As a high school graduation gift, my parents bought me a Dell Latitude D820 15.4" widescreen notebook. While Dell's Inspiron line is squarely aimed at the consumer market, the Latitude line is geared more towards the academic, small business, and corporate user. This is evidenced by the Latitudes' superior build quality, sober styling, lack of media-centric features, and higher price. Price-wise and size-wise, the Latitude D820 battery sits atop the thin-and-light 14" widescreen D620 and the budget oriented 14" standard-aspect D520 in the Latitude lineup. The D820 is an updated version of the D810 and features the Intel Core Duo processor to replace the D810's Pentium M as well a significant weight reduction from the D810. According to CNET Labs, "While the 3.2kg [7.05lbs] Latitude D810 was more of a desktop replacement, the 2.8kg [6.17lbs] approaches the more portable thin-and-light territory." This newfound svelteness, coupled with the D820's impressive computing power, makes it a formidable contender in the mid-size business notebook category.
The 15.4-inch widescreen LCD means you won't miss a desktop monitor, and some users will appreciate the high 1920 x 1200-pixel resolution, since it lets you have multiple windows open at once. Of course, default icons and fonts wind up rather small, so some users will want to opt for the lower-resolution panel (Dell also offers 1280 x 800-pixel and 1680 x 1050-pixel choices on the D820). The full-sized keyboard is comfortable (though key taps were a bit loud), and the D820 includes both a touchpad and a pointing stick.
Like all Dell Latitude notebooks, the D820 features a durable design, including a magnesium alloy casing, steel hinges, and StrikeZone protection for the hard drive. ExpressCharge technology enables you to recharge the battery to 80 percent capacity in about an hour. Dell backs this business system with a three-year warranty.
The professional look of the Latitude D820, paired with a workstation class video card, is reason enough for Dell to call it a business notebook. While I agree that it would be a great tool for a business, the D820 could also be an excellent notebook for a student looking for performance, ease of use and occasional gaming. I really like my Dell Latitude D820 battery. It performs like I was expecting, the battery life is excellent with the additional 6-cell media bay battery and it's gaming power is close to what I was hoping for. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this model to any professional looking for a solid system for work related task or to students looking for a good machine that can game a bit on the side.
The business section is basically divided into two series, Precision and Latitude. Precisions are more cutting edge technology, sacrificing some stability for the latest features, which might have some instability possibly caused by new drivers. Latitudes are the more conventional choice for businesses offering increased stability due to being built on a proven platform.
Specifications:
Core Duo T2400 CPU @ 1.83 GHz, 667MHz front side bus, 2MB L2 cache
15.4" WSXGA+ (1680x1050) display
1024MB DDR2-667 RAM (2x512MB DIMMS)
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 120 graphics solution with 512MB TurboCache
60GB hard disk @ 7200RPM
8x CD-RW/DVD RW dual layer drive
Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN (802.11b/g 54Mbps) Mini Card (Broadcom)
Bluetooth radio (Toshiba stack)
6-Cell/56 WHr Primary Battery
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
3-year Economy Plan warranty
Weight: 6.17lbs
Dimensions 1.39 in (H) x 14.21 in (W) 10.34 in (D)
Today we have the pleasure of reviewing the Latitude D820 series which falls into the high-end of the Latitude range and it’s our very first of many new notebook reviews here at TweakTown. While this notebook is listed under Dell's business section it actually boasts some nice features for an entertainment system, including a WUXGA display (that is 1900x1200 pixels to you and me) and HD audio.
Though the NVIDIA Quadro 120M graphics card isn't designed to play newer games, the D820 scored 12,620 in 3DMark 2001 SE, which shows it will handle older or less taxing games reasonably well. The Quadro range has a history in professional workstation graphics such as CAD (computer-aided design), but the 120m is marketed by NVIDIA as a business level graphics solution.
The main chassis is solid, as is the bezel housing the screen, though some distortion was noticeable on the LCD when pressure was applied to the back. Both a touchpad and a track-point are supplied and the keyboard was nicely sized and comfortable to use.
In our benchmarks, the Latitude D820's new parts catapulted the system's SysMark 2004 performance 30 percent beyond that of the prior-generation D810. The Dell D820 battery can easily handle any business task you throw at it and will likely succeed with most entertainment applications as well. We suspect the D820's high display resolution took a slight toll on the system's battery life, though: the system still lasted a very respectable 4 hours 51 minutes, but the similar-size battery on the ThinkPad T60, which features a lower screen resolution, held out for almost 6 hours. Still, the newly portable Latitude D820 now has enough battery life for decent excursions away from the socket.
The Latitude D820's three-year warranty is the industry standard for a business system, but Dell includes onsite repairs by the next business day -- something that costs extra from other vendors. Dell's comprehensive support Web site is also among the best in the business, offering troubleshooting info, downloads, a customer forum, real-time chatting with a tech-support rep and more.
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