DELL LATITUDE XT TABLET PC REVIEW

Dell has finally ventured into the Tablet PC market with the release of the Latitude XT. There was a lot of hype and speculation around this release, is the Dell Going to cope with all the hype it has created? Let’s sneak in to reveal it.

Design
The Latitude XT has a brawny chassis. The design is rock-solid and it has that business plea all around it, which we know it is marketed toward, especially at the given price tag. It is an all black, but has a classy brushed aluminum finish on the lid and inside. It hides fingerprints and dirt like a pro. Weighing at jus a little over 3 pounds, it is easy to carry around in tablet mode and continue travel with it. Dell didn't cheap out on any component of the design, even the pen has a distinctive square shape and it is very functional too.

Performance
The XT isn't built to be the fastest or most powerful tablet PC up market. It is made for the business class market. It equips itself running on a ULV Core 2 Duo 1.2GHz processor and has a memory of 120GB hard drive. By no means is it slow though. XT boots up moderately fast and it can handle office tasks with ease.

XT has a 12.1" WXGA (1280 x 800) display. The screen is very impressive. I like the fact that it looks like a standard laptop. The LED backlit tap screen is bright, has vibrant colors and almost no graininess, which is excellent because you find graininess on all tablets. The LED backlit decision also saves on battery life, another bonus.

Dell is the 1st to launch the N-trig touch technology on a Tablet PC as well. The XT has a good capacitive touch screen, so taking notes with the pen and using your finger are both easy ways to pilot and use your tablet. You don't get stuck with that reflexive touch screen that only allows you to use the pen for writing and your finger for booting applications.

As for noise, this is never an issue with the XT. The only noise this tablet PC spurted is when the fan kicked on and off, which was never that loud. The speaker shouts out at a good sound quality and got pretty loud voice too.

Overall
The XT comes with a nice arrangement of ports and has plenty of optional accessories. The slice battery offers it all day power and the Media Base gives you an optical drive and more ports then I could ever utilize. It seems Dell is already talking about updating the XT by November 2008 as well.
Pros
+ Dual touch technology
+ LED backlit screen
+ Solidly build keyboard
+ Solid pen with pressure sensitive nibs and a distinctive shape
+ Great battery life with the all new slice battery
+ Tons of accessory options which is really cool.

Cons
- Dull design, but business like (Not the regular tablets way)
- Expensive

Value For Money

Our Rating