Dell has marvelously redesigned its corporate desktop replacement. The Latitude D800 series is a wise choice for any company.
Dell's business-focused Latitude notebooks have long been one of Dell's best-selling categories and a mainstay of the corporate market. The latest of the newly designed Latitudes, the desktop-replacement D800 series, features a 15.4-inch wide-aspect screen and is the company's biggest corporate notebook. It's based on the new Pentium M processor, which gives it ample performance muscle, and depending on which wireless solution you pick when buying from the Dell Web site, you can get a full Centrino configuration. A few quibbles aside, this eye-catching notebook series is still one of the best corporate desktop replacements on the market.
The Latitude D800 series is a smaller version of the old Latitude C800, measuring 361 x 276 x 39 mm and weighing 3.18kg--an acceptable weight for a top-of-the-line desktop replacement. It includes a swappable media bay that houses a second battery or one of many drives: CD, DVD, CD-RW, DVD/CD-RW, or a second hard drive. These drives work in all of the new Latitude D-series notebooks, which is helpful to large businesses. What's not as helpful is that these new media modules won't fit in older Latitude C-series notebooks.
Like the previous C800, the Latitude D800 series includes both a pointing stick in the middle of the spacious, comfortable keyboard and a touchpad in the wrist rest. There are four mouse buttons: two below the spacebar (you use these with the pointing stick) and two below the touchpad. Three buttons for volume up, volume down, and mute are located above the keyboard.
Dell's new, optional D/View monitor stand and port replicator make it easy to connect an external keyboard and mouse to the D800 series, if you're willing to shell out about AU$530 extra. And in a unique twist, the monitor stand also lets you use the notebook's screen as your main monitor. Getting it all set up is a little tricky at first: First, you'll have to attach the notebook to the monitor stand, then place the stand on the port replicator, then lift up the back of the replicator via a hinge on the front. Open your notebook and slide the system up to eye level. Connect an external keyboard and mouse, and you have a desktop-PC-like setup. The two downsides are that you might get tired of looking at the laptop's keyboard propped up in front of you, and you might find the whole setup difficult to use. Overall, we like the added flexibility, but it's not essential, especially considering the extra cost.
The Latitude D800 series' ports and slots cover all the bases. On the left edge are headphone and microphone jacks, an IrDA port, a FireWire port, and one Type II PC Card slot. The slot includes an embedded smart-card reader that lets employees store and read their passwords and other info on optional smart cards, which are available in a number of sizes and prices from various third-party manufacturers. Two speakers with middling sound occupy the front-edge corners. Two USB 2.0 ports, plus S-Video out, 56Kbps modem, 10/100/1000 Ethernet, parallel, VGA, and serial ports stretch out across the rear edge.
The Pentium M that the Latitude D800 series contains comes in 1.3GHz, 1.4GHz, and 1.6GHz speeds, which you can choose among when you buy at Dell.com. Dell also lets you configure the Latitude D800 with Intel's new 855PM chipset and the Pro/wireless 802.11b mini-PCI card, giving the D800 the three parts it needs to be a Centrino notebook. If you're interested in the 802.11a/g wireless standards, Dell offers its own TrueMobile 1300 802.11b/g and TrueMobile 1400 802.11b/a/g mini-PCI cards instead of Intel's.
Wireless options aren't the Latitude D800's only cutting-edge components. You can order your Latitude with anywhere from 128MB to 2GB of fast 266MHz DDR SDRAM; a 40GB hard drive spinning at a speedy 5,400rpm or 20GB, 30GB, and 60GB drives running at 4,200rpm; an Nvidia GeForce4 4200 Go graphics chip with 32MB or 64MB of memory; and a number of swappable modules for the media bay including CD, DVD, CD-RW, DVD/CD-RW, a second hard drive, or a second battery. You can't order a DVD-burning drive, but you won't find many corporate notebooks that offer this feature. The crisp and clear, 15.4-inch, wide-aspect display comes in a resolution of 1,280x800 or 1,920x1,200.
Dell typically doesn't include productivity software with the D800 to its large enterprise customers because most of them have some type of direct-licensing agreement with Microsoft and don't want the apps loaded on their systems. But small-to-medium business customers can order a Microsoft office suite: XP Office Small Business Edition adds AU$359.70, while XP Office Pro adds AU$564.30. Operating-system options span the range of business options: Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 3; Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1; and Windows XP Home Service Pack 1.
The Dell Latitude D800 offers mobile performance (performance that relies on battery life) that is typical of Pentium M-based systems, in that it performs better than the majority of systems of even Pentium 4 caliber. In fact, it pummeled the 2GHz Pentium 4-M-based IBM ThinkPad A31p by more than 60 points. The Toshiba Satellite Pro M10-S405 bested the D800 in our test but by only two points--a difference that would not be noticeable in real-world use. When it comes to mobile performance, you can't go wrong with a Pentium M-based system.
The Dell Latitude D800 placed second in our maximum-performance tests, turning in strong results. When running at full speed, the 1.6GHz Pentium M-based D800 bested the Toshiba Satellite Pro M10-S405, with its 1.4GHz Pentium M, by 20 points in Internet content creation (ICC). However, the processor speed matters less in terms of our office-productivity tests; the Latitude beat the Satellite Pro M10-S405 by only two points in those tests. Also, whereas the ThinkPad A31p had a huge advantage in ICC, it actually fell below the Dell Latitude D800 in office productivity, bringing its average score to only two points ahead. Overall, the Latitude D800 series should more than meet business needs.
The Dell Latitude D800 is only the second notebook we've tested that uses the Nvidia GeForce4 4200 Go 64MB graphics adapter, and it becomes the highest-performing notebook we've yet to test in 3D graphics. The system has no problem beating its comparison systems, and it scored so well that it would even rival many desktop systems in 3D performance. If you're a gamer who's looking for a notebook that won't let you down in the frame-rate department, look no further.
The Dell Latitude D800 achieved impressive battery life, thanks to its 11.1V, 6,480mAh battery, as well as the power optimisations that are inherent to the Pentium M processor. With these advantages, the system was able to last more than three and a half hours--more than one and a half hours longer than the IBM ThinkPad A31p, which has a less-than-impressive 10.8V, 4,000mAh battery. However, the D800 didn't even come close to the Toshiba Satellite Pro M10-S405, which, with its 10.8V, 6,600mAh battery, lasted nearly five hours.
Dell Latitude D800 (Pentium M 1.6GHz, 512MB RAM)
Company: Dell
Price: AU$4,084.80
Distributor: Dell
Phone: 1800 812 392
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