Dell's Latitude E7440 - A business Ultrabook set to redefine standards

Amazing industrial design - a perfect remainder of subtle elegance and sleek style. Impressive Total 1080p HD affect display. Good keyboard and rails pad. Long battery life. Durable construction.

Can exist expensive when compared to regular consumer notebooks. Track Stick comes nowhere near Lenovo's Rails Point.

Dell actually hit the nail on the head with the Breadth E7740; it is an Ultrabook that shows the company is nowhere near ready to surrender when compared to others who are offset to take over the PC infinite. The notebook is a wonderful solution for both the business and consumer looking for a not-hybrid Windows viii Ultrabook with a touch display. The cost tag tin be considered a bit expensive, just the build quality well justifies the purchase.

Form

The unit of measurement itself is congenital from the ground up with what Dell is calling a Tri-metallic chassis that includes durable aluminum. The height of the unit itself is covered in a soft-touch finish that truly feels wonderful when conveying. The soft-touch finish emulates the appearance of carbon cobweb and truly brings Dell's business organisation machines up to a course it has never even so been. Every bit with all Dell notebooks, the classic Dell logo sits in the middle of the lid, but instead of beingness made of silver plastic – the logo is common cold hard metal.

In addition to the cute crafted and sexy height Dell has brought to the Latitude E7440, they have included one of the sturdiest hinges we have seen in a while. The unit's hinges are both made of hard metallic, in improver to the strip that links them. Forth the outer strip on the top of the auto, we can also see 3 LED indicators - power country, hd activity, and charging condition.

Once we had finished admiring the lid and our amazement that Dell had produced such an ace looking machine, nosotros rotated the auto to see if the trend connected all around – it did.

The front of the laptop curves down and under, as do many units in an endeavor to seem thinner than they actually are, but carries no ports. The left and correct sides of the machine are an example of splendid industrial design; both sides start thicker in the back and curve inwards to give what I similar to phone call a "gull fly" design.

Ports on the left mitt side of the machine are essentially hidden; there are only 2 and they are completely flush to the machine's side. An SD Card slot sits slightly nether the curve, while a barely visible Smartcard reader rests nicely on the edge. When we say that they are "barely visible", that is not a bad thing, they have merely been designed so well that if you do not demand them – they just are not obvious.

The right hand side of the auto has what we like to call "fast access ports"; these are the most frequently used ports that y'all want readily available and not tucked away at the back of the system. Rapidly available is a USB iii.0 port, headphone/microphone philharmonic jack, wireless switch – in that location is likewise the security standard Kingston locking port.

The dorsum of the unit is crafted from cool metal and has four exposed screws, which gives off a potent feeling of industrial fashion pattern. Ports along the behind of the unit include two more USB 3.0 ports, a brandish port, an HDMI port, an Ethernet port, and the charging jack. We would have preferred the charging jack on the left or correct side for fast access, simply the positioning on the back is non besides bad. One of the two USB 3.0 ports is available for always on use and we are excited to see Dell showcase ii options for video output.

The bottom of the unit of measurement'south appearance is also metal and coated in what Dell is calling a "pulverisation-coated base of operations" – what powdered you ask? We may never know. What we practise know is that just every bit the residue of the unit looks keen, the bottom continues that tendency. In fact, for a business organisation user, the lesser of the unit may just exist the best function of the entire unit of measurement.

While many business organisation Ultrabooks are extremely sparse and determine to forgo dock connectors and removable batteries – the Latitude E7440 has both. At the rear end of the bottom, you will discover Dell'southward standard E-Family docking station connector. At the front end, you volition find a replaceable battery. The movie of a switch easily ejects the included flush 47Wh battery from the unit.

Besides the battery and docking port, you can too find the unit's 2 stereo speaker grills, a single fan grill for cooling, and 4 rubber feet. The feet worked well on multiple surfaces we tested and kept the auto firm in identify during typing. I design characteristic that many people will overlook is a single bump on the bottom of the unit – information technology appears to assist the keyboard from flexing. Dell really paid attention to detail when constructing this machine.

The real question now is whether the design of the machine lives up to the high standard Dell has set with the unit's exterior. Upon opening the lid, nosotros over again notice the extremely sturdy hinges; some Dell units of the by have not had the world's all-time hinges, so it is great to see what they accept done with the E7440.

Of course, the showtime item your optics divert to once the lid is opened is the edge-to-edge 14-inch display. The touch-enabled screen that came included with our unit is forged with the forcefulness of Corning Gorilla Glass NBT. The glass itself is said to exist viii-10x more scratch resistant and optimized for touch on.

Directly below the brandish we find iii volume control buttons (mute, volume upwards, book downwards), three LED indicators to indicate hd action, battery condition, wireless status, and the power button.

The keyboard sits slightly recessed and surrounded by a separation intermission in the metal, which breaks up the minimalism of the keyboard deck and adds dimension. The keyboard itself is Dell's standard "faux Chicklet keyboard"; the buttons themselves are not actually separated, but instead take bumps that make them appear to be. The keys themselves accept a nice amount of travel and practiced pushback that made the keyboard a joy to type on. We were also happy that Dell included an LED light built straight into the Caps Lock key. The keyboard itself is also backlit for working in darker environments.

