Dell Latitude 7280 (7600U, FHD) Laptop Review

[Redaktion]

Smaller and sleeker. Dell's latest 7000 series ultraportable migrates even further toward high-end consumer-grade luxury, even while maintaining most of what sets a business-grade machine apart from its mass market brethren. Does it remain a top contender?

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Latitude-7280-7600U-FHD-Laptop-Review.200696.0.html

[dthrp]

"oversized 60 Wh battery (larger than any of today's competitors)"

Lenovo Thinkpads X270 and T470 packs 95 Wh batteries and even the 2015 Macbook Pro 13 had 75 Wh battery. More so, the LG Gram All-Day 13" and 14" each pack 60 Wh batteries in 970 g (2.1 lbs) chassis. So this replica of the XPS 13 9360 is nothing spectacular. Not to mention a cloned XPS 13 will certainly inherit all the design issues and QC problems of the original. It barely qualifies as a "business" device.

And 19 hrs? I doubt it.

[Necovek]

It still sounds impossible to get 20h out of a 60Wh battery: that's puts the average power consumption at 3W, which is much less than the "idle average" of 5W you measured.

What's going on here?

[Simon A-B]

Necovek,

That 5.11W power consumption you're talking about is when plugged in.  When on battery power it certainly consumes less.

[Steve Schardein]

It still sounds impossible to get 20h out of a 60Wh battery: that's puts the average power consumption at 3W, which is much less than the "idle average" of 5W you measured.

What's going on here?

Simon is correct about idle power measurements, but regardless, that's exactly what went through my head.  In fact, this morning, I started running a second Wi-Fi battery test because I'm almost convinced something has to have exploded during that first one.  Nearly 20 hours is unfathomable.

I'll update the article if/when it changes significantly.

[Steve Schardein]

@dthrp:

Yes, that was poorly-worded on my part.  What I meant was larger than any of the competitors against which we were comparing in today's article.  I've updated the wording to clarify.

Also, the battery test in progress does look like it will be coming out significantly lower than before.  There must have been some problem with the script; I have been babysitting it this time to ensure it doesn't hit a snag (it's a long time to babysit!).

I'll be sure to update once it completes... but either way, the battery life still looks like it's going to be pretty terrific.

[Necovek]

@Steve: thanks for doing another test. I understand that when plugged and on battery, power use would be different (though I'd expect that to mostly come down to power adapter inefficiency and losses, and keeping-battery-charged-while-using, if it does not throttle on battery), but I was stressing this because this was still *idle*, versus the "continuos web surfing" test that's performed, which is not *idle* and on higher brightness (minimum vs 150 nits, right?).

Hitting that average of 5W/12h in a real test would still be great, of course!

[Necovek]

Btw, a few more questions: I've got Dell XPS 13 Dev Edition (9343, albeit with upgraded SSD, wifi card and a 56Wh battery from 9350 instead of the 52Wh one that came with it), and there are a few things that annoy me:
- glossy screen (I want quality high res screen, it's been my fetish since the original Vaio Z with Full HD screen back when they were a rarity)
- opening XPS 13 on your lap can pinch your trousers or skin (if you've got shorts on): nobody ever mentions that in a review, maybe because they are worried somebody will know they work in their underpants :-)
- I get a lot of typos on the keyboard: I haven't used Thinkpads for ages, but whenever I use one, I barely have any typos at 85-90wpm, and with XPS13 I can't type my 20-something character password in one go

Great to read that the keyboard is much better on 7280, but what about the other points?  I am likely getting X1 Carbon 5th gen next (unless it reviews bad), but it's still going to be a little too big for my tastes (already had Fujitsu U904 that was lovely except for the size, fan noise, even worse keyboard and touchpad, and the build quality was not up to par), so I am looking at other options too.

[Steve Schardein]

@Necovek:

Yes, you are right about the screen brightness discrepancy for sure, as well as the fact that we also switch the power profile to Power Saver for the Idle/Readers test while it remains on Balanced during the Surfing With Wi-Fi benchmark.  So absolutely the latter should consume more power.

I am happy to report however that I have what I consider to be more reliable estimates for the web surfing battery life.  The second test also encountered problems, though it looked as though it would have ended up around the 15-16 hour mark had it not.  For a third result, I ran the benchmark in Chrome (which is a much more power-hungry browser than Edge), and I received a total of 682 minutes (11 hours, 22 minutes).  So overall, the battery life is still terrific, and quite a bit higher than any of the other laptops we are comparing against today.  Personally I am not sure about the X270 because to my knowledge we have not yet evaluated that one, but for a machine with an i7, IPS 1080p panel, and a weight as low as this one the 7280 posts some impressive numbers.

