In contrast, ThinkPads sport an all-black frame. The additional orange lining around the keyboard, however, may seem like color overkill, although I didn't find it to be an eyesore. The interior has a similar color combination: black palm rests and aluminum trim around the keyboard. The gun-metal gray top is made of brushed aluminum that tapers along the sides, surrounded by a light silver trim, while the base is completely black. But then again, the Lenovo ThinkPad T410 (5.5 lbs) ($1,484 direct, 4 stars) and T420 (review coming shortly) were subjected to similar torture tests and given a similar battery, yet they're half a pound lighter.ĭespite its heft, the E6420 has pleasing aesthetics. This metallic blend withstood a wide range of improvised military torture tests by Dell that include vibrations, extreme temperatures, drops, and moisture, to name a few. Then there's the fact that it's a solidly-made laptop, made from magnesium alloy and topped with an aluminum finish. There's the huge 9-cell battery without which the E6420 wouldn't have its impressive battery life. The E6420's heavy weight can be attributed to several factors. Although powerful, the E6420 is pricey and weighs a whopping 6 pounds, which is very heavy for a 14-inch laptop. This particular configuration runs an Intel Core i5-2540M processor, a 9-cell battery (the biggest available), and integrated graphics.
For instance, the Dell Latitude E6420 ($1,788 direct), the company's latest 14-inch business laptop, has every feature and component that a power user could possibly dream up, from the full range of Intel Sandy Bridge processors to the gamut of business-oriented features. You can also order the E6540 with a fingerprint reader for biometric security, but our review configuration didn’t include one.Latitude-branded laptops are dedicated to the most demanding businesses and largest enterprises for a reason: They're fully loaded, with a world of options to choose from. In addition to a three-year warranty (including on-site service), Dell supplies a FIPS 140-2-certified Trusted Platform Module for secure credential storage, with Dell’s ControlVault housing user passwords and credentials on a chip instead of the hard drive. These shortcomings don’t necessarily interfere with the E6540’s appeal as a business-friendly laptop, especially for SMB and enterprise environments. The Latitude E6540 earned a respectable Notebook Worldbench 8.1 score, but it would have been much higher had Dell splurged for an SSD. These days, the only reason to have a hard drive is storage capacity, and 500GB isn’t exactly generous. That firepower also helped the Latitude E6540 earn a Notebook Worldbench 8.1 score of 263, but that number would have been much higher had Dell installed an SSD (solid-state drive) instead of a paltry 500GB, 5400-rpm mechanical hard drive. Intel’s fourth-generation Core processor helps the Latitude E6540 (second from top) score big on battery life. So if you do end up traveling with the machine (remember, lift with your knees!), you’ll appreciate its above-average battery life (for a desktop replacement, at least) of 5 hours, 21 minutes. To preserve battery power, the system will automatically turn off the discrete GPU when it’s not needed. Dell outfitted this machine with an Intel Core i7-4800MQ processor, 8GB of DDR3/1600 RAM, and a discrete AMD Radeon 8790M graphics card with 2GB of GDDR5 RAM.