Dell intros Latitude D630/D830, D531 notebooks

Dell today chose its Latitude notebooks as the first to receive an upgrade to Intel's faster Core 2 Duos based on the Santa Rosa platform. Confirmed in a late leak, the D630 and D830 will offer the extra speed as well as enhanced storage: custom orders can pick from Intel's Turbo Memory flash cache, a hybrid hard drive with its own flash buffer, or a completely flash-based solid state drive to cut down on loading times and battery consumption. The combination of CPU and storage upgrades adds as much as 15 percent more speed while also extending battery life to as much as 9.4 hours in the system builder's testing.

Either system will also see several incidental upgrades, Dell says. Each has the choice of new internal 3G modems for HSDPA (on GSM networks) or EVDO Revision A (on CDMA) Internet access beyond Wi-Fi's range. The 14-inch (D630) and 15.4-inch (D830) displays are also brighter by as much as 38 percent.

A third model, the 14-inch D531, will focus on cost-conscious buyers with AMD's Sempron or Turion 64 processors depending on the order. It should have all the features of the D630 minus the Intel-specific Turbo Memory.

Though no specific release dates have been given, all three systems are due to ship soon with prices starting at $839 for the D531 and climbing to $1,189 for the D630 as well as $1,249 for the D830. A pair of ultraportable pro and workstation notebooks, the Latitude D430 and Precision M4300, are due within the next few weeks.