Dell's Latitude XT up close -- a bit too close

Here you go, the up-close shots of Dell's Latitude XT tablet you've been waiting for. Thing is, just like a Sunday afternoon on the island of La Grande Jatte, somethings are best viewed from a distance. Dell's Latitude XT sports enough black boxiness to make ThinkPad owners swoon. Poor souls, Dell may have added a scroll wheel to the XT's bezel but you've still got your crimson-red nipples -- let's call it even, mkay? Biggie pics over at the French site LesDeLLiens just beyond the read link.

[Thanks, Elais]

[snife @ Oct 12th 2007 4:33AM]

ThinkPad Owners Swoon? Clearly you are not a ThinkPad owner. Not all trackpoints are created equal, look at the buttons, as with most dell models, they are unpressable from a comfortable hand position which makes the system very unusable for me in notebook mode.

Also, am I missing something, I cannot see a scroll wheel, I can see a 2-way rocker switch (the X61T has a 4-way pad)?

I agree that Dell are doing a much better job of the looks of the latitudes lately and are emulating the ThinkPad look quite well (as are HP) and the design/quality has improved dramatically over the last couple of years but they are still not as good as ThinkPads

[Jon @ Oct 12th 2007 7:11AM]

Agree. I think this business Dell (and new HP business lines) looks lovely, but the ThinkPad surpasses them in terms of quality. The keyboard alone is a reason to get a TP.

[James Sonne @ Oct 12th 2007 9:14AM]

Why have laptop makers not realized they need to place the buttons for the touch at a 45 degree angle on the bottom corners of the touch pad (on both sides for left/right hand functionality)

[snife @ Oct 12th 2007 11:10AM]

do the touch pad buttons really matter, unless your using tap to select, the touch pad is completely useless, its the track point buttons that need to be correctly positioned so you can press them easily while operating the track point

[Sonny Jim @ Oct 12th 2007 11:43AM]

Why have some people not realised that what they would like in their gadgets, such as angle for buttons wrt to the touchpad (WTF!?), is not what other people want or care about?

[raid-5 @ Oct 12th 2007 5:01PM]

xps M1330 copys SONY SZ
now
Latitude xt copys Thinkpad X61t

[Cagrino @ Oct 12th 2007 5:44AM]

Oh for the love of humanity! This was the tablet convertible I've been waiting on?

If you're going to make commercials sawing other laptops in half to say you're coming out with a revolutionary tablet, maybe you should take the time to consult an industrial designer. Hell, I'll settle for a fashion designer...

With all these companies teaming up with Prada or *insert high end fashion company here* come on Dell, even you by now must be getting the message. THE DESIGN MATTERS!!

[Chuckles McGee @ Oct 12th 2007 10:12AM]

Is it just me, or does this thing look about twice as thick as when as it was first previewed?

And monkey, is the thing going to be stuck with just the 1.2ghz ULV chips? I was hoping they'd have some 1.8ghz LV chips offered as well...

[Josh Warner @ Oct 12th 2007 1:11PM]

Yes, definitely. Particularly when the laptop in question is a BUSINESS model (you do realize that is what Latitude means?). This is clearly not modeled or marketed to you. ThinkPads with a very similar design scheme have sold for premiums as high or higher than Apple's for a long time, only instead of paying for the design what you were buying was reliability (something Apple cannot claim). More people than you probably understand would prefer to have a working laptop than a very pretty paperweight, but maybe I am making no sense to you.

PS: I'd lay 10:1 odds that you wrote that post on a mac. Am I right?

[Quincy @ Oct 12th 2007 6:41AM]

Something told me it was going to be much sexier than this. Hopefully these pics aren't doing it justice.

[Elais @ Oct 12th 2007 9:04AM]

hey guys, thanks for thanking me (lol). but you spelled my name wrong. Its Elais not Elias. It gets mixed up all the time. Anywho, I cant wait til this one shows up on the scene

[James Sonne @ Oct 12th 2007 9:22AM]

I personally don't want my laptop to look metallic and colorful, as I actually use mine for important things. I would not buy a laptop that was any less plain than this or a Lenovo. You don't have to ridicule a device design because it caters to a different kind of user. Or do you go around ridiculing people of different ethnicity because they look different than you or have a different job than you? Why such innate hatred toward different perspectives and styles?

