Traveling with the Latitude Z
This weekend I got my first opportunity to try out the Latitude Z while traveling. This was a quick, easy tryout, as Adam and I, along with our son, just took a drive down the coast and stayed in a resort overnight, to celebrate a friend’s birthday.
When I got the Latitude-Z, I noticed that it doesn’t come with a built-in DVD drive. This surprised me at first, but then I realized that, at about 1/2 inch deep, there just isn’t room for a DVD drive. To me it is worth the sacrifice to have such a thin and lightweight computer, since all you have to do is plug the external DVD (or BluRay) drive into the side of the computer, and you are all set. This really came in handy over the weekend – I was able to bring one of my son’s favorite DVDs on the trip with us. I botted up the computer, plugged in the DVD drive, inserted the movie, and he was all set. No more hotel room boredom! Yes, I’ve been able to do this in the past with other notebook computers, but the picture and sound quality on the Latitude-Z are so much better than my past computers – the HD display in particular makes a huge difference.
The Latitude also worked really well for me to stay connected with work. Despite being out of town for a “pleasure trip,” I did need to look up some information on the fly for a customer. I connected remotely to my office computer, got the information I needed, and quickly sent an e-mail to the client with the information. What might have taken an hour (calling another staff member, perhaps having someone drive to the office to look up the information) was accomplished in just a few minutes. So convenient. Again, I’ve done this in the past with other notebook computers, but often the display quality on a remote connection is poor, and generally the connection is also pretty slow. With the Latitude-Z, the display was much better and there was only minimal lag time with the connection.
I also got the chance to play with a few more features. One of the coolest features I came upon is Dell Capture. Dell Capture is included software that allows you, through the use of the built-in webcam, to scan documents and business cards directly into the computer. My first attempts were only partially successful (due to user error rather than the software itself), but after a little practice, I found that I could successfully scan a business card and then export it into Outlook as a contact. Cool! I know that there are plenty of card scanners out there, but they always seemed like overkill for my needs. This will be perfect for me.
So, all in all, a good weekend – a fun and relaxing time with my family, a little bit of work, and lots of fun playing with the Latitude-Z.
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