I hope this helps clear up some of the battery life concerns!

Great to read that the keyboard is much better on 7280, but what about the other points?  I am likely getting X1 Carbon 5th gen next (unless it reviews bad), but it's still going to be a little too big for my tastes (already had Fujitsu U904 that was lovely except for the size, fan noise, even worse keyboard and touchpad, and the build quality was not up to par), so I am looking at other options too.

Hah, well yes, you can absolutely still pinch yourself with the 7280 since the hinge design is identical.  As for reviewers failing to mention this... well, at least they're wearing underpants when they're doing *their* reviews.  I'm kidding!  ;-)

The keyboard I adore on the 7280.  The XPS 13 I also felt was good overall, but the short travel and unique feedback isn't for everybody.  I'm confident you would be pleased with that of the Latitude, which is one of the better keyboards I can recall using on a device of this size.

-Steve

[Nw]

I'm courious about power consumption, why laptops with basically same hardware (screen size and res, ram, CPU, an ssd) can get differences is power consumption?

[dthrp]

"oversized 60 Wh battery (larger than any of today's competitors)"

Lenovo Thinkpads X270 and T470 packs 95 Wh batteries and even the 2015 Macbook Pro 13 had 75 Wh battery. More so, the LG Gram All-Day 13" and 14" each pack 60 Wh batteries in 970 g (2.1 lbs) chassis. So this replica of the XPS 13 9360 is nothing spectacular. Not to mention a cloned XPS 13 will certainly inherit all the design issues and QC problems of the original. It barely qualifies as a "business" device.

And 19 hrs? I doubt it.

My bad, I mistook it for the Latitude 7380, which is a remodeled XPS 13 9360.
So then, the Latitude 7280 does indeed look like a solid winner this year.

Though Lenovo's Thinkpad X270 has an unlocked TDP limit of 25 watts, hence it needs the medium 71 (23+48) Wh battery configuration to achieve a similar battery life as the Latitude. Which will increase its weight from 1.45 to 1.55 vs 1.30 kg for the Latitude, making it too heavy.

HP's Elitebook 820 G4 has a sub-par battery capacity and lacks a thunderbolt port, an anti-glare panel, and a 180 degree hinge. Not to mention worse keyboard and fingerprint reader qualities vs the other two.

For future reviews, NBC could measure keyboards' key travel and actuation force. And also indicate versions of mini DisplayPort and HDMI port and the number of PCIe lanes available on individual thunderbolt ports.

[jack north]

another great review!!

since so many ppl say that 7280 is a sibling to xps13, I wonder if there is CABC(content adaptive brightness control) in 7280's screen panel(either 1366X768 or FHD)

could you pls test the 1366X768 panel for PWM?
THX!!

[Zhula]

Thanks you guy for your great review.

I just came across a big issue that seems to go since a 
many years on all these business laptop without these brands making
any effort to try to solve it and i might be wrong
but it doesn't seem fair to me so i would be very pleased if you
could add that up to all your future tests and inform the willing
purchasers of this kinds of wonderfull products. The issue is about
replacement composants and some whitelist that no one seems to
know or talk about until you need to fix your computer. it seems like you
cannot upgrade your computer with better no brand official wlan or wwan
cards if the one in your computer doesn't work propely for some reason
you need to spend 130~250 $ to get one from the brand which might be
even least powerfull than a 30~50$ one that you can find by yourself.
And this might go with others composants i don't know, may be next will
be the hard drive, ram...
Greed seems to be good for most of these brand and we will be glad to
see which one are more friendly costumers. So we can make our choice
knowing how we are going to spend big or not to upgrade after the purchase.
Got my issue with a thinkpad lenovo but i discovered that they are not the
only one using that ""whitelist"" thing.

Thanks you very much...from france and keep the great work.

[Makoto Cole]

Wow!  What a detailed review on the Dell 7280.  I work with a lot of these laptops and was looking for a comparison between this and the  7270.  My coworker and I had a debate on whether the 7270 was preferred over the 7280.  Your article answered all my questions and then provided more details to areas which I did not consider.

It also slipped my mind that the USB-C was also compatible to be used as a video out.  So I guess not having the display port out is a moot point!

[Depende]

Great review!

I have some questions, I hope you know if its possible to charge this laptop with a USB-C charger (45W or more, of course).

And also I want to know if its possible to connect a SSD into the WWAN port.

Thanks!