Hands On - Dell Latitude XT Tablet PC

I had the wonderful opportunity of getting hands on with the Latitude XT, Dell’s competitive entry into the tablet PC market. With the introduction of in-built tablet PC support in all editions of Windows Vista, the market for tablet hardware has been steadily growing.

I was introduced to the XT during a tendering process, comparing a Fujitsu/Acer, a Lenovo, and the XT. I am hoping to post reviews of all three of them, when time allows.

The XT started off on the right mark from the word ‘go.’ It is a very beautiful piece of hardware. It is a plastic casing that imitates brushed steel — WITHOUT the fingerprints. Its overall size allows it to sit, portrait, between your elbow and hand, and allows you to use it easily, as if it was an exercise book. The weight of it also adds to its brilliance in the way of portability. This would have to be the smallest  laptop (not a Netbook), with tablet functionality, that I have ever seen on the market. Its portability is complemented by its digitizer/touch capability.

The XT comes with a digitizer pen, which is stored discreetly in the back of the laptop, next to the battery. The only problem with the type of digitizing hardware that Dell has included is that, a) It isn’t Wacom and b) It isn’t competitively sensitive. You have to be touching the actual screen before it will recognize the input. This makes it seem like a stylus, more than an EM (Electromagnetic) Pen. On competing tablets, such as the Thinkpad X61 tablet, you can be 2-3 cm from the screen, and it will continue to notice its movement. This may seem a bit gimicky, but until you have used a tablet, you won’t understand that you want to know where the cursor is, just as you would with a mouse. If you have to touch the screen to do this, it can get annoying. It isn’t a huge minus, but could be seen as a way Dell is attempting to cut corners.

The EM pen is grouped in the tablet functionality features, by multi-touch finger input capability. It is pretty accurate, even with centimetre-wide fingers like myself, allowing you to navigate through menus, text, and lists easily. Rather than it being a one-finger input system, like on most tablets, it allows for multi-touch inputs (more than one finger at once). Unfortunately, Windows Vista’s support in the section is lacklustre. It does allow for the stereotypical gestures, such as pinching photos (zooming in and out), but doesn’t have the variety that the MacBook’s Trackpad does. This will hopefully be expanded on with updates, third-party add-ons, or we hope, Windows 7, which Microsoft has been using to ‘flaunt’ its multi-touch support.

Now on to the stuff that matters. Performance, networking, and battery life.

The XT features the Intel Core 2 Duo ULV U7600, which is rated at 1.20Ghz. This is less powerful than in its competitor, the ThinkPad X61T, which has the LV U7500 1.60 GHz. As you should notice, Intel loves to confuse with its model numbers. The processor in the XT is ultra low voltage, meaning its impact on battery life is much, much less than the average processor, either in the full-sized laptop, or in the average PC. We’ll move on, if that really matters in this case, further down the page. If you follow the specification sheet, it also cuts down on other areas, such as the speed (MHz) of the RAM. It has 2 GB, as most laptops do, to perform well under the Vista environment, but is a step down from the X61t, at 533 MHz, compared to 667 MHz.

A lot of people ask, what about graphics? It is a confusing ares in the portable computing markets. There are three main competitors for laptop graphics in the market, such as ATI, Intel, and NVidia. All three have their problems. One thing to remember about Laptops, is what they are, and what they were designed for. One failed attempt at “Good Graphics” in Portable Computers, would be the Acer TravelMate C210. The horror with these things is that they feature an NVidia GeForce 7300 Go. This is almost like putting rocket fuel into a build-yourself motorbike distributed by Volvo.  In other words, it melts everything around it, including the silicon making up the main circuit board in the tablet. Not good. The XT seems to have better heat control with its ATI Chipset.

The XT has one of the best wireless networking chips, the Dell Wireless 1490, combined with the antenna design on the XT, allows for a wide connectivity range. However, with almost all wireless cards, with decent range, battery drain is a symptom.

I didn’t get a hold of the XT for long enough to get the full ‘real’ battery life, but I was able to get a general feel of the battery life it would hold, and it wasn’t as good as competitors. Other reviewers have stated that they got five hours of standard use, and much less with full graphics utilization.  Its not that bad when you consider the size of the battery, and the amount of time you are going to use it without needing a charger pack.

Overall, it is a great device, with many feature, and LOTS of potential, when Windows gets off its arse and adds more features. It would almost make it perfect if Dell had chosen Wacom to provide the the digitizing and multi-touch features. It would be WAY more sensitive, and more driver supportive.

The Latitude XT is currently available to small business, institutional, and higher organisations ONLY, which is a shame. The average price for the mid-range model is $2,099 Australian.

If you own one of these, or a similar tablet model, I’d love to hear your opinions in the comments section below.