Dell Latitude 7420 - Review 2022
Ane rung beneath the pinnacle of Dell'south corporate laptop hierarchy (the Latitude 9000 series), you'll observe the first-class if somewhat staid Breadth 7420 (starts at $1,589; $2,228.08 as tested). This xiv-inch business laptop gets subtle improvements with each new generation. The latest version doesn't prepare what isn't cleaved, adding Intel's latest silicon and little else. This means that for the time being, it'southward a superior alternative to our longtime favorite enterprise ultraportable, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (whose new Gen ix edition, which matches the Dell's move to 11th Generation Intel processors, nosotros haven't tested withal). Choose the Breadth 7420 if you want a competent workhorse with excellent calculating performance, even if information technology is a bit heavier and more expensive than the ThinkPad.
Carbon Fiber, Latitude-Style
The Latitude 7000 series was Dell'southward flagship until the introduction of the Latitude 9000 series a few years ago. Both are bachelor in a range of screen sizes and course factors to fulfill pretty much whatever concern computing need, as long as the business in question has deep pockets. The Latitude 7420 is bachelor in either the conventional clamshell seen here or a 2-in-1 convertible version that offers more concrete flexibility. Both accept similar configuration options and are roughly the same size and weight.
Our 7420 review unit of measurement, clad in an attractive black carbon fiber end, measures 0.68 past 12.7 by 8.2 inches and weighs two.vii pounds. Those are impressive dimensions for the category, though the grade-leading ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 8 is a bit trimmer (0.59 inch thick and 2.4 pounds). The Carbon is such a favorite among corporate execs and IT buyers that Dell may take felt compelled to add a carbon-fiber choice to the Latitude 7420. But information technology tin can still be had in aluminum, which turns the chassis silver and brings the weight upwards to 2.89 pounds. (Carbon fiber saves ounces in addition to looking sleek.) If you opt for the convertible, y'all're looking at 3 pounds for the carbon-fiber version and iii.23 pounds for the aluminum 1.
The Latitude 7420 steals the ThinkPad X1 Carbon'due south Editors' Choice honour mostly because of its superior computing performance, which we'll talk over below, but there are a few ancillary reasons why some companies might favor the Latitude. I is that the Dell makes good use of its larger size and heavier weight—for instance, it boasts an SD card slot, which the ThinkPad lacks.
Price is too a factor. The Latitude 7420 costs more than $ii,000 in the configuration reviewed here, while the X1 Carbon Gen viii we reviewed is a few hundred dollars cheaper. But organizations that need lots of Dell laptops and other It services can likely negotiate significant (and confidential) discounts, which could tip the value factor in the Breadth's favor.
One of the near business-friendly aspects of the Latitude 7420 is its extensive array of customization options. The base model has relatively pedestrian specs: a Core i5 CPU, 8GB of memory, and a 128GB solid-state drive for a $i,589 request price. Stay away from that one, considering a similarly equipped consumer laptop like Dell's excellent XPS 13 should cost a little more than one-half every bit much. Our exam configuration is better outfitted, packing an Intel Cadre i7 with vPro remote direction support, 16GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. All of the Latitude 7420's CPU options are from the latest 11th Generation "Tiger Lake" family, and all rely on Intel's Iris Xe integrated graphics.
Optional 1080p Webcam
While there are several screen options, Dell but offers a 4K display for custom bulk purchases of the Latitude 7420; the online configurator is limited to full HD screens only. (A 4K screen is a configurable option for online orders of the older Latitude 7410). The full Hd resolution (1,920 by 1,080 pixels) of our review unit should nevertheless be adequate for office tasks. It's bachelor in either touch-enabled or non-bear on variants; I discover the non-touch display with a matte finish to exist the best choice if you're worried virtually annoying reflections from ambient light. The base panel has 250 nits of effulgence, while our unit of measurement has the upgraded 400 nits. It's enough vivid enough for viewing in a daylight-flooded room.
The borders on either side of the 7420's screen are minuscule, while the top and bottom borders are thicker. The bottom hosts a silver Dell logo, while a webcam is centered at the top. Buyers can choose from several different photographic camera options, including a rare webcam that shoots 1080p video at 30fps. The other photographic camera options, including the 1 on our review unit, offer the more mutual 720p resolution. Many can be equipped with Dell's proximity sensor, which detects when you approach the laptop and automatically logs you in using Windows Hello face up recognition.
The keyboard and touchpad are slight refinements of the approach seen in previous Breadth generations. You lot won't discover a pointing stick similar the iconic red TrackPoint knob in the middle of ThinkPad keyboards, nor does the touchpad accept defended buttons. Merely the keys (with optional backlight) and touchpad machinery are sturdy and well-engineered. The touchpad is slightly larger than the one on the Latitude 7410, which gives oversized fingertips like mine more room to move. The X1 Carbon nevertheless offers a superior typing experience, with sculpted, full-size keys.
Enough of Ports, Basic Sound
In addition to a total-sized HDMI output (groovy for connecting to an external monitor once you lot're back in the role) and SD card reader, the edges of the Breadth 7420 are brindled with additional ports. They include two oval USB-C ports which support Thunderbolt 4 speeds and DisplayPort video output via an adapter. You lot'll detect a third USB port with the rectangular Type-A connector on the correct border, handy for connecting older peripherals. There'southward likewise an audio jack and a wedge-shaped slot to suit a security locking cable.
