When you want to buy a good looking business notebook you are typically limited to industrial designs which are rugged and durable but not really stylish. Usually the only attractive option was the Apple MacBook Pro up until recently. Dell hopes to change that with the new Latitude Z ... a super thin, high-end, 16-inch notebook aimed directly at company professionals.

The Dell Latitude Z is built almost as good as it looks. Some limits are pushed with the thin chassis which can be seen with some mild chassis flex when you try to carry the notebook by the corner of the palmrest. I think if the design was slimmed down to 13 or 14-inches this wouldn't be as a lot of a issue. With the notebook lying flat on a desk the body has nearly no flex whatsoever, such as key areas like the screen cover, palmrest, and keyboard tray. Two items that really made a good impression on me out from the box were the display hinges. They had been very solid and had absolutely no wobble to them when the display fully opened. If Dell put the same attention to detail into their other notebooks as they did using the Latitude Z we would have far fewer complaints with most Dell notebooks.

The Z includes a spacious multitouch-enabled ALPS touchpad. I found it offered good sensitivity and no noticeable lag. In testing I did find its tap-to-select feature would hold onto objects without having releasing but some software adjustment aided fix that. The touchpad buttons had been large and simple to trigger with the edge of your finger. They provided a soft clicking action having a medium throw distance. General the touchpad when paired using the EdgeTouch display bezel really created using the notebook an enjoyable experience.

Energy consumption about the Latitude Z is higher than we would like to determine, drawing as a lot as 16 watts of power during out battery test. Using the display brightness set to 70%, Wi-Fi active, and Windows 7 set to the "Balanced" profile the Z stayed on for 3 hours and 43 minutes with the 8-cell battery. For such an engineering marvel it was a surprise to see so little tweaking done to enhance battery life.

The Latitude Z packs quite a few surprising features inside its thin chassis. You can configure the Z with an inductive charging system that lets you power the notebook without connecting any wires. The Z also offers EdgeTouch which is a touch-sensitive strip built into the edge of the screen bezel. With the included software you can configure tap-zones to launch programs or use the strip as a huge scroll wheel. As someone who doesn't like multitouch-enabled screens for that hazy screen covering or fingerprints this is really a great alternative. Another cool function of the Latitude Z is the touch-sensitive volume controls. This in itself isn't a surprise to determine on a notebook, but its haptic feedback when pressed is. Every tap is met having a soft beep and vibration that gives you a very noticeable indication that you pressed the button.

The Dell Latitude Z is really a very impressive high-end business notebook with many tricks up its sleeve. This notebook offers EdgeTouch technology, inductive charging, and haptic feedback for the volume controls all inside a chassis that is no thicker than about ¾ of an inch. Compared to other thin and light notebooks the Z provides a 16-inch display with lots of real estate and one of the greatest keyboards we have observed to date. Besides the cost our only complaint about the program is that it lacks the performance of other notebooks in its cost range and size, but for its intended market that may not be a large problem. Overall should you can't be seen with something much less than the best looking notebook about the market near you, look no further than the Latitude Z.