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日本Dell Precision 14 5470 review – the most compact workstation on the market right now
Verdict
Laptops like the Precision 14 5470 are within a very narrow niche. Not many people would like their workstations to be crippled by anything. Although “crippled” may be a strong word, it describes the situation with this laptop pretty well. Its performance is not in the league of devices equipped with similar hardware.
For the graphics card, it is expected. After all, it is a mere 40W TGP unit. However, the thermal capacity of the otherwise potent-looking cooling solution won’t let it reach high frequencies even in short loads.
On the other hand, there are plenty of added benefits. First of all – you get one of the most portable workstations on the market. You can rarely find a laptop this thin and light, sporting pro-grade hardware.
Then comes the display. Dell Precision 14 5470’s IPS panel has a 1920x1200p resolution, comfortable viewing angles, and a very good contrast ratio. It covers 99% of the sRGB color gamut, which results in a pretty good-looking image. Furthermore, our Gaming and Web design profile improves the color accuracy to within the standards, thus allowing you to use it for color-sensitive work.
On top of that, the display backlight doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment. So you will be able to enjoy long work sessions without feeling the harm of screen flickering.
We have to add that Dell provides a 2560x1600p IPS unit too, and according to the spec sheet, it should have very similar capabilities to the panel we tested. This speaks about the device’s uniform reliability.
But reliability in this sphere is nothing without security and privacy. For this, you get an IR face recognition scanner and a fingerprint reader. According to the manufacturer, the former allows the use of automatic awake and log out, which is neat in a busy environment.
We also have to mention the battery life. Yes, the display is small, but the hardware is pretty power-hungry. This makes it tough for the battery, but thankfully, here you get a 72Wh unit. It lasts for 10 hours and 30 minutes of either Web browsing, or video playback. So if you don’t have anything intensive to work on, it will definitely last you an entire workday.
Unfortunately, the memory is soldered to the motherboard. Not that we expected anything else – after all, this is one of the most portable workstations on the market. On the bright side, you can configure it with 64GB of LPDDR5 RAM out of the factory.
Another seeming bummer situation is revolving around the port selection. You get four Thunderbolt 4 connectors and a MicroSD card slot. This means no USB Type-As or HDMI on there. However, Dell provides a USB Type-C to Type-A and HDMI dongle inside the box.
After all, the XPS-like visuals, the fantastic build quality, and the comfort of use make the laptop a good purchase. It is a great little machine for people working with not-so-complex 3D manipulation, photography, and videography. If the high price is not too offputting for you, the laptop is really worth it. Again, that is if you are in the right niche and if you’ve decided to skip the 14-inch MacBook Pro.
You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-precision-14-5470/
Pros
- Strong body build of carbon fiber and aluminum
- Virtually bezel-less screen
- 400+ nits maximum brightness, 100% sRGB coverage (AUO J83VF-B140UAN (AUOF99A))
- Accurate color representation with our Gaming and Web design profile (AUO J83VF-B140UAN (AUOF99A))
- Thin and light
- Great keyboard
- Fingerprint reader embedded in the power button and an optional IR face recognition system
- Four Thunderbolt 4 connectors, USB Type-C charging, and a MicroSD card reader (+ tiny dongle inside the box)
- Decent battery life
Cons
- Can’t extract 100% of the hardware it comes with
- Expensive
- Soldered memory
