Dell's new Latitude 2100 netbooks - with touchscreen and bespoke charging trolley!

[AngryTechnician]

I was very interested to read about Dell's latest Latitude 2100 netbooks on the Direct2Dell blog this morning.

 

The tech spec is fairly nice, particularly like the 802.11n option, but the surprises for me were ther touchscreen option, and the bespoe charging trolley:

 

[nomedia]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_1N9UtEZW[/nomedia]

 

 

The touchscreen in particular surprised me not because it exists, but that it has arrived this soon. I gave a presentation just last month on future client systems and predicted then that touchscreen netbooks would become commonplace in the next few years. I was certainly not expecting to see them arrive this soon!

Edited May 19, 2009 by AngryTechnician
Note to self: learn to type

[DevilsAdvocate]

I like. Especially the 'Computing Station'

[sreiach]

I was lucky enough to play with a demo model. It is really nice. The biggest selling points are that its in their business line of laptops. Which means a complete care warranty next day repair and a Windows Business OS. These were huge selling points for me. Many schools are buying netbooks because they're cheap without thinking how they are going to support them in the long run.

 

The colours are nice too.

[AngryTechnician]

I was lucky enough to play with a demo model. It is really nice.

Ooh, question time then! My biggest gripe with Dell's Mini 9 netbooks was the flimsy-feeling keyboard. These look more solid, what was your impression of them?

[AngryTechnician]

That's very true, they are by no means the cheapest, but I would expect that price to come down when you're buying a few of them on Public Sector pricing.

[sreiach]

Ooh, question time then! My biggest gripe with Dell's Mini 9 netbooks was the flimsy-feeling keyboard. These look more solid, what was your impression of them?

 

I really don't remember that being an issue. In fact it felt exactly the same as the E4300. It is a little tiny but they maximized the full width of the laptop for the keyboard. Also the Power and volume controls are big hard plastic lit buttons. The touchpad buttons are also made of the same hard plastic as the rest of the casing.

 

I've found anything that's been shrunk naturally has a flimsy feel to it like most netbooks. This one is definitely one of the more rugged ones I've picked up.

 

It was a little heavy with the extended battery installed. Which I didn't see as too much of a fault. We're not asking kids to walk and type. It's still better then them carrying a beastly D630 around.

[dirtydog]

wow nice find! Just recieved a Samsung NC20 yesterday but I want them to buy netbooks with N wireless cards in and have a decent warranty. Those 2100 allow us to do both and add accidental damage cover etc etc if we need to, plus they are rubberised! I think they are happy with a 10" screen anyhow and that trolley is a brilliant idea if its not overpriced!

[Soulfish]

Just priced up a Lattitude 2100 on the Dell Premier Website. With 512mb ram included as default (we intend to add an extra stick, and we can get 2gb sticks for around the same price as the upgrade to 1gb ram), win xp home, touch screen, camera, wifi n, 6 cell battery and the 3yr warranty it's coming in at the same sort of price we can get the Samsung NC10.

 

Great news for us as we're looking at buying 20 in the next few weeks . Ubuntu 8.10 is an option as well if you don't intend on upgrading to XP Pro, and saves you even more cash

[Quackers]

Just priced up a Lattitude 2100 on the Dell Premier Website. With 512mb ram included as default (we intend to add an extra stick, and we can get 2gb sticks for around the same price as the upgrade to 1gb ram), win xp home, touch screen, camera, wifi n, 6 cell battery and the 3yr warranty it's coming in at the same sort of price we can get the Samsung NC10.

 

Great news for us as we're looking at buying 20 in the next few weeks . Ubuntu 8.10 is an option as well if you don't intend on upgrading to XP Pro, and saves you even more cash

 

What is that price??

[dirtydog]

What is that price??

 

I priced one earlier with:

802.11N

3 yr warranty

6 cell battery

NO TOUCHSCREEN OR WEBCAM

£439 inc VAT.

[AngryTechnician]

Just priced up a Lattitude 2100 on the Dell Premier Website.

Bah, I just went to our Premier Page to take a look and while the link is there, I'm just getting a blank page when I click through to Customise and Buy!

 

I priced one earlier with:

802.11N

3 yr warranty

6 cell battery

NO TOUCHSCREEN OR WEBCAM

£439 inc VAT.

 

Am I right in thinking that was the price off of the public website? Premier pricing is normally better.

 

EDIT: Much better in fact, I'm getting that spec for £259 ex VAT on our Premier Page

Edited May 19, 2009 by AngryTechnician
Premier pricing

[Soulfish]

Bah, I just went to our Premier Page to take a look and while the link is there, I'm just getting a blank page when I click through to Customise and Buy!

 

Am I right in thinking that was the price off of the public website? Premier pricing is normally better.

 

EDIT: Much better in fact, I'm getting that spec for £259 ex VAT on our Premier Page

Getting similar pricing on our premier page . Did speak to our account manager earlier, but it seems that the laptop trolley hasn't been released in the UK yet

[teejay]

Erm, can you all be aware that you shouldn't post prices from the Dell Premiere pages on a public forum, they are commercial in confidence.

[dirtydog]

Bah, I just went to our Premier Page to take a look and while the link is there, I'm just getting a blank page when I click through to Customise and Buy!

 

 

 

Am I right in thinking that was the price off of the public website? Premier pricing is normally better.

