The Latitude E4300 is one of the two ultraportable laptops in Dell’s new E-series release. Designed for business customers, the laptop carries a hefty starting price of $1,834 Canadian although that price can be negotiated down significantly with volume.
The E-series caught my eye as I’d previously owned a Latitude D820, which has served me very well for the past two years. I’ve even dropped it on concrete with only a scratch. Dell Customer Service for Small Business was superb, delivering new keyboards overnight, or sending a technician over, the next day with almost no questions asked.
For a university student with 6-7 hours of lecture every other day, battery life and portability are key. The D820 comes in at 6.5 lbs, so I was looking for something a little more portable. The E4300 fit the bill at an advertised 3.3 lb starting weight. I’d actually ordered another laptop from the Dell ultraportable line-up earlier this summer – the XPS M1330. However, its keyboard was cheap and unresponsive compared to the Latitude D820 I had, so it was promptly returned.
The E-Series competes with the Lenovo X301 and the Sony Z laptops in the same price range. Almost all internal laptop components are drawn from the same manufacturers. In theory, one could price a laptop with a similar configuration for almost $1,000 less (Lenovo’s X200). That $1,000 premium you pay as a business customer is for high quality build, user interface components and prompt and reliable customer service. As you’ll see in this review, Dell certainly delivers with its top-rate customer service. Unfortunately, customer service alone is only part of what makes a good notebook, and the Dell E4300’s user interface devices leaves something to be desired.
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