2. Dim your screen – Most laptops come with the ability to dim your laptop screen. hp laptop battery Some even come with ways to modify CPU and cooling performance.F2024B, F2024A, Omnibook XE3
346970-001, Cut them down to the lowest level you can tolerate to squeeze out some extra HP xps m1330 battery juice.

3. Cut down on programs running in the background – Itunes, Desktop Search, etc. All these add to the CPU load and cut down HP xps m1330 battery life. Shut down everything that isn’t crucial when you’re on battery.

4. Cut down external devices – USB devices (including your mouse) & WiFi drain down your HP xps m1330 battery. Remove or shut them down when not in use. It goes without saying that charging other devices with your laptop when on battery is a surefire way of quickly wiping out the charge on your laptop battery.

5. Add more RAM – This will allow you to process more with the memory your HP laptop has, rather than relying on virtual memory. Virtual memory results in hard drive use, and is much less power efficient. Note that adding more RAM will consume more energy, Omnibook XE3 so this is most applicable if you do need to run memory intensive programs which actually require heavy usage of virtual memory.

6. Run off a hard drive rather than CD/DVD – As power consuming as hard drives are, CD and DVD drives are worse. Even having one in the drive can be power consuming.

7. Keep the battery contacts clean – Clean your xps m1330 battery’ s metal contacts every couple of months with a cloth moistened with rubbing alcohol. This keeps the transfer of power from your HP battery more efficient.

8. Take care of your battery – Exercise the Battery. Do not leave a charged xps m1330 battery dormant for long periods of time. Once charged, you should at least use the battery at least once every two to three weeks. Also,F2024B, F2024A, Omnibook XE3
346970-001, do not let a HP li-ion battery completely discharge. (Discharing is only for older batteries with memory effects)

9. Hibernate not standby – Although placing a laptop in standby mode saves some power and you can instantly resume where you left off, it doesn’t save anywhere as much power as the hibernate function does. Hibernating a PC will actually save your PC’s state as it is, F2024A, and completely shut itself down.

10. Keep operating temperature down – Your HP laptop operates more efficiently when it’s cooler. Clean out your air vents with a cloth or keyboard cleaner.

11. Set up and optimize your power options – Go to ‘Power Options’ in your windows control panel and set it up so that power usage is optimized (Select the ‘max battery’ for maximum effect).
Don’t multitask – Do one thing at a time when you’re on battery. Rather than working on a spreadsheet, letting your email client run in the background and listening to your latest set of MP3′s, set your mind to one thing only. If you don’t you’ll only drain out your HP laptop battery before anything gets completed!

13. Go easy on the PC demands – The more you demand from your HP notebook computer, passive activities like email and word processing consume much less power than gaming or playing a DVD. If you’re got a single battery charge – pick your priorities wisely.

14. Get yourself a more efficient laptop – Laptops are getting more and more efficient in nature to the point where some manufacturers are talking about all day long batteries. F2024B, F2024A, Omnibook XE3
346970-001, Picking up a newer more efficient laptop to replace an aging one is usually a quick fix.

15. Turn off the autosave function – MS-Word or Excel’s autosave functions are great but because they keep saving regular intervals,346970-001, they work your hard driver harder than it may have to. If you plan to do this, you may want to turn it back on as the battery runs low. While it saves battery life in the beginning, you will want to make sure your work is saved when your HP xps m1330 battery dies.

See, it’s a sad (and expensive) fact of life: hp laptop battery You’re lucky to get 18-24 months from a battery before it loses a good chunk of its charge capacity (meaning it no longer powers your laptop for as long as it used to).

And you’re accelerating this unfortunate timeframe if you leave your laptop plugged in 24/7, which is common for most folks who work at a desk. Because the battery rarely (if ever) gets a chance to discharge, it loses its capacity to hold a charge.

HP, Dell, Toshiba recall Sony laptop batteries again

The simple solution: Pull the battery out of the laptop and leave it out when you’re deskbound. Most laptops can run on straight AC power,346970-001, HSTNN-DB02, HSTNN-UB02, DP390A, so there’s no need for the battery. And it’s easy enough to pop back in when you hit the road (though obviously you’ll want to make sure it’s charged, so plan ahead a bit).

