You also have your choice of a Wifi card from Intel (b/g/n) or from Dell bzw. At the ground floor there's, of course, a gigabit Ethernet port (Intel 82578LM). Speaking of docking stations: the E6420 can be hooked up to existing docking stations including: E-Legacy Extender, E-Port and E-Port Plus-if in doubt, speak with someone at Dell.Īs is typical of Dell, the Latitude E6420 with a wide array of options for connecting to the internet. Even without a docking station, the Latitude E6420 can be hooked up to numerous devices at once without cluttering up the surrounding workspace with cables.
On the other hand, the placement of ports is excellent. HP and Lenovo, however have the right idea in this regard, both the 8460p and T420 have a Displayport. Hopes of using multi-monitor setups (+2x24“ FHD via DualHead2Go) or high-resolution 30-inch (2560x1600) screens go down the drain, the only option being 180 Euro more for the appropriate docking solution. We see, however, that HP wisely chose to include two USB 3.0 Ports (+eSATA) in its 8460p, while Lenovo-like Dell-has gone down the eSATA route for the T420.Īnother important feature would be the choice of video output-HDMI 1.3 (according to Dell). The optional USB 3.0 offered in place of the DVD drive doesn't sound like a great trade-off because one: you'd miss out on the DVD drive and two: you still have to pay more for the USB 3.0 adapter (exact price not available). Newer external hard drives are USB 3.0 compatible, with eSATA slowly disappearing from the market. Still, the eSATA port isn't used for many devices and doesn't seem to have much of a future to it. Of course, the eSATA port offers faster transfer rates than USB 2.0, useful for transferring large files like when backing up data onto an external hard drive.
It's disappointing that no USB 3.0 port is on board. Along the front we also find an SD card reader. At the back toward the right we find an HDMI port and a Kensington Lock slot. After that come two USB 2.0 ports and a combined USB/eSATA port. Around the corner at the back, we continue with an RJ45 Ethernet port and the power connector.Īt the right toward the front, we have a 45mm Expresscard slot and underneath it the DVD drive. On the left side toward the front, we find the Smartcard Slot followed by an exhaust vent, a combination headphone/microphone jack, a VGA port and a USB 2.0 Port. Particularly the placement of the ports jumps out at you when you first look at the laptop, which are found around the back corners. Now we get to the selection and placement of ports on the E6420. The Lenovo T420 is the thinnest of the three at 30mm when closed (E64p both 32mm - all figures based on info from the manufacturers). The same is true for case depth: the front of the E6420 juts out about 10 mm when placed side-by-side with its rivals. The Lenovo T420 is 12 mm less wide and the HP 8640p 14 mm. In terms of case dimensions, E6420 is the widest at 352 mm. The particular configuration we reviewed included a 9-cell battery (97Wh), bringing the grand total up to 2.620 Kg. HP's model with the smallest possible 3-cell battery comes to 2.07kg, the same as the Dell E6420 with a 4-cell battery. The standard model of Lenovo's T420 weighs in at 2.24kg, that is, with a 6-cell battery included. Taking another look at the competition (Lenovo T420, HP 8460p), we see that the other contenders for your money also weigh a similar amount. The fans and heat sinks, the processor, memory, PCI module and the CMOS battery are all ready to be tinkered with once the cover is off.
The rest of the hardware can be accessed by removing a cover along the bottom of the base unit which is fastened with a few more screws. The hard drive is secured by four screws, after removing which it can slide out from the case sideways. Repairing or switching out hardware is quite easy. Instead, they've gone with a long rubber strip encompassing the entire screen, which should serve to protect the screen and keyboard from dust particles getting in when the laptop's closed. Like HP, Dell is stepping away from the approach of sticking individual rubber pads along the display to soften closing. The display lid takes a bit of effort to tilt back but barely bobs back and forth after being adjusted. According to Dell, the display lid hinges are composed of tough steel, which is however not visible on the surface-as is the case with Lenovo Thinkpads-but is rather covered up a by a layer of magnesium. This includes the display lid that won't budge even a millimeter under pressure. Our attempts to dent the surface had no effect whatsoever.
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