Dell Latitude 5580 - Review 2022

Does your company still take workers sitting at desktop PCs? It'due south time to deploy desktop-replacements—maybe even laptops that are practically workstation-replacements, with quad-core Intel Cadre i7 ability every bit well as all the latest conveniences. That's the bulletin of the Dell Breadth 5580 (starts at $779; $1,985 as tested), a 15.vi-inch business notebook with everything from a Windows How-do-you-do-uniform face-recognition webcam to legacy Ethernet and VGA ports. Its screen size means it's non every bit portable as our favorite business concern laptop, the 14-inch Lenovo ThinkPad T470, only information technology's certainly viable for short trips or shuttling between office and home. IT managers volition desire to check it out.

Many Configurations

The Latitude 5580 starts at a stripper with a Cadre i3 CPU, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive. Our lavishly equipped test unit of measurement has a Core i7-7820HQ (the same 2.9GHz chip found in the Apple MacBook Pro 15-Inch), 16GB of memory, and a 512GB solid-state drive. The processor'southward Intel HD 630 integrated graphics handle visuals. The matte display offers total HD (i,920-by-1,080) resolution.

The matte black aluminum chassis is comfortable to grip and has proved its sturdiness in MIL-STD 810G tests. There's no flex in the display and just a fleck in the keyboard deck if you whale on the middle keys. At 4.2 pounds, the Breadth splits the difference between the MacBook Pro (4.0 pounds) and Dell XPS 15 (4.iv pounds with the actress weight of a touch screen), but all iii are relatively light by 15-inch laptop standards. Measuring 0.9 past fourteen.8 by ix.9 inches (HWD), the 5580 is a fifth of an inch thicker but otherwise matches the HP ZBook Studio G4—a bit on the beefy side compared with the 0.6 past thirteen.8 by 9.5-inch Apple.

Except for Thunderbolt 3, which is optional, our test unit has all the ports you could wish for. The Latitude's left border holds a USB-C/DisplayPort, a USB 3.0 port, and an SD card slot (deep plenty to allow you transport the organisation with a card in place instead of sticking out). On the right, you lot'll find another USB iii.0 port forth with a VGA port, audio jack, optional SIM bill of fare slot, and Noble (non Kensington) lock slot.

Finally, a third USB 3.0 port joins Ethernet and HDMI ports and the Air conditioning power connector at the rear. Our 5580 had both a SmartCard slot on the left side and a contactless SmartCard reader in the palm remainder. Bluetooth and 802.11ac Wi-Fi take intendance of wireless communications, though WiGig is another pick.

Features and Frills

The webcam centered to a higher place the display captures well-lit, detailed selfies and video and besides serves equally a Windows Hello sign-in device (oddly, the Windows Hi setup screen offers only the face up recognition photographic camera, ignoring the fingerprint reader). The speakers nether the Dell'southward front edge produce acceptable audio—far from the loudest we've heard and brusk on booming bass, simply enough to be heard in a conference room and with skillful sound reproduction for our MP3s.

Wide bezels surround the IPS screen, whose 15.half-dozen-inch size, total HD resolution, and Windows' default 125 percent zoom make things easy on the eyes. Viewing angles are broad and colors are nicely saturated, while fine details wait precipitous. Both PowerPoint slides and 1080p YouTube videos pop from the screen. Our but gripe is that the display isn't equally bright as some rivals'—contrast is skilful but we'd estimate the panel's candlepower equally definitely southward of the XPS fifteen'south 350 nits or the MacBook Pro'south 500 nits; we couldn't comfortably leave it at half effulgence for long work sessions.

We have no gripes about the Latitude's keyboard, autonomously from Home and End non getting defended keys like their partners Page Up and Page Downwardly (they're combinations of the Fn and arrow keys). The total-sized layout includes a numeric keypad and offers satisfying travel and tactile feedback once yous get used to a faintly rubbery experience; we'd rate it between the finest (the Lenovo ThinkPad T and X serial) and flattest (the Apple MacBook and Pro) in terms of competitive keyboards.

The keyboard provides two pointing devices, a two-button touchpad and an embedded pointing stick with 3 buttons of its own. Both work smoothly, with the touchpad proving peculiarly accurate and responsive to glides and taps. Our 5580 carries a three-year warranty with on-site service after remote diagnostics; Dell'south software bundle puts the emphasis on security and manageability, with everything from an encryption and countersign-management dashboard to a central organization status and update panel. (Windows' arranged Chimera Witch 3 Saga, Minecraft, and other toys look all the more than ridiculous in context.)

The Power to Pull Through

Nosotros already mentioned the Core i7-7820HQ, a ii.9GHz (3.9GHz turbo) quad-core with Hyper-Threading, teamed here with 16GB of non-ECC DDR4 retention and a 512GB SanDisk SATA Grand.2 solid-state drive. It helped the Latitude articulate not only the iii,000-point but the 3,500-bespeak bulwark (3,556) in our PCMark viii productivity benchmark, outstripping a field that includes the XPS 15 and ThinkPad T470 (the final closest at three,132 points).

Besides annihilating the likes of Word and Excel, the 5580 too won our Adobe Photoshop prototype-editing competition with a time of ii minutes and 58 seconds to the MacBook Pro'due south 3:15 and the Core i5 ThinkPad'due south 3:31. It joined the XPS 15 (1:03 versus one:01) at the head of a virtual four-way necktie for the win in our Handbrake video-editing workload.

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The Latitude's integrated graphics did it no favors in our game simulation tests, where it posted barely a fifth the score of the XPS xv and its GeForce GTX 1050 graphics in our 3DMark Burn down Strike Extreme subtest and trailed that machine and the MacBook Pro in the Heaven and Valley tests. (The XPS 15's 4K screen put it at a disadvantage to the Apple tree in the top-quality, native-screen-resolution sprints.) The 5580 isn't built for entertainment; it's built for loftier-speed, ringlet-upwardly-your-sleeves productivity.

And it'll stay productive for a long time, lasting eleven hours and x minutes in our bombardment rundown test. That blows abroad the ZBook Studio and the XPS fifteen (about six hours apiece) and beats the stamina of the T470 with its standard battery (9 hours and 21 minutes), though the latter's optional extended-life battery gave it a runtime approaching 18 hours.

At the Top of the Corporate Ladder

The Latitude 5580 is a strong contender if yous seek a high-terminate, high-performance office desktop-replacement. It'due south a sturdy, speedy machine that tin can be configured but about whatever way you like, with features enough to satisfy your fussiest employee. Nevertheless, its size and power make information technology something of a niche or near-workstation arrangement, as nosotros mentioned. The Lenovo ThinkPad T470 retains our Editors' Option for business laptops due to its more portable form gene, matchless keyboard, standard instead of optional Thunderbolt 3, and bachelor epic battery life.