Is there a similar laptop with a non-ultra-low-voltage intel CPU ? In the sense that it would be 12" and have a nice keyboard with a pointing stick ? Cookie points for a quad. And a discrete GPU is not necessary, if anything, it only makes it worse.
Haswell quads start at 37w TDP, so it's highly unlikely that they fit chassis designed for 17w TDP ULT parts. Razer Blade comes probably closest, though it's larger at 14"
To get a pointing stick you preitty much need to buy an Thinkpad and the smallest Thinkpad that uses M-series instead of U-series processors is the ThinkPad T440p, which is a 14".
The Latitude 7000 series give the pointing stick. I continue to watch the E7240 and E7440; the E7440 or its successor will probably replace my ThinkPad T420 at some point. I'm waiting it out though --the T420 had almost everything (HDD, mSATA, switchable graphics, 16GB RAM capacity), incredible keyboard, and for the time, a 1600x900 display was good. Only thing I could use is a brighter display and a lighter system.
Poking around on Dell's website, it appears that the pointy stick is only offered on 14" or larger models; and the only Latitude line to still offer full power mobile CPUs is the 6000 series. Since the latter are all still last years 6x40 models, it's possible that only reflects their not having been refreshed yet instead of a deliberate decision to keep a more powerful CPU (and optional dGPU) available for business customers outside of the Precision line.
Intel's 37-57W Quadcore Haswell i7's have base frequencies about 1ghz higher (2.2-3.1ghz) than the 17W dual models (1.5-2.1). For anyone who's doing work (compiling medium+ code bases, cad, engineering modeling, etc) that's compute bound not human speed bound; the higher clock rates, extra cores, gpu compute, etc all make a huge difference. The current generation of 2 core ULV laptops are all downgrades from the ~2-3 year old laptop I'm using at work
If you are really doing computation bound work why do you even bother with 12" business laptops? You can always get clevo P751ZM with 4Ghz Devil's canyon desktop GPU at almost the same price nowadays.
I have compared MBP 13 base model to XPS 13 i5-5200U model and rMBP had only 5% advantage for computation and 9% advantage for GPU. Of course this will change with rMBP update though.
Agree fully on this. The company I work for is going to the E7440's as their default laptop. We used the E6400, E6410, E6420, then E6430 before going to these. A dramatic leap forward in every aspect except performance (compared to the E6420/30). But the increased battery life, quite operation, and lighter weight are a good trade-off. The E7440 does have all around decent performance, but does tend to bog down with a lot of stuff open (especially CPU intensive tabs in Chrome). We're using the i5-4310U, 8 GB of RAM, 256 GB SSD, and 14" 1080p IPS multi-touch screen.
I appriciate the review simply as a reminder why Dell is increasingly irrelevent. When you consider an HP Probook 430 can be had for $300 in Celeron configuration with better build quality (aluminum/magnesium chassis, thinner, lighter.) Dell's charging Elitebook prices for this thing. HP and Lenovo are just killing it while Dell is still making laptops styled from the 90's.
I agree, the performance is ehh, or right in the middle, and styling is really basic and boring looking. I wouldn't buy this over HP or Acer's S7 which above this dell in almost every respect.
Agree fully on this. The company I work for is going to the E7440's as their default laptop. We used the E6400, E6410, E6420, then E6430 before going to these. A dramatic leap forward in every aspect except performance (compared to the E6420/30). But the increased battery life, quite operation, and lighter weight are a good trade-off. The E7440 does have all around decent performance, but does tend to bog down with a lot of stuff open (especially CPU intensive tabs in Chrome). We're using the i5-4310U, 8 GB of RAM, and 14" 1080p IPS multi-touch screen.
Why the concern about styling, it is a machine/tool for the workplace, not a fashion statement. If it 's not the thinnest or shiniest, will you be looked at any differently by coworkers.
Yeah, but how are thermals on the HP> From what I've seen in recent years, HP machines across the range have had chronic, repeated issues with cooling, and either throttling or hitting TjMax and hard shutting down. To me, that makes the laptop design a complete failure.
Seriously, make the laptops work well, reliably and cool before you style it up.
Secondly, this is Dell's mid-range business line. If you want style, get an XPS13 instead. I for one much prefer having something that looks ugly and isn't prone to being stolen or even glanced at twice instead, plus, docking port, that works with the 2009 docks is a nice touch (Looking at you Lenovo, HP).
