Latitude D420 review

It's easy to use any modern notebook to get online using a wireless hotspot, but what happens when you're out of range? Dell's Latitude D420 is the first notebook we've reviewed to have built-in 3G.

The Latitude has a Vodafone SIM card (contract required, from £25 including VAT per month for 250MB of data), so you're limited to using that network. It can connect to the internet at a fast maximum of 384Kbit/s from most cities and major towns in the UK; visit www.vodafone.co.uk/ukcoverage for details of current UK coverage. If you're based in London, you can get a quicker 1.2Mbit/s using the snappily named High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) service.

Outside 3G coverage, you'll be forced to use GPRS, which gives a maximum of only 42Kbit/s. Alternatively, there's a modem, Bluetooth, wireless networking and Gigabit Ethernet. So you'll be able to browse the internet and send email from wherever you're working.

The excellent 12.1" display, both bright and crisp, has a matt finish to reduce unwanted reflections from the sun or harsh fluorescent lighting. The keyboard is excellent, with good travel and feedback. There's a track point as well as a touch pad, so you're well catered for whatever your preference. There are plenty of ports on the notebook despite its size. The three USB2 ports and four-pin FireWire port are more than sufficient for attaching devices. There's also a memory card reader with support for SD cards.

No optical drive is fitted; instead, you get a slender base unit that clips to the bottom of the notebook. This adds around 10mm to its height, but gives you a DVD/CD-RW drive and replicates all the ports on the notebook. You could leave it attached to the notebook all the time, or use it as a docking station.

Without the base unit, the D420 is a slender notebook and, at only 1.5kg, is easy to carry. It uses a low-voltage Intel Core Duo U2500 processor. This runs slower than most of the Intel Core Duo range, with a clock speed of just 1.2GHz. Despite this, it's still easily powerful enough to handle any day-to-day office tasks.

The low-voltage processor is designed to increase the battery life of the notebook. The D420 managed three hours and 39 minutes in our light-usage test, so it's sufficient for regular mobile use, but we expected a little more from an ultra-portable business notebook.

Dell's Latitude D420 is a great notebook, and reasonably priced considering the built-in 3G capability. However, the battery life is a little disappointing, especially for an ultra-portable.

Author: Seth Barton