Dell Latitude E6500 Laptop Computer (Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 160GB/1.0GB)

9/10 worth careful consideration

trupin - 03/22/09  (Edited: 03/22/09)

I understand that many early purchasers of the E6500 have run into wireless and OS problems, and I can't quibble with their resulting negative assessments; but I really wonder about others who make complaints about the overall design, weight and feel of using this laptop. What I can say for certain is that the E6500 has a wonderful keyboard. The touch is light but not mushy, with precise feedback to the fingers. The surfaces of keys, palm rests and touch pad have a very agreeable silken smoothness. The machine (w/ P8400 & integrated graphics) runs very cool, but if you're in a tropical climate you will feel some warmth due to the conductivity of the metal surfaces. Touch pad is not as big as some, but definitely more spacious than the Lenovo R500, and quite responsive. One minor drawback is that touch pad is easily triggered during typing, and since there's no quick way to turn off the tapping function, I find I need to keep tapping turned off. The trackpoint is not quite as well implemented as on Lenovo, but still quite functional (beware that trackpoint also has a tapping feature, which you may want to turn off if your typing fingers are sloppy like mine). The 1440x900 LED-backlit screen is likewise superb, with more brightness than you're ever likely to need indoors. It is matte, not glossy. Some have complained that the auto adjustment of brightness is useless. I find it works better some times than others, but that in any case it is very easy to toggle it off and on, and to manually adjust brightness. I'm not expert on computer innards and operating systems, nor have I tried any performance benchmarks, but there's no doubt that this machine, w/ XP and 2G of ram is very snappy. What I find especially remarkable and useful is the speed with which it goes into and out of hibernation -- much faster than an identically spec'ed Lenovo. It also has great battery life -- 6, 7 hours, even more, if you have the 9-cell and shut down all the extra power drains. The 12-cell slice is well designed, and attaches securely to the underside of the computer, but it is expensive and makes for one rather heavy, bulky laptop! Yes, the 9-cell protrudes out the back, and no, it's not the very lightest 15-incher out there, but I very much doubt you'll find anything lighter or slimmer that does not also run hotter.