Really biased comment, especially considering the word Intel appears before Amd and Intel processor is mentioned before Amd gpu. Consiracy theory is a lie. :)
That was not my intent, honestly. Subconsciously whenever I say Haswell I assume readers know that it's an Intel product, but FirePro is not as well known hence I put the AMD in there. I have adjusted accordingly.
That's a very fair point, I completely agree that FirePro is by no means a widely recognised product. I didn't mean to sound rude, it's just something that I picked up upon instantly whilst reading the article.
I don't think there are any Xeons that are explicit mobile, but it's not like there's much difference between the mobile CPUs and the desktop and the Xeons. Many Xeons have the TDP to fit in a notebook so that's not the problem.
As far as the mobile quad-core i7s essentially being downclocked desktop products, and Xeon E3s essentially being i7s (and occasionally i5s) with ECC you are correct. But it would never have even crossed my mind that they would use a Xeon branded chip in this product since even their highest end M6800 mobile workstations don't have them, and I don't think HP or Lenovo use Xeon branded chips in any of their mobile offerings either.
This Laptop is very appealing. I almost had my eyes fixed on the Thinkpad T540p, but I might wait for this puppy to pop just for the keyboard and the touchpad. I'm hearing/reading LOTS of negative feedback from Lenovo's users. A laptop like this should last me a GOOD 3-4 years.
at the company we recently bought more than 20 of the latitude e6440's. If you'd look them up, you could see they look very much like this machine. I can tell you the build quality of these is so crappy that I would expect them to last a maximum of 6 months if you would really use the 'mobile' part of the workstation. The plastics they used on this machine are so cheap and vulnerable, the machine flexes like a leaf, the keyboard has *ZERO* feedback. When I saw the machines at first I thought they were budget laptops of about MAXIMUM 750 euro, unfortunately the real price was 1300 euro... Unfortunately we have a contract with Dell which prohibits buying us anything else but dell but if I could...
If your contract requires that you buy Dell, you should have bought Latitude 7440s instead. Assuming that the 6440s are somehow worse than the nearly-identical 6430s and 6420s before them (which were perfectly decent machines with none of the problems you mention), the 7440 is a fantastic alternative, and is, in my opinion, the best enterprise-grade ultrabook on the market, not that there's much competition at all in that category.
Enterprise ultrabook, thats a new one to me. Ultrabooks seem to be about convenience above all else, whereas enterprise products are supposed to be about stability and security above all else; not necessarily contradictory, but I'd expect it to demand a premium of around 1500.
Very interesting. It seems for the past year or so, I've spent an inordinate amount of time arguing with tech reporters that the PC/Laptop is NOT dead, the keyboard and mouse/touch pad are NOT legacy, the smart phone will NEVER replace actual computing devices and the tablet will be relegated to a niche accessory. For so many people, the touch screen is a non-starter. I'm glad to see Apple, Dell, HP and Toshiba still support the higher end market (businesses, corporations, professionals, power users and gamers). I would also suggest that most will wait for Win 9 and not embrace any gyration of Win 8. With TB hard drives and memory sticks up to 1 TB, the cloud will be unnecessary to most users. Today's laptops are extremely powerful and provide true mobility (not necessary to be connected 24/7), they are easily packed up, carried and setup. Most have all their business/professional software locally, incl MS Office, but not restricted to such, and don't need the cloud nor the internet to function. I for one, have acquired a massive iTunes library over the years with my music library and mostly my favorite TV shows (commercial free). I have also built an extensive DVD library that with today's universal CD/DVD RW + Blue-Ray, provides me with weeks of entertainment if I desire. Running a HDMI cable + audio cable to the back of a large flat screen LED, provides a near movie theater experience. With a 15-3/4" HD screen (non-touch) powered by a Radeon or NVIDIA graphics card, I can choose to view via the laptop alone. I am not going to regress to these smaller/tinier screens and put on a set of ear buds. In Engineering, Architecture, Science and Finance, high end PC's and workstations will remain for a long time to come.
I don't think anyone seriously means laptops will stop being made or sold when they say "dead". However, there is little to suggest that ultimately that people need more than thin clients for most use cases. We are still a ways away from making that worthwhile but I have used a virtualized windows desktop with an iPad and found it more than acceptable as an experience for many uses.
