Dell has announced the renewal of some of its flagship products in its line of professional PCs. Among the new releases, the Latitude 7340 and 7440 Ultralight compete internally with the XPS 13, which is a market reference.
Dell reveals today the latest products that it presented to us in December during a preview presentation in New York, where it invited us. Three months after CES 2023, during which it announced a new concept of a repairable computer, screens, and new gaming laptops, it now announces its new professional PCs.
While the new Precision workstations, the new OptiPlex desktop computers, and the new Latitude 5000 series laptops may not be of much interest to the majority of GoStart.Biz readers, one range has particularly caught our attention.
Dell Latitude 7340 and 7440 Ultralight: Better Than an XPS 13?
Dell is effectively introducing an “Ultralight” variant of the new generation of Latitude 7000 series laptops, claiming to be the “smallest and lightest 13.3 and 14-inch professional premium laptops in the world.” They surpass the famous XPS 13 in some respects, which is often considered the Windows counterpart to Apple’s MacBook Air and is therefore the reference for laptops.
The Dell Latitude 7340 and 7440 Ultralight weigh only 982 g and 1.06 kg, respectively, compared to 1.17 kg for a Dell XPS 13 model 9315 and 1.24 kg for a 13.6-inch MacBook Air M2.
The 13.3-inch model measures 299 mm wide, 212.90 mm deep, and 16.67 mm thick at the front, 17.60 mm at the back. The 14-inch model measures 313 x 220.2 x 17.15-17.95 mm. They are therefore slightly larger than an XPS 13 (295.4 x 199.4 x 13.99 mm) or a MacBook Air (304.1 x 215 x 11.3 mm), and relatively thicker.
Primarily aimed at businesses, they offer in return a wider range of connectors that make them more versatile, without adapters. In addition to two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, which the two competing products are content with, they actually offer an HDMI 2.0 output and one or two 5 Gb/s USB-A ports. This is convenient while waiting for USB-C to be fully generalized. Only an Ethernet port is missing.
In addition to Wi-Fi 6E (Intel AX211) and Bluetooth 5.3, these laptops offer a 5G modem option (Intel 5000), which allows for internet connectivity on the go without having to activate the sharing of one’s smartphone connection or connect to a guest Wi-Fi network. Unfortunately, this capability is often only reserved for business-oriented ranges.
These laptops also feature an Intel Core U series 13th generation processor (no AMD configuration), up to 32 GB of LPDDR5 4800 MHz memory (not removable), up to 2 TB of NVMe M.2 SSD, a 5-megapixel webcam compatible with Windows Hello, 2 noise-canceling microphones, and 4 speakers.
They don’t skimp on the 3.5 mm jack. Their screens, in turn, adopt the 16:10 format, with a standard “Full HD+” IPS display of 1920 x 1200 pixels, touch-optional on the 7340, or touch and “QHD+” 2560 x 1600 pixels on the 7440.
Finally, and this probably explains a large part of their weight records, they house either a 38 Wh battery or a 57 Wh battery. The Dell XPS 13 and the MacBook Air, on the other hand, feature a 51 and 52.6 Wh battery, respectively.
Dell does not detail the weights based on battery capacity, and it does not communicate regarding battery life, but it is clear that the “starting from” weights are those with the small battery, and that this is the main trade-off for lightness.
A compromise that may suit those who travel a lot, but never far from a docking station or a USB-C monitor, or never without their 60 W “Ultralight” mini power adapter. (We asked Dell for clarification, but they had not given a favorable response at the time of publication of this article.)
Dell Latitude 7340, 7440, and 7640 in Aluminum
Dell also renews the conventional Latitude 7000. With their aluminum chassis, the 13.3 and 14-inch Latitude 7340 and 7440 weigh 1.156 and 1.33 kg, respectively. The manufacturer takes advantage of the renewal to add a 16-inch variant, weighing 1.835 kg, which is limited to a Full HD+ resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels.
These aluminum versions are otherwise identical to the magnesium versions, except that they offer less high-end configurations, with less bright screens, Full HD webcams, or 4G modems.
Dell Latitude 9440: The CEO XPS 13
Finally, Dell launches the Latitude 9440, which replaces the 9340, and can be presented as the business counterpart to the XPS 13 Plus. It inherits the monolithic design and edge-to-edge keyboard design, without adopting the touch-sensitive capacitive function key row that is so controversial.
However, it positions itself a notch above, with its 14-inch QHD+ touch screen and 2-in-1 design, its higher-quality camera, microphones, and speakers, the function keys dedicated to Microsoft Teams and Zoom integrated into its haptic touchpad, or the 5G option.
Compared to its predecessor, the Latitude 9340, it increases the screen-to-body ratio, meaning it is slightly more compact with the same screen size, and it moves from the 12th to the 13th generation of Intel Core processors. And compared to its predecessor and the aforementioned Latitude 7X40, it accommodates a second fan, allowing its processor to consume up to 20 W.
No price was communicated at the time of publication of this article, but all of these new releases should be available for sale in the coming hours or days on the Dell website. We therefore invite you to consult it to discover the catalog price of the different configurations.
