Full Review

Dell's slimmest and lightest ultraportable notebook, the Latitude E4200 sports a 12.1-inch non-glossy screen and weighs just a paltry 1.1-kg, and exudes all the air of a no-nonsense business ultraportable. It is encased in a magnesium alloy chassis, with a solid metal hinge that anchors the brushed metal lid to the hinge. Despite its dimunitive size, the whole unit is built like a tank. This is the slimmest and lightest ultraportable in our Top 5, and we like its non-glossy screen.

Despite the Latitude E4200's dimunitive size, the whole unit is built like a tank.

The Latitude E4200 also has some unique business features. It comes with a SIM card slot underneath the battery, Dell's ControlPoint software (similar to Lenovo's ThinkVantage technology found on the Thinkpad X301), and ON Reader - a rudimentary Linux-based instant-on feature that lets you access Microsoft Office and the Internet without booting into the main operating system; a pretty neat feature for basic computing on the go and this helps a lot to prolong battery life.

Similar to the Samsung X360, the Latitude E4200 has an ultra-low voltage processor: the Intel Core 2 Duo ULV SU9400 clocked at 1.4-GHz. It has 2GB of RAM, and 64GB SSD storage. An expansion slot is placed above a smartcard reader along the left edge of the chassis. Like the Samsung X360, the Dell E4200 comes with an onboard TPM chip for added security, but it doesn't have a fingerprint reader. Apart from the standard set of input-output ports, it has an eSATA, FireWire, and docking port for faster data transfer; however, disappointingly, it only comes with a single USB port--way too less for any laptop, let alone a high-end ultraportable one.

The Dell Latitude E4200's performance was pretty good, with a WorldBench score of 74 and the six-cell battery lasting for a respectable 283 minutes. The relatively tiny keyboard (when compared to the Thinkpad X301 and the Samsung X360) is tightly knit and easy to work with, and so is the touchpad. In case your laptop gets stolen, the Latitude E4200 has a remote security feature to safeguard your sensitive data. This feature is in the form of a BIOS module which can withstand hard drive re-formatting and OS-reinstallation. The stolen laptop reports its location whenever it connects online, and you can also remotely erase data off it. Overall, this is a very good ultraportable laptop.

Bottom Line

The Dell Latitude E4200 is the slimmest and lightest ultraportable notebook we compared, and we like its ON reader feature. It comes with a slew of business oriented security features at a very high premium.