There will always be niche cases where laptops or desktops will be the dominant paradigm. The laptop INDUSTRY is going the way of the desktop as it becomes increasingly commoditized and marginally unprofitable. Phones and Tablets are becoming the dominant computing device for most of the world because most people don't need much more. Tablets are becoming many peoples first computing device and it is slowly becoming the primary way to consume video media in the developing world. Television is increasingly being distributed through SD cards in much of Asia especially in places with poor infrastructure for broadcasting or uneven electricity.
Truthfully I moved a year ago and still never set up my desktop again. My laptop has become necessary only for Office or simple data analysis and charting.
So laptops are dead as the primary computing paradigm from this point forward. Someday I imagine that if I really needed more compute power I could more cheaply rent some cycles from Amazon.
This also dovetails nicely with the inexplicable reactions that some have to a perceived undervaluation of Apple. Most projections I've seen suggest that there will be somewhere around 850 million iOS devices in use when apple stops growing. They have made it clear that they don't intend to make any product that appeals to anyone beyond the top 15%-20% of the market. That is where the profit is and they seem content to capture the wealthiest customers and retain their image as a luxury brand. While growth is slowing there is no suggestion that it will pick up again given that Japan and China were the last location with a viable customer base that could afford their products. There is no signalling from Apple that they expect to provide products beyond that market. This is why Apple seems undervalued compared to Amazon. However, nobody has any idea how much more Amazon can grow. The limits of expansion are incalculable and until something happens that suggest there is no more places for Amazon to grow into then people will continue to assume they will keep growing.
The finish line for Apple is in view, unless they come up with another truly revolutionary product there just isn't anything to suggest that Apple will be anything more than the just a wildly profitable business without strong growth beyond a certain horizon.
They only need to release updated revisions of their existing stuff to repeat customers to continue making a decent profit. Eternal growth is unsustainable, so why are companies considered dead when they've matured?
Glad to see this show up. I was considering a Lenovo W540 to replace my very old Dell D830 at work, but with the mediocre reviews it's getting perhaps this would be a decent alternative.
My only immediate comment for both machines is that I hardly use the numpad, why should I have to cram my hands off to the side for typing? The keyboard's fairly easily removed on most laptops. Can I have a no-numpad variant?
Is it just me or does this look suspiciously like the Latitude 6000 series which our company keeps being told is being phased out and to move off. (We don't like the 5000s, low voltage processors).
They're actually changing nothing but what ROM is flashed onto the GPU and calling it a day. No wonder they were trying to get us off the E6540s, rebrand the line, make the base spec higher and charge more. Sneaky.
This looks very much like a Latitude E6540 with a firmware version on the ATi GPU to make it a FirePro rather than a Radeon. Possibly lower clock speeds on the GPU to ensure stability under sustained load, as they did when they turned the XPS15 into the Precision M3800.
So I take it "entry level" is the code word for re-branding a latitude into a precision with ZERO physical changes aside from the name screen printed on the plastic.
That's not entirely abnormal. I have a precision m4500, which is basically a latitude e6510, with better heat sinks, better processor options, and a quadro card... Oh and an msata slot. If my m4500 dies before I am out of school, then this should fit my price range nicely.
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xinthius - Saturday, March 8, 2014 - link
I rather enjoy how Intel is not mentioned, only the product names. Got to love AMD sponsorship, what ever keeps the site running I guess.SilAntoine - Saturday, March 8, 2014 - link
Really biased comment, especially considering the word Intel appears before Amd and Intel processor is mentioned before Amd gpu. Consiracy theory is a lie. :)Ian Cutress - Saturday, March 8, 2014 - link
That was not my intent, honestly. Subconsciously whenever I say Haswell I assume readers know that it's an Intel product, but FirePro is not as well known hence I put the AMD in there. I have adjusted accordingly.lmcd - Saturday, March 8, 2014 - link
I personally wouldn't have bent to that unneeded comment, but nice overall to see you guys listen to feedback :-)xinthius - Saturday, March 8, 2014 - link
That's a very fair point, I completely agree that FirePro is by no means a widely recognised product. I didn't mean to sound rude, it's just something that I picked up upon instantly whilst reading the article.Gastec - Sunday, April 13, 2014 - link
Good thing I'm not the admin so trolls can enjoy roaming the Web freely.ZeDestructor - Saturday, March 8, 2014 - link
@Ian: No mobile CPU has been badged as a Xeon to my memory (Talking P3 and newer), and no current mobile CPU is a Xeon.dylan522p - Sunday, March 9, 2014 - link
I don't think there are any Xeons that are explicit mobile, but it's not like there's much difference between the mobile CPUs and the desktop and the Xeons. Many Xeons have the TDP to fit in a notebook so that's not the problem.MichaelF - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link
As far as the mobile quad-core i7s essentially being downclocked desktop products, and Xeon E3s essentially being i7s (and occasionally i5s) with ECC you are correct. But it would never have even crossed my mind that they would use a Xeon branded chip in this product since even their highest end M6800 mobile workstations don't have them, and I don't think HP or Lenovo use Xeon branded chips in any of their mobile offerings either.lilmoe - Saturday, March 8, 2014 - link
This Laptop is very appealing. I almost had my eyes fixed on the Thinkpad T540p, but I might wait for this puppy to pop just for the keyboard and the touchpad. I'm hearing/reading LOTS of negative feedback from Lenovo's users.A laptop like this should last me a GOOD 3-4 years.
