Dell Latitude D410 review

In the litter of refreshed Dell Latitude business laptops, the D410 is the runt -- but by no means is it meek. On the strength of its new Intel Sonoma parts, the updated Latitude D410 raced through our benchmarks, earning our fastest mobile performance score to date for an ultraportable. With a reinforced frame and new features such as a Trusted Platform Module chip, the Latitude D410 is a speedy, secure, and smartly designed notebook for executives.

At 33mm thick, the Latitude D410 is slightly stockier than its predecessor, the D400. Otherwise, the two laptops are about the same size, measuring 280mm wide and 240mm deep. Weighing 1.8kg, the Latitude D410 still falls within the range of ultraportable laptops.

Like with the desktop-replacement D810 and thin-and-light D610, Dell has made some satisfying enhancements to the D410's design. For one, the lid has been reinforced to better protect the screen. The keyboard has also been made sturdier, resulting in a more solid feel as your fingers strike the keys; as with many ultraportables, the D410's keys may be too small for some users. The decently sized touch pad and pointing stick each have two matching mouse buttons; unfortunately, the touch pad's mouse buttons are somewhat cramped. Helpful status lights show when Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are activated. Finally, the D410 has a double dose of security: a Trusted Platform Module chip, which sits on the motherboard and serves as a virtual storage locker for your data, and a dedicated slot for smart cards, which can carry clandestine information such as passwords.

The system offers an average number of connectors, with Ethernet, modem, two USB 2.0 ports, VGA output, and one PC Card slot, as well as headphone and microphone jacks.

Our Latitude D410 test unit included a few standout components as well as some average parts. The unit featured a 2.0GHz Pentium M 760 processor, 512MB of 400MHz memory, an Intel 915GM chipset with an integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 900 engine that borrows up to 128MB of video RAM from the main memory, and a slow, 4,200rpm 40GB hard drive. Our test unit also included an external DVD/CD-RW drive that connects to the notebook via USB 2.0, as well as Intel's newest integrated 802.11a/b/g card.

In our tests, the Latitude D410 wrung every drop of speed from its Sonoma-class Pentium M processor and chipset, earning the best mobile performance score we've seen to date from a laptop of its size. The Latitude D410 surpassed other corporate and consumer ultraportables, such as the HP Compaq Business Notebook nc4010 and the Dell Inspiron 700m, by nine per cent or more, though both the nc4010 and the Inspiron 700m had slower processors and memory than the Latitude D410. Despite its exceptional performance in our tests, the Latitude D410 (and most of the other Sonoma-based laptops we've tested) did not deliver the explosive speed burst we'd hoped to see in Sonoma-based systems. The D410's 11.1V, 4,800mAh battery triumphed in our Labs' drain tests, lasting more than three and a half hours -- at least 50 minutes longer than the nc4010's and 700m's much smaller cells.

Our Latitude D410 test unit shipped with a decent software package, including Windows XP Professional and Dell's OpenManage, a program that lets a company's IT manager monitor system stats, install software, and more from a remote location. The system also included the useful Sonic RecordNow 7.3 Deluxe, which takes care of disc-burning tasks, and CyberLink PowerDVD for viewing DVDs. As with many business systems, Dell doesn't bundle a productivity suite with the Latitude D410.

Mobile application performance  (Longer bars indicate faster performance)

BAPCo MobileMark 2002 performance rating

Dell Latitude D410

229 

Dell Inspiron 700m

211 

HP Compaq nc4010

190 

Battery life  (Longer bars indicate longer battery life)

BAPCo MobileMark 2002 battery life in minutes

Dell Latitude D410

221 

HP Compaq nc4010

168 

Dell Inspiron 700m

144 

Edited by Michelle Thatcher
Additional editing by Chris Stevens