The Latitude 9000 series is the pinnacle model of Dell’s business laptop lineup. When we tested the Latitude 9410 2-in-1 a year ago, we noted it had a sky-high price tag but was a top-notch corporate choice. This year’s Latitude 9420 2-in-1 is even more expensive (starts at $1,997; $2,853 as tested), but it’s a machine with few compromises that should satisfy enterprises with deep pockets and entitled employees who expect a premium notebook as a perk of the job. Still, making few compromises isn’t the same as making none. Between its cost and its battery life (which is fine, but much less than its predecessor’s), the 9410 leads us to suggest that companies look one rung down the price ladder to the Editors’ Choice award-winning Dell Latitude 7420 series.
Decoding the Latitude Family
Competing with Lenovo’s ThinkPad T and X models, both the mainstream Latitude 7420 and the flagship Latitude 9420 are 14-inch laptops available as both conventional clamshells and 2-in-1 convertibles with 360-degree screen hinges. With few exceptions, the 2-in-1 and clamshell versions have nearly identical features other than the former’s ability to pivot from laptop mode to presentation-friendly tent or easel modes or pen-input tablet mode. So most things we like (and dislike) about our 9420 2-in-1 review unit also apply to the plain Latitude 9420.
The base configuration comes with an 11th Generation Intel Core i5-11357G7 processor, 16GB of memory, a skimpy 128GB solid-state drive, and a non-touch screen with full HD resolution. Those are disappointing specs for a $2,000 laptop (especially the inadequate SSD capacity), but you’re paying a premium both for the Latitude name and for subtle enhancements such as a standard three-year warranty. Stepping up to our review configuration adds more than $800 to the already high starting price, but it gets you a much more capable system for getting work done. Our review unit flaunts a quad-core Core i7-1185G7 CPU, a 512GB SSD, and a far superior QHD (2,560-by-1,600-pixel) display with touch support.
It also bumps up the battery from the standard 40-watt-hour pack to 60 watt-hours, a plus for the on-the-go executive who spends a lot of time away from power outlets. Unfortunately, the six-cell, 78-watt-hour battery optional on last year’s Latitude 9410 2-in-1 is not available on the new laptop. The internal component layout and design has been reworked to accommodate a new cooling system (more on that below), and Dell says the renovations left no room for the jumbo battery.
Dell’s main competition for the Latitude 9420 2-in-1 is the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 5 (and the recently released Gen 6, which we will be reviewing in the coming weeks). Although it has an older 10th Generation Intel processor, Lenovo’s 14-inch convertible has many of the same features as the Latitude, including optional QHD and 4K displays and Intel’s vPro manageability technology.
Clamshell or 2-in-1: Take Your Pick
Whether you choose the convertible or clamshell version of the Latitude 9420, the chassis stays mostly the same. It measures 0.54 by 12.2 by 8.5 inches (HWD), which makes it compact enough to compete with many alternative corporate machines that have smaller 13-inch screens, let alone 14-inchers. For instance, the 13-inch Dell Latitude 7320 2-in-1 is 0.67 by 12.1 by 8 inches. The ThinkPad X1 Yoga measures 0.59 by 12 by 8.5 inches.
Choosing the 2-in-1 version of the Latitude 9420 does add a bit of weight; it starts at 3.2 pounds with the smaller battery, versus 2.8 pounds for the clamshell. Still, the convertible’s weight is close enough to the 3-pound mark that we consider the standard for ultraportable laptops.