It’s a hassle, sure, but consider the price of a replacement battery: usually US$100 or more. What’s more, old, discarded batteries wreak havoc on landfills. Sooner or later, they’ll leak acid into the ground. So it’s in your best interests to keep your battery as long as possible, HSTNN-DB02, and to keep it from dying a premature death.

Three of the biggest laptop computer makers are recalling certain batteries because of a risk they may overheat and catch fire. Sony made the batteries and the recall mirrors — yet appears a lot smaller than — a similar one that occurred two years ago.

This time, around 100,000 batteries are affected, a fraction of the 9.6 million recalled in 2006. Dell, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Toshiba have already issued recalls for the batteries that were used in their products and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said "consumers should stop using recalled products immediately."

The batteries in question were manufactured between October 2004 and June 2005 and to date there have been about 40 incidents reportedly globally of overheating, Sony said Friday.

Most of the incidents are believed to be due to manufacturing line adjustments made during the period that may have affected some batteries, Sony said. Additionally some may have been due to raw material flaws.

Of the 100,000 batteries affected, around 35,000 were used in laptops shipped in the U.S. By far the greatest number, about 32,000, were shipped with HP laptops.

The maker said it is recalling batteries that have a barcode label beginning with A0, L0, L1 or GC that were shipped with HP Pavilion dv1000, dv8000 and zd8000 models; with Compaq Presario v2000 and v2400 machines and with HP Compaq nc6110, nc6120, nc6140, nc6220, nc6230,nx4800, HSTNN-UB02, nx4820, nx6110, nx6120 and nx9600 computers.

Toshiba’s U.S. recall covers around 3,000 Satellite A70/A75, P30/P5, M30X/M35X and M50/M55 laptops and Tecra A3, A5 and S2 computers.

Dell is recalling battery model OU091 in Latitude 110L and Inspiron 1100,346970-001, HSTNN-DB02, HSTNN-UB02, DP390A, 1150, 5100, 5150 and 5160 computers.

Consumers who believe they have batteries that have been recalled should stop using the batteries and check with their PC vendor.

An additional 2,000 batteries were shipped in the Japanese market and the remaining 63,000 went to consumers in other regions,DP390A, including Europe and Asia. Recall notices for machines shipped in these other regions are expected to be issued shortly.

The laptop will offer more processing power and graphics capabilities than its predecessor, the Pavilion DV2, which was launched in January. It will be powered by Advanced Micro Devices’ new dual-core Neo chip, an upgrade from the single-core Neo chip in the original DV2.

The laptop will include a 12.1-inch screen and weigh around 3.81 pounds (1.7 kilograms).PP2100, Presario R3000(r3000), Presario X6000, It will be around an inch at its thinnest point. HP didn’t provide an estimated battery life for the laptop.

Users will get stronger graphics with the AMD’s Radeon 3200 integrated graphics, which will be part of the Congo platform of chips. That should enable faster decoding of high-definition content and provide a better overall multimedia experience than traditional netbooks.

HP will provide up to 500GB of storage, and offer optical drive options like Blu-ray with the laptop. The company is also offering a separate graphics card as an option. The company said orders for the laptop can be placed at HP’s Web site, but didn’t provide an actual ship date.

Priced starting at US$599,PP2100, the strong features make DV2Z a giant upgrade over netbooks, which are typically priced between $300 and $500 and offer limited functionality. AMD puts thin and light laptops like the DV2Z in the category of consumer PCs called "ultrathin" laptops, which provide PC functionality at affordable prices without compromising on features.

Ultrathin laptops are as portable as netbooks and provide adequate performance to run most applications, like high-definition multimedia, casual gaming and productivity applications.

The chip company contends that netbooks, though cheap, provide limited functionality, while ultraportables like MacBook Air are too expensive, with prices above US$1,500. AMD faces competition in the ultrathin space from rival Intel, which announced new single-core chips for ultrathin laptops last week. Those chips have been adopted by PC makers like Lenovo and MSI.

