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Skinny: Dell's been making superior notebooks for almost a decade. In the main, company's best portables have been from the Inspiron line. Those machines, while virtually indestructible, have tendency to induce sciatic in non-weightlifting types. The latest from the lighter Latitude line, however, is a huge step forward for Dell's Twiggy line. In fact, X200 may be the best portable Dell has ever made.
It's definitely the best portable Gateway has made. While we could not get exact confirmation from either company, Dell's X200 and Gateway's 200 appear to have the exact same chassis -- albeit in different shades of metallic gray. Both portables were made by the same contract manufacturer, which may explain the similarity. And what similarities they are: Both units come with identical bottom docking units. Both notebooks offer same port configurations. Both portables feature 12.1 inch screens, with precisely the same contours. In fact, outside of slightly different pointing devices, slightly different keyboards, we couldn't tell the two machines apart.
What we couldn't figure out, though, is what ruler the companies used to measure the two notebooks. Dell claims the X200 is a hair smaller and lighter than its twin from Gateway. Maybe they only used one coat of paint...
Latitude passed the MD test, playing Sketches from Spain just fine, although sound was a bit tinny. At least the portable didn't vibrate when we played a CD -- like our test unit from Gateway.
As with almost all Dell luggables, X200 has a swell keyboard. Full-sized, with that familiar Dell clicky feel (yes, we said clicky)... While we loved X200's docking unit, we had some troubles with the DVD/CD combo player. It worked fine, mind you. But when we put notebook in our lap, we kept accidentally hitting the eject button with our belly. This may say more about our belly than the notebook.
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