Dell Latitude 12 5000 Series Review
by Brett Howse on January 19, 2015 10:30 AM ESTConclusion
While the Latitude 12 5000 series retains a discreet aesthetic, it does check certain boxes for a business laptop. It is available with a Smart Card reader, fingerprint scanner, FIPS certified TPM, optional encrypted drives (OPAL and FIPS), crypto accelerator, Intel V-Pro, and has a solid build quality. Add in a docking port, and a 1 Gbps Ethernet port, and this is a positive laptop for around the office.
On the road, the Latitude E5250 has a good keyboard compared to others, and the trackpad is also a highlight. Battery life is at the top of our charts and should only improve with the new Broadwell based versions that are shipping as of this month due to the decreased audio DSP power draw and SoC efficiency of Gen8 graphics.
The display is, I think, a good compromise, at least as far as pixel density. It does not have the ultra high DPI of something like the Yoga 3 Pro, but the 1920x1080 resolution makes it usable at 100% scaling. Although many consumer applications have now been adapted for high DPI displays, you can bet that many business applications will not be so fortunate, so I think it is important not to get too extreme on the resolution. The 176 PPI strikes a nice balance and the IPS display has great viewing angles and contrast. Accuracy leaves something to be desired, and it would be nice if the display could at least cover the sRGB gamut even if it is not going to be used by imaging professionals.
I had no issues with performance during my time with the device, especially in CPU bound tasks. That coupled with the battery life, and smaller size, makes this a good laptop for on the go. It is a bit heavy, at 3.44 lbs (1.56 kg) with the 3-cell battery, and a bit more with the 51 Wh 4-cell version that was reviewed. With the optional integrated 4G/LTE modem, this would be a good device for on the road (other than the weight). With prices from $830 to over $1500, there is quite a wide range of options to let you fit the device into almost any budget, although from a purely technical perspective, a dual channel memory configuration should be the first upgrade on the list. It would be interesting to see what part of our benchmark suite adjusts based on dual channel performance.
The 5000 series is Dell’s midrange lineup, and it has been fairly impressive. Solid, ergonomic, good display, and great battery life. Dell has crafted a business laptop that should keep any office worker productive, and mobile.
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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.