HP also launched the Pavilion DV3T laptop, which is priced starting at $649. The laptop has a 13.3-inch screen and weighs under five pounds. The laptops are powered by Intel chips and run the Windows Vista OS. The DV3T supports up to 500GB of storage and 8GB of memory.PP2100, Presario R3000(r3000), Presario X6000, The laptop comes with a six-cell battery that provides about four hours of battery life, or an optional 9-cell battery that provides 7 hours of battery life.

Other new laptops, including HP Pavilion DV6T, which starts $649, and Pavilion DV6Z Artist Edition 2, Presario R3000(r3000), which starts at $949, include 16-inch screens and are loaded with multimedia features. The laptops run Intel chips and come with the Windows Vista OS.
New laptops, netbooks…and hints of a competitor to iTunes? Asus has a lot up its sleeve these days, but let’s start with the netbook that some folks in the press circles are comparing to a MacBook: the Eee PC 1008HA.

It’s thin, sleek, and light. I had a chance to play with one, and I’ll tell you one thing: Asus may be spitting out more revisions of its netbook line than I can count, but at least its designers are continuing to look at ways to refine the machine. The proof is in this new $420 netbook.
Though I couldn’t steal the 1008HA away from its PR handlers to lock away in our labs, I did get a few minutes for a quick test-drive. So consider this a hands-on teaser of what’s in store for when the unit ships.

Under its frosty exterior, the system sports current netbook innards: an Intel Atom N280 CPU, 1GB RAM, a 160GB hard drive, Bluetooth, 802.11n, and a three-cell battery (just don’t ask me about the battery life yet).

The 92-percent full-size keyboard is big and comfortable, with a good layout. The buttons felt firm and large enough to type up a quick story. Even the metallic mouse-button bar was reasonably secure. That said, I’m a little concerned about the touchpad. On the device that I tried, I found little indication between where the touch area ends and where the wrist rest begins. But the spokesperson on hand assured me that the final unit will have bigger grooves so that users can feel their way around without having to eyeball the strike zone.

To accommodate its thin-and-light design, the creators of the 1008HA dropped a few ports–and made an interesting design move in the process. In a hidden compartment on the netbook’s bottom sits a VGA adapter dongle. When you need it,PP2100, Presario R3000(r3000), Presario X6000, you simply pop it out and plug it into the mini-USB port on one side of the machine. It’s a pretty smart move that keeps the functionality while cutting down the size, and it minimizes the chance of losing dongles. (I also have to give props to Sony’s VAIO P netbook, Presario X6000, which sneaks the VGA dongle onto its power supply…but I digress.) Otherwise, on the 1008HA you’ll find hiding behind flaps the usual retinue–an ethernet hookup, two USB ports, an SD Card reader, and headphone and microphone jacks.
One last thing that I need to mention is the sneak peek I had at the software that Asus plans to bring to its future machines. My contact at the company let me smuggle out these pictures, though he isn’t certain whether the 1008HA will actually ship with the software. Here’s hoping that it will.

Dell Inspiron 4100 battery Fit with below:
Inspiron 2500Inspiron 3700Inspiron 3800Inspiron 4000Inspiron 4100Inspiron 4150Inspiron 8000Inspiron 8100Inspiron 8200Latitude CLatitude C500Latitude C510Latitude C540Latitude C600Latitude C610Latitude C640Latitude C800Latitude C810Latitude C840Latitude CPLatitude CPiLatitude CPi 233STLatitude CPi 366Latitude CPi A366STLatitude CPi A366XTLatitude CPi D233Latitude CPi D266XTLatitude CPIALatitude CPICLatitude CPIDLatitude CPIRLatitude CPIR400GTLatitude CPMLatitude CPM166STLatitude CPM233STLatitude CPM233XTLatitude CPTLatitude CPT C333GTLatitude CPTCLatitude CPTSLatitude CPTVLatitude CPTV466GTLatitude CPXLatitude CPXHLatitude CPXH 500GTLatitude CPXJLatitude CPXJ650GTLatitude PP01LLatitude PP01XLatitude PPLLatitude PPXPrecision M40Precision M50

