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Comparing the Docking of a Dell XPS M1210 and Latitude D420


Dell XPS M1210 12.1″ Laptop

As you can see the M1210 has a total of 6 cables that need to be connected/disconnected as and when the laptop is moved.

These are:

2 x USB
1 x VGA
1 x Power
1 x Network
1 x 3.5m Audio Out.


Dell Latitude D420 12.1″ Laptop Docked

A D420 docked still has cables but the “cable hell” is significantly reduced. To dock a D420 you just place the laptop on the Docking station. All the cables are already connected to the port replicator in the dock. So you just Dock on / Dock Off. On the M1210 I have to do major heart surgery.


Dell Latitude D420 12.1″ Laptop Undocked

If you are interested in the D420, then check out this video overview.
screencast-dell-latitude-d420-laptop-5min-video-overview

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 at 12:15 am and is filed under Blog Entries, DELL, Dell XPS M1210, Latitude D420. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “Comparing the Docking of a Dell XPS M1210 and Latitude D420”

  1. Tremchez Says:
    June 10th, 2007 at 11:15 am

    Hi Colin,

    there is one particular aspect of m1210 I haven’t found you mentioning on the site. How is the display quality of the picture on an external display? Colour precision, response, and overall quality.

    Thanks

    Vojta

  2. Colin DiPonio Says:
    June 10th, 2007 at 1:54 pm

    Hi Tremchez

    Thanks for leaving a comment.

    The M1210 can only output video VGA. The quality on my Dell 20.1″ Widescreen LCD is excellent. DVI would naturally be better but the image quality is pretty good for both the LCD and when connected to an external display.

    On an external display there is a slight problem under Windows Vista see here. But this is an annoyance issue.
    http://www.colindiponio.com/2007/02/05/windows-vistamonitor-display-video-problem/

    I haven’t had any need to tweak the colour precision or investigate response times. If you have a specific diagnostic test you would like run let me know.

    My M1210 has the Nvidia Gforce 7400 by the way not the onboard intel video.

    Colin

  3. Judy Reed Says:
    June 21st, 2007 at 4:24 am

    I just purchased the M1210, and cannot find a docking station that works; what model did you get (cables and all)?

  4. Colin DiPonio Says:
    June 21st, 2007 at 8:05 am

    Hi Judy

    Thanks for leaving a comment.

    There isn’t a docking station for the M1210. It’s one of the disadvantages of the M1210.

    The best advice I can give is to perhaps use a USB hub to collect all your USB devices together example.

    You have a:-
    USB Keyboard
    USB Mouse
    USB Printer

    Get a USB Hub, plug all the devices into the hub and just connect the hub to the laptop. So that’s one cable not 3.

    That only leaves the monitor and sound. With all these cables I agree it’s a bit clumsy.

  5. Minh Ha Duong Says:
    October 23rd, 2007 at 11:37 am

    I have a M1210 and could not agree more: this is Cable Hell, The Return of the Come Back . Initially my idea was to use a Bluetooth keyboard, mouse and audio, but such a kit is really hard to find. They either come barbie-sized (Thumbmouse and foldable keyboard for your cell phone !!!) or with a dongle (and I am unsure that BT is really that standardized.). I was able to shave 2 steps of my morning routing by plugging the mouse on the Keyboard, and setting up a dedicated wifi access point.

  6. Colin DiPonio Says:
    October 23rd, 2007 at 3:44 pm

    Hi Minh

    I have evolved into just using Remote Desktop Connection to remotely access my M1210 from my deskop PC.

    I just jack in Power and RJ45.

    Colin

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