Dell Latitude 2100
Bash Street's favourite netbook?
Review A side-effect of Dell's last internal reorganisation is that the company has separate teams working on very similar products but aimed at different kinds of user. Taking the case in hand, the Latitude 2100 is a netbook aimed at major organisations – primarily educational – who want to buy machines of a predetermined spec in bulk. So it has been designed by a wholly different team from the one responsible for the consumer-oriented Inspiron Mini series.
Latitude 2100: Dell's best netbook yet?
So, have the Latitude lads and lasses done a better job at making a netbook than the Inspiron crew?
When you lay hands on the 2100, the first thing that strikes you is the textured, rubberised skin that covers both the lid and base of the machine. It's a unique netbook feature as far as we know and we have to ask why it hasn't been done before. It ensures that the machine sits very securely on a desk. It also feels more grippy in the hand than the usual slick netbook casings, reducing the chances of it slipping out of the grasp of a careless ankle biter, or a tired and emotional grown-up.
Rubber skin aside, the 2100 is a rather angular machine. You get get the impression the Latitude designers took one look at the Mini 10s curves and thought: 'Over my dead body... pass me a set square'.
The square casing does have benefits, however. It has allowed Dell to fit ventilation grilles at the front and on the left side with the result that the fanless 2100 runs rather more coolly than its Inspiron Mini cousins. Secondly, by moving the vents from the underside of the chassis, the machine is supposedly more resilient to nearby liquid spills.
The rubberised skin gives the 2100 a rugged, kid-safe feel
Compared to the Mini 10, the 2100 is both larger and heavier, though at 265 x 187 x 22.5-39.9mm and 1.32kg, it's not massively so. The ports and slots are netbook standard: three USB ports, VGA, Ethernet, SD card slot, and 3.5mm audio in and out jacks.
COMMENTS
I like it
I bought one of these a couple of weeks ago to use for travelling and I have found it to be fantastic, especially the touchscreen - I now find myself using the touchscreen all the time when using Firefox, Openoffice and Outlook, something that I never thought I would do.
I give this netbook an A-, the only thing stopping it from being an A+ for me are:
- I had to dismantle the laptop to install the second 1GB RAM - why couldn't Dell have given me a 2GB pre-installed option on the website? I hate having to remove laptop keyboards, especially brand new ones.
- I find myself using a stylus from an old PDA but I'm sure I'm going to lose it because the Latitude 2100 touchscreen version doesn't come with a stylus slot. I know that might seem like an odd request for a netbook, but having used the touchscreen for a couple of weeks I really miss having a stylus always available in a little slide-out slot.
By the way, I think there is a tiny inaccuracy in the review - the activity light on the back is not configurable; you have no choice, it is always on.
Please include VAT & delivery charges in your reviews
Hateful Dell charge £20 for delivery, bumping up the ACTUAL price of the base model to £317.40. At that price things like its miserly 80 GB hard disk start to seem like poor value. They even have the audacity to charge £16 (less VAT, of course) if you would like one in blue, green, red or yellow as opposed to the default black!
rubbery powerbook?
"It's a unique netbook feature as far as we know and we have to ask why it hasn't been done before."
Not a netbook, but Apple's 1998/9 Powerbooks Wall Street and Pismo were rubber covered.
I rather like it
Just to be different. I like angular stuff, why does everything have to be curved these days? I like the rubberised coating, no creasy fingerprints all over a shiny surface. Yes, the spec is pretty mediocre, but if all you're going to use it for is surf the web and a bit of office now and again, who needs super-dooper processing power? If I had some spare cash (damn economy!) I'd snap one up tomorrow.
Nice, but...
It's a real shame its not dockable, I would have been tempted to buy one otherwise. Presumably that's why its not called the E2100, as only the E-Series are dockable in the current range.
Maybe they were worried about cannibalizing potential sales of 'proper' Latitudes, although I can't believe that many enterprise sales would have been lost to an Atom-powered netbook like this.