Dell Inspiron 4150 battery Description:
Type: Li-ion
Capacity: 4400 mAh
Volt: 14.8 V
Size: 139.00 x 89.70 x 23.30 mm
Color: Gray
Dell Inspiron 4150 battery Compatible original Battery Code:
1691P1K5002M400312-0009312-0028312-32503149C3H3523H6253K1205081P5208U53977669126H41075UYF77TCJ851UY8M815BAT-I3700IM-M150268-GB

Dell Inspiron 4150 battery Fit with below:
Inspiron 2500Inspiron 3700Inspiron 3800Inspiron 4000Inspiron 4100Inspiron 4150Inspiron 8000Inspiron 8100Inspiron 8200Latitude CLatitude C500Latitude C510Latitude C540Latitude C600Latitude C610Latitude C640Latitude C800Latitude C810Latitude C840Latitude CPLatitude CPiLatitude CPi 233STLatitude CPi 366Latitude CPi A366STLatitude CPi A366XTLatitude CPi D233Latitude CPi D266XTLatitude CPIALatitude CPICLatitude CPIDLatitude CPIRLatitude CPIR400GTLatitude CPMLatitude CPM166STLatitude CPM233STLatitude CPM233XTLatitude CPTLatitude CPT C333GTLatitude CPTCLatitude CPTSLatitude CPTVLatitude CPTV466GTLatitude CPXLatitude CPXHLatitude CPXH 500GTLatitude CPXJLatitude CPXJ650GTLatitude PP01LLatitude PP01XLatitude PPLLatitude PPXPrecision M40Precision M50

Dell Inspiron 5000 battery Description:
Type: Li-ion
Capacity: 6600 mAh
Volt: 11.1 V
Size: 137.20 x 108.75 x 22.00 mm
Color: Black
Dell Inspiron 5000 battery Compatible original Battery Code:
083KV1894W2127U4127U8027UBAT30WLBAT-I5000IM-M150261IM-M150261-FRIM-M150261-GB

Dell Inspiron 5000 battery Fit with below:
Inspiron 5000Inspiron 5000EWinbook Z1 Series

Dell Inspiron 5000E battery Fit with below:
Inspiron 5000Inspiron 5000EWinbook Z1 Series

This is a step down from the E1505, which featured all of those connections plus S-Video, FireWire, a 5-in-1 card reader, and optional Bluetooth. You’ll also find an ExpressCard slot, but nothing for a PCMost of the owners of Inspiron laptops criticize the design of their computers. Not surprisingly, most of the modified laptops are Inspirons e1505/1501 (dell b120 battery , dell b130 battery). In my opinion, designers were having an “off day” when they created those white bumpers. Maybe the most annoying thing about the design is that certain parts of the notebook do not match others. Inspiron 630m For example, the keyboard, touchpad, and screen have a “keep-it-simple” design (nothing shinny, nothing stylish) while the back of the lid makes a quite different impression.

Despite these style blemishes, the Dell Inspiron 1501 (dell latitude d620 battery )has some charm in its design.The overall build quality is quite good. The chassis feels sturdy, it does not creak when lifted on any of the corners. Applying even a quite strong force on the back of the lid does not make ripples on the screen appear. The screen hinges are tough and keep LCD in place. You will need to use both hands to open the lid. That said, there are places which deform when excessive pressure is applied, 312-0386 but this isn’t an issue. The one negative might be that the screen latch does not feel sturdy — it has a “floating” feeling as you can both move it up/down and left/right — but it holds the screen perfectly well.A very nice feature is that you only need to remove two screws to access the memory modules, WiFi card or HDD.

