e6410 vs. T410: comparison review

[GKDesigns]

Originally Posted by linuxwanabe

That glowing blue LED indicator is annoyingly bright and entirely out of place on a business notebook. It's a distraction to any adult, although it might briefly entertain a small child.

There's also nothing mandatory about the backlit keyboard. Dell might try to push the feature, but it really isn't of any great use to anyone who knows how to type. Actually, if a person knows how to type, they very rarely even look at a keyboard, but keep their eyes on the screen? Again, yet another distraction that would appeal to a kid but not to a business user?

GoodBytes?

Laptops get moved around a lot... I find it convenient to see that the power is ON wherever and to not have to type blindly in dark situations or turn on ambient lighting when my eyes are not up to it.

Dell offers (not pushes) lit and non-lit keyboards. If you can't decide, get the lit keyboard; you can always turn the light OFF.

And there's always tape for the blue LED power plug.

Or buy a different product. I fortunately do not suffer from your problems.

GK

[linuxwanabe]

Originally Posted by bradsh

Touchpad: T410 hands down. The ALPS garbage they have stuck in the e6410 is just disappointing. It is glitchy and buggy like all ALPS pads I have ever used. It doesn't always pick up scrolling gestures which can be very frustrating, and the "both buttons for middle click" function has issues on the e6410. Some features on the e6410 are not available on the T410 without using an HP driver, but when unlocked, the touchpad on the T410 has more features and is less glitchy..

To be blunt, this is just not true, at least with the latest driver updates. The ALPS touchpad on the E6410 is just as good as any Synaptics touchpad I've ever owned. There is really nothing wrong with it.

Originally Posted by bradsh

Heat for lap use: T410. The e6410 gets hot across the whole bottom due to the single aluminum access cover, while the T410 only gets hot in a few spots. The T410 stays cooler at idle and under heavy load on the bottom; this is because the e6410 has the CPU oriented in a downward direction aimed at the bottom of the machine.
Consequently, the e6410 is cooler than the T410 on the top of the machine..

I'd argue that you'd actually want the heat to be dispersed. After all, that is precisely why every computer has a heat sink. In the case of the E6410, the entire computer case acts as a heat sink. On a practical level, this is really what separates the all-metal cased E6410 from the all-plastic cased T410. If you're experiencing localized hot spots, that is a sign that the cheapo plastic case is acting to trap the heat rather than conduct it.

Of course, the great irony of the E6410, or at least the one that I had, is that the case actually gets cooler under stress than during light processing or when idle. It seems as if BIOS is setup to keep the fan off as much as possible.

[linuxwanabe]

Originally Posted by GKDesigns

GoodBytes?

Laptops get moved around a lot... I find it convenient to see that the power is ON wherever and to not have to type blindly in dark situations or turn on ambient lighting when my eyes are not up to it.

You can tell when any laptop is plugged in by looking as the system tray icon in the lower right hand corner of the screen.

There really is no need for an indicator light on the power adapter itself.

Originally Posted by GKDesigns

Dell offers (not pushes) lit and non-lit keyboards. If you can't decide, get the lit keyboard; you can always turn the light OFF.

Oh yes, they do push it, at least they do on the phone. I actually had to insist you can get the E6410 without the backlit keyboard.

Originally Posted by GKDesigns

And there's always tape for the blue LED power plug.

Or better yet, Dell could omit this thoroughly cheap and cheesy feature.

Putting aside the silly blue ring of light, Dell seems to produce well thought out, quality power adapters.

Originally Posted by GKDesigns

Or buy a different product. I fortunately do not suffer from your problems.

GK

For your information, I didn't "buy a different product," and while there were multiple problems with my particular E6410, none of them had anything to do with comments raised in this thread.

[theZoid]

I just won't have a laptop again without keyboard backlighting...love it. I do type properly btw, for 34 years. I like the blue ring of light also, but that I know many don't

[Robin24k]

I've found the blue light to be quite useful, although I would've preferred it in green as blue LED color is not good. I've spotted AC adapters that I had forgotten to unplug many times, and it's also an indication that the power supply is working.

With regards to keyboards, my original E6400 keyboard was a bit too loud, but a replacement keyboard Dell recently sent, as well as the keyboard in a customer E6410, were among the best I've used. ThinkPad keyboards are over-rated, they are too loud and flex too much (and the latest revisions only made it worse). Dell has two general types of keyboards, presumably from different OEM's: normal and flatter ones. I've gotten both types sent out for the D610, D620, D630, or E6400. The flatter ones tend to be quieter and have much better feel, but these seem to be less common. All of my systems came with the normal ones, but a couple of the replacements had flatter keys. The flatter ones also tend to be more resistant to becoming shiny, but they are hard to pin-point as the two types share the same part number.

