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At first glance, you might mistake the Dell Latitude E4300 with compact Dell Keyboard for an earlier-vintage laptop: Its sharp lines and subtle finish stick out in today's world of glossy gadgets with rounded corners. That's not to say the E4300 isn't a handsome portable, however--it did grow on me. Even better, the matte finish isn't a magnet for fingerprints, dust, and smudges like every iPhone-inspired design on the market. If you don't care about hip style trends that come and go, the vaguely retro E4300 is a pretty sweet all-purpose laptopthat can serve you well for general office computing. Underneath the magnesium-alloy chassis, you'll find a lot of nuances that make the E4300 a well-thought-out piece of equipment. For one thing, the Dell Keyboard is a dream to type on. The keys have a pretty long travel, but it's coupled with just the right amount of click at the end. You'll also appreciate the smart key layout. Half-size F1-F12 keys open up room for generous Enter, Shift, Alt, and Ctrl keys. The arrow keys are also arranged in their logical order right next to PgUp and PgDn for easy navigation through documents, spreadsheets, forms, and Web pages. In addition, the key backlighting is just right, not too dim or too bright. The Dell Latitude E4300 Keyboard isn't the only thing to like here, as the E4300 sports an excellent trackpad with five buttons, scroll margins, and detailed customization software. And if you want an alternative way to move the mouse pointer, Dell has you covered: The low-profile "track stick" centered in the keyboard is easily manipulated by an index finger. It has good feel and response, but no clicking capability. A few other buttons on the E4300 are worth noting. One, the slick "Latitude On" button, triggers Dell's branded version of the DeviceVM Splashtop technology, which lets you quickly check e-mail, contact, and calendar info without fully booting up the computer; it's an extremely handy feature for the business traveler. On the downside, the keys for volume control and muting are small, awkwardly placed, and very stiff. The problematic audio controls aren't a dealbreaker if you're uninterested in multimedia, especially since the E4300 has surprisingly thin sound. In our tests the E4300 produced a lot of clipping on low bass, which is typical for small laptop speakers, but that shortcoming combined with distortion in the mids and highs makes the E3400 barely passable for even basic presentation audio. Listening to CDs and movie soundtracks through the built-in speakers was more pain than pleasure. You want expansion? You got it. A good selection of ports for peripherals and expansion slots rounds out the E4300. You'll find all the usual suspects, including one USB port, ethernet, VGA-out, headphone and microphone ports, and a combo e-SATA/USB connection and other Compatible Parts . A FireWire mini-port is also included for convenience, but it's probably the only port that you won't use often. On the plus side, the E4300 also has slots for SD Card, ExpressCard, and smart cards. For more laptop reviews
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