I sure wish PC manufacturers would start to put more emphasis on SSDs. As here, they aren't there by default, and the available options tend to be small and expensive. It feels like it's still five years ago. This is one area where I wish Apple's example were followed more widely.
Please stop drinking apple kool-aid. Every company now provide factory-installed SSD options and unlike apple they are standard size so you can put your 500GB SSD which was as low as $150 during last BF.
I agree if design allows for 16:10, they should use it. What I don't understand is why would you compare those dualcore HT laptops with mac retina quad in benchmarks...
It doesn't make any sense as rMBP 15" is totally different size, price and OS league. There are enough 13" laptops with qm CPU, or $800 laptop with qm cpu, or both.
It is mentioned that there's a configuration available with Ubuntu. All configurations on Dell's website are configured with Windows. Anyone able to tell me how to find the Ubuntu configurations?
Why do they use 15W TPD parts in a laptop that weighs 1,5kg? I see so many compromises in this laptop. It's big, heavy, uses 15W CPU's, most of which are only HD4400. Single channel memory. No 1TB SSD option. I can really see why Apple is successful with their MBP's.
The 13" rMBP has a larger display (13.3 vs 12.5") and while the RAM is soldered (you can opt for 16GB when ordering), the SSD is user-replaceable although at the time this can only be done with the older (late 2012) model due the fact that at this point there aren't any 3rd party option with the newer PCIe SSD (the late 2012 uses SATA).
And despite the bigger screen, the 13" rMBP is only 0.02 kg heavier than the Dell.
What's with the picture on the front page of the review? It appears to be a different laptop than the the one shown on the second page. Round webcam at the very top edge vs square webcam close to the LCD, and the front page screen is shown with much smaller side bezels.
It would be useful to see some internal shots of the laptop showing the ram, the ssd and the battery particularly when surprisingly for a business machine the battery is internal.
I am slightly annoyed that the meat of the business segment is now running integrated gpus and yet the cost has not gone down because of this. Its almost impossible now to find a decent laptop with a real gpu that doesn't have a pointless shiny touchscreen on it.
Just to point this out, the connectivity is the same (including physical docking port) on the latitude 7000 ultra book. The 7000 series also supports wigig docking if you'd prefer that.
I've used both docking methods and found them equally reliable.
And this one is still using Haswell. When can we see a comprehensive review of newer laptops using the new Broadwell? Quite a few hardware websites has already published some reviews.
Said it before and I will say it again: These things considering what you are getting in them are DAMNED GOOD MACHINES! Light enough for almost anyone including my 80 year old Aunt.
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nevertell - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
Is there a similar laptop with a non-ultra-low-voltage intel CPU ? In the sense that it would be 12" and have a nice keyboard with a pointing stick ?Cookie points for a quad. And a discrete GPU is not necessary, if anything, it only makes it worse.
Taneli - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
Haswell quads start at 37w TDP, so it's highly unlikely that they fit chassis designed for 17w TDP ULT parts. Razer Blade comes probably closest, though it's larger at 14"Flunk - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
To get a pointing stick you preitty much need to buy an Thinkpad and the smallest Thinkpad that uses M-series instead of U-series processors is the ThinkPad T440p, which is a 14".LoneWolf15 - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
The Latitude 7000 series give the pointing stick. I continue to watch the E7240 and E7440; the E7440 or its successor will probably replace my ThinkPad T420 at some point.I'm waiting it out though --the T420 had almost everything (HDD, mSATA, switchable graphics, 16GB RAM capacity), incredible keyboard, and for the time, a 1600x900 display was good. Only thing I could use is a brighter display and a lighter system.