[Tarik W @ Oct 12th 2007 9:53AM]

Really? Ridicule the device design? Inane hatred? You got racism from comments on an ugly laptop? Your keyboard privileges and internet access should be revoked for that kind of idiocy.

[easymac30 @ Oct 12th 2007 10:08AM]

...because this shows no perspective and no style.

STFU, Dell-lover.

[Anton @ Oct 12th 2007 9:24AM]

I think you guys are a little off on the TP quality, either that or the 33 out of 57 that I had ordered in the last batch were all lemons... because they all required service calls for failed parts within the first 4 months after we received them... I'm giving serious thought to switching over to an all-Dell shop in the near future.

[snife @ Oct 12th 2007 11:30AM]

yes, you got a bunch of lemons (or some other reason was to blame like user error etc), thinkpad hardware failure is under 5% in the first 6 months.

[Neil Bakker @ Oct 12th 2007 9:52AM]

My Dell rep relayed that Brand Marketing is on track for a mid-december release...

[j @ Oct 12th 2007 9:56AM]

it's a dell - why would anyone think for a minute they would make it look good?

[Quincy @ Oct 12th 2007 10:27AM]

LOL!!!!!!!!!!

[Ryan L. @ Oct 12th 2007 10:25AM]

It looked a lot nicer in the video Dell released.

[John Doe. @ Oct 12th 2007 11:38AM]

If you are going to go through the trouble of making a blog entry could you at least do us all a favor and trans the page for us? Or at the very least the specs. My company blocks babelfish.

[saq @ Oct 12th 2007 12:07PM]

Well no surprises here, Dell releases its tablet finally and it is nothing others haven't already done and done better.

The device this is poised to directly compete against is the Fujitsu T2010 which is probably thinner guesstimating from the pictures, gets more battery life and has the same specs. I'm glad I placed the order on the T2010 when I did and got the discount, if it gets here today I'll be ecstatic.

Some specs I gleaned from a poor translation of the link.

Dell Latitude XT Tablet
2 types of screen, CCFL & LED backlit 12.1" 1280x800
1.2ghz Core 2 Duo ULV U7600
up to 3gb of ram
ATI X1250
4,6,9 cell battery options
3 usb ports
bluetooth + wifi N
3.5-3.96lbs depending on battery

The most important question which is not answered from this link is if its conventional active digitizer or touchscreen.

[John Doe @ Oct 12th 2007 12:16PM]

If you are going to go through the trouble of making a blog entry could you at least do us all a favor and trans the page for us? Or at the very least the specs. My company blocks babelfish.

[Kasona @ Oct 12th 2007 12:39PM]

So what makes this one any better than my HP tc4400 (which looks quite similar)??

[Jason @ Oct 12th 2007 1:37PM]

Sunday in the park with GEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORGE

[raid-5 @ Oct 12th 2007 4:55PM]

xps M1330 copys SONY SZ
now
Latitude xt copys Thinkpad X61t

[Jay @ Oct 14th 2007 3:13PM]

In the tablet mode, I still think it looks pretty sweet (although we've only seen that in the video). I also think the perspective of some of these shots make it fatter than it may actually be. I think I'll reserve judgment until I see some more photos.

On the feature side, it sounds dead-on for what I'm looking for. The N-trig digitizers are pretty nice (Wacom is great, but that doesn't mean they are the only folks who can do it).

I'm looking forward to more info/pics/pricing.

[Ruben K @ Oct 14th 2007 11:06PM]

I've calibrated the picture to my LAN port, and it comes out to about 1.15 inches thick.

This is a real bummer. I thought this would be less than an inch thick.

In response to someone else's comment, there will be a switch to use this in either touch or traditional penabled mode (just not simultaneously).

This thing definitely looks like a hunk....Someone should have a "how would you design this dell" contest. yikes

[Jay @ Oct 15th 2007 9:17PM]

Just to be clear, it's not necessarily a physical switch. On the LE1700 WriteTouch, you either just start using the pen to go into Pen Mode, and double-tap with your finger to go into Touch Mode.

[Ryan L. @ Oct 18th 2007 2:40PM]

There actually might not be a switch, or tapping. On the n-trig website it says that the screen recognizes the pen and switches automatically.

[Jeff Jackson @ Oct 25th 2007 4:57PM]

I think it looks exactly like a workhorse should look. I hate all the colored plastic fru-fru that passes for style on so many notebooks.