Otaku Gadgets

Have you always wanted to work on your next presentation in the middle of a tropical rainforest? Do your wildest fantasies involve acting as a spy and throwing your laptop off a moving truck to keep it out of the enemy’s reach? Do you dream of working in the middle of a torrential downpour? If your answer is ‘yes’ to any of those questions then you have to see Dell’s latest addition to its Latitude series of business laptops.

Most of us would not use the term ‘ballistic’ when describing a laptop but the first thing you will notice about the Dell Latitude E6400 XFR is its “ballistic armor protection”. The laptop manufacturers claim it as something exclusive to Dell. This laptop is actually a regular E6400 adapted into a specialized chassis that has been built from scratch to protect the laptop from the elements and more.

The company claims that the casing is even stronger than the much talked about magnesium alloy casings. It has been tested to withstand 4ft drops (which is about waist high on an average). It also has advanced ingress protection to seal off the entry points for liquids and dust.

What all that means is that the casing has rubber panel covers sealing off all the main points of access. This physically stops dust and water from entering the system. The high strength casing also ensures that the laptop is strong enough to deal with rough use to the point of stress where a normal laptop would break apart.

The E6400 XFR has been ruggedized with performance and endurance in mind. So it scores in durability and performance rather than in looks. This mean machine of a laptop is strong enough to withstand being dropped on to a non-carpeted floor, down a staircase and even off a moving truck.

It has rubber corners and linings to absorb the shocks when accidentally dropped on a hard surface. The rubber panels are securely attached to the casing, so they are not going to peel off even after being used over a long period of time. Another great point is the built-in handle. The handle is built as a part of the chassis, so it makes carrying the laptop much more secure. It has folding hinges to allow the handle fold in when not in use. The lid is clasped shut with a metal clip, which you need to open to use the laptop. The metal clip is strong enough to withstand drops and hence will keep the lid safe and shut through all drops and jolts.

The XFR is designed to withstand extreme conditions and temperatures. So you can work through rain, dust storms and a variety of other hazardous conditions. It can operate smoothly in conditions where the temperature is hovering around 145 degrees Fahrenheit or -20 degree Fahrenheit. So whether you are working in the Sahara or Greenland, you can easily get by with an E6400 XFR.

One good thing about the XFR is that it does not skimp on the power. It is a rugged laptop and has features to fully match its heavy duty exterior. It houses a 14.1” WXGA screen displaying 1280×800 pixels. This screen has been optimized to be readable under direct sunlight, so it is truly an outdoors laptop. It is capable of a maximum of 8GB RAM at 800MHz. It has two DIMM slots and supports dual channel architecture.

When it comes to storage, you can choose between a 5400RPM 128GB shock mounted hard drive with a free fall sensor and a Solid State Drive of up to 128GB. Your optical drive can be a CD-RW/DVD or a DVD-ROM or a DVD+/-RW, no Blu-ray options here. In the graphics department there is an option between the onboard Intel GMA (Graphics Media Accelerator) 4500MHD and a cool NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M 256MB DDR2 card. With that card in, your hardcore business machine will also see some nice mid-range gaming action. It will also become essential if your job involves working with and rendering graphics.

There are the usual connectivity options – 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet port, the 56K internal phone modem, multiple WLAN options and Bluetooth. There are also the not-so-usual options – mobile broadband support through EVDO, Tri-band HSDPA 7.2/HSUPA 2.0 (3G) and support for GPS. There is also an option for dedicated GPS and Antennae at the Dell website.

This laptop is sure to appeal to a lot of professionals, so the security of the laptop has also been beefed up. It has steel-reinforced cable lock slots, battery and hard drive locks. There’s also a smartcard reader and a contactless smart card reader. You can also opt for the optional fingerprint reader but everyone should know by now that they are very easy to crack. It also has the usual alphabet soup of network security standards and protocols – WPA, WPA-PSK, WPA2, VPN with EAP modules and CCX 4.0 compatibility.

There are two speakers and a microphone. An integrated webcam is optional. It can be expanded via the single Type I/II PCMCIA Or Expresscard/54 and the 5 in 1 card reader. There is also an E-Family modular bay where the optical drive sits. It has one firewire port, docking connector, 4 USB 2.0 ports, one VGA port, one display port, one RJ-11 (optional), one Rj-45, one eSATA, headphone and microphone ports. All these ports are sealed behind the protective casing and hence are safe from water and dust as mentioned earlier.

Dell has really gone to a lot of trouble to ensure that nothing is left out of the equation. This laptop has the right kind of power and built to appeal to field workers and researchers. These people need the rugged features but are often left needing something more powerful. The XFR is sure to satisfy even the most demanding professional. The highest possible configuration gives them a lot of processing power and the expandability comes standard with every XFR.

So now you can run detailed weather simulations sitting in the arctic or write your journal aboard a deep sea fishing expedition. The Dell Latitude E6400XFR ensures that you will never get lost with the in-built GPS. I say couple it with a solar charger and you can take it anywhere you want. Even to a tropical rainforest where you are miles away from the nearest place to plug in.

This gadget makes me think of adventures, secret agents and war zones. Does it makes you feel the same? Or is there another gadget that really excites you in to daydreaming about all sorts of impossible things? Share it with us in the comments section below.