The Dell Latitude 9510 2-in-1 is a enterprise laptop computer that simply will not stop. Seriously: With practically a full 24 hours of battery life, it simply retains going and going.
Intel and Dell engineers architected the Latitude 9510 as a ”Project Athena” laptop, optimized for responsiveness and battery life. It actually ticks these containers. Dell payments the Latitude 9510 as a productiveness machine, however you most likely don’t know what our overview models are loudly telling us: The audio subsystem can also be among the many finest there may be.
This overview is a part of our ongoing roundup of the best laptops. Go there for data on competing merchandise and the way we examined them.
The Dell Latitude 9510 folds simply into tent mode, the place its weight and durable hinge assist hold it regular with out collapsing,
Dell Latitude 9510: Basic specs
Dell ships its Latitude 9510 in both clamshell or 2-in-1 type elements; we obtained the latter choice. The variations between the 2 are slight. The 2-in-1’s show consists of an anti-reflective and anti-smudge coating, with energetic pen assist, and it weighs slightly extra, at 3.3 kilos in comparison with 3.1 for the clamshell.
The overview unit we obtained was a build-to-order mannequin, with an inventory value of $4,038.57 discounted to $2,827 from Dell.com as of this writing. Prices begin at $1,899, and choices vary from dual- and quad-core 10th-gen Comet Lake processors (with a vPro choice coming); as much as 16GB of LPDDR3 reminiscence, and SSDs as much as 1TB, together with one self-encrypting mannequin. For WWAN, you will have the selection of both a Snapdragon X20 (LTE) or a X55 (Global 5G) modem, plus a SIM tray. A contact smartcard reader and fingerprint scanner beneath the facility button are different notable choices.
Here are the specs for our overview unit:
- Display: 15-inch (1920×1080), super-low-power, contact; Gorilla Glass 6 DX, anti-smudge, anti-reflective coatings
- Processor: Core i7-10810U (Comet Lake), with vPro choices “coming”
- Graphics: UHD Graphics
- Memory: 16GB LPDDR3 2133
- Storage: 256GB NVMe SSD
- Ports: 2 USB-C (Thunderbolt 3, Power Delivery, DisplayPort), 1 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A, 1 HDMI 2.0, microSD 4.0 reader, 3.5mm jack, wedge lock
- Camera: 720p user-facing, with Windows Hello
- Battery: 86.3Wh (rated), 89.4Wh (precise)
- Wireless: Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) 2×2 MIMO; Bluetooth 5.1; Modern Standby compliant
- Additional options: Protective sleeve, non-compulsory Dell Active Pen
- Operating system: Windows 10 Pro (model 2004) (as examined); Windows 10 Home, Ubuntu
- Dimensions (inches): 13.39 x 8.49 x 0.32 inches (13.99mm)
- Weight: 3.3 kilos
- Color: Silver
Mark Hachman / IDGA refined construct
The Latitude 9510 is a convertible constructed to be sturdy with a CNC machined aluminum chassis. The 360-degree hinge is especially no-nonsense, swiveling easily from pill to tent to clamshell modes. On paper, 3.3 kilos doesn’t appear particularly heavy, however the bulk of the burden is distributed behind the keyboard.
Dell follows the latest pattern different notebooks have pioneered: Shrink the present display bezel, and presto! The display measurement expands. Dell claims the Latitude 9510 presents a 15-inch laptop computer inside a typical 14-inch chassis, and when you’re a bit beneficiant, that’s true: Dell’s 14-inch Latitude E7440 measured 13.30 inches throughout, and the 15-inch Latitude 9510 measures 13.39 inches in width. The 1080p touchscreen bezels have shrunk to about an eighth of an inch on the perimeters, 1 / 4 of an inch on the highest, and a half-inch chin on the backside.
Mark Hachman / IDGThere’s loads of venting on the Latitude 9510, which seems to tug air from the underside of the laptop computer and exhaust it via the hinge vents.
We measured the Latitude’s touchscreen show at a really brilliant 489 lux. Interestingly, Dell presents an “adaptive color” choice along with Windows’ personal “night light” controls. Both dial down the blue gentle emitted by the laptop computer show. Dell, nonetheless, does it routinely, one thing that customers liable to frequent migraines would possibly take into account a profit. While the colour constancy of the interior show appeared wonderful, it projected a yellowish forged whereas outputting to an exterior show.
