Build: Looks like a good sturdy laptop for office use. Durability wise, no problems so far.
It does feel heavy for it's size though. It is ugly because it's a "business class" product and not a home or a media class product. The screen size is thicker than other laptops that you get today.
Configuration & Performance: Mine came with a Core 2 Duo, and 4 GB ram. Shipped with Windows 7 professional. So far it has handled whatever I've thrown at it quite well. I've tried a couple of videos on it, the speakers are alright. I've used it for running Visual Studio (2010) and Eclipse (Helios) and it's handled both really well. The boot up time feels a little high for the configuration, but it's not too bad.
Noise: The fans are extremely silent and not just on power save mode. I haven't heard a peep out of this laptop so far. I'm really weird about the noise factor and I have to say so far this laptop has fared well in that department. The hard drive is dead silent (as it should be!).
Keyboard & Pointer devices: The keyboard just sucks. The keys are way too soft so you don't get the feel of pressing them. Yet, they make that typing sound. Just weird. The touch-pad isn't responsive enough even after a lot of tweaking with the dell software. Neither is the pointer in between the keyboard. In fact the pointer is so weird, it registers a left click when you accidentally touch it while typing. That's really annoying when you're trying to get work done! Overall, the keyboard, the touch-pad, the pointer seem very cheap and flimsy. The behavior is erratic and I don't think it's a software issue.
Display: The brightness is fine. The "auto-brightness" is nonsense. The laptop has a light sensor which adjusts the brightness level depending on ambient light. It just doesn't work. As much as someone's shadow standing over your shoulder messes it up to a huge extent. At times there is no change in light and it still flickers. I've just turned it off. The max-brightness is bright enough for work in direct sunlight. Overall, the display is ok. Nothing to brag about, but nothing really big to complaint about either.
Adapter etc: The power brick is nice and thin and the cord has a power indicator on the tip that connects to the laptop. The problem is it stays on even when not connected to the laptop, but I guess they designed it that way so you'd know. The LEDs on the laptop aren't very bright. BUT, I find the HDD light rather annoying. It keeps flickering way too much indicating heavy disk activity even when it's just idling. This indicator shouldn't even be there IMHO. It's pointless.
One thing I like is the ability to stop the battery from charging so you can leave the laptop constantly plugged in when you want without worrying that it'll reduce the overall battery life.
Conclusion: Ok, if you want something to work with occasionally. It's not very comfortable to carry around. You might want to get a mouse and keyboard to use with this thing. I'd say this laptop is worth 500$ given what I've seen so far.
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Our school purchased a Latitude laptop for every teacher in our school this year. They are very useful if you are looking for a paper weight or need to flatten out student paintings from art class. Otherwise, they are useless. All of them crash at least once a day, and I mean with the ominous blue screen featuring the ominous fatal error message. Several crash in lieu of a screen saver-students come in for a class, you teach for an hour and return to the computer to complete you work and, Voila!, the lover blue screened fatal error message. This has happened this morning six times already and it is only 10:26 am. I recommend you spend your money elsewhere, Perhaps in decorative paper weights with the blue bird of happiness instead of this lap top with the blue screen of despair.Best Deals for LATITUDE E5400 P8600 2.53G 2GB SYST160GB DVDRW 14.1IN C2D WVB/XPP
I was given this laptop by the school and I want to say that this laptop is absolutely horrible for its intended purposes.It is flimsy and cheap. The back light is a constant issue and it heats up at the drop of a pin.
The fan spits out plastic after too long of a usage.
Requires constant restarts due to "internal issues"
The keys fall off.
The whole thing is loosely screwed together, leaving the screws to loosen and fall out.
It crashes and or freezes with light knocks (i. e. putting my books on my desk when the computer is out)
I am currently using this laptop to write this review but I would prefer anything over this... thing. In other words, this product is a no go. Get yourself the HP Pavilion dm4-3170se 14-Inch Laptop (Black) or the Lenovo 14" Core i5 500GB HDD 4GB DDR3 Ultrabook. They are cheaper for the value and more funtional. Summary: Don't. Buy.
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