14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this week, Round Rock, Texas-based Dell announced a new addition to its Latitude line of portable computer systems, with the introduction of the new Latitude 2100 netbook, specifically designed for K-12 students. The system packs the same technical specifications as most netbooks on the market, but its exterior design has been strengthened to better resist the pressure it can be put through by students. On that note, it appears that we already have our first hands-on video and review of the new laptop, which has managed to impress mostly because of its rugged shell and extra features.
The fellows over at Laptop Magazine have been lucky enough to get their hands on a sample of Dell's latest netbook, the Latitude 2100. The model they had in their test labs came with a US$484 price tag and included a 16GB SSD, a six-cell battery and 1.5GB of RAM (an option that will apparently not be available to customers). Aside from that, the netbook packed pretty much everything you'd expect from an Atom N270-powered system, featuring the very successful Windows XP OS.
As far as the testing goes, the netbook's SSD managed to boot the operating system in a relatively speedy 35 seconds, according to Laptop Mag. However, the low 16GB storage space proved insufficient for the various benchmark applications that needed to be installed. With the battery, the Latitude 2100 needs some improvement, as it can only provide 4 hours and 47 minutes of life, which is 90 minutes less than average six-cell netbooks.
Overall, the system's exterior proved to be one of the most successful features on Dell's latest netbook, as it can provide a better protection for the internal hardware, especially given the physical stress that it is expected to support.