Dell Latitude Z Enterprise Notebook Launched

The Dell Latitude Z600 is now available for the list price of $1,999, placing it in the "executive bling" class above the typical $1200 business notebook. Dell has designed an ultra-thin notebook with impressive features and a couple of industry firsts that justify the price. The industry firsts are the wireless charging option, similar to the inductive charging technology used in the Palm Pre's Touchstone charger. Dell claims a 70 percent efficiency for their inductive charging pad. The pad and optional adaptor module add about $400 to the list price.

Also a first is the wireless docking capability, leaving you free to work where you want in the office. The dock, running over UWB, will have USB functions plus will operate wireless video with DVI. The optional wireless dock price is not yet known. Preinstalled is the new Latitude-ON technology; this uses a second daughterboard processor with a Linux OS that lets you work on a network without booting up Windows, saving power. More hints as to the target market this machine is aimed at.

The Latitude Z's chassis is built from rugged magnesium alloy with a rich Black Cherry finish, with the clamshells interior trimmed with bushed aluminum. A 16 inch screen with 1600 x 900 resolution is bigger than the Apple MacBook Pro's 15 inch. Yet it measures only 0.55 inches in thickness and weighs a mere 4.5 pounds. This doesnt mean its flimsy, though, thanks to the stiff metal case.

The Latitude Z also features include a 2 MP webcam with autofocus, facial recognition scanning, a utility to scan business cards into Outlook using the camera, and document scanning to convert a paper document into PDF by holding it in front of the camera. Of course, there is the obligatory Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Core-2 Intel Duo processors, up to 4 MG RAM and two Solid State Drives (SSD) totalling 514 GB of fast storage. Impressive, but will it be able to compete with the new netbooks, smartphones and tablet devices for day to day use?