Dell Latitude E7450 Review
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Created: Thursday, 14 April 2016 16:32
I had the opportunity to get my hands on the the Dell Latitude E7450 laptop, and my initial impression of this system is that is will be a good system for the road warrior. Several of these were purchased for clients, because they are very lightweight with the same usability as a traditional laptop. Having a full and spacious keyboard is helpful with for cranking out those last minute reports. I have nothing against tablets, but they cannot compete with the usability of a laptop.
The Latitude line of of laptops have always been solid systems, and I have been using them since the Latitude E5500 was released. I have used the E55, E65 and now the E7450. Most of the engineering folks I have work with loved the fact that the older Latitudes had the ability to accept SD cards, an RS232 port, and DVD burner, and a video port to do presentations. Most people know have no idea what RS232 is, but this capability comes in handy when controlling different systems. Yes, you can use an RS232 to USB converter, but this is not helpful when many systems now have limited USB capabilities. This system comes with 3 USB ports, so if your like me and have dozens of devices connected all the time, you will need to invest in a docking station or a USB hub.
The systems that were ordered had the following specifications:
- RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz
- CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5300U CPU @ 2.30GHz
- Disk: 250GB SSD
- Display:14" FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-Glare (16:9) WLED,
- Graphics: Intel HD Graphics
- Weight:3.43lb
- Extras:Camera and Microphone, WLAN support, Up to 11.5 hours of battery life, 3x USB 3.0, HDMI
I believe that from Dell knocked this one out of the park, or so I thought. About three months into my clients using these systems, two of the systems needed warranty repairs to replace the motherboard. I think Dell has awesome support on their business line of computer, but it is unfortunate that it was actually needed. Both systems went down because of the motherboard. In both cases, the symptom was that the system would not power on. Multiple Dell power supplies were plugged into these system to see if the issue was a dead battery and a bad power supply, and none of them powered up the computer. Even with the battery removed, the laptop will not power up using the power supply. Thankfully, Dell had a technician on site within 24 hours to get these users back online. Despite these issues, they seem to be solid systems.