Dell continues to include its bluish Track Stick, as an alternative to runway pad navigation. While additional choices are always welcomed, we found the Rails Stick and its buttons to be sub-par. Grip on the Rails Stick can be difficult at times and nosotros constantly found our finger slipping off. The buttons themselves feel a flake mushy and Dell chose to have the left and right buttons click at the bottom, while the middle mouse push clicks at the summit. In terms of Pointing Sticks, Lenovo nonetheless has Dell beat by eons with their TrackPoint.

The actual Track pad included on the laptop is decent, not amazing, but not terrible either. It worked well during use, simply felt a fleck over sensitive at times – yous may discover yourself playing with settings until yous find the perfect setting. The size of the Track pad is nearly what we await on a unit that also contains buttons for a Pointing Stick. The left and right click buttons experience decent, but just as the Rails Stick buttons were – they feel a bit mushy and nosotros would have preferred a more solid click.

Role

The unit of measurement we received from Dell was equipped with a Intel Haswell Core i5 Processor running at 1.9 GHz (upwards to ii.5 GHz with Intel Turbo Boost), 4 GB of RAM, a 256 GB SSD, and Dell'south Full 1080p Hd display with WiGig engineering. Currently, this configuration costs $1849 on Dell'due south website.

The unit itself starts at $1089 with an Intel Haswell Core i3 Processor running at 1.seven GHz, 4 GB of RAM, a 500 GB 5400rpm HDD, and a 1366 10 768 WLED brandish. The higher up unit of measurement that we received was the highest configuration available in terms of operation. Overall, we would take liked to see an optional Intel Core i7 Processor and 8 GB of RAM, simply our review unit ran quite well.

During day to twenty-four hour period operations, the unit ran smooth and without hiccups. The Intel Core i5 processor handled everything nosotros threw at information technology and unless you planned on gaming or doing extremely intense CPU activities – it will suite you perfectly well.

Due to the unit only beingness loaded with upwardly to 4GB of RAM, applications like Adobe Photoshop CC and Adobe Lightroom CC could become a bit bogged down if you attempted to do besides much at one time. Working with the ii applications is certainly possible and most amateur photographers will not accept whatsoever bug as long as they are non multitasking as well many other applications in the background.

As expected, the included SSD ran at lightning speeds and its actual available storage space showed upwardly every bit 220GB. Checking Disk Direction, we tin see that Dell did include a few of their ain partitions for recovery, which can be deleted to secure up some more space if needed.

The optional Full 1080p HD display that came included with our xiv-inch Latitude E7440 was quite overnice and enjoyable. It does non come near Lenovo's YOGA series of machine or Sony'south VAIO Duo units, but information technology is much better than what nosotros expected to find on a business machine. Contrast and vibrancy on the unit is great and any movies you sentry will be well honored.

In terms of touch on responsiveness, the unit responded perfectly. The screen supports all Windows touch gestures and carries the standard 10 touch points constitute on most units.

Since we are on the topic of multimedia, permit united states of america talk most the integrated Stereo speakers - they are simply astonishing. The laptop'southward speaker practise not sound as proficient equally a quality set of Desktop speakers, just for a laptop, they truly sound neat. In improver, the 2 speakers can get decently loud so crowding effectually to watch a YouTube clip or movie will not exist an issue.

In terms of battery life, we were impressed with the unit's operation. While browsing the internet and performing day-to-day tasks nosotros were able to achieve 5 to six hours of up time. If you plough on free energy saving mode and plan on working with Microsoft Part, nosotros can easily come across y'all pulling some other hour or even two out of the unit.

We were also very happy with the lack of bloatware pre-installed on the system we received. There were a few applications out of the box including Microsoft Office, Google Chrome, Skype (desktop edition), Dell's ain Windows 8 app, and a re-create of McAfee cyberspace security. Overall, all the software we found was quite welcomed (and easy to remove if you do not like information technology), but we nonetheless cannot recommend McAfee. We recommend uninstalling it every bit soon equally you lot receive the automobile and go with a less operation hungry and more effective security suite such equally Norton Net Security.

Overall, Dell has done what we did not expect – they produced a brilliant auto with few flaws. The operation of the unit of measurement is slap-up, although we would have loved the ability to add a bit more power with Intel'south Cadre i7 CPU and more than RAM than just iv GB.

Dell executed a simply stunning design that volition even take consumer heads turning to look at this business motorcar and say "wow". The design is a scrap subtle, but information technology carries a sophistication that is a perfect balance for the boardroom and beyond.

The Tri-metal chassis that the unit was crafted with really gives united states confidence in carrying in this motorcar around, and different previously plastic latitudes – we are not agape to be a piddling rough with it when we toss it in our bags.

As of now, Lenovo is currently the number one PC manufacturer in the globe and once solid brands similar Dell and HP have become to slip. The Dell Latitude E7440 is the blazon of motorcar that Dell needs to pull themselves upwardly and testify the globe that they still have what information technology takes to remain competitive.

Conclusion

Starting at over one thousand dollars with an Intel Core i3 processor, does not brand this machine cheap and you are definitely going to want to pick up the nearly expensive model at $1849, which includes the cute full HD touch screen with Gorilla Glass. That being said, this is a business machine and yous are paying for the build quality, office support, long lifecycle and integrated technologies such as Intel's vPro security solution.

If you are non looking for a hybrid Windows viii machine and but desire to come across what some of the best bear upon screen Windows 8 Ultrabooks out in that location – Dell's Latitude E7440 is one of them. Nosotros truly feel that information technology is difficult to get incorrect if you pick upwards this machine for business or personal utilize.

You can find ordering information on the Dell Latitude E7440 here at Dell's website.