A little more effort is required to access the CPU (I was not that curious).Inspiron 630m, Inspiron 640m, Y9943, RC107
Latitude D620, 312-0386, Other budget notebooks we’ve seen have dedicated media-player controls, independent buttons for switching off wireless radios, and a healthy assortment of input/output options, but the Inspiron 1501 falls very short in this area. If having extras like these (and a few more configuration options) is important to you, we recommend stepping up to Dell’s Inspiron E1505 (dell xps m1530 battery). For a couple of hundred dollars more, you get slightly improved specs and lots of extras. Most users, however, will be satisfied with the basic array of connectivity here: four USB 2.0 ports, mic and headphone jacks, a VGA monitor out, an SD/MultiMediaCard slot, and Ethernet and modem ports. Also aboard are an ExpressCard slot and a double-layer DVD±RW drive.The keyboard function keys are marked with icons for easy access to actions such as adjusting volume and screen brightness, switching to an external monitor, and turning on and off the built-in 802.11b/g wireless networking.Inspiron 640m The keyboard itself is a bit mushy for our tastes, as are the touch-pad buttons, though all are a comfortable size. Speakers at the front of the notebook push (hp dv6000 battery) out clear, loud sound.Dell did a good job outfitting our review model with capable core hardware. Its dual-core 1.6GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-50 processor, aided by 2GB of DDR2 memory, turned in impressive results in our tests and certainly has enough pep to run Vista Home Premium. Battery life was comparable with that of other notebooks in its class, which means it’ll get less than two hours on a full charge (1 hour and 41 minutes, to be exact).For storage, our test unit had a 60GB hard drive. Factor in formatting, as well as the space taken up by the OS, its applications, miscellaneous software Dell includes, and the partitioned section for the built-in system restore, and you’re left with only 40GB. The other notebooks in this roundup have the same problem, but because they have 120GB drives, plenty of room is still left over for files. If you’re not using the notebook as a primary computer, you can get by with 40GB, but an extra $35 will buy you an upgrade to an 80GB drive.

Dell includes a standard one-year parts-and-labor warranty, as well as 24/7 tech support.Although the Dell Inspiron 1501 demonstrated stronger wireless performance than the Dell Inspiron E1505 (dell d400 battery)and has a lower price point, we can’t recommend the notebook over its far more functional predecessor. If you’re looking for a decent machine that won’t break the bank, it’s worth a look. Just remember, you get exactly what you pay for.Anyone buying a PC from a well known manufacturer like Dell, HP or IBM hopes to get a good customer support. No surprise,Inspiron 630m, Inspiron 640m, Y9943, RC107
Latitude D620, 312-0386, Dell provides fast and pleasant-to-use support.RC107

I had to contact them about several minor questions and replies came back very fast.After several weeks I noticed that my laptop did not have a DVD-RW, it only had a DVD Combo. Since DVD-RW is a necessity nowadays and the optical drive cannot be changed in this PC, I went directly to the retailer. They contacted a local Dell office and I got my refund in two days. Sadly, I had to buy a new laptop or risk losing a tax refund from the government. Because they did not have any Dells left in stock, I had to go with another PC. ?

The D800 has a magnesium alloy body that is supposed to protect the laptop from flexing and the wear-and-tear of corporate travel and use. dell laptop Battery The whole underside and lid of the laptop feel like metal but, unfortunately, the wrist rests are plastic. Thus, there is some amount of flex when handling that area but by no means is the amount of flex disturbing. The rest of the notebook, however, is very rigid.

Screen

The screen is most likely the Achilles heel of the D800, if it has one. The screen is 15.4″ diagonal and is matte, not glossy. The trend in most consumer notebooks is towards the glossy screens which feature vivid colors and higher brightness for the benefit of gaming, movie-watching, and photo-viewing. Most business machines, however, still come with the old-style matte screens which are more suited for office rather than multimedia tasks. Unfortunately, the D800’s matte screen is not very bright and the higher brightness settings drain the battery quickly..Latitude D830 battery, MM165 battery, YD626 battery, 312-0393 battery, Latitude D800 battery, A cool feature is the automatic light-sensor which adjusts screen brightness based on ambient light conditions. MM165 This is useful when running on battery power or when using the notebook in different settings but I ended up turning this feature off because it oftentimes results in an unacceptably dim screen.

My D800 came with the WSXGA+ (1680×1050) screen. The other options were the base WXGA+ (1280×800) screen and the ultra-high resolution WUXGA (1900×1200). I am used to the WSXGA+ resolution on my Dell monitor and I chose it because I thought it was a good balance between screen real estate and legibility of fonts and icons. I could have gone with the highest resolution option and increased the Windows DPI and font sizes (indeed the WSXGA+ and WUXGA models ship with 120 DPI setting out of the box) but browsers and other applications do not always adhere to Windows settings. I changed the 120DPI setting to 96DPI because it made Windows fonts too large and screwed up graphics on web pages. I think I made the right choice here because the WUXGA display would have yielded fonts and icons too small for even my young eyes.

