Review: Dell Latitude Z Features Beauty, Craves Business Users, costs $2k

After Adamo, this is second trendy Notebook series from Dell, designed for business users. It is as slim as the Adamo (0.57-inch) but weighs (4.5 pounds), a bit more.

Z series is supposed to attract Pro Business users which like to have it as a status symbol. It’s beautiful, among the most beautiful Dell has ever designed.

Dell Latitude Z features a large 16-inch 1600 x 900  HD display that runs on Core 2 Duo. It has some distinct features from what other business laptops have seen.

It features a  multi-touch trackpad that supports iPhone-, MacBook Pro-type gestures: Pinch and zoom. Other attraction points are: new kind of touchscreen, wireless charging, SSD support (upto 250GB) and promising security features.

TouchScreen: This is a new kind, a new concept. Instead of having a  touchscreen display, the Latitude Z has touch functionality built along the frame of the notebook display.  Sliding your fingers vertically along the frame pops up a tool bar that lets you choose common applications like email, photos, and camera.

Wireless Inductive Charging:

The most anticipated feature is its optional ($200) inductive wireless recharging stand, which charges the laptop without a wired connection.

There are a few inductive charging stands out there, most of them third-party devices for phones, media players, and other small gadgets. But the Dell Latitude Z is the first mainstream notebook to come with the ability built in.

The  idea behind the stand is that you can drop the notebook on the stand, pull out a keyboard and work with the notebook while it charges. According to Dell, it should take 2 to 3 hours to fully charge a depleted machine, depending on the battery.

he lack of a power cord leading from the notebook to the stand might look good in a corporate office, but won’t make much difference in the long run. And of course, the Dell Latitude Z also comes with a more traditional power cord.

Business Features:

Z comes with lots of promising features that will force business users to crave for it.

More than a Camera: A 2 megapixel camera goes beyond the traditional webcam function. It can create contacts when you hold your business card in front of the camera and can then save in Microsoft Outlook contacts.  It can do some basic scanning too, hold a sheet of paper in front of the camera and  you can save it as a PDF.

The camera is also powered by software to do effective face-recognition. When turned ON,  it can detect when you step away from the computer and it will automatically lock the machine.

Other security features include a fingerprint reader and contact less smart card reader. It enables you to lock the notebook just by waving your office badge over it. Sounds cool.

Another interesting business addition to the laptop is new hardware that supports a ‘Latitude On’ mode. The mode promises instant start-up and offers ALWAYS ON connection to email, internet, contacts and calendar through a separate instant OS, which is Dell proprietary. Of course, you don’t have access to other apps. This scaled-down OS offers a benefit of extended battery life of up to 12 hours, says Dell.

Steve Belt, VP of business client engineering at Dell, said:

“We wanted to create something that would be the best of both worlds,” says Belt. “The Latitude On mode is fast and gives users gobs of battery life.”

For security reasons it doesn’t share data with the main OS, but it can hook up to Exchange and handle basic browsing tasks. In addition to its quick-booting properties, the light OS is driven by low-power ARM chipset.

Verdict:

Z series looks promising for Pro Business users by offering them unique security, Instant Email on the go features. It’s really a pretty tight design from Dell, and oozes quality.

What’s bit odd is the EdgeTouch sensor, specially for executives, who really don’t use such fancy stuff, right? The keyboard is one of the best laptop keyboards one would find, a smooth experience. The other thing that will keep some users is the hefty price tag of $2000. And if they opt for complete wireless charging package, it costs $200 additional.  I guess the crave will reside with status-aware Business professionals.