The Battle of The Business Class Notebooks

     Alright, here we are again, still covered in snow. However, I did promise some laptop insight and I'm not one to back out of a computer discussion. 

     In the first corner, weighing in at 5.17lbs, we have a Dell Latitude E6500. Very sharp.  Some key notes that I would like to point out is that the Latitude boasts a hard shell (aluminum bi-product) and has a rather luxurious feel.  Sleek body lines and very solid but lightweight at the same time.  Sort of like a Mercedes. Intel Core 2 Duo with a T-8500 and 4 GB of ram (space for 8) gives enough muscle to get by and things like the backlight keyboard and the mysterious blue halo on the ac adapter make for a very cosmetically appealing and hard working machine.

     Our second contender is also one of Dell's biggest rivals.  The HP Probook 6455b.  Having been revamped in the past couple of years, this has also proved to be a very satisfying machine.; While there are multiple hardware options for this machine, the one I am currently using has an AMD Phenom II N620 @ 2.8ghz with 4 GB of ram also. While it doesn't have the same sleekness that the Dell has, it does feel surprisingly sturdy but elegant at the same time. The Probook also uses an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 onboard graphics card.  This has also proved to be very nice.  

     All in all, it's a trade off. Both machines come bundled with more than enough of that famous, cumbersome, proprietary software that we all know and love.  The Dell has a backlight keyboard sure, but the Probook has HP quick launch buttons which I actually use quite often.  It's nice to bring up MS Outlook or Firefox by just running your finger over the led.  There was one other issue that the HP seems to address, for me at least.  The Dell uses a rather standard keyboard but HP wanted to do something different.  On the Probook, the keys on the keyboard are almost flat and totally inset into the pc. It makes for a very comfortable typing experience.  

     So, yes, they are both business class computers. Yes they are both very nice, but for me, I think I will leave my Dell at home for fun and keep the HP in business.

Happy hacking,

Paul