8. Weighty Power

When discussing the power requirements of our test unit, it is important to note that the normal Latitude/Inspiron 70 Watt (20V 3.5A) power adapter will work with the test unit, but there is a catch. The catch is that the test unit, like the new Inspiron 8200 and Latitude C840, requires the use of the new Dell Latitude/Inspiron 90 Watt (20V 4.5A) power adapter to run at full power. The older power adapters that you may have from your old Latitude/Inspiron series notebooks do not provide enough power for our test unit to run at full speed. This is of course worth noting if you have a heavy investment in mobile Dell products and you are going to add a unit like this to your current IT standards list. The new AC adapter doesn't add any weight, which is a good thing, but the 1A difference at 20V is really a big deal, as you can tell by the 20 Watt increase in power. The older Dell Latitude C8xx series/Inspiron 8xxx series used a 56 watt hour battery, while our test unit uses the new 66 watt hour battery which will be found in C840 and 8200.

This is a front view of our Dell test unit with both the battery and the C-Bay device removed from the front of the unit.

Our test unit weighs about 7.5 lbs or more, depending on the configuration. Like the Latitude C810 and Inspiron 8100, this means that in most configurations, you are looking at close to 8 lbs. The unit measures 1.75"(h) x 13.03"(w) x 10.87"(d). Again, this is the same as the C810/8100. Still, for a desktop replacement, this weight will be considered about the norm and far from the 8.5 lbs to 9 lbs for other desktop replacement units that we have seen.

The keyboard of our test unit is what we would consider to be good, but not as outstanding as the keyboard of the IBM A31p that we reviewed early this month. The keyboard action is firm, but a little on the stiff side. Over repeated use it might improve, but we saw no indication of this during our testing. The test unit features for the Alps StickPointer style pointing device as well as the Alps GlidePoint have become very popular among many users. The test unit features four pointing device buttons, two above the Alps GlidePoint and two below. We found the buttons to be of good size and the click action to be good. Unlike the Inspiron product line that allows you to customize the palm rests with different colors, our test unit was closer to the Latitude which offers no such option. This is to be expected, because the Latitude is all business. We found the palm rest area of the unit to be of reasonable size, but it did not have the feel that we liked so much on the A31p. Of course, this is a matter of sheer preference, and the size of your hands will have a lot to do with your comfort level.