Dell Latitude C810

WHAT'S HOT: Dell's Latitude C810 is a renovation of last summer's Latitude C800, providing the latest Intel processors, a higher maximum screen resolution of 1600 by 1200, and true SpeedStep capability.

Otherwise, this desktop replacement boasts the same hot features as the C800 did, including dual pointing devices and a dual-optical-drive design. A fixed optical drive (a combination DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive in our test machine) sits on the left, and a modular floppy drive bay is on the front. For this bay you can buy a second optical drive, a second hard drive (as large as 20GB), a second battery, or a 250MB Zip drive.

WHAT'S NOT: With a 2-inch-thick case and weighing 9.1 pounds (including AC adapter and phone cord), the C810 is chunky. Even with a hollow travel module filling the modular bay, the notebook weighs 7.4 pounds.

We continue to find the eraserhead's mouse buttons, a small set located above the touchpad, tough on the fingertips because of their concave design. A more annoying limitation is that the C810 is unavailable with both standard and wireless networking connections built in: If you want a combination modem/ethernet connection and a wireless radio, you'll have to add one or the other via a PC Card. (Ours came with built-in modem and ethernet.)

WHAT ELSE: Multimedia editors may find use for the extra audio line-in, the C810's high-speed FireWire (IEEE 1394) port, and the S-Video-out port, to which you can attach the included adapter cable to add a composite video-out port or surround speakers. Sans peripherals, the C810 is less impressive; it has only so-so stereo speakers and no dedicated audio controls.

The C810's memory and storage are a snap to access, and Dell has quieted the keyboard in this upgrade, so typing is more pleasant. However, the keyboard is rather staid, with only one shortcut button for launching applications and no page-scrolling button.

Helped by its SpeedStep 1.13-GHz Pentium III-M processor, the Latitude C810 turned in a PC WorldBench 4 score of 101, slightly above average for the notebooks we've seen with this configuration. Battery life was dead-on average, at 3 hours.

UPSHOT: Like its predecessor, the C810 is a large, black notebook with solid credentials as a graphics machine, especially now that Dell has bumped its screen resolution to the max.

SUMMARY

Dell Latitude C810 PC WorldBench 4 score of 101, 1.13-GHz/733-MHz Pentium III-M CPU, 256MB of SDRAM, 512KB L2 cache, Windows XP Professional, 15-inch active-matrix screen, NVidia GeForce2 Go graphics with 32MB of DDR SDRAM, 30GB hard drive, 8X DVD-ROM and 8X/8X/24X CD-RW combination drive, built-in V.90 modem and network adapter, touchpad and eraserhead pointing devices, 9.1 pounds (including AC adapter and phone cord). Three-year parts warranty, one-year labor warranty, free 24-hour unlimited toll-free technical support. $2625 800/388-8542 www.dell.com