Dell employs two main approaches to keep the Latitude 9420’s weight and size down. The first is rather obvious: use lightweight materials that are still strong enough to withstand the unavoidable abuse of a corporate road warrior’s daily routine. In this case, it’s CNC-machined aluminum, with modern-looking diamond-cut edges and a hairline brushed finish. Unlike many consumer laptops with aluminum unibody designs, the Latitude’s bottom cover is separate from the rest of the laptop and can be easily removed by loosening the eight screws that hold it in place. This allows IT staffers relatively simple access to service or replace the SSD, battery, system fan, and a few other key components. Dell claims that the Latitude 9420’s chassis also prioritizes heat dissipation, with finely tuned sensors that adjust power consumption (and thus heat generation) to match the processing requirements of the task you’re performing. Heat then gets shunted out through two pipes that vent to the side and rear of the laptop, replaced by cool air flowing in through the fan inlet on the bottom. In practice, I frequently noticed the fan spool up even when the laptop was idle, suggesting that the default cooling settings may need further tweaking to keep things as quiet as you’d expect from a premium ultraportable. Dell says IT managers can make these tweaks in the laptop’s BIOS settings.
The second approach to keeping bulk down is to limit the size of the borders (known as bezels) around the Latitude 9420’s screen. The result is a 91.6% screen-to-body ratio, and the narrow bezels go a long way toward limiting the laptop’s size and enhancing its corporate chic aesthetic.
Between the bezels, the screen itself is excellent. The 2-in-1 version of the 9420 is available exclusively with the touch-enabled QHD screen, which has fewer pixels than a 4K panel but more than the 1,920-by-1,200 display that is the clamshell model’s only option. The QHD panel benefits from a capable backlight rated at 500 nits of brightness, as well as a Corning Gorilla Glass covering and the ability to show the entire sRGB color space. While the full HD screen has a lower resolution and lacks touch support, it too comes with 500 nits of brightness and 100% sRGB coverage. Both options feature a 16:10 aspect ratio, a bit taller than the 16:9 rectangle commonly seen on widescreen laptops. I appreciate that the extra vertical space affords a bit more room to display a web page before you must scroll to the next section.
Thunderbolt 4 Comes Standard
A robust port selection is a must-have for corporate laptops, and the Latitude 9420 does not disappoint. As part of the internal reconfiguration to accommodate the dual-exhaust cooling system, the location of the ports has been changed from the Latitude 9410; nearly all of the ports are now on the left edge. Here, you’ll find an HDMI 2.0 video output, two USB-C ports that support Thunderbolt 4 and are also used to charge the laptop, a microSD card reader, and a universal audio jack.
Meanwhile, the only port on the right edge is a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A connector. The remainder of the right edge is dedicated to one of the two outlets for heat exhaust. Any object you place next to this port will get warm; it’s great if you’re right-handed and using an external mouse on a cold day, but not so much if it’s hot out and you suffer from clammy hands.
Standard wireless connections include Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi 6E, which means the laptop is capable of operating on 6Hz channels that are now available for Wi-Fi networking. Few other devices such as routers support this protocol yet, but once they do, the Latitude 9420 will be ready. You can also configure the system with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X20 or X55 cellular modem; the latter supports the 5G networks of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile and uses a micro SIM card.
The Latitude 9420 2-in-1’s audio experience is above average for such a compact laptop. This is thanks in part to the speaker layout: two speakers fire upward through grilles flanking the keyboard, while two fire downward through the bottom cover. A total of four noise-cancelling microphones also help with audio quality, automatically adjusting echo cancellation, gain, and noise reduction.
Above the screen, there’s a webcam that offers unremarkable picture quality but adds a nifty privacy feature called SafeShutter. It keeps the physical shutter closed when you’re not using the webcam; as soon as you open an app to which you’ve granted permission for camera use (like Windows Camera or Zoom), the shutter automatically snaps open. If you’d rather control the shutter manually, you can press the F9 key to open or close it.
The camera has optional IR sensors, which lets you log in to your Windows account using face recognition. As with other Latitude laptops, you can also enable or disable a proximity sensor. It will automatically wake the laptop from sleep mode when you sit down in front of it, and prompt the camera to scan for your face to log you in. Alternatively, you can tap the optional fingerprint reader integrated with the power button to log in without needing to type your password.
