The beauty within the beast would be a suitable tag line for the 14.1” Dell Latitude E6400 XFR.It is basically the Business model Latitude E6400 placed in a tough new chassis built to make it rugged and waterproof, thus ultimately giving the performance of a high end laptop while offering all the toughness and rigidity in structure. The E6400 XFR has Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz P9600 Processor (1066MHz FSB, 6MB Cache), 4GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM (maximum capacity 8GB), 256MB nVidia Quadro NVS 160M (256MB dedicated plus shared memory) and a 14.1″ diagonal DirectVue sunlight-readable display (WXGA, matte) to give superior performance. The 8lbs 15oz, 13.9″ x 10.1-11.5″ x 2.2″  notebook is equipped with Dell Wireless WiFi 1510 and Bluetooth 2.1 and has the Windows Vista Business (64-bit) OS running.
The average user might not be impressed with the looks of the XFR but it fits the purpose it is built for and the entire design is a matter of function over form. The notebook is basically the Dell E6400 encased in a huge shell of thick plastic and alloy. The body panels are molded with internal bracing for enhanced rigidity and the corners have secure rubber bumpers that are strongly attached to the chassis so that it won’t pull or peel off. The notebook-if you could call it one-has a built in handle with collapsible hinges that fold in when not in use. Another feature in structure is the strong metal clip that holds the screen shut. The only part that Dell seems to have not given enough care is the air vent which has only a very thin plastic coating. The E6400 XFR is tested from four feet drop height and can operate in temperatures ranging from 145 degree Fahrenheit to -20 degree Fahrenheit proving its usability even in an extreme desert condition or in ice cold conditions.

The Dell E6400 XFR offers a sunlight-readable WXGA panel with optional touch-sensitivity. The screen has a matte design to limit the amount of glare. The color and contrast levels do not come up to the mark while running in high brightness operation and the backlight bleeds through at high levels. The hard front surface makes the panel look stronger and tough but it still suffers from color distortion on touch with mild pressure. Excellent offer on wide range of viewing angle is available with the E6400 XFR and it can easily be read at direct sunlight. The speaker performance is only average and headphones would help for better sound performance.

The keyboard and the touch pad is also toughened in the E6400 XFR. Keys are cupped in shape which helps to type when in extreme conditions of cold or while using gloves. The key pad is highly touch sensitive. The touchpad also has high sensitivity with the touchpad keys rubber clad and rigid enough not to allow any unwanted light touch to interfere. All ports are sealed with solid hinged panels to protect from dust and water with sliding access panels for the frequently used ports. it has three USB, one eSATA/USB combo, LAN, Display Port, VGA, FireWire, front-mounted SD-card slot, audio jacks, and a legacy PCMCIA slot.

In terms of performance the Dell E6400 is very superior to its predecessors in the same range with its Intel Core 2 duo processor and high Graphics which could even drive bit of gaming even. But this comes at the cost of less battery life of less than only 3 hours. The system offers reasonable heat and sound performance. The heat sink and fan underneath the notebook in a sealed chamber exposed to the elements clubbed with a channel of heat pipes keep the temperature under control. The system is quiet enough except when at extreme processor usage-like decoding multiple HD videos.

Though the Dell E6400 is equipped with 6cell batteries with provision for 12-cell slip-on all-day slice battery the battery performance is not high enough. It runs for approximately 3 hours and 45 minutes in the optimum usage conditions. Battery life is the price for the high performance provided by the E6400 XFR-which is the most superior any other rugged notebook would provide.

Get the E6400 XFR if it is a high performance mobile workstation (that could play multiple HD videos and help with a little gaming even) that you are looking for with rugged chassis.