Dell launches new Digital Nomad-friendly Latitude and Precision laptops. Image: Dell.
If you need all-day professional access to your laptop, you fall into a category of business consumer that’s generally known as a ‘digital nomad’. And, as such, optimal operational longevity is a hugely important factor when it comes to making the right choice in mobile processing, which is something Dell is looking to focus on with its new Latitude computers.
Dell has also unveiled two new strong additions to the mobile workstation Precision line.
Ranging from its lightest ever ultra-portable solution, straight through to its most powerful mobile workstation, Dell’s newly announced Latitude and Precision laptops promise all-day-computing and offer up as much as a whopping 19 hours of performance on a single charge while setting business-class benchmarks for weight, design and durability.
Dell describes its new lines as the result of focused feedback and collaboration with almost 4,000 IT professionals and hardware end users, an ongoing process that provides the computer manufacturer with “real insight into the needs of the digital nomad.”
“Today we’re translating that insight into breakthrough productivity, portability and design,” trumpeted Dell chairman Michael Dell. “The new Latitudes are breathtaking.”
So, what’s on offer throughout the 8 new Latitude entrants?
Ultra-portable needs are met with the Dell Latitude E4200 and E4300, the first of which is a 12.1-inch laptop that weighs in at a mere 2.2 pounds, making it Dell’s lightest ever laptop offering. The E4300 measures 13.3-inches and weighs slightly more at 3.3 pounds.
The E4200 is noteworthy from a green perspective for being Dell’s first notebook to offer a motherboard containing halogen-free laminates, as well as halogen-free chassis plastics and fan housings.
Mainstream consumers can look forward to the Dell Latitude E6400 and E6500, which arrive respectively as 14.1-inch and 15.4-inch options that Dell claims are ideal replacements for high-performance desktops. The E6400 will cost somewhere in the region of $1,139 USD.
The E6500 will be priced around the $1,169 USD mark, and is notable for its contact-less Smart Card reader and fingerprint reader, which comply with Federal Information Processing Standards.
Addressing its ‘Essential’ category, Dell has the new Latitude E5400, a 14.1-inch laptop with a starting price of just $839 USD, while its larger stablemate, the E5500, comes in at 15.4-inches for a starting price of $869 USD. Dell sees the E5400 and E5500 as delivering everyday functionality at an affordable price point.
Rounding out the new Latitudes is the ‘Semi-rugged’ E6400 ATG, which delivers the aforementioned 19 hours of performance. A 14.1-inch model, the E6400 ATG is built and tested to meet Military 810F standards against dust, vibration and humidity. Prices start at $2,399 USD.
Shifting focus to its more muscular Precision mobile workstation range, Dell is offering up a new ISV-certified duo of Precisions in the form of the Precision M4400, a 15.4-inch platform with “leading-edge graphics” and support for up to 8GBs of RAM -- for a starting price of $1,569 USD.
Then there’s the 14.1-inch Precision M2400, which weighs just 4.77 pounds and arrives as Dell’s lightest mobile workstation attached to an opening price tag of $1,149 USD. Both new Precision models are available now.
In related news, Dell also used its Latitude and Precision press conference to showcase its new energy-saving Dell Latitude ON technology, which provides almost instant access to e-mail, calendar, attachments, contacts and the Web without the user needing to boot the computer’s onboard operating system.
Dell Latitude ON is expected to roll out in the next few weeks to coincide with the launch of the E4200 and E4300 ultra-portable computers.
can you believe it?Aug 13th, 2008 - 14:29:09
Great 19 Hours. Too bad the 4 hour Dell I got last year only lasts 45 minutes. Exactly one year after purchase a message came up 'suggesting' I buy a new battery. Battery life fell from 2 plus hours to less than an hour.
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