery Manager says the battery can last 3 hours 37 minutes on the Balanced Power plan, however it is more along the lines of 3 hours 15 minutes. This seems bout par with a lot of consumer laptops and their rated battery lives, rather than what is expected of a business class laptop. Travelers may want the 9-cell battery instead of the 6-cell battery that is standard.

In conclusion, the Dell Latitude E6410 is a solid value. It is sturdy and reliable. However, small businesses may not be able to afford this laptop due to its price, even though it starts at a price of 583 US dollars, the configuration is extremely lacking. However, I, myself, after using this machine for several months can strongly recommend it as a solid buy. I give it a rating of 4 stars out of 5, due to lacking battery life and the slightly heavy feel for its size.

[ahhell]

I'm using one right now. One thing to note is that the TouchPad is TERRIBLE under Windows XP (still have to use XP at work :( ).

All in all though, a very solid laptop.

[Charisma Veteran]

Good review :) I have this machine as my work PC and so far have been quite impressed with it. The only thing I would change is the fact that the keyboard feels a bit flimsy--although I think mine was one of the first 6410s produced. The keys feel... delicate. And the E keeps popping off. Since then, though, I have configured laptops for other users here and they seem a lot more solid, so hopefully this has been corrected. The battery life is very nice, much better than Dells I have had in the past. If I turn the brightness of the display all the way down, I can get over 4 hours out of one charge, even if it initially only said I had 3.5 hours left when I first disconnected from power.

ahhell, have you updated the drivers from the Dell website? We have XP here too, and I had to go download updated video, audio, and touchpad drivers when I first imaged it. I was having massive issues with it before, but now it works great, and the touch-scrolling on the bottom and side works now as well, whereas it didn't before.

[ahhell]

ahhell, have you updated the drivers from the Dell website? We have XP here too, and I had to go download updated video, audio, and touchpad drivers when I first imaged it. I was having massive issues with it before, but now it works great, and the touch-scrolling on the bottom and side works now as well, whereas it didn't before.

I'll have to check their site again. Do you have any issues with the Pointer-stick thingy "sticking"? I find that you have to wiggle it all over the place to get to respond sometimes...most annoying.

[jwoodfin09]

Good review :) I have this machine as my work PC and so far have been quite impressed with it. The only thing I would change is the fact that the keyboard feels a bit flimsy--although I think mine was one of the first 6410s produced. The keys feel... delicate. And the E keeps popping off. Since then, though, I have configured laptops for other users here and they seem a lot more solid, so hopefully this has been corrected. The battery life is very nice, much better than Dells I have had in the past. If I turn the brightness of the display all the way down, I can get over 4 hours out of one charge, even if it initially only said I had 3.5 hours left when I first disconnected from power.

ahhell, have you updated the drivers from the Dell website? We have XP here too, and I had to go download updated video, audio, and touchpad drivers when I first imaged it. I was having massive issues with it before, but now it works great, and the touch-scrolling on the bottom and side works now as well, whereas it didn't before.

I think they fixed the keys cause they feel sturdier. The touchpad drivers even on Windows 7 have issues, i think its due to the driver by ALPS.

[tsupersonic]

I use the 6500 at work, and it's a decent laptop. They gave me a 15" laptop instead of the 14" it replaced, but other than that, it's good. Using Windows 7, and I manage about 6 hours of battery life, which is impressive. I do have the older generation Core 2 CPU, but it is by no means a slouch.

[z0mghenry]

I've been using one of these since July of last year at work. Solid laptop, and it doesn't seem to sratch easily. My only minor gripe is that there is stuff in the speaker holes and I don't know how to clean it out. I've tried using tape but it seems lodged in there. Yes, I eat and work lol.

[tsupersonic]

Yeah, I hate that. The speaker grille gets nasty. I've tried compressed air, that sorta works, but doesn't remove everything.

[Argote]

I got this laptop issued at work but with the 2.66Ghz Core i5 and standard Intel Graphics. It handles all the work I need to do well. I mostly use it with the dock and an external monitor but when I work from home I use it "normally". Overall I'd agree it's pretty decent.