The 2-in-1 model ships with Dell Active Pen assist, too; the two-button Pen consists of a regular AAAA battery, and there is not any cubby to retailer the pen when not in use. A small lanyard helps hold it linked, although.
The Dell Power Manager utility presents efficiency and cooling choices, from the default Optimized setting via Quiet, Cool, and Ultra Performance modes. The latter two spin up the system fan, which tends to run incessantly, although quietly. A little bit of buzz creeps at instances, and is extra detectable when the laptop computer is underneath load.
Mark Hachman / IDGThe proper aspect of the Dell Latitude 9510 encompasses a USB-A port and a wedge lock.
The Latitude 9510’s port choice is sweet, if not fairly as beneficiant as that of some opponents. The two Thunderbolt ports are available significantly helpful, as a result of the Latitude reported a “slow charging” error when linked to my Thunderbolt dock. Plugging the charger into the opposite port solved the issue. The Dell Power Manager utility talked about earlier helps out right here: You can handle charging from the default “Adaptive” setting, letting the system handle it for you, aggressively “ExpressCharge” it, or go away a little bit of overhead with the “Primarily AC Use” setting. Using ExpressCharge, it charged nearly to 50 p.c in barely lower than an hour.
Mark Hachman / IDGA pair of USB-C Thunderbolt ports take middle stage on the opposite aspect of the laptop computer, along with an HDMI port and an microSD card slot.
In reality, I really like Dell’s utility software program simply as a lot as Lenovo’s Vantage, nonetheless the gold customary. Dell breaks out the final system performance into its Power Manager, Optimizer and Command | Update apps, leaving the defaults in “set it and forget it” modes for charging, battery life, and the like. Wonks can dive down and tweak issues as they like. We’ll discuss extra about these apps as they arrive up.
We didn’t overview the Latitude 9510 with the security-oriented vPro choice, although that’s coming later. Interestingly, a Dell consultant confirmed the Latitude 9510 doesn’t qualify as a secured-core PC but. Microsoft apparently permits PC makers to self-certify, nonetheless, in order that designation will come quickly.
An excellent, not nice, keyboard
The Latitude 9510’s keyboard seems to be on a par with these of different 14-inch laptops in its class: full-sized, spanning the width of the chassis minus the area afforded to the audio system on both aspect. Keyboard really feel is subjective, in fact. The Latitude 9510’s is slightly tighter, and the journey slightly shallower, than in my most popular pocket book, the Microsoft Surface Book lineup, however nothing that my fingers couldn’t get used to rapidly. Overall, the Latitude 9510’s keyboard earns a ‘B’ in my e book.
Mark Hachman / IDGDell’s Latitude 9510 offers a cushty typing expertise, although I subjectively favor that of different notebooks.
There are two ranges of keyboard backlighting, neither significantly highly effective, although with out extreme gentle bleed, both. The energy key hides within the higher right-hand-corner. A user-facing depth digicam can be utilized for biometric logins.
Surprisingly excellent audio
Dell’s Latitude 9510 presents the most effective laptop computer audio system I’ve ever heard, bar none. We’ve been supplied some notebooks with superior audio system over the previous few months, however the Latitude 9510 might legitimately step in as a substitute for an honest Bluetooth or good speaker setup. The quantity booms out boldly from the upward-facing audio system on both aspect of the keyboard, with a wealthy, well-rounded low finish and good tonality up and down the amount vary. Dell doesn’t use the identical four-speaker setup as within the Dell XPS 15 9500. Dell informed us that there are simply the 2 top-firing audio system within the 9510, however they arrive with a built-in amplifier.
That doesn’t imply it’s excellent. My eye twitched a bit after I needed to fish via to the Windows 10 Settings menu to seek out an audio slider or the flexibility to change audio system, as a result of Dell hides these controls. (The F2 and F3 keys can be utilized to regulate the amount, too.) Dell makes use of the Waves Nx Dimension audio know-how to bolster its personal presets for something from a quiet room to a loud workplace, by way of audio controls hidden throughout the Dell Optimizer app. This appeared to work fairly effectively towards the aural backdrop of my family, no less than, since a convention room wasn’t accessible.
