Performance & battery life
With its 1.2GHz processor, the Latitude XT is not at the top of the performance league. Its Windows Experience Index (WEI) was 3.5 (out of 5.9), which is well down our table of top performers. The WEI corresponds to the lowest component score, which went to Gaming Graphics (3D business and gaming graphics performance).
Other scores were more respectable, with 4.1 for RAM (Memory operations per second) and Graphics (desktop performance for Windows Aero) 4.4 for Processor (calculations per second) and 4.5 for Primary hard disk (Disk data transfer rate).
Battery life could be better, too. We got solid half-day's work out of the Latitude XT, but it needed a power boost during the day to keep it going and a charge at night to ensure that it was ready for work the next day. This is disappointing: the 6-cell primary battery or a second battery may be needed if mobile uptime is critical for you.
Dell offers a three-year basic warranty on the Latitude XT, which is welcome for business users.
Conclusion
The Latitude XT is an extremely handsome Tablet PC, and a very usable one thanks to its excellent screen and keyboard. However, battery life and performance are both a little disappointing. And if you need an optical drive, HSDPA, Bluetooth, a bigger hard drive or (particularly) solid-state storage, you'll find that the price soon mounts up.
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