The Latitude 9420’s typing comfort is above average for a sleek ultraportable, as well it should be. Along with an HDMI port to connect to conference room AV systems, a well-designed keyboard is an essential feature on business laptops. I also appreciate the oversized glass touchpad, which tracks effortlessly and has a sturdy hinge for clicking.
Dell currently ships the Latitude 9420 with Windows 10 Pro, and the company plans to offer a Ubuntu Linux version starting later this year.
Putting the Core i7 to the Test
The Intel Core i7-1185G7 in our Latitude 9420 2-in-1 is a quad-core, eight-thread chip from Intel’s latest “Tiger Lake” CPU family. Its base frequency is as low as 1.2GHz in low-power mode, while its maximum boost clock is 4.8GHz. With the CPU coupled with 16GB of memory and a speedy SSD, I experienced no lagging or sluggishness during several days of streaming videos, browsing the web, and performing other everyday tasks. (See more about how we test laptops.)To see how the 9420’s performance stacked up against the competition, I compared its results in our benchmark tests against those of a few similarly priced business laptops. They include the HP Elite Dragonfly Max in addition to the Latitude 7420, Latitude 7320 2-in-1, and ThinkPad X1 Yoga.
The principal role of a premium business laptop is to handle everyday tasks like word processing and videoconferencing. We measure performance on these and similar workflows using the PCMark 10 suite, which the Latitude 9420 2-in-1 aced with a score of over 5,000 points. (Any score above 4,000 represents proficient office productivity.)
Thanks to its speedy SSD, the Latitude 9420 2-in-1 had no trouble with our PCMark 8 storage test, although these results are clustered together since most modern solid-state drives breeze through this benchmark.
On more complex, CPU-intensive tasks, the Latitude 9420 also offered class-leading performance, in part because its rivals used older 10th Generation processors or slightly slower Core i5 chips. In Maxon’s CPU-crunching Cinebench R15 test, which is fully threaded to make use of all available processor cores and threads, the Dell again finished first.
Cinebench is often a good predictor of our Handbrake video editing trial, another tough, threaded workout that’s highly CPU-dependent and scales well with cores and threads. In this case, however, the Latitude 9420 2-in-1 trailed the ThinkPad X1 Yoga and Elite Dragonfly Max.
The Latitude 9420 returned to the top of the class in our Adobe Photoship image editing benchmark, in which we apply a series of 10 complex filters and effects to a standard JPEG test image, timing each operation and adding up the total.
Graphics and Battery Tests
Gaming is possible with the Latitude 9420 2-in-1, although it’s not the primary focus of any business laptop. As the results of our Superposition and 3DMark game simulations show, Intel’s 11th Gen Iris Xe integrated graphics are significantly quicker than the older UHD Graphics silicon of the ThinkPad X1 Yoga.
The Latitude 9420 2-in-1’s time in our battery rundown test was admirable, at more than 14 hours; the system should easily get you through a full day of work away from a wall outlet, which the ThinkPad X1 Yoga might not be able to do. But it’s a far cry from the nearly 24-and-a-half hours that last year’s Latitude 9410 2-in-1 managed with its optional large battery.
A Pricey, Capable Business Powerhouse
Available either as a conventional clamshell or a 2-in-1 convertible, the Latitude 9420 is Dell’s ultimate 14-inch business laptop. You’ll pay a princely sum to own it, as evidenced by the sticker of our well-equipped review unit. In exchange, you get a sleek, compact machine with few drawbacks other than a smaller battery pack than its predecessor’s.If you balk at the 9420’s price, you’ll want to consider the 2-in-1 version of Dell’s Latitude 7420 instead. The clamshell version is our current top pick among premium business notebooks, and while its chassis is a bit more portly, it offers most of the same headlining features available on the flagship unit. Or, if you prioritize a 4K screen and typing comfort above all else in a business 2-in-1, the also excellent Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga is also worth close consideration.