Sound & Multimedia

It is no secret that laptop speakers are bad. They usually feature tinny sound, distorted highs, and nonexistent bass. The Latitude D800’s speakers are no exception though admittedly not the worst I’ve heard. The D800 (dell inspiron 1520 battery )being a business machine, I didn’t expect any better. At least on the D800 you get stereo sound with a speaker on either side of the keyboard; on its cousin the Latitude D620 there is but one speaker. The volume is adequate for me but I don’t like to listen to music at high volumes. Using Sennheiser HD-202 headphones plugged into the side-mounted headphone jack, the sound improves significantly and is clear,YD626 accurate, and mostly distortion-free. The sound subsystem on the D800 is controlled by the Sigmatel audio chipset.

The D800 provides just volume control and mute buttons above the keyboard as opposed to the various media buttons found on most consumer laptops. While not absolutely necessary on a business notebook,.Latitude D830 battery, MM165 battery, YD626 battery, 312-0393 battery, Latitude D800 battery, it would have been nice to have a few more control buttons like play, pause, etc. for controlling Windows Media Player, PowerDVD, or WinAmp.

Processor & Graphics Performance

My D800 came with a 1.83GHz Core Duo processor and by all measures it’s a speed demon. I choose two 512MB sticks (total 1GB) to take advantage of dual channel memory capability which in theory doubles the bandwidth of the pipe from the RAM to the memory controller. I also chose the 667MHz RAM over the standard 533MHz. I wasn’t sure of the utility of this faster memory but my logic was that the Core Duo has a 667MHz front side bus and I would need the RAM to match that speed if I were to maximize performance. Startup times on my D800 (dell inspiron b120 battery )(dell inspiron b130 battery)are fast but not as fast as I expected. The machine takes 28.34 seconds to reach the login screen from a cold boot. Thus far the laptop has been snappy in every day usage such as internet browsing and word processing as well as during benchmarking. Applications load quickly as do Control Panel and My Computer and there’s a good degree of responsiveness to all user inputs. I have not had a single hang, lockup, freeze, or BSOD so far. I haven’t installed any games on this machine so I cannot attest to the performance of the Quadro NVS 120 graphics solution, the workstation version of NVIDIA’s consumer GeForce 7400 graphics solution. Do not expect stellar game performance out this card however my D800 received 670 3DMarks on the 3DMark06 benchmark.

Heat & Noise

For the most part I was very pleased by the amount of heat and noise emitted by the D800 (dell inspiron e1705 battery ). 312-0393 When idling or performing everyday tasks the fan speed is very slow resulting in relatively silent computing. When performing more demanding tasks (such as during the Battery Eater Pro burn-in and battery life test or rendering 3D graphics) the fan speeds up but it is not at all offensive. The only caveat is the Philips DVD-RW drive. Compared to the rest of the notebook, it sounds like a turbofan engine spooling up when it reads a CD or DVD. Moreover, the drive is not well damped causing the whole notebook body to shudder as the drive spins.

Dell has designed the D800 for excellent heat dissipation. There are two exhaust vents: one on the side and one on the rear. The left wrist rest heats up a tiny bit after a long period of operation and the right wrist rest stays completely cool throughout. Touching the underside of the laptop after the ~2 hour Battery Eater Pro stress test I found that the laptop was warm but certainly not hot enough to preclude lap-top usage for an extended period of time. The power brick stays cool even after days of keeping the notebook plugged into the wall.Latitude D830 battery, MM165 battery, YD626 battery, 312-0393 battery, Latitude D800 battery, In short, Dell has done a superb job of managing the heat emitted by the D800’s high performance components.

Conclusion

In summary, the Latitude D800 is a very nice choice for the desk jockey professional or student. This machine, with its 15.4″ widescreen, is not meant for world travel but for flexibility, productivity, and a little bit of portability. At a pinch it can be used on a plane or on a lap but, for the most part, Latitude D800 I would not travel extensively with the D800. For its form factor, however, I do not think you will find a better balance between portability and build quality than the Latitude D800. I would wholeheartedly recommend this notebook to anyone looking for an effective tool to get some serious work done.

