Dell Latitude CPI D300XT

Dell Latitude CPI D300XT

Another price drop, this time to a reasonable $3148, seals this corporate-targeted notebook's place at the top of our power chart for another month. A pleasure to use, the Latitude CPi D300XT earned a PC WorldBench score of 159, placing it among the fastest notebooks we've ever tested.

As with its predecessor, the nearly identical Latitude CPi D266XT, the D300XT's pleasing charcoal-gray case measures 1.75 inches thick (a little thinner than the current notebook standard of 2 inches) and includes one modular bay on the side. Weighing in at 7.4 pounds and offering slightly more than 3 hours of battery life, the D300XT is more than adequate for work away from the office. You can increase its travel life by buying the optional $169 second battery and using two batteries at once.

The Latitude CPi D300XT comes with a responsive, accurate touchpad and an excellent keyboard. Its adequate-size keys offer crisp action and occupy the expected positions, so adapting from a desktop keyboard to the D300XT's is a breeze. And you shouldn't have to worry about upgrading the unit's hard drive any time soon: At 6.4GB, it's one of the largest notebook hard drives currently available.

The CPi D300XT's brilliant screen produces a sharp image from edge to edge. We do have one gripe with the casing around the display, though: It's wider at the top of the screen, so when the lid is closed, it protrudes slightly over the edge of the notebook's case. As a result, if the portable should ever fall onto its side, the fragile screen would absorb much of the shock.

As with most notebooks, the D300XT's built-in stereo speakers yield tinny sound. But MIDI music sounds better thanks to a software wavetable synthesizer.

Though Dell generally earns high service and reliability marks from PC World readers, we've sometimes encountered long waits during our anonymous calls to its technical support line.

SUMMARY

PRO: Very fast; excellent keyboard CON: Modem not included