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Dell Latitude 5480 Review: Constructed for mainstream business users, Dell Latitude 5480 packs substantial efficiency and long battery life into a sturdy package. Beginning at $769 ($1,562 as examined), Dell’s laptop has the manageability and security options corporate IT departments require, together with the deep key journey and an accurate touchpad/pointing stick. For those who don’t mind its annoying touch screen, the 5480 has a lot to offer.
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Dell Latitude 5480 Review – Specifications
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Dell Latitude 5480 Review – Design
The Latitude 5480’s matte-black design won’t flip heads however it feels stable, thanks to a sturdy carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer shell. Its polycarbonate keyboard deck provides a snug surface to rest your wrists while typing.
Weighing 4 pounds and measuring 0.9 inches thick, the Dell Latitude 5480 is comparable in heft and slimness to the Lenovo’s ThinkPad T460 (3.8 – 4.2 pounds, relying on the battery; 0.8 inches). However, it’s a bit heavier than the HP’s ProBook 440 G3 (3.4 pounds, 0.8 inches).
The Dell Latitude 5480 houses a USB Type-C port (can be used for charging), DisplayPort video out and data transfer, an SD memory reader, a USB 3.0 port, and an optionally available SmartCard on its left facet. The headphone jack, a VGA port, another USB 3.0 port, and Noble lock slot sit on its right facet. Dell tucked the laptop’s power jack, Ethernet port, HDMI, SIM card tray, and one more USB 3.0 port on the rear.
Dell Latitude 5480 Review – Keyboard, TouchPad, and Pointing Stick
The Latitude 5480’s island-style keyboard provides a comfy typing experience. The keys feature an otherwise fantastic 1.9 millimeters of the key journey and 60 grams of required actuation pressure (1.5 – 2.0mm and 60 grams are best), although the suggestions aren’t as robust as we’d like. The Latitude’s pointing stick supplied very accurate navigation around the desktop, without forcing me to carry my fingers off the house row. However, Dell’s coarse concave nub isn’t as comfy to push as the curved caps you find on Lenovo’s TrackPoints.
The Dell Latitude 5480 comes with a 4 x 2-inch touchpad that speedily registered two-finger page scrolling swipes and three-finger app switching gestures. Its left and right buttons provided strong responses to every click, with the highest pair of buttons requiring a bit more pressure to press than the bottom pair.
Dell Latitude 5480 Review – Display
The Latitude 5480’s 1920 x 1080-pixel touch screen offers crisp details and respectable color. However, it’s a bit dim. As I watched a full-HD Logan trailer on the notebook, I noted that the baby-blue skies, dark-green trees, and beige desert had been considerably muted. The Dell Latitude 5480 emits an average 202 nits (a measurement of brightness), making it dimmer than the 245-nit average, ThinkPad T460 (239-nits touch screen, 242-nits non-touch) and the ProBook 440 G3 (243 nits).
Based on our colorimeter, the Latitude 5480 produces 71 % of the sRGB color spectrum, which is beneath the 89-percent average for thin-and-light notebooks. The ThinkPad T460 (67 %) and the ProBook 440 G3 (55 %) provide even fewer colors. The dimness only exacerbates its limited viewing angles, as the panel appears a lot darker from higher than 45 degrees to the left and right.
On Delta-E test for color accuracy (closer to zero is best) gave the Dell Latitude 5480 a rating of 1.6, which easily beats the 2.1 average. The LenovoThinkPad T460 is even more correct (0.5 for the touch screen, 0.2 for the non-touch), whereas the ProBook 440 G3 (3.6) and the category average (2.1) fall short of the mark.
Dell Latitude 5480 Review – Graphics and Audio
The 5480’s built-in Intel HD 620 GPU notched a rating of 73,623 on the Ice Storm graphics test. That beats the Intel HD 520-based Lenovo ThinkPad T460 (65,981) and the ProBook 440 G3 (58,077). However, it’s just shy of the typical (77,510). You possibly can game on the Latitude 5480 whenever you get to take a break, but you can’t push it that hard. It ran Dirt 3 (1920×1080 pixels, medium graphics) at 32 frames per second, which is just barely above our 30 fps playability threshold, however beneath the 42 fps average.
