2 months ago
17
The Dell Latitude 9450 2-in-1 is not a laptop that a common, regular user would buy. Dell has geared this laptop for the C-suite executive, who has his or her eye on the corner office read more
 "For the C-Suite executive")
What we have here is a laptop that not only has a premium, serious and luxurious look but also doesn’t compromise on performance. Image Credit: Firstpost | Mehul Reuben Das
Pros
- Solid, bankable performance
- Tack sharp display that is vibrant and lively
- Tons of privacy features
- Excellent audio output
- Great heat management, even under load
- Looks and feels premium to the touch
Cons
- Very expensive
- Should have featured an OLED panel or one with a higher refresh rate
Price: Rs 2,95,500 for the tested unit
Rating: 4.5/5
Finding a reliable work machine that looks good and has a ton of bells and whistles is a difficult task for IT managers across the country, especially if they are looking for workhorses for their top-tiered corporate executives. This is where the Dell Latitude 9450 2-in-1 comes in.
What we have here is a laptop that not only has a premium, serious and luxurious look but also doesn’t compromise on performance. Plus, we get a 2-in-1 form factor, which is becoming more practical by the day for productivity tasks.
The Dell Latitude 9450 2-in-1 is not a laptop that a common, regular user would buy — that is why the laptop has been priced this high. But even if you’re in a corporate setting, does the package justify the price? We find out.
Dell Latitude 9450 2-in-1 2024 Review: Design and build quality
The Dell Latitude 9450 2-in-1 notebook is hands down one of the best-looking Windows laptops I have seen, across all categories and form factors. What we get with the 9450 is a solid, metal clam-shell design, made out of CNC-milled aluminium. It is a rather simple design that looks very elegant, thanks to the matte finish and soft texture that it comes with.
Dell claims it is the most compact 14-inch commercial laptop, and I agree. It is almost as thin as my daily-use MacBook Pro 14-inch M3. Having said that, the Latitude 9450 is a hefty beast. It weighs about 1.5kgs. The upshot is that you get a laptop that’s built like a tank. Our test unit was in the Graphite colourway.
What’s really going well for Dell with the 9450 is its sustainability efforts. Dell claims that the laptop uses 22 per cent of recycled content by its weight. It uses 75 per cent recycled content in the aluminium lid, 42 per cent bio-based rubber in the chassis feet, and 28 per cent ocean-bound plastic in the fan housing. The packaging of the laptop too, is made using 100 per cent recycled materials.
We also loved using the laptop as a tablet. The hinge is smooth enough to let us open the lid with one hand, once we get it off the base, and strong enough to hold the lid in space when you’re using it in an inverted tent orientation.
However, the front edge lacks an edge or an indentation that would make it easier to grip the lid of the laptop. Normally, this wouldn’t be an issue, but for a laptop that costs this much, the stakes are higher. Manufacturers, at this price point, need to think of everything.
The palm rest area is also very comfortable thanks to the soft-ish texture that Dell has given the laptop. However, the laptop does come with a sharp edge, which bites into your arms and wrists if you lay it on them for a prolonged period of time.
Coming to the ports, the Dell Latitude 9450 2-in-1 laptop doesn’t have a lot of port options. It has three Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports that support PowerDelivery and DisplayPort 2.1, along with a 3.5mm headphone jack. However, for office use, it would have been better if it had full-sized HDMI or USB Type-A ports.
Dell Latitude 9450 2-in-1 2024 Review: Accessories
To solve this, Dell offers a compact dock with a built-in, retractable Type-C cable and a bunch of extra ports. While it does come at an extra cost, it can be very helpful.
Dell has a robust accessory ecosystem to go with the 9450. We also tried out the Dell Pro Wireless WL5024 ANC Headset, which retails for about Rs 18,000, as well as their Premier Rechargeable MS7421W Wireless Mouse, which retails for about Rs 4,000. As accessories, they are expensive, especially the headphones. However, they do get the job done and have a bunch of features that really fit well into a corporate setting
The mouse comes with three connectivity options, one using the included dongle and the other two via BlueTooth. You also get a dedicated button to cycle through your connected devices, in case you’re working with multiple devices simultaneously. It is pretty accurate and works just as you would expect. Do note that it is rather compact with a high arch, so it may not be comfortable for people with larger hands.
As for the headset, it sounds pretty, with a decent bass performance. It also handles higher notes well. It is meant to be a business solution, so it has an in-built, retractable microphone, which picks up the audio pretty well and is able to isolate your voice from the ambient sound of a room.
The ANC features work well, and Dell uses high-grade foam for the earcups and headband cushions. However, the headphones aren’t very comfortable for prolonged use. Because it is an on-ear earphone, no matter how flat your ears are against your skull, the headphones will press against them, Not only that, it will make the area around your ear sweat and warm up. The longest that I could go in using them in a single sitting would have been about two hours.