DanNeely - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
Dell's gallery shows the 7240 and 7250 come without a pointy stick; the 13 detachable is also without. You have to go to the 14" models to get one.crimson117 - Sunday, January 25, 2015 - link
Happily working from my T430s :)marvias - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
hp 2570p seems to be what you are looking for. But it has IVB, I am not aware of anything newer with haswellmeacupla - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
You're probably looking for an Eurocom M4eanazag - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
Macbook Pro 13? Install Windows on it.Taneli - Thursday, January 22, 2015 - link
Dual core ULV parts only.DanNeely - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
Poking around on Dell's website, it appears that the pointy stick is only offered on 14" or larger models; and the only Latitude line to still offer full power mobile CPUs is the 6000 series. Since the latter are all still last years 6x40 models, it's possible that only reflects their not having been refreshed yet instead of a deliberate decision to keep a more powerful CPU (and optional dGPU) available for business customers outside of the Precision line.nerd1 - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
Ulv processors nowadays have very high base clock so theres no real need for full voltage one. Mbp 13 also uses ulv cpu.DanNeely - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
Intel's 37-57W Quadcore Haswell i7's have base frequencies about 1ghz higher (2.2-3.1ghz) than the 17W dual models (1.5-2.1). For anyone who's doing work (compiling medium+ code bases, cad, engineering modeling, etc) that's compute bound not human speed bound; the higher clock rates, extra cores, gpu compute, etc all make a huge difference. The current generation of 2 core ULV laptops are all downgrades from the ~2-3 year old laptop I'm using at worknerd1 - Tuesday, January 20, 2015 - link
It's 2015 now, and broadwell i5-5200U has 2.2-2.7Ghz clock speed.nerd1 - Tuesday, January 20, 2015 - link
If you are really doing computation bound work why do you even bother with 12" business laptops?You can always get clevo P751ZM with 4Ghz Devil's canyon desktop GPU at almost the same price nowadays.
drgigolo - Tuesday, January 20, 2015 - link
But MBP13 uses 28W TPD parts, not 15W. Which gives room for higher performance, especially on the GPU (even more so when running single channel).nerd1 - Tuesday, January 20, 2015 - link
I have compared MBP 13 base model to XPS 13 i5-5200U model and rMBP had only 5% advantage for computation and 9% advantage for GPU. Of course this will change with rMBP update though.BMNify - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
1.56kb => 1.56kg on the conclusion page , Dell Latitude 14 7000 series is almost perfect laptop in ultrabook business lineup. Hope you review it.cwolf78 - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
Agree fully on this. The company I work for is going to the E7440's as their default laptop. We used the E6400, E6410, E6420, then E6430 before going to these. A dramatic leap forward in every aspect except performance (compared to the E6420/30). But the increased battery life, quite operation, and lighter weight are a good trade-off. The E7440 does have all around decent performance, but does tend to bog down with a lot of stuff open (especially CPU intensive tabs in Chrome). We're using the i5-4310U, 8 GB of RAM, 256 GB SSD, and 14" 1080p IPS multi-touch screen.Samus - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
I appriciate the review simply as a reminder why Dell is increasingly irrelevent. When you consider an HP Probook 430 can be had for $300 in Celeron configuration with better build quality (aluminum/magnesium chassis, thinner, lighter.) Dell's charging Elitebook prices for this thing. HP and Lenovo are just killing it while Dell is still making laptops styled from the 90's.dsraa - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
I agree, the performance is ehh, or right in the middle, and styling is really basic and boring looking. I wouldn't buy this over HP or Acer's S7 which above this dell in almost every respect.cwolf78 - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
Agree fully on this. The company I work for is going to the E7440's as their default laptop. We used the E6400, E6410, E6420, then E6430 before going to these. A dramatic leap forward in every aspect except performance (compared to the E6420/30). But the increased battery life, quite operation, and lighter weight are a good trade-off. The E7440 does have all around decent performance, but does tend to bog down with a lot of stuff open (especially CPU intensive tabs in Chrome). We're using the i5-4310U, 8 GB of RAM, and 14" 1080p IPS multi-touch screen.cwolf78 - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
Ugh, wrong post >_<angrypatm - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
Why the concern about styling, it is a machine/tool for the workplace, not a fashion statement. If it 's not the thinnest or shiniest, will you be looked at any differently by coworkers.ZeDestructor - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
Yeah, but how are thermals on the HP> From what I've seen in recent years, HP machines across the range have had chronic, repeated issues with cooling, and either throttling or hitting TjMax and hard shutting down. To me, that makes the laptop design a complete failure.Seriously, make the laptops work well, reliably and cool before you style it up.
Secondly, this is Dell's mid-range business line. If you want style, get an XPS13 instead. I for one much prefer having something that looks ugly and isn't prone to being stolen or even glanced at twice instead, plus, docking port, that works with the 2009 docks is a nice touch (Looking at you Lenovo, HP).