ElAngelo - Sunday, March 9, 2014 - link
at the company we recently bought more than 20 of the latitude e6440's. If you'd look them up, you could see they look very much like this machine.I can tell you the build quality of these is so crappy that I would expect them to last a maximum of 6 months if you would really use the 'mobile' part of the workstation. The plastics they used on this machine are so cheap and vulnerable, the machine flexes like a leaf, the keyboard has *ZERO* feedback. When I saw the machines at first I thought they were budget laptops of about MAXIMUM 750 euro, unfortunately the real price was 1300 euro...
Unfortunately we have a contract with Dell which prohibits buying us anything else but dell but if I could...
Black Obsidian - Monday, March 10, 2014 - link
If your contract requires that you buy Dell, you should have bought Latitude 7440s instead. Assuming that the 6440s are somehow worse than the nearly-identical 6430s and 6420s before them (which were perfectly decent machines with none of the problems you mention), the 7440 is a fantastic alternative, and is, in my opinion, the best enterprise-grade ultrabook on the market, not that there's much competition at all in that category.MichaelF - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link
Enterprise ultrabook, thats a new one to me. Ultrabooks seem to be about convenience above all else, whereas enterprise products are supposed to be about stability and security above all else; not necessarily contradictory, but I'd expect it to demand a premium of around 1500.BubblesGump - Saturday, March 8, 2014 - link
Very interesting. It seems for the past year or so, I've spent an inordinate amount of time arguing with tech reporters that the PC/Laptop is NOT dead, the keyboard and mouse/touch pad are NOT legacy, the smart phone will NEVER replace actual computing devices and the tablet will be relegated to a niche accessory. For so many people, the touch screen is a non-starter. I'm glad to see Apple, Dell, HP and Toshiba still support the higher end market (businesses, corporations, professionals, power users and gamers). I would also suggest that most will wait for Win 9 and not embrace any gyration of Win 8. With TB hard drives and memory sticks up to 1 TB, the cloud will be unnecessary to most users. Today's laptops are extremely powerful and provide true mobility (not necessary to be connected 24/7), they are easily packed up, carried and setup. Most have all their business/professional software locally, incl MS Office, but not restricted to such, and don't need the cloud nor the internet to function. I for one, have acquired a massive iTunes library over the years with my music library and mostly my favorite TV shows (commercial free). I have also built an extensive DVD library that with today's universal CD/DVD RW + Blue-Ray, provides me with weeks of entertainment if I desire. Running a HDMI cable + audio cable to the back of a large flat screen LED, provides a near movie theater experience. With a 15-3/4" HD screen (non-touch) powered by a Radeon or NVIDIA graphics card, I can choose to view via the laptop alone. I am not going to regress to these smaller/tinier screens and put on a set of ear buds. In Engineering, Architecture, Science and Finance, high end PC's and workstations will remain for a long time to come.errorr - Saturday, March 8, 2014 - link
I don't think anyone seriously means laptops will stop being made or sold when they say "dead". However, there is little to suggest that ultimately that people need more than thin clients for most use cases. We are still a ways away from making that worthwhile but I have used a virtualized windows desktop with an iPad and found it more than acceptable as an experience for many uses.There will always be niche cases where laptops or desktops will be the dominant paradigm. The laptop INDUSTRY is going the way of the desktop as it becomes increasingly commoditized and marginally unprofitable. Phones and Tablets are becoming the dominant computing device for most of the world because most people don't need much more. Tablets are becoming many peoples first computing device and it is slowly becoming the primary way to consume video media in the developing world. Television is increasingly being distributed through SD cards in much of Asia especially in places with poor infrastructure for broadcasting or uneven electricity.
Truthfully I moved a year ago and still never set up my desktop again. My laptop has become necessary only for Office or simple data analysis and charting.
