Thanks to Richard M. in the “Small/Medium Business” sales department, I’m striking this post out on Dell’s latest, Premier Business Laptop.

Dell Latitude E6500 - Blue

Or, see the standard pictures from Dell by clicking >>HERE<<!

To me, any good laptop needs to be portable, have a battery that lasts, have external expansion ports, and operate at a reasonable temperature. So, it was hard not to be skeptical when reading about all the options the E6500 had available.

A lot of my work is done in the field. I’m called to work on both new and legacy systems of all types, but mostly related to telco/data circuits and networks. I may need any number of adapters to connect my laptop to their equipment. Believe it or not, I still do a lot of work where a Cisco DB-9 (Serial “Console” Cable) is the only way to modify the configuration of the equipment. How many laptops in the last three years have a DB-9 connection on it?

Well this laptop doesn’t have one either. However, it does have a PC Card Slot to add additional adapters. This system is also compatible with the E-Series Docks, 2 of which have the DB-9 Serial Port.

Read information on the E-Series Docks and accessories >>HERE<<!

It comes with many other options too. You can view a descriptive schematic by clicking >>HERE<< and going to page 7 of the PDF file.

I ordered my system and was surprised with all the equipment that came standard. You can see the configuration of my system below:

• PROCESSOR: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9600 (2.80GHz, 6M L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
• OPERATING SYSTEM: Genuine Windows Vista Business Bonus-Windows XP Professional downgrade
• LCD PANEL: 15.4” UltraSharp™ Wide WXGA+ (1440×900) LED Display-Regatta Blue – STANDARD
• WARRANTY & SERVICE: 3 Year ProSupport for End Users and 3 Year NBD On-site Service
• VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M – STANDARD
• MEMORY: 4.0GB, DDR2-800 SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
• INTERNAL KEYBOARD: Internal English Backlit Keyboard – STANDARD
• CAMERA/MICROPHONE: Integrated Webcam with digital microphone – STANDARD
• SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT: No Intel vPro™ Technology’s advanced management features
• PRIMARY STORAGE: 128GB Dell Mobility Solid State Drive
• OPTICAL DRIVE: 8X DVD+/-RW w/Roxio and Cyberlink Power DVD™, Blue
• WI-FI WIRELESS CARD: Dell Wireless™ 1510 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card
• BLUETOOTH WIRELESS: Dell Wireless® 370 Bluetooth Module
• MODEM: Internal 56K Modem
• PC CARD – STANDARD
• EXPRESS CARD – STANDARD
• SD CARD READER – STANDARD
• VOLUME CONTROL BUTTONS – STANDARD
• TOUCH PAD – STANDARD
• TRACK STICK – STANDARD
• TRACK STICK BUTTONS – STANDARD
• SMART CARD SLOT – STANDARD
• CONTACTLESS SMART CARD READER – STANDARD
• WiFi On/Off SWITCH – STANDARD
• 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS – STANDARD
• 1 x POWERED USB 2.0 PORT – STANDARD
• 1 x eSata/ POWERED USB 2.0 PORT – STANDARD
• LCD BACKLIT KEYBOARD – STANDARD
• VGA DB15 VIDEO PORT – STANDARD
• 10/100 NIC – STANDARD

It’s also possible that I missed a few items!

The standard hardware set was impressive to me. After upgrading a few items in the configuration and adding a couple E-Port Docks, I now have just about every type of port I could possibly need.

I have been using the laptop for a couple months now. The system runs great. I have had zero issues with the system hanging or stalling. The system has never crashed on me yet. I haven’t noticed any extreme heat given off by the machine, though it does get warm on your lap. Most importantly, I haven’t had a single scenario in the field where I didn’t have the right adapter to connect to the site’s equipment.

Ordinarily, when I test a machine, I find more to criticize than to praise. I haven’t criticized this system at all, yet, but I will.

I found the Standard 6-Cell battery doesn’t last very long. In fact, for my use, this battery is just about useless. SOLUTION – Buy the 9-Cell Battery for the machine.

The 9-Cell “Long Life” batteries takes up an extra inch of space when attached to the laptop. So if you buy a case that is made for a 15.4 inch wide-screen laptop, you may not have enough space for the laptop with the battery attached. My field service bag doesn’t have enough room, and is made for screens up to 17 inches. SOLUTION – Take the battery off to transport the laptop.

The system doesn’t come pre-loaded with Windows XP Pro SP3. SOLUTION – I ordered the XP PRO downgrade, but had to do it myself.

There is way too much space wasted with the Dell Software and recovery partition. This is often the case. Dell goes above and beyond to make recovery easy, but the space is wasted. A lot of the software loaded on the machine is just bloat as well. SOLUTION – When you reformat the machine to put Windows XP PRO SP3 on the machine and get rid of that Vista crap, delete the recovery partition, and don’t install all the extra Dell utilities. I recommend only instally what is absolutely necessary. (Disclaimer – Although I am a computer technician with many years of experience, this suggestion can be complicated and isn’t necessarily supported by Dell. Consult with a professional before doing this. I would be happy to do this for you for a small fee.)

It can be difficult to separate the laptop from the E-Series docks. SOLUTION – BE CAREFUL! There isn’t really a way to make this better unless you quit using the docks.

All in all, the Dell Latitude E6500 seems to be a great laptop. I don’t often recommend purchasing Dell Systems, or any other system with Microsoft Windows on it. However, if need a new laptop, and you want it to have Microsoft Windows on it, then you need to buy this machine.

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Well, it’s finally here!

Sapphire Solutions, Ltd. has done a major update to the company web site.

Obviously, we gave our site a new look by changing several graphic elements, yet that isn’t the biggest change. When evaluating the older web site we found that it simply wasn’t cutting the mustard it in the CMS (Content Management System) department. We fealt the older site gave a lot of information, but that information wasn’t well organized. So, in looking for a CMS, we looked for the ability to put our own organization structure in place, while still making the same information available.

When considering all that our site could offer, we consulted some professionals whose opinions are respected by bamajr and others of the Sapphire Solutions staff. Most of these conversations took place in the OnForce forums (see here). The opinions we took into consideration and the research we did, made the selection easy.

WordPress seemed to stand out above everything else. So, we would like to take this time to thank the WordPress Developers and Support team for making such a great application available to the masses. We hope to utilize many of the available plugins to offer our visitors the best web experience possible when using our site.

The ability to add more content, faster is fantastic and the addition of blogging to the site will provide a means to get this information to our viewers in a well organized mannor. It will probably take a few weeks for our writers and contributers to develope a consistent pattern for reporting to the site. Please bare with us as our site expands.

We do however, have a few expectations laid out already, which we feel will benifit our readers. We want the information found on our site to be accurate, benificial and timely. The information shared here will be technology related, yet want this information to be understood by all readers. Because it is impossible to eliminate all the techno-babble from a technology forum, we encourage open communication about each topic and post.

Our company is a firm believer in “free press” and wish for this content on our site to convey such practices. However, we will edit, modify and/or delete any content that is not appropriate for minors of all ages (G-rated).

Please spend some time at our site. Feel free to link to our site and know that we encourage trackbacks and pingbacks.

Thanks,

sapphiresolutionsltd.com – Administrator

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