To help us provide you with free impartial advice, we may earn a commission if you buy through links on our site. Learn more

Dell Latitude E4200 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £1448
inc VAT

A great choice for those working on office documents on the go

The arrival of netbooks has made many ultra-portable laptops look rather overpriced.

Stylish design is one way of differentiating a new ultra-portable laptop from the crowd. The E4200 does indeed look smart: it’s 25mm in height, has a glossy lid and sharp lines.

Dell provided a large six-cell battery with our review sample. It protrudes 22mm from the back, which spoils the look a little. However, even with it fitted the E4200 still weighs just 1.2kg. A score of just over six hours in our battery tests is impressive, but not as good as Samsung’s NC10 netbook.

The E4200’s speedy solid state drive (SSD) pushes the E4200’s PCMark scores to dizzy heights, with a score of 4,182 in the Productivity section of the test. Its energy-efficient 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB of RAM make it at least twice as fast as the NC10 across a range of applications.

Unlike many netbooks, the E4200 has an excellent keyboard. The keys are a standard, moulded shape and give good tactile feedback. While not full-sized, they are still big enough for those with large fingers.

The touch pad, however, is tiny. You’ll need to enable mouse-pointer acceleration in Windows’ Control Panel if you want to be able to cover the entire desktop without lifting your finger off the pad. The buttons are also small, but placed close to the edge of the case where your thumb can find them more easily.

As well as a decent keyboard, the E4200 beats most netbooks by offering a higher-resolution display of 1,280×800 pixels. This gives you more space to work on office documents, and makes text look really crisp. Its matt finish helps reduce glare from strong lighting, so you should be able to see what you’re doing whether in the office or on the move.

Netbooks often fall short on features, and unfortunately the E4200 does little to distinguish itself either. There are only two USB ports available, and there’s no internal or external optical drive. The 64GB SSD provides enough storage for office use and should be more resistant to bumps and knocks than a standard hard disk. An SD card slot, FireWire port and ExpressCard/34 slot are provided.

It’s not difficult to find a cheaper alternative to Dell E4200. Samsung’s NC10 netbook has a longer battery life, weighs only 100g more and costs just over £300. It’s a great choice for those working on office documents on the go. If you want portable computing power but don’t require a lengthy battery life, then Asus’s U6V offers more features and better overall performance for £176 less. That said, if you really need to have everything in one lightweight package, then the E4200 is a great laptop.

Basic Specifications

Rating****
ProcessorIntel Core 2 Duo SU9400
Processor clock speed1.4GHz
Memory2.00GB
Memory slots1
Memory slots free0
Maximum memory3GB
Size25x296x225mm
Weight1.2kg
SoundIDT HD Audio
Pointing devicetouchpad
Power consumption standby1W
Power consumption idle16W
Power consumption active25W

Display

Viewable size12.1 in
Native resolution1,280×800
Graphics ProcessorIntel GMA 4500M HD
Graphics/video portsVGA
Graphics Memory32MB

Storage

Total storage capacity64GB
Optical drive modelN/A
Optical drive typeN/A

Ports and Expansion

USB ports2
Total Firewire ports1
Bluetoothyes
Wired network ports1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support802.11a/n
PC Card slots1x ExpressCard/34
ModemNo
Supported memory cardsSD, MMC
Other portseSATA (shared with USB socket), minijack audio output, minijack microphone input

Miscellaneous

Carrying caseNo
Operating systemWindows Vista Business
Operating system restore optionrestore disc
Software includednone

Buying Information

Warrantythree years collect and return
Price£1,448
Detailswww.dell.co.uk
Supplierhttp://www.dell.co.uk