[Weegie]

A great comparison, thanks for posting

[HerrKaputt]

FWIW I really like the blue ring of light on Dell PSUs. It's great to tell me that I forgot to unplug it when done, or to remind me to plug it in when I need it (with previous systems I sometimes went hours without noticing I was running on battery).

I guess some people like it, some don't. The tape solution seems fine to me.

[afhstingray]

the blue lights are not overly bright, they're somewhat muted unlike the horribly bright lights on other brands (acer for one) that could be used as a beacon to land planes lol. they dont distract me at all when playing movies vs other laptops i've used.

[Dillio187]

I'm another user who has no issues with the blue LED's and I also love a backlit keyboard. In fact, I'm typing this sitting on my couch in the dark and being able to see the keyboard is quite nice even though I can type just fine as well.

[bradsh]

Originally Posted by linuxwanabe

To be blunt, this is just not true, at least with the latest driver updates. The ALPS touchpad on the E6410 is just as good as any Synaptics touchpad I've ever owned. There is really nothing wrong with it.



I'd argue that you'd actually want the heat to be dispersed. After all, that is precisely why every computer has a heat sink. In the case of the E6410, the entire computer case acts as a heat sink. On a practical level, this is really what separates the all-metal cased E6410 from the all-plastic cased T410. If you're experiencing localized hot spots, that is a sign that the cheapo plastic case is acting to trap the heat rather than conduct it.

Of course, the great irony of the E6410, or at least the one that I had, is that the case actually gets cooler under stress than during light processing or when idle. It seems as if BIOS is setup to keep the fan off as much as possible.

1. The PSU indicator is very useful. Perhaps you do not travel often or do not move your laptop often, but I have come across many, many switched outlets or broken outlets that do not work. I very often also charge my laptop without turning it on at all. Lenovo has chosen to omit a number of indicator lights on the T410 external indicator cluster, and as a result, I'm still confused about when it's charging and when it's not. They use the same light to indicate "power on" and "charging", and because of the delay when the machine sleeps, it is sometimes ambiguous. This combined with the lack of PSU light = ANNOYANCE. It is also worth noting that lenovo's power supplies are noisy and mine squeals when under load, but my dell does not. I will admit that the blue LED ring is annoyingly bright, and I would greatly prefer a muted green indicator.

2. My main problems with the ALPS pad are twofold: one, it very often stops responding and will only move slightly, as though it has detected (falsely) multiple other fingers on the pad, and refuses to move the pointer correctly. This usually resolves itself after awhile (1-2 minutes). The second problem is that it ROUTINELY misses scrolling gestures, either with the single finger or the two finger scroll. It especially missed them if you start a single finger scroll at the uppermost corner of the touchpad. This problem results in the mouse moving somewhere I don't want, and when I retry the scrolling gesture the mouse is in the wrong place so it doesn't scroll. It was frustrating enough to make me want to throw it across the room on occasion. The synaptics pad on the T410 never ever misses gestures and never is unresponsive. I have had these problems on every ALPS pad I have ever used. I really hoped the e6410 wouldn't do it, but it definitely does. I have a very old ALPS pad on another dell (2007 vostro 1400, a solid machine) and it does not have the scrolling issue. But if I update the drivers, it DOES have the scrolling issue. So this is clearly a driver issue. I would rather forego the circular scrolling added in the new drivers and have it not miss gestures by using the old driver, and this is what I do on my Vostro. Old drivers. But old drivers don't work on the e6410, so I am unable to fix the problem.

3. I don't know how you missed this, because I PUT IT IN BOLD. I'm talking about heat for lap use. Many business users are going to be using these notebooks on their laps during travel or when otherwise lacking a desk. I don't CARE about CPU heat. The TJmax of these CPUs is like 105C. They aren't going to melt or be damaged even with the fan completely off. Therefore, it is preferable on a business machine to keep heat AWAY from the user as best as possible. If this means sequestering the heat in the CPU itself, so be it as long as it doesn't affect performance. There is no point in keeping the CPU cool if you are bringing the entire metal bottom of the device to 36C (96F, 104F in some spots!), which is exactly how hot the bottom of my e6410 is at idle (I measured with an IR thermometer).