Nicholas Rayner

Well I have been trying to get this started since I received my new Dell back on  the 30th January but family emergencies and work commitments have taken up most of my free time. But finally I am getting the time to step through a review of the Dell Latitude XT. I'll do this review in a few parts and cover from the delivery to installing Vista SP1!

Delivery

My Dell arrived only a week after the order was confirmed, this is fantastic on Dell's part as I have never gotten anything from overseas that was custom built this fast. The XT arrives in a large box, similar to that of a Desktop & LCD Monitor combined! This was due to extra accessories that I ordered and extra protection that Dell puts around their Laptops when transporting.

First look

	View of XT with lid closed
	View of the XT lid
	View of left side. Ports (Left to right): Pen, Firewire, USB, Air Vent, Air Vent
	View of the back. Ports left to right: Power, VGA out, Ethernet, Power USB (for external CD/DVD Drives), Swivel
	View of right side. Ports left to right: Wireless on/off switch, wifi button (launches Dell Wifi Catcher Software), USB, SD & PCI Express Card Slot, Heaphone, Microphone, Kensington Lock.
	View from front Ports left to right (under screen): Power button, Windows Security Key (Alt+Ctrl+Del), Rotate Screen, Settings (opens Dell QuickSet applications), Email.

Specifications

The specs on my machine are:

Accessories

External DVD +/- R/RW 

The External DVD Drive connects via a powered USB port on the back of the XT.

Leather Slip Case

The leather slip case fits the XT perfectly and even caters for the extra slice battery (which was a huge plus for me!)

Slice Battery

The Slice Battery is a great innovation, much better than having a double-capacity battery protruding from the back or the front of the laptop. Toshiba came out with a slice battery for their M400 series, but there we many complaints about the thickness and reliability. Dell has improved on Toshiba's original slice battery and has done a great job with this. The slice battery does add a little extra thickness & weight but also gives the user a little more to grip when the XT is in slate mode.

Stay tuned over the coming days when I will delve into the initial setup and included software, as well as typing, inking and touching!