Today we have the pleasure of reviewing the Latitude D820 (dell latitude d820 battery)series which falls into the high-end of the Latitude range and it’s our very first of many new notebook reviews here at TweakTown. While this notebook is listed under Dell’s business section it actually boasts some nice features for an entertainment system, including a WUXGA display (that is 1900×1200 pixels to you and me) and HD audio.

Is this a perfect all round notebook for work (boo!) and fun (yay!)? Let us get cracking on this review and find out

As a high school graduation gift, my parents bought me a Dell Latitude D820 15.4″Inspiron 8500 widescreen notebook. While Dell’s Inspiron line is squarely aimed at the consumer market, the Latitude line is geared more towards the academic, small business, and corporate user. This is evidenced by the Latitudes’ superior build quality, sober styling, lack of media-centric features, and higher price. Price-wise and size-wise, the Latitude D820 (dell latitude d620 battery)sits atop the thin-and-light 14″ widescreen D620 and the budget oriented 14″ standard-aspect D520 in the Latitude lineup. The D820 is an updated version of the D810 and features the Intel Core Duo processor to replace the D810’s Pentium M as well a significant weight reduction from the D810. According to CNET Labs

Features Overview

While the HP had the nicest graphics card of them all (ATI Radeon x1600) and would have allowed me to play the latest games, I ruled it out because of price (>$2,000). My budget was limited to ~$1,500 max.

The IBM ThinkPad has long been legendary in the corporate world for its durable portability, excellent support, and strong management software suit. I came to the decision, however, that I did not want to pay the significant ,Inspiron 8500 battery, 8N544 battery, Inspiron 8600 battery, Inspiron 6400 battery, Inspiron E1505 battery,premium for the ThinkPad’s class-leading ruggedness, which I probably had no use for anyway. The ThinkPad T60 was aimed more towards the road warrior. I, however, was not going to be traveling much with the laptop save for the occasional trek from the dorm to the library and back.

That left me with the perennial value-king Dell. For hundreds of dollars cheaper than a similarly spec’d 14″Inspiron 8600 ThinkPad T60, I was able to price out a 15.4″ Dell Latitude D820. A comparably equipped D620 checked in at about $150 less. I settled on the D820 (dell inspiron 1525 battery)because I figured I wouldn’t be traveling much with this notebook and would not be carrying it to class on a daily basis. Thus, I thought I would benefit more from the increased productivity of the D820’s 15.4″ screen (and higher resolution) than the increased portability of the D620.

Shopping Experience

When we purchased my machine, Dell was having a sale which involved a $350 instant rebate on all Latitudes, sweetening the deal some more. I configured the machine on the Dell Small Busines website. Almost every component of the machine was highly configurable, something that IBM/Lenovo and HP could learn from, and the online shopping experience was, overall, very pleasant. After having pulled the trigger, I realized that I did not select the option for the Bluetooth card. I called up Dell Small Business and asked them to add the card. It was too late to modify my original order but the associate was very helpful. Though the sale price was no longer in effect for the new order, Inspiron 6400she let me add the discount retroactively. The wait times to speak to an agent were negligible (definitely not the case with my past experiences with Dell Home) and the agent herself was polite and helpful. The total price for my D820 (after adding the Bluetooth card) came to $1496.25, which I felt was a good deal, especially since the Latitude line rarely goes on sale.

First Impressions

When I first uncased the D820 from its Styrofoam packaging,,Inspiron 8500 battery, 8N544 battery, Inspiron 8600 battery, Inspiron 6400 battery, Inspiron E1505 battery, I was impressed by the solidness of its build. It felt sturdy and the laptop casing didn’t flex when handled. The case is billed as being magnesium alloy and most of the notebook’s body looks as if it is. The laptop was about as thin as I expected but it was a bit heavier than I thought it would be. It’s not an uncomfortable heft but one that implies a certain quality of build. At first glance, the notebook is not awe-inspiring but it is pleasing to the eye with an understated charcoal gray finish. At first blush, a tastefully styled (though by no means beautiful) and well-built notebook. Also included in the packaging were the user manual, software and OS CDs, Inspiron E1505and the AC power adapter.