Dell Latitude E5510 Review

The new Dell Latitude E5510 is a 15.6-inch business series laptop.The new Dell Latitude E5510 is designed to simplify IT by reducing cost, deployment time and maintenance, DellTM LatitudeTM E5510 laptop delivers reliable mobile computing with increased flexibility and proven durability.

The screen is a very nice quality 15.6 inch High definition LED with good anti-glare. This is supported by a very reasonable Intel HD Graphics card with dynamic frequency; overall the screen is more than adequate for anything short of serious multi-media work.

You will also enjoy using the HD webcam for video conferencing, along with the noise reducing mic and very good speakers; perfect for video conferencing outside of the office.

The range of ports and e-docking options are also really very good. You can use your Latitude E5510 battery with Latitude E Series docking station when working in the office.

Among the standard equipment of both business laptops there's fast Gigabit-Ethernet, Wireless LAN standard 802.11n as well as Bluetooth 3.0. Optionally an integrated 56k/V92 modem is also available. Differences regarding mobility are seen in the availability of a mobile broadband connection. In Dell's specifications, only on the smaller 14-inch E5410 an optional EVDO/HSPA/AGPS-module is mentioned.

In this category both models are again presented with anything but the lowest. A SmartCard reader as well as a fingerprint scanner belongs to the standard equipment. Additionally a contactless smart card reader or an FIPS fingerprint-scanner (US security standard) can be ordered. Added to this is a Trusted Platform module 1.2 as well as optionally available hard disks. Supported network security standards: WPA, WPA2, VPN, CCX4.0.

The configuration we tested - which includes 3GB of RAM (2.75GB usable by the 32-bit Windows 7), a 320GB hard drive, integrated graphics, and a crisp 1600-by-900 display - sells for 919 inc VAT - and that includes a 90 discount from Dell. But you can pick up the base model, with smaller hard drive, less memory and a 1366x768 display, for only 739 inc VAT.

FEATURES / SPECIFICATIONS

• Intel Core i Processors
• 14.6'' LED backlit display
• Latitude ON
• Fast Response Free Fall Sensor and StrikeZone hard drive protection
• Windows 7 options
• WiFi, WiMax, Ethernet connectivity options
• Compatible with Latitude E series docks
• 3 year warranty on battery
• Energy Star and EPEAT Certifications

While even that seems a bit much compared with similarly equipped consumer laptops, the Dell E5510 battery offers a number of perks useful in a business environment. Customers buying add-ons can have units customized with specific business applications - even in-house apps can be preinstalled (or images supplied). Every Latitude is built on a common accessory base, so the same docking stations and other accessories can be used, whether you have an E5410, E5510 or 65xx series unit.

The 14.1-inch E5410 and 15.6-inch E5510 feature the Intel Core i5 and i7 CPUs or the new Intel Celeron P4500, all with dual cores, Intel HD graphics, up to 8GB RAM, up to 320GB hard drive or up to 128GB solid state storage, a DVD burner or Blu-ray drive, and Windows 7, Vista, or Ubuntu Linux OS.

The successors of the E5400 and E5500 optionally provide WiMAX and mobile broadband connectivity, as well as business-class security features.

A 15.6-inch widescreen is a productive size, large enough to accommodate spreadsheet users, photographers, and anyone who works with multiple windows open at a time. Higher resolutions are guaranteed on more expensive business laptops like the Lenovo T410 (1,440 by 900) and HP 8440w (1,600 by 900), but to offer it on an $884 Latitude is very impressive. The Dell E5510′s 1,600-by-900 resolution is a boon for multitasking, fitting more pixels on a screen than the 1,366 by 768 one that’s offered as an option. If there were ever a feature worth splurging on, make sure it’s the resolution.

The E5510 has a terrific keyboard and dual pointing devices—a pointing stick and touchpad. However, you’ll find a better pointing stick, touchpad, and keyboard combination on the Lenovo T410 and T410s. The two pairs of mouse buttons are as soft as those found on a ThinkPad. And even though a backlit keyboard isn’t available, there’s plenty to like about the user experience.

The machine is really a good performer in the business line machines and its pretty costly machine in this series. The screen resolution we tested gives upto 1600 x 900 pixels. The LCD colours were sharp and crystal appearance. The performance with games is not that good with the integrated Intel chipset. However the chip managed to run some low graphic games.

As we tested the video performance of the machine , we were disappointed. The Hi-Def videos were not played exactly , and it had some loss of quality.

Performance wise , the machine performed better when it ranked a pretty close WorldBench mark of 110. The machine is configured as 3GB RAM , for memory consuming softwares , I think it would be better to go for atleast 4GB RAM , but there is nothing to worry , Dell aslo has an option to upgrade the machine to 4GB RAM for a Windows 7 64Bit version.

It handily beat the HP 4425s in our tests. On our video encoding test, the Dell E5510 finished it in 46 seconds, matching the Lenovo T410s (46 seconds) and falling slightly behind the Lenovo T410 (45 seconds) and HP 8440w (41 seconds). It beat the 4225s by almost 20 seconds. PCMark Vantage scores ranked near the bottom, because this test has a 3D component, and the Dell E5510 lacks a discrete graphics chip that would help it keep up with the others. It should also go without saying that the Dell E5510 is not an ideal pick for 3D-related tasks, such as games and CAD applications.

Battery life is another area where the E5510 excels in. The reason being, the Dell E5510 includes a big 85WH (9-cell) Dell Latitude E5510 battery, which is only slightly smaller than those found in the Lenovo T410 (94WH) and HP 8440w (93WH). Because it doesn't have a battery-guzzling graphics chip (discrete chips are bigger power drains), the Dell E5510 shined in MobileMark 2007—a battery test. It scored 7 hours 5 minutes, which easily beat the Lenovo T410 (5:25), Dell Vostro 3300 (4:55), and Lenovo Edge 15 (4:20). It came within a half hour of the HP 8440w (7:34), which is very impressive.

The Dell Latitude E5510 has processing power and battery performance often associated with pricier enterprise laptops. It could use one or two more features, but it has most of the things long-time Latitude users are accustomed to, which doesn't include running a huge tab on the corporate budget. Unless your staff spends 50% of their time on the road, in which case I would recommend a lighter system, there's no reason why your company shouldn't buy an entire fleet of E5510s.