The new Latitude range sports some unique new features. A special plastic bubble on top of the harddrive will cushion your valuable data were you to drop your notebook while straightening your tie, or applying lipstick, or from the abuse of airport luggage handlers. The latest microprocessors build up an enormous amount of heat, which can easily damage your internal components if allowed to build up inside the machine. A new system built into every new Dell notebook will expel the hot air from inside the machine via a special exhaust system and a variable speed fan. Using the Latitude on my lap for several hours while wearing short pants the intense heat coming from the base of the unit became almost unbearable.
Large screens are also useful for browsing the net or working on large spreadsheets.
Overall the multimedia features of the Latitude were solid, though not outstanding. The CD-ROM drive tray felt solid and CDs are easy to remove. One significant feature absent on the CPt-model shell is an external volume control which proves especially useful for adjusting sound while presentations are running, or for turning down the Pavarotti when the phone rings. The stiffy disk can also be attached by a cable to the parallel port. The review model came with Microsoft Windows NT pre-installed, though the startup sequence required some additional registration gymnastics before NT would analyse the hardware configuration, recognise all the hardware and finish installing itself.