Dell Precision M2400 Review

Dell Precision laptops are high quality laptops targeted towards professionals requiring high performance. The Dell Precision M2400 picks up a lot of features from Dell Latitude E6400 that was highly popular. There are only a few differences between the laptops such as different graphics card or be it the design on the chassis. Nonetheless, the Dell Precision M2400 is bound to attract graphics designers, video editors and in general anyone looking for a high quality laptop.

Dell Precision M2400 specifications :

• Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo T9600, 2.8GHz
• Display :  14.1″ LED display with 1440 x 900 resolution
• Memory : 4GB DDR2 800 MHz
• Graphics : Nvidia Quadro FX 370M 256MB
• Hard Disk : 120GB SATA, 5400 rpm
• Optical drive : 8x DVD/RW Double Layer Super Multi Drive
• Operating System : Microsoft Windows Ultimate 64-bit
• Battery : 9-cell Li-ion
• Other features : Bluetooth, Fingerprint reader, back-lit keyboard
  smart card reader, webcam
• Warranty : 3-years basic warranty
• Approx. price : $1300

Design and Display

The chassis of the laptop is made of magnesium alloy that lends stability and durability to the chassis. It is definitely a much better option than plastic that starts making noises after a few months of use. The hinges are also very stable and reflect the overall build quality of the laptop. The exterior is made of matte plastic that does not attract fingerprints.

The 14.1″ display is manufactured by Philips and is a pleasure to work upon. The display has good brightness and contrast and the color reproduction is close to perfect. Dell lists the contrast ratio as 500 : 1 in the data sheet. The viewing angles are not great by acceptable and just about fine for cinematic experience. The build quality reflects in the display too and there is no distortion when pressure is applied at the back of the display.

Ports and Speakers

There are quite a number of ports that have been integrated in to the laptop. The laptop has a 5-in-1 card reader located at the front along with the screen latch. At the left you can find the Kensington lock, VGA port, USB powershare, eSATA/USB combo port and a smart card reader too. On the right side are a couple of USB ports, wireless toggle switch, microphone in, audio out, optical drive, express card slot, IEEE 1394 Firewire port. At the back, one can find the Ethernet port, display port and the power port. That sums up the plenty of ports that this laptop has.

The M2400 has integrated high definition speakers that fail to impress. The volume levels are fine but the quality is disappointing. The speakers lack any bass and the acoustics aren’t any better. Treble dominates the sound coming out of the speakers. Dell has put in small speakers and put a large fancy grill above it. If you want respectable sound then going in for external speakers or headphones is your only option.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard is a charm to work on and at night you also get the benefit of the back-lit keys. The keys are ergonomic and comfortable to work with. The keys offer tactile feedback making typing long articles very easy. The flex is hardly noticeable and is mainly at the top right side that is least used. The backlight is strong enough for comfortable typing even in dark environments. The keyboard although is a full fledged keyboard but it lacks multimedia keys for better multimedia experience.

Coming to the touchpad, the area it occupies is quite small compared to other laptops of its class. Even smaller laptops have larger touchpads. This seriously affects the usability of the touchpad as small space reduces usability. Thankfully, Dell has integrated a pointing device just around B,G and H keys that somewhat reduces the drawback of the touchpad. Looking at the target audience of the laptop, Dell has done a very poor job with the touchpad, forcing users to go in for a mouse.

Other Features

The laptop has some integrated security features such as the fingerprint reader. Fingerprint reader does add some security if you have disabled password based entry to your laptop. Smart card reader is another security feature that the laptop sports. All these features are controlled by the Dell’s ControlPoint Security Manager software. The webcam integrated in to the laptop does a decent job at video conferencing.

Performance and Battery life

The Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 processor does a great job at handling processor intensive tasks efficiently. The 4GB RAM is fully utilized due to the loaded 64-bit Microsoft Windows Ultimate operating system. Memory resources are enough for graphics/video editing tasks. The Nvidia Quadro FX 370M graphics chip is quite capable but it has slower GDDR2 graphics memory and 64-bit bus width that are its major bottlenecks. It would still handle games at minimal settings and run light CAD applications.

The battery life is great at close to 5 hours when browsing or working in office applications. The battery life will decrease when doing graphic intensive tasks such as image/video editing or playing games. You have the option of going in for a higher capacity battery that will double the backup time.

The laptop does not have heating issues and the CPU remains cool at all times. The GPU however, does tend to get very hot and its temperature can be seen hovering above 90 degrees when graphics intensive applications are running on the system. Otherwise, the bottom of the chassis does not get hot and can be used on the lap with ease.

Pros :

• Great build quality
• Variety of ports
• Good display
• Backlit keyboard
• Security features
• Good performance
• Excellent battery life

Cons :

• Poor speakers
• Small touchpad
• GPU runs hot
• GPU is the bottleneck

Final Thoughts

The Dell Precision M2400 is a great laptop for professionals as it has great build quality with matching performance. The backlit keyboard is handy while working at nights. Security hasn’t been overlooked and Dell has taken care by integrating fingerprint reader and smart card reader. Battery life is another strong point of the laptop. Speakers and graphics cards are two aspects that need to improved in the next version for sure. Overall a good buy.

Rating : 3.75/5