So laptops are dead as the primary computing paradigm from this point forward. Someday I imagine that if I really needed more compute power I could more cheaply rent some cycles from Amazon.
errorr - Saturday, March 8, 2014 - link
This also dovetails nicely with the inexplicable reactions that some have to a perceived undervaluation of Apple. Most projections I've seen suggest that there will be somewhere around 850 million iOS devices in use when apple stops growing. They have made it clear that they don't intend to make any product that appeals to anyone beyond the top 15%-20% of the market. That is where the profit is and they seem content to capture the wealthiest customers and retain their image as a luxury brand. While growth is slowing there is no suggestion that it will pick up again given that Japan and China were the last location with a viable customer base that could afford their products. There is no signalling from Apple that they expect to provide products beyond that market. This is why Apple seems undervalued compared to Amazon. However, nobody has any idea how much more Amazon can grow. The limits of expansion are incalculable and until something happens that suggest there is no more places for Amazon to grow into then people will continue to assume they will keep growing.The finish line for Apple is in view, unless they come up with another truly revolutionary product there just isn't anything to suggest that Apple will be anything more than the just a wildly profitable business without strong growth beyond a certain horizon.
Gigaplex - Saturday, March 8, 2014 - link
They only need to release updated revisions of their existing stuff to repeat customers to continue making a decent profit. Eternal growth is unsustainable, so why are companies considered dead when they've matured?Kutark - Tuesday, March 11, 2014 - link
I think you meant to say "until they steal the idea for another truly innovative product..."flyingpants1 - Monday, March 10, 2014 - link
Yeah. AKA a tiny minority.evilspoons - Saturday, March 8, 2014 - link
Glad to see this show up. I was considering a Lenovo W540 to replace my very old Dell D830 at work, but with the mediocre reviews it's getting perhaps this would be a decent alternative.My only immediate comment for both machines is that I hardly use the numpad, why should I have to cram my hands off to the side for typing? The keyboard's fairly easily removed on most laptops. Can I have a no-numpad variant?
suntoucher - Saturday, March 8, 2014 - link
Is it just me or does this look suspiciously like the Latitude 6000 series which our company keeps being told is being phased out and to move off. (We don't like the 5000s, low voltage processors).suntoucher - Saturday, March 8, 2014 - link
Do these three images look familiar (open them and scroll up)?http://i.dell.com/images/global/products/latit/lat...
http://www.notebookcheck.com/fileadmin/Notebooks/N...
http://www.notebookcheck.com/fileadmin/Notebooks/N...
suntoucher - Saturday, March 8, 2014 - link
Also the 8790M (the E6540's discrete option) vs the FirePro M4100http://www.amd.com/us/products/notebook/graphics/o...
http://www.amd.com/us/products/workstation/graphic...
They're the same GPU, looks like they're not actually changing anything aside from what GPU ROM is used.
suntoucher - Saturday, March 8, 2014 - link
They're even using the same GPUsE6540's 8790M
http://www.amd.com/us/products/notebook/graphics/o...
M2800's M4100
http://www.amd.com/us/products/workstation/graphic...
They're actually changing nothing but what ROM is flashed onto the GPU and calling it a day. No wonder they were trying to get us off the E6540s, rebrand the line, make the base spec higher and charge more. Sneaky.
ArthurG - Saturday, March 8, 2014 - link
what a brick ! are we in 2014 or 2010 ?and red team GPUs are the wrong tools in this market...
anonymous_user - Sunday, March 9, 2014 - link
If you want something more portable, maybe consider the Precision M3800?davidedney123 - Sunday, March 9, 2014 - link
This looks very much like a Latitude E6540 with a firmware version on the ATi GPU to make it a FirePro rather than a Radeon. Possibly lower clock speeds on the GPU to ensure stability under sustained load, as they did when they turned the XPS15 into the Precision M3800.baii9 - Sunday, March 9, 2014 - link
Real question is "Does it dock?"suntoucher - Sunday, March 9, 2014 - link
Yep, it has an E-Port.Gunbuster - Monday, March 10, 2014 - link
So I take it "entry level" is the code word for re-branding a latitude into a precision with ZERO physical changes aside from the name screen printed on the plastic.bluefalcon13 - Tuesday, March 11, 2014 - link
That's not entirely abnormal. I have a precision m4500, which is basically a latitude e6510, with better heat sinks, better processor options, and a quadro card... Oh and an msata slot. If my m4500 dies before I am out of school, then this should fit my price range nicely.