Dell Refreshes Latitude Laptop Line, Touts Windows 7 Tablet

Given the fact that HP's been quite actively lately, rolling out some interesting new additions to its desktop and notebook lineups, we were sort of expecting that one of its major rivals, Dell, would do the same, and sure enough, that's exactly what happened, the latter officially announcing a serious shake-up of its Latitude E-Family, as well as plans for launching a business-oriented Internet tablet later on this year.

The models included in the E-Series overhaul are the Latitude E5420, E5520, E6520, E6420, E6320, E6220, and E6420 ATG laptops and Latitude XT3 convertible tablet, each model targeting certain specific segments and featuring various improvements over their predecessors.

For example, the Latitude E5420 and E5520 laptops target users on a budget looking for a desktop-replacement that's not that difficult to carry around, while the Latitude E6220, E6320, E6420, E6520 and E6420 ATG are business-rugged laptops featuring hard-wearing MIL-STD tested Tri-Metal casing and highly durable displays.

The new Latitude laptops also deliver an enhanced level of security (with Dell Data Protection, Remote Data Delete and Free Fall Sensor to protect against drops), as well as a backlit keyboard option and Intel 2nd generation Core processors, plus and new graphics and memory (no specific technical details on these topics have been provided by Dell, sadly).

Beside all of the new Latitude laptops, Dell also made another interesting announcement, revealing the fact that it plans to extend its existing tablet portfolio with a 10-inch, Windows 7-based business-ready tablet later this year, but providing absolutely no tech details on the matter.

Last, but certainly not least, we'll have to mention that the Dell Latitude E5000 series starts at $859 USD, but the company's not provided any specific pricing details for its products, claiming that we should wait a few more weeks for these important pieces of information.