Waves makes a major distinction. Turning off the audio enhancement, or turning on and off the 3D audio capabilities, tweaks the aural expertise noticeably—it makes audio expertise, nice. But that’s not true in all instances. Music sounded great when performed again with 3D sound enabled. But after I watched our take a look at film performed again utilizing headphones, dialogue sounded artificially resonant, prefer it was performed again in a big warehouse. By default, Waves additionally asks you what kind of headphones you’re plugging in on each try, which may turn into annoying. In all, Dell’s Latitude presents an aural expertise actually a bit beneath that of an audio-first good speaker like these produced by JBL or Harman Kardon, and that’s a praise.
Mark Hachman / IDGOur overview unit shipped with the Dell Active Pen, which inked effectively and was additionally comfortably thick.
Then there’s the webcam
In distinction to the audio system, the Latitude 9510’s user-facing digicam is decidedly subpar. The 720p decision is all you will discover on most laptops, however on this case it appears worse than common. Both images and video provide not more than 720p decision, and I by no means felt like my face was significantly effectively lit. HDR mode seems to be utterly ineffective. I additionally don’t just like the pinprick white LED that notifies you that the digicam is stay, because it’s solely completely seen whereas leaning to the precise. Even leaning barely raise lessens its brightness to the purpose that it appears to be like like only a random reflection. There’s no bodily shutter, both.
On the opposite hand, Dell does use the depth digicam and its “proximity sensor” to glorious impact, a function that’s a part of its Dell Optimizer utility. If it’s enabled, the system will at all times “look” for you. Walk away and the laptop computer routinely locks, and the display dims and turns off. But the Latitude will continually search for your presence (or that of anybody else within the space). If it detects an individual, the system will wake and Windows Hello will kick in. That, in flip, will can help you “instantly” log in.
I like most of this. Automatically locking the system is a helpful function even in an workplace with trusted coworkers. Still, I’m not personally offended if I have to faucet the laptop computer’s area bar, wait a second or two, then log in with Windows Hello. I think about in a busy workplace (not now, caught at house) the proximity sensor would possibly set off fairly incessantly.
Solid efficiency, godlike battery life
Mark Hachman / IDGThe Dell Optimizer app, with choices to regulate the audio, utility efficiency, and extra.
One attention-grabbing function of the Dell Latitude 9510 is a “performance optimizer” that guarantees to optimize your most incessantly used or resource-intensive functions, prioritizing them and apparently bettering their efficiency. It takes a while for functions to be “learned” after which optimized. We by no means actually noticed a measurable affect on efficiency on the Microsoft Edge browser it rapidly realized. (Dell says that the efficiency benefit needs to be between 4 p.c to 35 p.c.)
We noticed a major efficiency dip after optimizing our Cinebench benchmark with the efficiency optimizer software, nonetheless, because it appeared to show off hyperthreading. We reported the glitch to Dell, who really useful re-enabling hyperthreading within the BIOS. We did so, however efficiency numbers did not return to the degrees we examined at and not using a manufacturing facility reset. (Dell informed me that merely deleting the profile would have labored, too, although by then I had already reset the laptop computer.) On the opposite hand, each enterprise utility that we threw at it, in addition to our YouTube 4K/60 video take a look at stream, ran flawlessly with out being optimized.
We’ve in contrast the Dell Latitude 9510 to a variety of laptops, displaying the way it compares to the Dell XPS 13—extra of a gaming laptop computer—in addition to the thin-and-light Acer Swift 3, powered by the top-notch Ryzen Mobile 4000 chip. Lenovo’s ThinkPad X390 seems right here, in addition to a pair of latest Dynabooks. We’ve additionally in contrast it to the Surface Laptop and up to date Surface Book 3, which add a prosumer really feel.
First up is PCMark, whoses assessments simulate the precise efficiency of the laptop computer in an utility surroundings. Work measures the laptop computer’s skill to course of spreadsheets and deal with video calls, whereas the Creative leans extra closely on its skill to edit nonetheless pictures and video, in addition to some gaming. The Latitude 9510 posted one of many sooner scores in each instances.
Mark Hachman / IDG
Mark Hachman / IDGDell’s Latitude 9510 does fairly effectively in these workplace assessments, assisted by its Comet Lake processor.
The Cinebench R15 take a look at benchmark measures uncooked CPU efficiency. We’d anticipate the Latitude’s Comet Lake chip to do effectively right here, and it didl.
Mark Hachman / IDGThe numbers right here present that AMD’s Ryzen Mobile 4000 processor remains to be nearly as good or higher than Intel’s Comet Lake. A couple of different laptops outperform it, together with Dell’s personal XPS.