Dell Latitude Z600: Slim, Elegant and Expensive

Earlier, I wrote about Dell’s upcoming notebook, Dell Latitude Z, which utilizes wireless charging technology. Well, the notebook is out in the market and is very much expensive. The laptop is targeted towards business executives who would like to get the best quality products and money does not matter to them.

The Dell Latitude Z600 is a beautifully crafted machine, written “elegance” all over it.

Despite sporting a 16 inch HD display, the laptop is a pound lighter than Apple MacBook Pro 15 inch laptop. The battery of the notebook pops out in the front which might appear a bit awkward to many but I do not find it to be much of an eyesore.PC Mag.com says:

The "Z" stands for Z-height, which means the Z600 will be the thinnest in the Latitude line. Imagine the height of a USB port: Dell basically designed the Z600 so that it's thin enough to graze the top of one. It measures just 0.55 inches thick, yet the length and width of the system aren't made for small carrying cases. Incredibly, it weighs just 4.5 pounds, about the weight of a 13-inch laptop, like the Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch.

Technical specifications:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6GHz SU9600 or 1.4GHz SU9400

Memory: 4 GB DDR3.

Display: 16 inch HD display with a 1600X900 resolution. Though it is not touch responsive, it has “touch functionality” built along the frame. When user slides his finger vertically along the frame, a tool bar pops up, offering various common functions like email, photos and camera.

HDD: Upgraded upto two 256 GB SSD.

Keyboard and trackpad: Isolated full size keyboard. The keys can illuminate which comes in handy during meeting presentations. Touchpad with left and right mouse buttons. Multitouch trackpad that supports pinch and zoom.

Camera: 2 megapixel camera that comes with face recognition. If you hold your business car in front of the camera it scans the card and saves the info on your Microsoft Outlook contacts. It can also scan hand written papers and save them as PDF documents. While you move away from your computer it automatically locks the notebook.

Security features: There is finger print reader and smart card reader which allows the reader to shut down the notebook by waving his office badge over it.

Latitude On mode: In the Latitude On Mode, the computer may not be in use but it will always have internet connection and users can instantly start up the computer. Wired.com says:

In the ‘Latitude On’ mode, users don’t have access to all of Windows applications such as word processing and PowerPoint. Instead they can access email and browse the internet with boot up times of less than a second. The trade off also brings with it extended battery life of up to 12 hours, says Dell.

Compare that to the idle mode of the laptop where boot up time can be a few seconds and emails are checked every few minutes. But then the battery life can extend up to two days. To switch back to Windows, users have to press a special power button on the laptop.

Battery: You can choose between 8-cell and 4-cell. The 8-cell battery runs for 9 hours.

Charging: For the first time, Dell used wireless charging technology in its notebook. The Dell Latitude Z600 utilizes Touchstone charger. You will have to pay $200 extra for the charger. PC World.com says:

The Latitude Z can be placed on a special stand that generates an electromagnetic field to recharge laptop batteries wirelessly. The technology, which Dell calls inductive charging, takes the same amount of time to recharge laptop batteries as an AC adapter, said Steve Belt [CQ], vice president of business client engineering at Dell.

"There's a coil in the bottom of the notebook and then there's a matching coil in the stand. You set them next to each other and it generates a current that flows and charges the battery," Belt said.

OS: Windows Vista.

Communication: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/g/n, mobile broadband connectivity through 3G or WiMax networks, and Bluetooth.

Price: The base price of Dell Latitude Z600 starts from $1999. It will be available in the U.S., Canada and certain countries in Europe and Asia.

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