Dell Latitude 9450 2-in-1 2024 Review: Display
The Dell Latitude 9450 2-in-1 comes with a stunning 14-inch QHD+ display, with a resolution of 2560x1600. It is an IPS panel that comes with touch capabilities. The display is set in a 16:10 aspect ratio, so this is a tall-ish display, which makes working on Word or Excel documents a breeze. Even when editing videos, the taller aspect ratio also helps users in video editing platforms like Premiere Pro as you get more real estate to play with.
The panel is surrounded by very thin bezels which makes everything — be it videos, PDFs, Word documents — look and feel very immersive.
This is an IPS LCD display, so you don’t get the inky blacks of an OLED. Having said that the colours are still very punchy and have pretty solid contrast. Plus, because this has a glossy display, the colours tend to pop out even more. Dell says the display has an anti-smudge coating, which helps repel fingerprints most of the time, but frequent touch use will still result in some smudges.
Colour-wise, again, there is nothing to complain about. It has a maximum brightness of 500 nits, which is pretty good enough for a business laptop. Furthermore, the colours look and feel very natural, and accurate. We would not hesitate in colour grading our photos and videos on the display — that’s how confident we are about it. Having said that, we do miss the inky blacks that we get with an OLED panel, especially when we consider the 9450’s price.
One more gripe that we have of the display panel is that it is limited to 60Hz. However, given who this laptop is targeted for, we see why Dell would want to offer only 60Hz as an option here — you certainly won’t be gaming seriously on this device, and hence, don’t really need a fast display. It’s just that for the price that you pay, it would have been a nice feature to have.
All in all though, the Dell 9450’s display is a pretty solid option. We also like fact that it supports Dell’s Pen for its touch inputs, in case you want to get really precise with your work and would like to use the laptop to sketch and draw, in case you’re working on designing something.
Because Dell knows that people who will use the Latitude 9450, will be sitting in front of a display for long hours at a stretch, they have equipped the display with ComfortView+. It is a feature that reduces the amount of blue light emitted from the panel, making it much easier and more comfortable to use.
Dell Latitude 9450 2-in-1 2024 Review: Keyboard and trackpad
Dell’s premium offerings have one of the best keyboard lay outs that I have seen in laptops. The Latitude 9450 continues with the tradition. We get what Dells calls a Zero-Latice keyboard. Basically, this is a keyboard with no unnecessary spacing between the keyscaps that look like they are floating in the air. The keycaps are also bigger than what you would get on most notebooks.
Because this comes with the newer generation of Intel’s Core Ultra CPUs and has a lot of Windows AI functionalities built-in, you get a Copilot key instead of a second alt ket.
This is a backlit keyboard, so working in the dark shouldn’t pose a problem. The wrist wrest area also feel good to the touch, almost as if it was made of some soft touch material. There can be no doubt that the keyboard looks and feels premium.
However, I am not a fan of the typing experience. I prefer my keyboards to have some tactile feeling, and shorter key travels, especially on a laptop. The Latitude 9450’s keystrokes are somewhat long and have a mushy feeling. Your mileage may vary, especially if you like working with long keystrokes, and prefer your keys bottoming out softly when typing. Having said that I was able to get back to my typing speed of 55 words per minute, back in no time.
Coming to the trackpad, it is simply a joy to use. Dell calls it the Haptic Collaboration Touchpad. I can’t really think of a bad thing to say about it. It has a pretty decent size and is smooth to use, and feel great to touch. The trackpad in the Latitude 9450 is one of the very few trackpads that has managed to come close to what Apple offers in its MacBooks — this is one of the highest compliments that I can give to a laptop. It uses a Haptic Trackpad which means you won’t have to deal with a dead zone.
What makes the one in Dell even better is that the trackpad also comes with some quick shortcut functions and features for a number of Microsoft apps. It lights up with icons of various shortcuts that you may frequently use when applications like Zoom, and Teams are in use.
Dell Latitude 9450 2-in-1 2024 Review: Webcam and speakers
The Latitude 9450 features an FHD webcam positioned at the top of the lid, along with an array of sensors for Windows Hello. The camera is decent enough to get the job done and is tuned well. The camera allows users to shoot 1080p videos. While the footage from the built-in webcam isn’t exceptional, it gets the job done effectively and is solid enough for your video calls.
Privacy-conscious users will also appreciate the fact that you get IR for Windows Hello and an e-shutter. The sensors we mentioned earlier also help Dell bring a ton of other privacy features. Onlooker Detection detects when people are peeping at your display when you’re not looking, and overlays a pattern to obscure what you’re working on. You also get Presence Detection, which automatically locks the laptop when you walk away and wakes it up when you approach it.
