Dell Latitude D820 with Core Duo and 3G reviewed

Dell Latitude D820 with Core Duo and 3G reviewed:

PC Magazine has taken Dell's entrant in the 15-inch Core Duo laptop category for a spin, and although it doesn't knock the IBM Lenovo Thinkpad T60 from its Editor's Choice throne, it still manages to grab four out of five stars and a 'very good' rating. As you'll probably recall from our previous coverage of this model and the D620, the D820 is a Core Duo-packing replacement for the Latitude D810, and its 2.16GHz T2600 bested the older model by an impressive 59% in PC Mag's benchmarks. Also noteworthy were the pixel-rific 1920 x 1200 widescreen display (remember, those are packed into just a 15.4-inch screen), 5 hour battery life, and built-in WiFi sniffer that not only works when the machine is shutdown but helpfully informs you when security-disabled networks are in range. Overall, the theme for this $1,300 desktop replacement seems to be choice; you have the option of: a fingerprint scanner or SmartCard reader for security, trackpad or pointer nub for navigation, PC Card or Express Card for expansion, and Verizon EV-DO or Cingular HSDPA for 3G. Wow -- this one's already looking like a contender for one of the coveted 2006 Engadget Awards (only to get voted down in favor of a MacBook, we'd imagine).