The Latitude 7420 finished in about the same amount of time as the Elite Dragonfly Max, significantly ahead of the 10th Gen Core i5 Carbon. Graphics and Battery Testing: Running Time to Spare We also run a custom Adobe Photoshop image-editing benchmark. Using an early 2018 release of the Creative Cloud version of Photoshop, we apply a series of 10 complex filters and effects to a standard JPEG test image, timing each operation and adding up the total. As with Handbrake, lower times are better here. The Photoshop test stresses the CPU, storage subsystem, and RAM, but it can also take advantage of most GPUs to speed up the process of applying filters, so systems with powerful graphics chips or cards may see a boost.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day. The CPU and graphics are optimized for light office work. Dell's power control allows for whisper-quiet work with little waste heat or, alternatively, moderate performance. However, this 14-incher is not made for continuous performance. Anyone looking for this should look at AMD Ryzen alternatives ( ThinkPad T14s) or individual Core i7 models ( ThinkPad T14 Gen2).

Thunderbolt 4 Comes Standard

Standard wireless connections include Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi 6E, which means the laptop is capable of operating on 6Hz channels that are now available for Wi-Fi networking. Few other devices such as routers support this protocol yet, but once they do, the Latitude 9420 will be ready. You can also configure the system with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X20 or X55 cellular modem; the latter supports the 5G networks of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile and uses a micro SIM card. Dell's main competition for the Latitude 9420 2-in-1 is the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 5 (and the recently released Gen 6, which we will be reviewing in the coming weeks). Although it has an older 10th Generation Intel processor, Lenovo's 14-inch convertible has many of the same features as the Latitude, including optional QHD and 4K displays and Intel's vPro manageability technology. I've appeared on CBS News, in USA Today, and at many other outlets to offer analysis on breaking technology news. The results of our Handbrake video editing trial are clustered close together, and although the Latitude 7420 tied for last place the differences were negligible. Handbrake is another tough, threaded workout that's highly CPU-dependent and scales well with cores and threads. In it, we put a stopwatch on test systems as they transcode a standard 12-minute clip of 4K video to a 1080p MP4 file. It’s a timed test, and lower results are better. It is also worth mentioning that Dell offers the Latitude 14 7420 in both Carbon and Aluminum outfits, both of which feel premium enough.

Given the amount of gutter space to the left and right of the keyboard, maybe a wider design could have been employed. That said, the keyboard design works well enough for typing, even with large hands. The principal role of a premium business laptop is to handle everyday tasks like word processing and videoconferencing. We measure performance on these and similar workflows using the PCMark 10 suite, which the Latitude 9420 2-in-1 aced with a score of over 5,000 points. (Any score above 4,000 represents proficient office productivity.) I'm also including the ThinkPad X1 Yoga, a 2-in-1 that competes with the convertible version of the Latitude 7420. Finally, since our Latitude is a clamshell laptop without a touch screen, a comparison with the 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro is also useful.Many corporate users covet Mac laptops, too. Buyers can choose between a 42 Wh or 63 Wh battery. Our model was equipped with the ExpressCharge battery with four cells and 63 Wh. Fast charging is detrimental to battery life, which is why it has to be selectively activated in the Dell Power Manager. After that, the battery charges to 80% in one hour. The Latitude lasted 14 hours at 100% in the Wi-Fi test with reduced brightness to 150 cd/m², which is a very good value. Only the Ryzen ThinkPad T14s can top this figure.The Intel Core i5-8350U quad-core CPU is rapidly becoming the darling of laptop designers. It delivers much of the power that the Intel Core i7-8550U offers but has a lower unit cost and a less detrimental impact on battery life. Work wherever: Our 2-in-1s feature Corning® Gorilla® Glass, which offers premium glass innovation for better readability and durability, so you can work anywhere your job takes you. *

All other products will be delivered via the fastest available method (excluding bank holidays and weekends) and generally within 3-5 days, depending on customer location. Lastly, the bottom panel is home to the speaker cutouts and the ventilation grill, which is placed right beneath the cooling fan. In this case, the heat is being exhausted from the left side of the notebook.

In 2023, Dell had an approximate 17% market share of global PC sales, ranking #3 after Lenovo and HP. Another strong point is the AU Optronics 14-inch IPS panel that’s a decent brightness and has a healthy color gamut. It also doesn’t use pulse-width modulation (PWM) to adjust brightness, with the negative impact that can have on eyesight. Dell Latitude 14 7420’s display doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment at any level. This makes it safe for your eyes even after long exposure. In my benchmarks, the 1145 tended to run 10 to 20 percent slower than the 1185-based systems, which wasn’t a surprise. On tougher tests, transcoding a 4K video to FHD took 3 hours and 15 minutes on the 7420 compared with two hours and 32 minutes on the 9420. A big Excel data table took 46 minutes to run, compared with about 41 on the other systems; and a MatLab portfolio simulation took 52 minutes, compared with 47-49 minutes on the others. One important thing to note: even this slower Tiger Lake chip performed notably better than the high-end 14nm Comet Lake chips that were in this class of machine a year ago. When I tested last year’s Latitude 7410 with a four core/eight thread Core i7-10610, the Excel data table took 63 minutes and the MatLab simulation took 73 minutes; so the difference is significant. Typical users should be quite pleased with the performance.

As a replacement for the previous 7480 models, the new 7490 looks much the same from the outside, but has had a complete overhaul internally. The multi-core rate falls short of our expectations, especially when you look at the smaller i5-1135G7 ( ThinkPad X1 Carbon). The Core i7 Tiger Lake in the test field performed more or less better, depending on the cooling system. The ThinkPad T14s with the Ryzen 5850U are right in front. In the single-core tests, we see the i5-1145G7 11% behind the Ryzen 7 Pro 5850U and 8% behind the ThinkPad T14's Core i7-1165G7. Whether you choose the convertible or clamshell version of the Latitude 9420, the chassis stays mostly the same. It measures 0.54 by 12.2 by 8.5 inches (HWD), which makes it compact enough to compete with many alternative corporate machines that have smaller 13-inch screens, let alone 14-inchers. For instance, the 13-inch Dell Latitude 7320 2-in-1 is 0.67 by 12.1 by 8 inches. The ThinkPad X1 Yoga measures 0.59 by 12 by 8.5 inches. Modern games should be playable with these graphics cards at low settings and resolutions. Casual gamers may be happy with these cards.Cinebench is often a good predictor of our Handbrake video editing trial, another tough, threaded workout that's highly CPU-dependent and scales well with cores and threads. In this case, however, the Latitude 9420 2-in-1 trailed the ThinkPad X1 Yoga and Elite Dragonfly Max. IDC Whitepaper: “Optimizing Performance with Frequent Server Replacements for Enterprises” commissioned by Dell Technologies and Intel, March 2021. Results are based on interviews with 18 IT practitioners and decision makers at midsize and large enterprises and a web survey of 707 IT practitioners and decision makers at midsize and larger enterprises using Dell Technologies server solutions across 7 industries. See full whitepaper: https://www.delltechnologies.com/resources/en-us/asset/white-papers/products/servers/server-infrastructure-resiliency-enterprise-whitepaper.pdf Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.