If you are looking for a premium 14-inch business laptop, Dell Latitude 7480 is the best choice. This laptop comes with long battery life, the best build quality, and input devices. This laptop has good performance, and features for your business needs. Dell has been offering security and manageability in the Latitude series for a long time.
Dell has been impressing us with its superb quality business notebooks. Dell Latitude 7480 offers a 14-inch FHD display, dual-core i7 CPU, 8 GB of RAM, and 256 GB SSD. Latitude 7480 also comes with some disadvantages like every other laptop out in the market. In this Dell 7480 review, we will take a look at its features, performance, design, pros, and cons, etc.
Retail Package
This Latitude notebook comes in a box having user manuals, a DVD, an AC adapter, and a power cord.
Design & Construction
The Dell Latitude 7480 comes with a simple, harsh, and clear design without any interruption. The body and lid both are built with aluminum alloy. The notebook has been painted with black soft-touch paint. Due to this quality of paint, the notebook cannot be slipped from your hand. It offers a slip-resistant grip.
However, the lid is hard and passed our test of bending and torsion very well. When we press the lid from the middle the lid gives in and no waves are seen on the LCD screen. According to Dell, the Dell Latitude 7480 has gone through military-grade MIL-STD 810G testing so that it can bear the daily tasks without having any issues.
Due to the single hinge design, it provides 180 degrees of movement without disturbing the lid from its place. Unfortunately, you cannot open the notebook with one hand. The side is also made of aluminum and covered with the same black paint. The laptop has a small number of vents that provide extra flow for the cooling system and two grills for speakers.
The Dell Latitude 7480 comes with a slim rubber lip that surrounds the whole display, this prevents waste from getting between the laptop and the lid when the display is closed. This laptop has a high build quality. Due to semi unibody design, there is nothing to say.
Even though Dell refers to a “narrow border” display in their spec sheet for the Latitude 7480 with the optional 14-inch QHD (2560 x 1440) touch panel, this nomenclature is a little deceiving because the actual bezel isn’t that narrow at 10 mm on the sides and 18 mm up top and down – the XPS 13 with the InfinityEdge display is still in a class of its own here.
However, the Latitude 7480 has a 6% lower footprint than the previous model and measures 17.05 x 331 x 220.9 mm (0.67 x 13.03 x 8.7 in) rather than the incredibly slim model’s 25 mm (1 in) broader, 7 mm (0.25 in) more profound, and one mm thicker.
The new Latitude weighs 1.52kg (3.35 lbs). It is not as heavy as Latitude 5480 which weighs 1.8kg (almost 4 lbs). You can easily handle the Latitude 7480 and can put it into small bags which are specially made for 13.3-inch laptops and makes for a great traveling compromise between ergonomics and screen size.
The construction of the laptop is excellent and precisely what you would expect from an ultrabook in this price range. The overly tightened hinge and the awkward positioning of the pointing stick and mouse buttons are the only minor issues we have. In any case, the design should offer good comfort and durability for working while mobile.
Dell Latitude 7480: Connectivity
In this Dell Latitude 7480, the ports have been placed on both sides. There is no physical docking connector in Dell Latitude 7480 laptop. The VGA port also disappeared from this laptop. Dell Latitude comes with Thunderbolt Dock TB16 with a 180W power adapter for $300. This Dell laptop has 2 USB 2.0, 3 USB 3.0, one Thunderbolt / USB Type-C port, VGA, DisplayPort, and HDMI.
Dell also sells the Wireless Dock WLD15, but it needs the extra Intel Tri-Band Wireless-AC 18265 module, which is optional. There is also a full-sized SD card slot. The micro SD card performs well with AS SSD registering transfer rates of 92 MB/s and a jpeg copy test (~ 5 MB each; 1 GB total) taking place at 76 MB/s.
Dell Latitude 7480: Accessories
Dell does not offer any other accessory in addition to the notebook and 65W power adapter. But there are many accessories which are adapter cables, power adapters, and many docking stations. The Dell Wireless Dock – which needs the Tri-Band wireless adapter which has been mentioned earlier. You can connect up to three FHD displays, two 4k displays, or one 5K using the Thunderbolt-based Dock TB16.
Dell Latitude 7480: Display
The Latitude 7480 has a 14-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) anti-glare panel made by LG Philips having a model number (LGD0557). It means it has a pixel density of 157 ppi. It works as a “Retina” when you view it from a distance of 56cm or greater. It has an average brightness of 321 cd/m2.
