My last laptop was a Dell Latitude C840. The C840 is a heavy duty laptop that I abused thoroughly. It was bulky, heavy and durable. I like the fact that it survived three impacts with the floor before succumbing to a final blow that separated the monitor portion of the laptop from the keyboard. That final straw put me in the market for a new laptop. As hard as I can be on a computer when I travel, there were some things I didn’t like about the bulkier C840. Aside from the weight, the size was not very useful on an airplane. The small travel trays on the back of each seat barely have room for a calculator, never mind a laptop. When deciding on my new laptop I decided to focus on size and weight instead of durability. I found the perfect match with the Dell Latitude D430.
The Dell Latitude D430 is a lightweight laptop, weighing in at approximately three pounds. Double that if you include the docking station, which is also compact and portable. The smallish 12.1 inch WXGA monitor screen is surrounded by a thin border that barely exceeds a half inch at the thickest point. This keeps the laptop compact, with overall dimensions of 11.6 inches wide, 8.25 inches tall and an inch thick. The carrying case provides ample room for the power cord, laptop and docking station with plenty of room for other accessories or paperwork, if needed. The Dell Latitude D430 docking station is called a media base due to the fact that it has a DVD player built into it. When attached to the media base, the entire profile remains tight with less than an inch of additional width added by the media base.
The Dell Latitude D430 has a decent package. The unit contains an Intel Core 2 Duo processor that operates at 533 MHz. It has a 2 MB Smart L2 Cache. The Duo Processors operate at 1.2 GHz (U7600) and 1.06 (U7500) GHz respectively. The Solo Processor (U1400) operates at 1.2 GHz. I do not engage in any on-line gaming or graphic intensive endeavors with my laptop, so it is difficult to talk about speed in comparison to hard-core gamers. My use primarily revolves around spreadsheets (which are often very large), power point (which sometimes includes video) and internet. When browsing internet sites with obnoxiously numerous videos and sound, I have not encountered any slow-downs. The processors seem to be able to handle my moderate use effectively. The manufacturer’s description of this laptop’s capacity exceeds my ability to explain it thoroughly, so for those who understand numbers: The Chipset is an Intel 945GMS with Intel onboard graphics. The memory has a minimum 1 GB DDR2 single channel shared 533 MHz with a maximum 2 GB DDR2 single channel shared 533 MHz.
Full Review of Dell Latitude D430
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