Dell Latitude D620: my new laptop

After an exhaustive review, we recently made the decision to go with Dell again to replace a number of aging "power user" laptops. The unit of choice is the Latitude D620, which is a brand-new corporate quality laptop designed for road warrior power users.

As spec'ed, the D620s we've ordered have Intel Core Duo 2 GHz processors, 2GB RAM, 80GB hard drives, wide screen 14" SXGA+ screens and DVD+/-R drives. Weight should come in around 5.5 pounds with the extra life 9 cell battery, which is reported to provide around 7 hours (!) of battery life.

eWeek recently reviewed the D620 and gave it very good marks, especially for the price, which came in at $2,119, including all of the options mentioned above plus a 3 year next business day service plan, accidental damage protection, shipping and tax.

As far as reliability, ComputerWorld Australia recently stress tested one of the new Latitude models (not sure exactly which one), but they came through with shining colors. Their tests included dropping the unit onto carpeted and hard floors (from desktop height, both open and closed), as well as standing on the unit and actually pouring an entire cup of coffee on the keyboard. The unit survived all tests with flying colors due to the magnesium reinforced case, liquid resistant keyboard and hard drive "shock zones" that protect the drive if the unit is dropped. While this falls short of Lenovo's "air bag" technology, which relies on a motion sensor that automatically parks the hard drive, and liquid drain channels under the keyboard, the price of the unit came in much less than a similarly configured ThinkPad T60.

Dell estimates that we will receive the units in about 2 weeks, and I will post an evaluation of my unit after I've had a chance to use it for a few weeks. Compared with the cranky, heavy (8.5 pound) Dell Inspiron 8500 that I'm currently using, the new D620 promises to be a vast improvement. Hopefully Dell's new US-based support and overall system reliability have improved beyond the current unit!