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Dell Latitude E6420 ATG: Fast, Tough, Pricey

15.06.2011
What does $3000 get you in a business laptop these days? With the Dell Latitude E6420 ATG, it buys top-flight computing speed and nearly half a day's battery life packed into a feature-rich chassis with a fortified case that might stop some bullets.

But the $3136 (as of June 15, 2011) price tag of our test configuration isn't the only drawback. At 6.5 pounds, the E6420 ATG is nearly a pound heavier than its less pricey (but still beefy) 14-inch sibling, the .

The Latitude E6420 ATG certainly delivers superior computing power: Configured with Intel's high-end quad-core -2620M running at 2.7GHz, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, Intel HD graphics, a 128GB , and the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Professional, it racked up a WorldBench 6 score of 136, breezing past the E5420 and all entrants on our current (as of June 5) chart.

It isn't a gaming notebook, though. Lacking discrete graphics, the E6420 ATG posted scores on our gaming tests that were on a par with those of other Intel HD graphics-based portables (including the E5420, which uses the same graphics chipset). At least with the E6420 ATG you can pay extra to add an Nvidia graphics card, an option you don't get with the E5420.

On battery life, however, the E6420 ATG rose straight to the top of the class. I thought the E5420's 9.5 hours of battery life was impressive until I saw the E6420 ATG's result: It ran for 11 hours, 18 minutes. I might not want to lug this hefty powerhouse through an airport, but I could easily see it as my dream date on the passenger seat of a car during a long business road trip.

The E6420 ATG's road-readiness is immediately apparent when you pick it up. Aside from the weight, you can't help but notice its supersturdy construction, including a gray anodized-aluminum plate (with the Dell logo) set into the darker gray magnesium-alloy edges of the case. Other features designed to minimize wear and tear include flip-down port covers cut out of heavy, rubbery protective bumpers on both back corners. On the left edge you'll find a USB 2.0 port, a VGA-out, and a combo headphone/mic jack; around the corner on the back is an ethernet port. On the right edge are three USB 2.0 ports (including one that also supports eSATA), and around its corner on the back edge are HDMI and dial-up modem ports (our test unit did not come with the latter).