ABR - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
I sure wish PC manufacturers would start to put more emphasis on SSDs. As here, they aren't there by default, and the available options tend to be small and expensive. It feels like it's still five years ago. This is one area where I wish Apple's example were followed more widely.nerd1 - Tuesday, January 20, 2015 - link
Please stop drinking apple kool-aid. Every company now provide factory-installed SSD options and unlike apple they are standard size so you can put your 500GB SSD which was as low as $150 during last BF.SuperVeloce - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
I agree if design allows for 16:10, they should use it. What I don't understand is why would you compare those dualcore HT laptops with mac retina quad in benchmarks...Brett Howse - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
" I have included the Retina Macbook Pro and HP Stream 11 to bracket the scores with a higher wattage quad-core part and a low wattage Atom part"Just to give a performance example of something that is actually a quad-core part. I also included the Stream as a comparison of Haswell-U vs Atom.
nerd1 - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
It doesn't make any sense as rMBP 15" is totally different size, price and OS league. There are enough 13" laptops with qm CPU, or $800 laptop with qm cpu, or both.mac_savant - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
It is mentioned that there's a configuration available with Ubuntu. All configurations on Dell's website are configured with Windows. Anyone able to tell me how to find the Ubuntu configurations?ZeDestructor - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
Phone em.DanNeely - Monday, January 19, 2015 - link
The only model they advertise with linux installed is the XPS 13 that they hyped hard as a developer laptop last summer.drgigolo - Tuesday, January 20, 2015 - link
Why do they use 15W TPD parts in a laptop that weighs 1,5kg? I see so many compromises in this laptop. It's big, heavy, uses 15W CPU's, most of which are only HD4400. Single channel memory. No 1TB SSD option. I can really see why Apple is successful with their MBP's.nerd1 - Tuesday, January 20, 2015 - link
Uh... rMBP 13" is actually heavier than this, and you can freely upgrade ram and ssd (unlike MBP)MykeM - Sunday, January 25, 2015 - link
The 13" rMBP has a larger display (13.3 vs 12.5") and while the RAM is soldered (you can opt for 16GB when ordering), the SSD is user-replaceable although at the time this can only be done with the older (late 2012) model due the fact that at this point there aren't any 3rd party option with the newer PCIe SSD (the late 2012 uses SATA).And despite the bigger screen, the 13" rMBP is only 0.02 kg heavier than the Dell.
DanNeely - Tuesday, January 20, 2015 - link
What's with the picture on the front page of the review? It appears to be a different laptop than the the one shown on the second page. Round webcam at the very top edge vs square webcam close to the LCD, and the front page screen is shown with much smaller side bezels.jay401 - Tuesday, January 20, 2015 - link
Anyone else skip right to the Display page on laptop reviews? Oh, it has a mediocre display? Next!Johnmcl7 - Tuesday, January 20, 2015 - link
It would be useful to see some internal shots of the laptop showing the ram, the ssd and the battery particularly when surprisingly for a business machine the battery is internal.wyewye - Wednesday, January 21, 2015 - link
Yey, finally a review for a laptop with the brand new Haswell. Because this is early 2014.Oh wait.
bischofs - Thursday, January 22, 2015 - link
I am slightly annoyed that the meat of the business segment is now running integrated gpus and yet the cost has not gone down because of this. Its almost impossible now to find a decent laptop with a real gpu that doesn't have a pointless shiny touchscreen on it.ravib123 - Sunday, January 25, 2015 - link
Just to point this out, the connectivity is the same (including physical docking port) on the latitude 7000 ultra book. The 7000 series also supports wigig docking if you'd prefer that.I've used both docking methods and found them equally reliable.
ravib123 - Sunday, January 25, 2015 - link
Oh yeah, they share the same keyboard too.CSMR - Sunday, January 25, 2015 - link
Does this model take HDD+SSD (with a 2.5" slot and an mSATA or M.2 slot) ?BlueBlazer - Sunday, January 25, 2015 - link
And this one is still using Haswell. When can we see a comprehensive review of newer laptops using the new Broadwell? Quite a few hardware websites has already published some reviews.gobaers - Monday, January 26, 2015 - link
Does this unit have the same improved trackpad as the XPS 13 shown at CES?martey - Thursday, January 29, 2015 - link
This review says the Latitude 12 5000 has an ALPS touchpad. Multiple reviews of the new XPS 13 have stated that it has a touchpad made by Microsoft.This difference in manufacturer makes sense since the XPS 13 is a clickpad, and the Latitude has dedicated buttons.
Christopher1 - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link
Said it before and I will say it again: These things considering what you are getting in them are DAMNED GOOD MACHINES! Light enough for almost anyone including my 80 year old Aunt.