The camera also comes with a tonne of AI features thanks to Intel’s Core Ultra 7 CPUs and Windows Studio effects. These include an auto-framing feature and portrait blurs.
In terms of audio, the laptop boasts upwards-firing quad stereo speakers, with two 2W sub-woofers and two 2W tweeters with tuning from Waves MaxxAudio Pro. The audio setup delivers a solid experience.
The 9450 has one of the loudest speaker setups we have seen among its peers. It does not crack under a bassy load, nor does it struggle with the highs. The overall audio quality is surprisingly rich and maintains high-quality sound even at louder volumes.
Dell Latitude 9450 2-in-1 2024 Review: Performance
The Dell Latitude 9450 2-in-1 packs some serious hardware. It comes with Intel’s new Core Ultra 7 165U processor along with 16GB LPDDR5x RAM 32GB running at 7467 MT/s in a dual channel configuration. With the processor, we get get a maximum boost clock of up to 4.9Ghz, and 12MB of Intel Smart Cache. For storage, we get 1TB of M.2 M.2 PCIe 4.0-based NVMe SSD.
The Core Ultra 7 165U comes with 12 cores and 14 Threads. In Intel’s new lineup of CPUs, we get a new Low Power Efficient Core, so the Ultra 7 165U comes with 2 Performance Cores, 8 Efficient Cores and 2 new Low Power Efficient Cores.
The new line of Intel’s processors also has an NPU in the chip package, dedicated to local AI tasks. Called Intel AI Boost, the NPU unit in the 165U runs at 1.4GHz.
When it comes to benchmarks, the laptop performs quite similarly to what we have seen in the Intel Core Ultra 7 155U, mainly because it gets a slightly faster clock speed. Having said that, the Latitude 9450 just crushes benchmarks and delivers a solid and stable performance.
As for everyday usage and daily performance, things that would interest a normal user, the laptop rarely breaks a sweat. It just glides through when using apps like Chrome, MS Office and other regular stuff, with a breeze. Even in highly resource-intensive tasks, like Photoshop and Lightroom, it renders effects and filters quickly, and exports photos in a snap. It also handles tasks on Premiere Pro pretty well, as long as you have your expectations under check
Coming to its graphic performance, the Latitude 9450 is not a gaming laptop. That, however, doesn’t mean it can’t handle games at all. It does a fairly good job in games like Rocket League and Valorant, even at 1080P, medium to high settings. You will consistently get about 60fps from these games, which is pretty decent if you’re planning to game casually. If you’re looking for more grunt, you can turn down the quality a little, but we would suggest you invest in a proper gaming laptop with a dedicated GPU.
What’s really surprising though, is the way the Latitude manages its thermals. Yes, it does get slightly warm, when you’re really pushing it, mainly during benchmarks. But in real-life usage, not once did I notice the device getting uncomfortably warm, even during my gaming sessions.
Dell Latitude 9450 2-in-1 2024 Review: Battery
The Dell Latitude 9450 comes with a 3-cell 60Wh battery, which, in our typical usage would last about 7 hours or so. Not bad for a thin and light convertible, but also not something to write home about. In the PCMark 10 battery test, the 9450 scored about 10 hours or so, which, again, is pretty decent.
However, when we consider the performance that we are getting out of this laptop, the battery life doesn’t look too shabby. For a charger, we get a 65W USB-C charger. It took just about an hour and a half to brim the tank on this one, so that’s a major plus point. It also is a great solution if you are looking for a longer battery life.
Dell Latitude 9450 2-in-1 2024 Review: Verdict
As solid as the Dell Latitude 9450 2-in-1 is as a laptop, it is not meant for regular people looking to buy one. This is purely for working professionals and the C-suite, people who are in line for a corner office. Maybe that is why, it is priced the way it is — I honestly cannot recommend regular folks to buy this laptop for their personal use, especially considering the fact that you don’t get an OLED panel and a high refresh rate option at this price point.
However, if you are looking to equip the top management of your office with a no-nonsense workhorse that will keep on delivering, and if you’re looking for a no-hassle experience and need the technical support that Dell provides for its corporate workstations, then this is it. The price starts to make much more sense when you’re buying laptops in bulk and need to provide significant discounts to your customers.
Despite the price, the Dell Latitude 9450 2-in-1 has a lot going for it. It boasts a high-quality display, a powerful chipset, and a sleek design. If I could change one thing, I’d replace the IPS screen with an OLED panel. Other than that, I think most users will be very satisfied with the Latitude 9450.
){kind=tracking}
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
English (US) ·