DELL LATITUDE D430 REVIEW

Dell's latest offering in the ultraportable market, this 12.1” is the smallest notebook around and uses the ultra low voltage processors by Intel

Design
The notebook is super light yet has that awesome build which assures you of its strength. It uses magnesium alloy for the chassis, and a strong plastic material for the outer casing. The frame is very nice, and only little flex could be observed on the palm rest, which has the battery underneath it. The screen is a 12.1” WXGA with a maximum resolution of 1280x800. The screen color quality is high and the images are very neatly produced but the viewing angles are vertically bad and average horizontally. An additional feature is the ambient light sensor in the screen, which makes the screen adjust its brightness according to the surroundings. The inclusion of a full-size keyboard in this notebook is a plus, and the keyboard and touchpad both are really good in response. The laptop includes a PCMCIA slot, SD Card slot , headphone, microphone jacks on left and power switch and WiFi toggle switch on the right. The rear has the Ethernet, modem, 2 USB, Firewire, VGA and the Adapter jack.

Performance
The notebook utilizes the power of the Ultra low voltage processors like U1400 core solo and can be changed to Core-2-Duo. 1GB RAM, 80GB Hard drive and onboard graphics completing the specs, this one is an average performer only. Managing a score of 1454 in PCMark 05 and 384 in 3DMark 05, this notebook can multi-task well but you will not be able to use it for even casual gaming. The battery life is decent, with average lasting 3 hours and on better power saving features, it can easily last 4+ hours.

Conclusion
The laptop is good enough for business purposes, but not very good if you consider entertainment or heavy applications. But nevertheless, it has got a good performance-price aspect.

Pros
+ Excellent design
+ Superb keyboard and touchpad

Cons
- Graphics performance suffers
- Location of connectivity ports is not very good at rear

Value For Money

Our Rating