The i3-version of Dell comes with 14-inch HD (1366 x 768) or the 14-inch FHD (1920 x 1080). The core i5 and i7 models come with a 14-inch QHD (2560 x 1440) touch display with Gorilla Glass. Dell offers a brightness of 200 units for an HD display. At maximum temperature, the color temperature of the laptop is 7200k.
This laptop has a reasonable contrast ratio of 1075:1, but not good enough. You can use this laptop easily outdoors because of its high brightness of 320 nits and its non-glare display coating. Even indirect sunlight does not pose any significant limitations when working in the shade. Dell claims a maximum brightness of 270nits for this new Latitude 7480 laptop has a high-res panel.
This is very low for those who want to use the laptop outside a lot. The Dell Latitude 7480 boasts exceptional viewing angle stability thanks to IPS technology, with no noticeable color changes or considerable brightness loss even at very shallow angles. It has a maximum dE2000 color deviation of 2.7, which is good. But the values above 4.0 are not so good mainly when there is color-sensitive work involved.
Dell Latitude 7480: Performance
Dell Latitude 7480 comes with four different Kaby Lake ULV processors: Core i3-7100U, Core i5-7200U, Core i5-7300U, and Core i7-7600U. Our review unit Core i7-7600U offers 8 GB RAM (2x 4 GB 2133 MHz DDR4), and a 256 GB Intel SATA M.2 SSD. It can handle office workloads without having any issues due to these excellent features. You can extend the RAM up to 32 GB and SSD to 1 TB PCle NVMe Class 40 Solid State Drive. If you want to add a QHD panel with a carbon fiber lid then the price will go up which is very costly for a notebook with integrated graphics.
Dell Latitude 7480: Keyboard & Touchpad
Dell Latitude 7480 comes with a chiclet keyboard which has a familiar Dell layout. The keys of the keyboard are integrated into a deck which offers a stiffer typing platform. The keyboard will not feel spongy during spirited typing because the flex is well-controlled. In our opinion, the concave-type keys are good. The force required to press the keys is right and the key travel of around 2mm which is less. The sound produced by the keyboard is very modest. You can type easily in dark environments because of 2-stage backlights. This is undoubtedly among the greatest keyboards for typists now on the market.
The touchpad which is from Alps Electric Co. has 10 x 5.4 cm (4 x 2.1) in size. The touchpad works without facing any major issues. The touchpad works well with sweaty fingers. The mouse buttons require extra force for pressing. There are three mouse buttons placed on the upper side of the touchpad. There is a very small distance between the touchpad and the mouse buttons. You can press the buttons with your thumbs comfortably.
Dell Latitude 7480: Battery Life
Dell Latitude 7480 comes with 4-cell Express Charge Capable 60W battery. This 60 W health capacity is very good and the battery can last up to 12hrs. In some situations, the battery can last up to a whole day. The notebook takes 2 hours to complete and charge.
GPU Performance
The Latitude 7480 comes with processor-integrated Intel HD Graphics 620 which runs at a clock speed of 300 to 1067 MHz. With these graphics, the performance is good for business notebooks but for heavy tasks like 3D loads, it cannot perform well.
Gaming Performance
Gaming performance is not the main point when we talk about business notebooks. The Dell Latitude 7480 has not very powerful graphics for running games. You can run older games at low resolution and reduced graphics settings. You cannot run heavy games on this laptop. For gaming, you can take a look at Alienware m15 R6.
Speakers
The speakers are placed on the front edge and fire downwards. The bass quality is not so good. However, you can improve the sound quality using the Waves MaxxAudio Pro software. When you activate the software the sound will distort at high volume but the software deactivated distortion will not occur. You can easily and clearly listen to the voices, which is very good for video calling. If you want to listen to music then we recommend you use an external speaker or headphones for better sound quality.
Dell Latitude 7480 Review | Final Verdicts
In conclusion, Dell Latitude 7480 is a good-looking, smaller, and lightweight laptop with high build quality. The laptop offers sturdy, accurate construction with a slick, touch-friendly surface. The screen is practical for regular travelers because it is bright, accurately displays colors, and doesn’t reflect distracting glare. The laptop performs really well, particularly in simulated testing, but it falls short slightly in tests that are CPU-specific. Even if the battery is not fully charged, it lasts the entire day. The input devices—particularly the keyboard—are first-rate and regarded as some of the best on the market right now.
The Latitude 7480 is an excellent and dependable business laptop overall. It should be noted that some individuals could find its continual coil whine to be a disadvantage.
