C400, One of the best laptops Dell has ever built
Written: Mar 14 '03
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Pros: Lightweight, very good performance, quite cheap, very good value for money
Cons: No parallel port
The Bottom Line: If you think that only Compaq or IBM or Toshiba can create very good laptops, well, think again. This Latitude C400 laptop is very good indeed !!
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| adicos's Full Review: Dell Latitude C400 Notebook |
Ok,
This is an opinion based on my experience in repairing and configuring Dell laptops for more than 2 years.
I've dealt with Latitude CP,CPi, CPx, CPxJ, than CS, L400 and now C400. From all the Latitude series, the C400 is one of the best, definitively(maybe the Latitude X200 is a little bit better, but I haven't tested it yet)
And the best way to buy it as a good value for money is either as a second hand, or from Dell Outlet website.
Now about the laptop.
The C400 normally comes with a Pentium III at 1.2GHz (but you can get it with 1.33GHz or 1.0GHz) , 128MB of RAM (but up to 1 GB) and 20 GB hard-disk (up to 40GB, if you want), which is more than enough for a mobile business user. With an average weight of 1.63 kg (it’s up to the battery you are choosing for it), it is a one of the lightweightest laptops on the market. The display is a 12.1"XGA TFT, with up to 1024 x 768 x 16.7 million colours resolution
You have everything you need in a laptop, except one thing: you don’t have a parallel port. So it’s quite tricky for home users, as they need normally to connect a printer on the parallel port. For a business user is not a problem, they can print over the network, or get a docking station and fix the problem. But for the home users, a docking station is a little bit expensive. Another solution is to use an USB cable to print.
So, what you have on the C400:
- Integrated 56K/V.92 modem & 10/100 Ethernet – quite good quality
- Dell DualPoint - Integrated Touch Pad and Track stick – better than for the CPx or C600
- PC Card Slots: 1 Type I or Type II card can be used
- Crystal CS4205 SoundCard – very good sound quality
- USB port
- Serial: 9-pin connector; 16550-compatible, 16 byte buffer
- Video: 15-hole connector
- Infrared - IrDA v 1.1 (supporting both slow and fast IR)
- 85-Key keyboard Europe – this is one of the best features in this
laptop, it’s a very easy to use keyboard and I haven’t found any faulty one in more than one year (is not like the CPx keyboards, which normally go down after 1 year and need replacement
- Internal Smart Lithium-Ion with external LED battery gauge. As Standard you get a 6-cell 40Whr battery with a battery life up to 2 hours and 45 minutes, which is not bad at all. The computer has also a smart battery management system which makes the processor and the hard-disk spend less power when the laptop is not connected to the mains leads.
You also get, as standard modules, a floppy disk drives and a CD-ROM drive 24X, but I recommend a DVD-ROM 8x, as the money you’ll pay it’s worth definitively.
As about operating systems, you can choose from the normal range, as 2000 or XP. You can choose whichever you like, the laptop works fine with both the operating systems, I haven’t seen any unusual error in the last year.
And now some personal remarks: the laptop is quite a very good value for money (if you want to get such a laptop for the best price, remember to try Dell Outlet website and you’ll be amazed by the prices you’ll see there). The C400 is also very easy to use, the design is quite nice and from about 25 laptops my company bought in the last year, NONE (!!) of them had problems, which is quite a very good thing, as Dell is renowned for good prices, but not so good laptops (this is my point of view, after I’ve dealt with so many laptops)
Another thing you can try when you get such a laptop is to get a bluetooth card (as you have a bay in the laptop to put it) and connect to your bluetooth phone or Palm and get up to 1 MB/sec transfer rate. This way you’ll become a true mobile user.
So, it’s a very good option for a first time buyer of a laptop, but not only. If you think that only Compaq or IBM or Toshiba can create very good laptops, well, think again. This Latitude C400 laptop is very good indeed !!
And one more thing: if you want to use your infrared port, don’t forget to enable it from the BIOS, as it comes disabled by default.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): N/A
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 12 inches
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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Epinions.com ID:
adicos
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Location: London - UK
Reviews written: 25
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
IT Engineer in London.
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