Dell Latitude Z review
The Dell Latitude Z is possibly the strangest laptop we’ve ever reviewed. It’s as if Dell has taken all the conventional rules of building a business notebook, cut them up into tiny pieces and reassembled them to form this: an ultra-wide, ultra-thin, ultra-odd laptop.
The result is certainly striking. The Latitude Z’s chassis stretches all of 396mm wide, a good 50mm wider than a normal laptop. Meanwhile, the rear of the Z extends by an extra 25mm to accommodate the battery: there’s no room in the main body (measuring less than a centimetre thick) for even the four-cell, 2,620mAh unit Dell supplies as standard.
It's a weird shape too, with that jutting battery set off by a couple of angled brackets. Yet the Latitude Z still manages to look executive, a look that stems from a strip of brushed aluminium bordering the main body, and the sober, dark grey tones everywhere else. Apart, that is, from the soft-touch lid with its dark, maroon hue.
The little things
A multitude of neat touches abound elsewhere. The most headline grabbing is the touch-sensitive strip found to the right of the screen: slide your finger up or down and the page you’re currently looking at moves with you.
Press the button just to the right of the screen and a list of shortcuts appear, and you can adapt these to whatever you like – from launching your favourite programs to playing back media. The trackpad is multitouch-enabled too, so you can pinch, zoom, rotate and scroll to your heart’s content.
More subtly, there’s a contact-free smartcard reader sitting to the right of the trackpad. Press your RFID-equipped smartcard against this and, along with the fingerprint reader to the side, you’ll have two extra layers of security to go above and beyond the usual Windows password.
The wires-free approach even extends to the optional charging station. For an extra £162 exc VAT this lets you slip the Latitude on and, by the miracle of inductive technology, the Z will start to charge. Be warned, though, it’s huge.
In our view, it’s also an utter waste of money. Of much more use is the (again optional) wireless docking station. This uses UWB (ultra-wideband) technology to not only add an extra four USB ports to the two that sit on the Latitude Z itself, but also to provide headphone and microphone sockets, plus a DVI output. The latter takes advantage of Displaylink technology to extend or mirror the Windows desktop onto an external monitor.
The only annoyance is the lack of an Ethernet connection, so if you want to use a wired connection in the office rather than the wireless you’ll need to plug it in each time. A tiresome oversight.
Another nice little feature we haven’t seen before is FaceAware. This is a security and power-saving tool that can automatically lock down the Latitude Z when you’re not sitting in front of it; as the name gives away, it uses the integrated webcam to work its magic. It works too. We set FaceAware to switch off after 15 seconds, and so it proved – even when someone else was sitting in front of the laptop. (If you want it to work for multiple people, use Collaborative rather than Private mode.) What’s particularly nice is the lack of setup: it automatically recognises your face, and changes your power settings the moment you enable the power-savings tickbox.
On the move
The Latitude Z’s sheer size makes it an odd travelling companion: whip this machine out of your bag on the train and you’ll get some odd looks. Nevertheless, it’s good to see a 3G modem as standard, complete with a GPS radio, and Bluetooth is thrown in too.
Where things fall apart a little is battery life. The 40Wh battery that comes as standard gave a frankly pathetic 3hrs 53mins in our light-use tests, and while you can choose an eight-cell battery (for a very reasonable £24 extra) this inevitably adds bulk at the machine’s rear. And that spoils the clean lines that make the Latitude Z so attractive in the first place.
This poor battery life is despite the inclusion of a 1.6GHz ultra-low-voltage SU9600 processor, which has its emphasis on power saving rather than outright performance. Nevertheless, the Latitude Z scored a creditable 0.85 in our benchmarks, helped along by 4GB of RAM and the assistance of two SSD drives in a RAID0 array. This is a machine that’s more than capable of handling day-to-day tasks.
Intel’s business-like GMA4500HD graphics are also present and correct, as they need to be for the Centrino 2 certification. Forget playing Crysis, but the Latitude Z will cope with less demanding 3D games and smoothly play back HD video.
Usability
The screen itself isn't quite capable of displaying full 1080p, but its resolution of 1,600 x 900 is a good match for its 16in diagonal. If Dell squeezed in more pixels, you’d be squinting to see system text.
This usability extends to the rest of the ergonomics too. The travel on the keyboard may be short, but it’s perfectly enjoyable to use thanks to the large, well-spaced keys – and they even light up when you press them. Dell sensibly makes the touchpad large as well.
Considering all the cutting-edge technology squeezed into this machine, we’re pleasantly surprised by the price of the base system. Currently you can buy it for around £1,200 exc VAT. Our exact configuration isn’t so affordable, with the twin 128GB solid state drives, 4GB of memory and 1.6GHz rather than 1.4GHz processor bringing the total to a jaw-dropping £1,975. Excluding VAT. And delivery.
What prevents us giving the Latitude Z a recommendation, however, isn’t the value for money, but the battery life: yes, you can buy the extended battery, but that rather spoils the point of having a beautiful machine such as this. What we can’t fault Dell for is innovation: as a showcase for ultra-wideband technology and sheer striking design, it’s a winner.
Price when reviewed: £1,975 (£2,321 inc VAT)
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