14 DAY TRIAL // Despite yesterday's many rumors and speculations, Dell has not released its highly anticipated Mini Inspiron. However, loyal fans will probably be glad to hear that the company has brought to light a completely new line of Latitude and Precision laptops. Designed for business users, Dell's newly released portable computer systems bring forward a number of innovative features, based on Intel's recently released Centrino 2 platform.
After Lenovo and HP's recent announcements for their business portable computer systems, Dell was likely to follow. Which it did, with the release of the new Latitude and Precision lineup, counting no less than nine new products, seven of which are part of the company's Latitude family.
"Since 1995, we've shipped more business laptops worldwide than anyone," said Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell. "This, and our 5 million plus conversations a day with customers, gives us real insight into the needs of the digital nomad. Today we're translating that insight into breakthrough productivity, portability and design. The new Latitudes are breathtaking."
The Latitude laptops have been designed to meet the requirements of several types of business users, covering a wide range of user profiles. The "Ultra-Portable" series counts two new models, a 12.1-inch E4200 and a 13.3-inch E4300. Dell claims that the weight of the 12.1-inch laptop starts at just 2.2 pounds, making it the lightest commercial notebook in the company's history. The 13.3-incher has a starting weight of 3.3 pounds and will be available, along with the E4200, within the coming weeks. Both models will pack a Windows Vista OS and will be powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo Ultra Low Voltage processor.
For mainstream users, Dell has released the Latitude E6400 and E6500, which are already available as of today, for prices starting at $1,139 and $1,169, respectively. The 14.1 and 15.4-inch laptops have been designed to accommodate some of the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors and NVIDIA's new Quadro NVS graphics. Based on Intel's 45 Express chipset, the new mainstream Latitudes will provide support for dual channel DDR3 memory.
There's also an "Essential" segment that includes two new Latitude notebooks, the 14.1-inch E5400 and the E5500 that comes with a 15.4-inch design. These notebooks are already available, and they come with price tags that start at just $839 and 869, respectively. Based on the same chipset as the mainstream Latitudes, the "Essential" laptops provide support for DDR2 memory and Intel's Core 2 Duo processors with 1066MHz FSB and up to 6M of L2 cache.
The company also released a new version of its ATG notebook, the E6400 ATG, which boasts a 14.1 inch semi-rugged design, for a starting price tag of $2,399. The notebook, which is built to meet the Military 810F standards for dust, vibration and humidity, will become available next week.
The company also announced two new Precision mobile workstations with immediate availability. The 15.4-inch M4400 has a starting price tag of $1,569 and supports up to 8GB of RAM. A "lighter" model that starts at $1,449 will be provided with the 14.1-inch M2400.
