Dell Latitude E5550 15.6-Inch Laptop (Intel Core i5 2.3 GHz, 8 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD, Windows 8.1)

The laptop came with windows 10 instead of the windows 8 in the description. Hence I returned it and following the return instructions .

Great little laptop, does everything I need it to do.

I find the seller does a bad job of describing this laptop, with very little info about the features and configuration. I hope my review will help shed some light about this model. The E series means it is a business series laptop. What does that mean? - improved rigidity of the chassis, Dell even calls it military grade. - improved connectivity, mainly there is a dock station port on the bottom of the laptop, so you can attach it to a dock station. - very easy to upgrade and service (take apart, add memory, change HDD etc) - special features like a phone SIM card slot so you can have an internal 3G modem - better quality screens with matte surface to be able to work with no reflections - illuminated keyboard This laptop certainly meets all the above, It does have a slot to put a SIM card in it, but you have to buy the 3G modem as an option. The screen is matte (non-glare) so you can have a chance to work in very well lit environments and even outside. Unfortunately, the efforts to make it thinner means Dell decided to use a non-removable battery (well, you can remove it if you take the back panel off, which is hold in place by 6 screws). The same back cover exposes the memory slots, so you can easily upgrade to 16GB by buying another 8GB module (one memory slot is empty). The keyboard is illuminated, but has a lot of light bleed which I find a bit distracting/annoying in the dark. The most annoying thing about this laptop is the way Dell decided to give up on the Home/End keys and make them available only if you press the Function key. That drives me nuts, common Dell, seriously? What about the Break or Pause key? You know, press the Windows key and the Break/Pause key together and you get the System screen? Gone as well! Dell has a serious problem here, and I bet lots of professionals discarded this laptop for these keyboard issues. I am a programmer myself, and cannot really live without the End/Home keys easily available. There is no indication on the keys whatsoever, but if you press Fn + B you get the Break key functionality... well, again, what a strange decision from Dell, to not mention this in blue letters on the B key... incredible. The keyboard itself is not of very high quality, just like the trackpad buttons. Other than that, not a bad laptop overall. Very quite in operation, cool most of the time (although it can get hot quickly if you run some CPU intensive software). Compared with the older model, the E5540, the build quality is a bit lower, the plastics used are easier to scratch, but the laptop is thinner and lighter. The main involution is the keyboard, which is louder, has more light bleed in the dark and the above issues with the Home/End keys.