Dell Latitude E6500 Laptop Review

Bottom-Line: Hands down, the Dell Latitude E6500 is a performance winner. 

Now that Windows 7 is finally on the street, it is time for another technology refresh in my company; this time the entire department traded up to the Dell Latitude E6500 Notebook computer.  Dell constructed the business-class notebook of a magnesium alloy, rugged paint finish and tough metal hinges, which makes the Latitude E6500 more durable than older Dell portable offerings. 

My slate black (it can also be had in red and blue) Latitude E6500 doesn't feel any heavier than the notebook it replaces, which makes carrying the portable desktop replacement everyday easy on the shoulders and back.  But the Latitude E6500 is far more capable than the Latitude D820 checking in with 4GB of Ram, an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor and 15.4" Premium WXGA LED display.    

The Laptop

The Latitude E6500 comes very close to being a full fledged, full feathered desktop replacement; the unit houses your choice of Intel Core 2 Duo Processors; mine shipped with the base P8600 running at 2.40GHz with 3MB L2 cache, on a 1066MHz FSB.  And while the D600 only sported (2) USB 2.0 ports, the ruggedized Latitude E6500 has 4 including a combo USB/Power port and combo USB/eSATA. 

In addition the notebook can be had with a integrated fingerprint reader, as well as only (1) PC Card/ExpressCard 54 slot, (1) 4-pin mini-Firewire port, Smartcard slot, 5-n-1 card reader, E-Family modular media bay: (8X DVD-ROM, 24X CDRW/DVD, 8X DVD+/-RW, second Hard Drive or Travel Lite Module), and Port Replication port to round out the expandability of this performance packed laptop. 

The Latitude E6500 can be fitted with a maximum of 8GB of Dual Channel DDR2 RAM, and 250GB HHD.  However, there a number of hard drive choices including solid state drives with a capacity of up to 128GB.     

My Viewpoint

I like my new Dell Latitude E6500.  The unit is light weight, sturdy and performs quite well thanks in larger part to the ultra-fast Intel Core Duo processor and 4GB of DDR2 Dual-Channel RAM under the hood.  This makes the E6500 markedly and noticeably faster than a single-core system.  This means that the notebook runs Windows 7 Enterprise Edition run really, really well. 

I like the look and feel of the notebook.  It is lightweight, but still durable easy to carry to and from work every day. And did I mention the stellar back-lit keyboard?  It lights up when a single key is clicked and turns off automatically after about 5 seconds of inactivity.    

The best feature of the Latitude E6500 is the UWXGA display.  The 15.4 inch screen is bright, crisp and clear.  It is not the best LCD display I have ever used, but it is more than adequate for business use, and for playing the occasional DVD. 

Hands down, the Dell Latitude E6500 is a performance winner, especially when mated with Windows 7 Enterprise Edition.  I like the increased processing power, the increased batter power, and increased memory.  And the laptop is handsome to look at!  Though I doubt I will ever have cause to use the 4-pin Firewire port, or the eSATA port, for that matter, it is nice to know its there just in case, and (4) USB ports has certainly com in handy.