The Latitude 7420 can likewise be configured with a micro SIM card tray for an optional LTE modem, and a SmartCard slot for IT departments that require users to login via that security method. If your IT department uses SmartCards, you probably won't need the proximity sensor for face-recognition logins, since the ii methods serve the same purpose but the former is more than secure.
Standard wireless connectivity comprises an Intel Wi-Fi six (802.11ax) chipset with congenital-in 2x2 MIMO back up and Bluetooth 5.1. The Latitude 7420 supports eSIM, then if you lot opt for the optional mobile broadband and your carrier supports eSIM equally well, you won't need to use the physical slot. First responders and public prophylactic organizations eyeing the Latitude 7420 may capeesh that the LTE version supports the defended, high-chapters FirstNet LTE bands.
Sound quality is basic for such an expensive laptop. With a mic integrated into the webcam assembly and dual stereo speakers, videoconferencing and voice calls are clear but not exceptional on the Latitude 7420. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon likewise offers a basic audio feel; even Dell'south flagship Latitude 9410 uses a similar sound setup.
Testing the Latitude 7420: Getting Work Done Is a Cinch
Security and manageability features are a central reason why Information technology departments choose Latitude laptops, but end users will want to ensure that the Latitude 7420 has plenty computing power to get their work washed. Our well-equipped review unit certainly obliges. I noticed the cooling fan spool up to a conspicuously audible level while I was installing apps and browsing resources-intensive websites, but encountered no discernible lags or sluggishness. (See more nigh how we test laptops.)
Comparison the Latitude 7420's criterion scores confronting a few key business organisation laptop competitors helps quantify its calculating performance. In add-on to the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, I'k also using the HP Elite Dragonfly Max, HP's flagship business ii-in-1 and most $2,800 in the configuration we reviewed, as a comparing. The less expensive, direct-up HP Aristocracy Dragonfly is the Breadth's most direct competitor, simply nosotros oasis't even so tested the nearly recent version.
I'thousand also including the ThinkPad X1 Yoga, a ii-in-1 that competes with the convertible version of the Breadth 7420. Finally, since our Latitude is a clamshell laptop without a bear upon screen, a comparison with the thirteen-inch Apple MacBook Pro is besides useful. Many corporate users covet Mac laptops, too.
From the get-get, we tin see that the Breadth 7420 equipped with Intel's latest CPU performs slightly ameliorate than the ThinkPads with previous-generation Core processors. The difference in the PCMark 10 test is roughly 20%. PCMark x measures different existent-world productivity and content-creation workflows; nosotros use it to appraise overall organisation operation for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheet jockeying, spider web browsing, and videoconferencing.
Storage performance equally measured by PCMark 8 proved roughly equal beyond the Latitude 7420 and its competitors, since they all use speedy SSDs as their boot drives.
In more intense multimedia content creation tasks like video conversion and image editing, the Latitude 7420 also delivered competitive results. It finished second to the M1-equipped MacBook Pro in Maxon's CPU-crunching Cinebench R15 test, which is fully threaded to make use of all available processor cores and threads. Cinebench stresses the CPU rather than the GPU to render a complex image. The result is a proprietary score indicating a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads.
The results of our Handbrake video editing trial are amassed close together, and although the Latitude 7420 tied for last place the differences were negligible. Handbrake is another tough, threaded workout that'south 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 improve.
We besides run a custom Adobe Photoshop image-editing benchmark. Using an early on 2022 release of the Artistic Cloud version of Photoshop, we apply a series of ten circuitous filters and effects to a standard JPEG exam image, timing each functioning and adding up the full. Equally with Handbrake, lower times are better here. The Photoshop test stresses the CPU, storage subsystem, and RAM, just information technology tin can besides accept advantage of most GPUs to speed upwards the procedure of applying filters, so systems with powerful graphics chips or cards may see a heave.
The Latitude 7420 finished in most the same corporeality of time as the Elite Dragonfly Max, significantly ahead of the 10th Gen Core i5 Carbon.
Graphics and Battery Testing: Running Time to Spare
Flagship business laptops aren't meant for hardcore gaming, and the Latitude 7420 is no exception. It's nice to see Intel'south newer Iris Xe integrated graphics outperform the older UHD Graphics of the ThinkPads, simply the Dell's scores in our 3DMark and Superposition gaming simulations are nix to get excited about.
On the other hand, the Latitude excels at lasting a long time abroad from a wall outlet. It lasted nearly 18 hours in our video playback marathon, behind simply the MacBook Pro. Our test is fairly forgiving, since it involves looping a locally stored 720p video at fifty% screen brightness with Wi-Fi turned off, but the result still suggests you should exist able to get a full workday out of the 7420'south bombardment.
We strongly recommend springing for the upgraded 4-jail cell, 63-watt-hr battery in our review unit, since the base model comes with a 3-cell, 42-watt-60 minutes battery that probable won't last as long.
A Performance and Customization Winner
Thanks mostly to Intel'due south latest silicon, the Dell Breadth 7420 outperforms the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 8. It's slightly bulkier, but for now it takes the crown from the venerable ThinkPad as the best business ultraportable laptop yous can buy. With the X1 Carbon Gen 9 starting to hit retail shelves, nosotros await the rematch.
Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/laptops/44408/dell-latitude-7420
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