 

EDIT: Much better in fact, I'm getting that spec for £259 ex VAT on our Premier Page

 

yeah public site... must see if we have a premier login (and not post my prices ) as I dont usually deal with Dell.

[dirtydog]

Bah, I just went to our Premier Page to take a look and while the link is there, I'm just getting a blank page when I click through to Customise and Buy!

 

 

 

Am I right in thinking that was the price off of the public website? Premier pricing is normally better.

 

EDIT: Much better in fact, I'm getting that spec for £259 ex VAT on our Premier Page

 

with XP or Linux?

[Irazmus]

Still only available with XP Home though. Would have hoped they would include Pro.

 

Although the 'Customise & Buy' pages only show XP Home & Vista Home Basic the tech specs show XP Pro & Vista Business.

http://premier.dell.com/portal/catalog/ProductDetailsPage.aspx?productid=laptop-latitude-2100&sysCat=Notebooks&pid=9035_F%20_laptop-latitude-2100_10022&cs=RC1050266

[AngryTechnician]

Erm, can you all be aware that you shouldn't post prices from the Dell Premiere pages on a public forum, they are commercial in confidence.

First, they'll have to catch me.

 

Second, I did actually wonder about that before I posted, and so had a read through of the T&Cs on our Premier site and also the 'non-disclosure agreement' link at the login screen. I genuinely could not find any terms related to pricing confidentiality, so if it is in there, it's well hidden.

 

The spec I looked at was with XP. I would have priced it with Vista but it's more expensive for no good reason, and we'd be upgrading it to Enterprise under our SA anyway.

[teejay]

@AngryTechnician

 

Their link goes to the wrong section at the moment! Anyway, it is common courtesy to suppliers and also against many local authority/government purchasing guidelines to disclose any special pricing or quotes.

Publicly available pricing, or with the agreement of the suplier is fine, but otherwise it's best avoided.

[AngryTechnician]

Their link goes to the wrong section at the moment!

I take your point, and don't disagree, but I'm going to play devil's advocate for a moment longer here and say: that's their problem, not mine. As for the common courtesy you refer to, pretty much every supplier I've ever dealt with, including Dell, are quite happy to ask for full details of quotes and pricing I've had from other suppliers (which I don't give them, I might add). They clearly don't respect each other's 'confidentiality' so expecting me to without even asking is a bit rich IMO.

 

My original intention in posting pricing was to dispel the immediate concern from earlier posters that this product was unaffordable compared to the competition, when I believe it's a very good product, and that Dell give very good pricing to schools. Perhaps I could have done that without being specific, but frankly the pricing we get from Dell is hardly some super-special deal we have worked out with them.

[teejay]

@AngryTechnician

Ok, fair enough and can see your point, just not something I'd feel comfortable or happy with doing.

 

Anyways, had a play with one of these yesterday, quite a nice design.

Few things, case is really nice and so is the keyboard, both very solid, certainly built to take some knocks!

With the 6 cell battery they are a bit of a heavy lump and I would say the vertical screen resolution @576 is a bit low for a lot of programs, but I suppose that's the same with all netbooks.

Even with Vista on it, seemed to perform pretty well.

[AngryTechnician]

I would say the vertical screen resolution @576 is a bit low for a lot of programs, but I suppose that's the same with all netbooks.

Even with Vista on it, seemed to perform pretty well.

 

That's the only other thing I dislike about Dell's netbooks; many other manufacturers have a 1024x600 resolution. I know the extra 24 pixels shouldn't make that much difference, but what did Dell do with them? It's not like they can fall down the back of the sofa...

 

If my experience with the Samsung NC10 is anything to go by, performance will be better still with Windows 7 on it. I expect Dell will add that as an option at the earliest possible opportunity (along with everybody else!)

[DrCheese]

quite happy to ask for full details of quotes and pricing I've had from other suppliers (which I don't give them, I might add).

Neither do we, the cheeky sods. When initially quoting if suppliers don't give us their best pricing first time we don't give them the business. I'm not making it easier for them by giving them each others prices!

 

I'd have killed for these 4/5 years ago instead of the Latitude D510's we ended up with, not so fussed about the touchscreen but the charging trolley is really nice, especially how they can still be accessed when shut away.

 

I wonder how tough the keyboards are

[Quackers]

I'll stick to the Eee PC 1000H, the more i read and see these Dell ones the more i think they are so not thought out.

 

Like AngryTechnician says, the screen res is just wrong, is it to hard to do that extra 24 pixels and get the 1024*600 ? or even better do somthing like an 11" screen and get a good res such as 1024*768 coupled with the low power consumption of the Atom Processor and other items and your on to a winner.

 

With the public pricing too, when you make it actually suitable i.e. put the 6 Cell battery in, add the N capable wireless card the price rockets.

 

Sorry Dell, you've lost your marbels with this product, its dire.

[DrCheese]

A review is here

Dell Latitude 2100 - A Review of the Dell Latitude 2100

 

Shame the education cart is set for 24, if you could customise the amount it holds it would be a lot nicer. It doesn't look like the keyboard is any tougher than a standard netbook keyboard which is a shame as well.

The network light seems hillariously pointless, given that students work will be on a.... network share. Plus if anyone actually bought these you'd just whack something like lanschool/netschool on them anyway.

[dirtydog]

anyone else played with one yet? im likely to order one today to try out against an NC20, seem like a great product to me although its a shame about the 24pixels they lost