I am very curious to what the price will be. ChrunchGear has heard $1300 which in that case probably means £1300 in the UK. Pretty expensive. The spec though, is exactly what I am looking for in a laptop if I was to buy one today.
- 12.1″ Widescreen WXGA 1280×800, same resolution as I have on my Sony Vaio. I think this is a good resolution for this size(my Vaio is 13.3″)
- Intel Core 2 Duo Ultra Low Voltage(ULV) Processor.
- 1 GB Dual Channel DD3 Memory, 800MHz, more can of course be added.
- UltraPerfomrance Solid State Drive up to 64GB or Solid State Drive up to 128 GB
- Loads of connectivity options (I don’t mean optional)
- Weight 2.2 lbs/1.0 kg. Perfect!
- Battery life up to 19 hours
One very nice feature of the E4200 is the new Dell Latitude On:
Enjoy instant access to email, calendar and internet with the new Dell Latitude ONTM communication module. Dell Latitude ON enables bi-directional remote access to your Microsoft Exchange data with the single touch of a button without booting or waking your entire laptop—lowering power consumption and extending battery life.
My Sony Vaio 13.3″ is good for development on the road but just a bit big for bringing “just in case” and when I know it will be in a bag most of the time.
My Asus Eee PC is perfect to always bring but it is too tiny and not powerful enough to use for any serious software development.
Both the Eee and the Vaio have about 2 hours battery life which is way to short. I hate the feeling of needing to plug the power cable in when I’m near an outlet. And working where there is no power outlets at all - that I only do to kill some time. It’s not possible to work from the park when it’s a nice day.
The first thing I thought when I saw the spec of the Dell Latitude E4200 was that it is a perfect balance between portability and usability. Small and light enough to be portable, powerful enough to be usable for work. There are other 12.1″ laptops but they are heavier. Like Dell’s own 3 lbs/1.36 kg Latitude D430. The weight matters a lot. Even the 11.1″ Vaio TZ series is heavier at 1.24 kg.
I really hope the price comes out reasonable.
Alex
