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Dell Latitude 7400 2-in-1 Review

Zit Seng

Business notebooks often seem to be clunky and boring. Dell’s Latitude 7400 2-in-1, however, seems to be changing that. It’s similar in many ways to the premium XPS 13 7390 2-in-1 which I reviewed recently, with a couple of tweaks to appeal to business users.

Comparing the Latitude 7400 2-in-1 to the XPS 13 7390 2-in-1 sets quite a high bar. The latter is a really awesome premium consumer notebook, the result of refinements after many iterations of the XPS product line. Then, it’s like Dell made a business version of that, and called it the Latitude 7400 2-in-1. We’ll see if this notebook matches up with the premium consumer one.

Not everyone needs a notebook as thin and svelte as the XPS 13 7390 2-in-1 (top notebook in photo above). The Latitude 7400 2-in-1 is not clunky in any way, but it has more room so Dell can put in a bigger battery and keyboard with greater key travel, among other features. For business users, it may be a better balance between portability and functionality.

The physical dimensions of the Latitude 7400 2-in-1 measures 321.35 x 214.08 x 18.96 mm (WxDxH), although the thinnest point, at the front, of the notebook tapers down to 17.82 mm. The weight starts at 1.36 kg. This is a portable device that’s quite easy to take around. Build quality is pretty good too.

Dell stuck to the standard 16:9 aspect ratio screen on the Latitude 7400 2-in-1. This is a 14-inch Full HD 1920×1080 resolution IPS display, covered by an edge-to-edge glossy screen. At maximum brightness, this display reaches 296 nits, which isn’t very bright, but will suffice in the office.

Colour gamut test using Spyder5PRO finds the Latitude 7400 2-in-1 scoring 97%, 67^%, and 72% sRGB, NTSC, and AdobeRGB coverage respectively. This is decent, though perhaps not great for professional photo and video editing work.

The webcam is thankfully positioned on top of the display. It is a HD 1280×720 resolution IR-enabled webcam with Windows Hello support. Image quality is unimpressive, so if this is something that matters to you, you may have to get an external webcam.

The Latitude 7400 2-in-1 offers a second option for Windows Hello logins by using a fingerprint sensor integrated into the power button. The fingerprint sensor works well, and it can be a great alternative for people who aren’t fond of using facial recognition.

However, there’s a really neat feature to use Windows Hello facial recognition. Dell’s new ExpressSign-In feature automatically locks your notebook when proximity sensors detect your departure, then in conjunction with Windows Hello facial recognition, log you back in automatically when you return. This helps to make your notebook more secure by more quickly locking your screen before the usual screen lock timeout.

The keyboard on the Latitude 7400 2-in-1 is spacious, although perhaps not as much as the edge-to-edge keyboard in the XPS 13 7390 2-in.1. The Latitude 7400 2-in-1 more than makes up for that with keys that have much more key travel, as well as more spacing around the arrow navigation keys. The keys are sufficiently stiff, and it’s really comfortable to type on. This is the kind of keyboard you can just start using and be comfortable with, nothing about it that needs getting used to.

The glass touchpad is large, smooth, supports Windows Precision drivers, and works well with Windows 10 multitouch gestures.

The port offering on this notebook is pretty good. There are two USB Type-C with Thunderbolt 3 and Power Delivery support on the left side, along with a full-size HDMI port and conventional USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A port.

On other side, you’ll find another USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A port, SD card slot, audio jack, and a uSIM tray.

For the most part, you probably will get by without needing any dongles with this notebook.

The underside of the Latitude 7400 2-in-1 is covered with generous vents to help with cooling. The speakers are also there, bottom-firing, and they sound just okay.

Being a 2-in-1 convertible device, the display on the Latitude 7400 2-in-1 supports both touch and pen. The notebook supports AES 2.0 with 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity, tilt control, and 240 Hz report rate.

Dell hasn’t upgraded the Latitude 7400 2-in-1 to 10th generation Intel Core processors. Instead, you’re going to be stuck with 8th generation ones. My review unit is configured with an i7-8665U processor, 16 GB of RAM, and 256 GB of NVMe storage.

Testing with PCMark 10 Extended benchmarks, the Latitude 7400 2-in-1 scored as follows:

With Geekbench 5 (and Geekbench 4 in parenthesis):

The 60 Wh battery provides awesome runtime. I recently started to use PCMark 10 battery tests, and using its Modern Office workload, the Latitude 7400 2-in-1 ran for a staggering 894 minutes. That’s almost 15 hours. The runtime under the older PCMark 8 Home Conventional battery test ran a more modest 264 minutes (in comparison with other notebooks).

I started off by comparing the Latitude 7400 2-in-1 to the XPS 13 7390 2-in-1. There are, however, enough important differences between them. Clearly the Latitude 7400 2-in-1 is more business oriented. You can choose to use either fingerprint or facial recognition, and ExpressSign-In is useful. The keyboard is also really great, and there is a generous offering of ports.

The display, however, can be a source of disappointment for some people. It’s not bright enough to work outdoors or in environments that might be a little too bright. The 8th generation Intel Core processor may also feel just a little bit dated.

Overall, the Latitude 7400 2-in-1 is a modern, good-looking, 2-in-1 convertible device for business users. The very long battery life will be great for anyone who needs to move around a lot without having a power source available.

The Dell Latitude 7400 2-in-1 as configured in this review (i7-8665U, 16 GB RAM, 256 GB storage) retails S$3,826.33.

Conclusion

Dell’s Latitude 7400 2-in-1 brings to business users a 2-in-1 convertible device with modern design and excellent battery life.

Pros:

Cons:

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