Dell Latitude E6330: Perfectly Professional

26.08.2012

The Latitude E6330 has a good port selection. On the left side of the machine, there's a VGA-out port and a combination microphone-headphone jack. On the right side, there's one USB 3.0 port, an ExpressCard reader, an eSATA/USB 2.0 combo port, and a Wi-Fi switch. The SD card reader is located on the front, and the rest of the ports are on the back: a Kensington lock slot, a mini-HDMI-out port, an ethernet port, and another USB 3.0 port. The E6330 also has a docking connector located on the bottom.

The Latitude E6330 sports a 13.3-inch matte LED-backlit display with a native resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels. Business-oriented laptops aren't expected to have breathtaking displays, but the E6330's screen is a little disappointing, even so. It's not very bright, even at its brightest setting, though the antiglare coating does help a tiny bit in brighter settings. The antiglare coating seems to do more harm than good, though, since fluctuations in display quality are noticeable when you move even slightly to the side. Color looks accurate but a little washed out, and HD video plays with lots of artifacting and stilted movement.

While video playback leaves much to be desired, audio on the E6330 sounds better than average. The speakers are located on the front of the laptop and produce loud, full sound. Voices sound a little hollow at the highest volume level, but audio quality in general is much better than that produced by the tinny-sounding speakers we're used to.