The Latitude’s audio system offered enough warm audio to fill a massive conference room. When I listened to Queens of the Stone Age’s “Kalopsia,” the track’s bass hit hard, Josh Homme’s vocals came through clearly, and the warbling guitars sounded accurate. The preloaded Waves MaxxAudio Pro audio adjustment utility helps you to tweak EQ settings and enhance bass, but the notebook didn’t need such adjustment out of the box.
Dell Latitude 5480 Review – Hardware and Performance
Armed with a Seventh-Gen Intel Core i7-7600U, a 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM, the Latitude 5480 is a multitasker’s best friend. I noticed zero slowdowns when I split my screen between a dozen Chrome tabs (together with TweetDeck, Gmail, and Slack) and a Full-HD YouTube video. The system retained its speedy response after I launched a full system scan in Windows Defender, began taking selfies with the camera and commenced a round of Candy Crush Soda Saga.
The Latitude 5480’s highly efficient processor enabled it to attain a high 8,530 on the GeekBench 3 general performance test. The ThinkPad T460’s (Core i5-6300U, 16GB RAM) rating of 6,708 and the ProBook 440 G3’s (Core i5-6200U, 8GB RAM) rating of 4,990 are predictably lower, because of their last-gen Core i5 CPUs. The 8,088 average for thin-and-light notebooks is also inferior to the Latitude’s mark.
The 256GB M.2 SATA SSD in our Latitude 5480 took 37 seconds to duplicate 4.97GB of multimedia files. That interprets to a speed of 137.6MBps, which is sluggish for an SSD and beneath the category average (184.45MBps). Nonetheless, it was sufficient to top the ProBook 440 G3’s rating of 103.8MBps, however not the T460’s 175.5MBps.
Productiveness energy users ought to admire the Latitude 5480 because it wanted only 3 minutes and 12 seconds to match 20,000 names to addresses in our OpenOffice Spreadsheet Macro check. That’s shorter than the occasions posted by the ThinkPad T460 (4:13), the ProBook 440 G3 (4:55) and the 4:45 common.
Dell Latitude 5480 Review – Battery Life and Heat
The Dell Latitude 5480 has sufficient in the tank for a full work day and several hours of time beyond regulation, lasting 11 hours and 37 minutes on our Battery Test (steady internet browsing over Wi-Fi). That beats the 8:03 thin-and-light average in addition to the 440 G3 (7:31) and the 3-cell battery versions of the ThinkPad T460 (8:26 with non-touch, 6:40 with a touch screen). However, with a 6-cell battery, the ThinkPad T460 put up some spectacular times of its own, with 13:12 hours for a touch screen and 17:04 hours without a touch screen.
Certain parts of this Dell Latitude 5480 can spike a slight fever. After streaming 15 minutes of HD video, the underside of the laptop measured 98 degrees Fahrenheit, which is barely higher than our 95-degree consolation threshold. The touchpad (85 degrees) and G&H keys (91 levels) were noticeably cooler.
Dell Latitude 5480 Review – Configuration Options
Our evaluation model of Dell Latitude 5480 prices $1,562 and features a Core i7-7600U CPU, 8GB RAM, a 256GB M.2 SSD, a 1080p Full-HD display and a 4-cell 68 WHr battery. The Latitude 5480 begins at $769 with a configuration that features an Intel Core i3-7100U CPU, 4GB RAM, a non-touch 1366 x 768-pixel display, a 500GB 7,200 rpm hard drive and a 3 cell, 51 WHr battery. Customizable models begin with the $879 model, which incorporates a Core i5-7200U CPU, and upgrades to 8GB of RAM ($63) and SSD storage (beginning at $42 for 128GB). You will get a full HD, 1920 x 1080-pixel panel ($70) and a Nvidia GeForce 930MX GPU ($69.30).
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Conclusion
We like the sturdy Dell Latitude 5480 for its extended battery life and speedy performance, which make it an incredible machine for plowing through a day’s work (even when it extends into the evening). It’s unfortunate that all that laptop is hindered by the notebook’s lifeless touch screen. The ThinkPad T460, which will quickly be replaced with a Kaby Lake model, has a brighter, more colorful display, longer endurance, and a better keyboard. However, for those who’re looking for a highly effective, well-made business laptop, the Dell Latitude 5480 is a perfect alternative.