Dell Latitude E5410 Review… Ten Years On

It may seem odd to review a ten year old laptop, but I have recently acquired a Dell Latitude E5410 and want to express my thoughts about it and using it.

Any followers of me on Twitter or readers of this blog will know I have switched from using macOS to using Linux, meaning I ditched my 2012 MacBook Air for a 2010/2011 Dell Latitude E5410.



That may sound an odd move but I needed to step away from Apple kit.

The E5410 is a first gen i5 device at 2.5Ghz. It has 4GB DDR3 RAM (upgradeable up to 8GB) and features a 320GB hard drive and DVDRW drive. The 14” screen features a 1280 x  800 resolution.

The E5 range is basically a plastic version of the E6 which has a mag alloy casing instead. Apart from that the are pretty much identical. That being said this is a 10 year old laptop and it has no cracks or damage (apart from some scratches on the lid), so is a pretty sturdy machine – even the screen hinges are still solid.

It is packed with ports. It has 4x USB 2.0 ports, 1394 port, VGA, PCMCIA, SD slot and ethernet. It also has built in N wireless. This particular model doesn't have bluetooth although there is a light on the casing for it. There are volume buttons above the keyboard. Some of the models have a webcam too, but this one doesn’t – but I never use one so it isn’t a problem.

That's the specs out of the way. How does it fair 10 years on?

In short this thing is a powerful workhorse even today. Mine came with Windows 10 64-bit installed, which I quickly wiped and installed Linux Mint Cinnamon which is also 64-bit.

Installation via USB was very quick, recognising all my hardware out-of-the-box, and adding my apps via Synaptic Package Manager was quick and easy. Once it was set up, I started using it and boy was I surprised. Booting was a little slower than my MacBook Air – but that isn’t surprising as it had an SSD in it – and I have a feeling this is the original hard drive, but once it is booted this machine flies along. Apps open quick and nothing seems to stress it out too much.

I have yet to do anything heavy on it, but for general browsing, video streaming, basic image editing, writing and light apps this thing is great. At some point I will need to do heavier work such as video and audio editing and then we will see how it goes, but an i5 processor (even an early one) and enough RAM should cope with most work – even if it isn’t the quickest.

One thing I was impressed with was the sound out of this machine. It is very loud and clear and the speakers are perfectly situated down either side of the keyboard.

On the subject of the keyboard it was one area I needed to be comfortable with. I do a lot of typing and had gotten used to soft touch chiclet keys, however I am loving the older style keyboard. It is extremely comfortable to type on and even at speed there is no bounce in the keys with just a perfect amount of spring.

The trackpad has quite a small surface area, but it does support multi touch. The mouse buttons are quite close to the front of the laptop which has taken a little while to get used to, but that is just a small niggle.

This might sound like a strange thing to be pleased about but I love activity lights. Something found less and less on modern computers. So I like the fact that the hard drive and wifi lights flash in the top left.

It's a chunky, boxey beast and definitely won't win any beauty awards. Coming from an 11” MacBook Air it sure is noticeable, but it does have the added bonus of built in DVD burning drive, a multitude of ports and an easy access panel on the bottom that allows you to upgrade RAM, hard drive, wifi card and give it a good clean inside.

The battery can be easily replaced - something modern design doesn't allow for much these days. But with the slide of a switch the battery pulls out and can be replaced in seconds. Mine has the standard 6 cell battery - but a 9 cell extended battery is also available. Mine is a genuine Dell battery (although it might not be the original one that came with it) and it still offers nearly two hours of battery life which is very impressive (for a laptop of its age).

From a looks point of view, it looks like it is built with durability rather than style in mind. It has a retro square look to it with clean lines all over it.

I am very impressed. It doesn’t feel like a 10 year old machine when using, but it certainly looks like one.

Written by Simon Royal. Follow me at twitter.com/simonroyal

HP Chromebook 14 Review

HP Chromebook 14 (2013)

When I was deciding on getting a Chromebook, I made the decision to go for the outgoing version of HP's Chromebook 14, as I needed a large 14 inch screen, Intel Haswell CPU and 4GB RAM. I don't like tiny 11 inch screens, and the larger screen also means a decent size keyboard. Although this makes the HP heavier than some Chromebooks, it is still around half the weight of my chunky old 6.6lb Sony VAIO! I could have waited and got the newer replacement model 14, with better screen, but that only has 2GB RAM, and an ARM CPU, which is annoying. I need plenty of RAM as I tend to have a lot of tabs open and planned to run Xubuntu using Crouton, which in theory works better with the Intel CPU.

I received my Chromebook on Friday in a quite plain brown HP and Intel branded cardboard box with large padding blocks inside protecting it. I was struck by how slim and well built the HP 14 feels. The underneath is a kind of rubberised plastic, with 2 ventilation grills. 4 rubber feet prevent the device sliding on glossy surfaces. It has 2 speakers at the base of the screen, under the hinge, and they sound fairly good for what they are.

In the box there's a little Setup Instructions leaflet, the warranty and small PSU, which reminded me of the one from my Samsung N145 netbook.

The left side of the HP has two USB 3.0 ports, HDMI out and a headphone/mic socket. The right side has the power input, a single USB 2.0 port and the SD card slot. Photos on top of my Sony VAIO for comparison:

The setup instructions are barely needed as the Chromebook is so simple to setup, mainly constituting wireless setup and signing into your Google account.

After the brief setup process is the best time to setup Crouton to install Xubuntu alongside of ChromeOS. To do this you need to enable Developer mode, which wipes the device. I found plenty of good howtos, but I used this one here. Instead of Unity though I chose XFCE desktop and Trusty as my 'buntu version:

sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -r trusty -t xfce,gtk-extra,core,audio -e

This gives you a minimal Xubuntu setup. It's best not to install too much as it only has a 16GB SSD, of which part of that is taken already by ChromeOS.

The great thing about using Crouton is you can quickly switch between Chrome OS and Xubuntu using the CTRL + ALT + Shift and the arrow keys (located with the function keys along the top of the keyboard).

I like the smooth aluminium around the comfortably-sized chiclet keyboard. The keys have a fine texture so your fingers are not slipping off them and size and layout suits me. You'll probably notice the metal is a bit of a fingerprint magnet though! You'll also notice I bought the "coral" coloured model, because the white and silver models were out of stock. In some lights it looks pink and some lights it looks red or orange. I plan on toning down the look using these covers from Amazon. Some have complained about the screen but I am happy with it, perhaps because it's still better than a lot of my old laptops. The viewing angles are fine and it's plenty bright.


More than just a browser.

I have found that I can do a bit more than just web browsing on my Chromebook. It has a basic file manager that can access and play videos from USB hard drives etc. Chrome OS has a desktop with wallpaper and a panel (Google calls it a shelf) where you can pin apps to. There is a growing section of the Chrome store devoted to apps that work offline too. At the moment the only time I find myself switching to Xubuntu is to use Gtk VNC Viewer, as for some reason I can't seem to connect to my server using the VNC Chrome app.

The best thing about the HP Chromebook 14 is closing it and opening it later and finding it ready immediately. Suspend and resume works perfectly and the battery lasts over 8 hours, so you can use it pretty much all day without needing to plug it in. Also, from a cold start, it boots to the login prompt in 5 seconds! A couple more seconds and it's ready to work.

And there's still more interesting features being implemented in Chrome OS that I look forward to trying. With Android Lollipop phones will unlock when in proximity of your Chromebook (should you choose to use that feature).  Also you'll soon be able to run many more Android apps on your Chromebook. There are also plenty of choice when it comes to Chromebooks with new ones being released and updated every year.