New work laptop
So, my old work laptop decided that showing anything other than a blank white screen on the internal panel was for losers and people who didn't need to work in hotels or at home or any of that shit. Ticket submitted.
Expectation: Dell engineer to replace bits until problem solved.
Reality: Work laptop out of warranty, so new Dell Latitude E7470 provided.
First up, there are two things immediately and massively better about this 14" lapper versus the old 15" thing.
It doesn't weigh a metric fuckton (it's an SI unit, ask an engineer. Maybe not one of the Mars Climate Orbiter guys), and the screen is not like watching the Lego channel. 1366x768 on a 15" panel is miserable. 1080p on a 14" is not.
So this is an ultrabook. I think that means it's dead thin and has a not-shit screen and is dead thin. And it has an "ultrabook" sticker on it, just in case you weren't clear. I say "has". I do of course mean "had".
Magnesium chassis, very pleasant backlit keyboard, IPS panel, reasonable (with one bizarre exception, of which more later) trackpad, premium look and feel. It's dead thin, too.
Dell understands business travellers. I've got 3 USB3 ports, an HDMI port, a mini-displayport, an SD card slot, and you can even put a SIM card in it, for great 4G justice. And it has one of those weird-ass SC card slots that I don't know what it's for. And a regular ethernet port. This is a machine for doing work in grey corporate-land.
Performance is absolutely fine. The office work I do won't tax even the cheapest shittiest pile of crap you can buy at PC World, so an i5 with 8GB and an SSD is going to suffice, in spades.
It's the little things, like waking up from sleep fast and reliably, and having a screen with wide viewing angles, and a trackpad that's pleasant- but oh wait what the fuck why can't I have a two-finger tap as right-click, you bastards?
Never mind. It still has a range of gestures, excellent palm rejection (this is key for me), and is precise and accurate.
Overall a pleasant surprise, given that I was expecting nothing more than to lose my old lapper for a couple of hours whilst a Dell engineer made the awful (seriously, it's terrible; not just low-res, but with viewing angles that make the baby jesus cry) screen work again. Instead, I got a laptop that doesn't make me feel a bit embarrassed in client meetings, and is actually pretty nice to use.
Expectation: Dell engineer to replace bits until problem solved.
Reality: Work laptop out of warranty, so new Dell Latitude E7470 provided.
First up, there are two things immediately and massively better about this 14" lapper versus the old 15" thing.
It doesn't weigh a metric fuckton (it's an SI unit, ask an engineer. Maybe not one of the Mars Climate Orbiter guys), and the screen is not like watching the Lego channel. 1366x768 on a 15" panel is miserable. 1080p on a 14" is not.
So this is an ultrabook. I think that means it's dead thin and has a not-shit screen and is dead thin. And it has an "ultrabook" sticker on it, just in case you weren't clear. I say "has". I do of course mean "had".
Magnesium chassis, very pleasant backlit keyboard, IPS panel, reasonable (with one bizarre exception, of which more later) trackpad, premium look and feel. It's dead thin, too.
Dell understands business travellers. I've got 3 USB3 ports, an HDMI port, a mini-displayport, an SD card slot, and you can even put a SIM card in it, for great 4G justice. And it has one of those weird-ass SC card slots that I don't know what it's for. And a regular ethernet port. This is a machine for doing work in grey corporate-land.
Performance is absolutely fine. The office work I do won't tax even the cheapest shittiest pile of crap you can buy at PC World, so an i5 with 8GB and an SSD is going to suffice, in spades.
It's the little things, like waking up from sleep fast and reliably, and having a screen with wide viewing angles, and a trackpad that's pleasant- but oh wait what the fuck why can't I have a two-finger tap as right-click, you bastards?
Never mind. It still has a range of gestures, excellent palm rejection (this is key for me), and is precise and accurate.
Overall a pleasant surprise, given that I was expecting nothing more than to lose my old lapper for a couple of hours whilst a Dell engineer made the awful (seriously, it's terrible; not just low-res, but with viewing angles that make the baby jesus cry) screen work again. Instead, I got a laptop that doesn't make me feel a bit embarrassed in client meetings, and is actually pretty nice to use.
