Dell Vostro 14 5402 review – some quirky decisions ruin the overall great package

If you are in the looks for an office or business laptop, but Dell’s Latitude series are a bit hardcore for you. And the Inspiron ones are not secure enough, then you should be looking at the middle-ground Vostro lineup. Actually, the Vostro is an Inspiron on security steroids, if we can put it this way.

Today, we have the 14-inch Dell Vostro 14 5402, and since it is pretty much the same as the Vostro 14 5401, we will be occasionally comparing it with the Vostro 14 5490 model.

So what should you expect from this device? Well, it comes equipped with Intel’s Tiger Lake processors and can be bundled with up to the GeForce MX350 for additional graphics power. Also, there is a 1080p IPS panel at your disposal, as well as the now popular Wi-Fi 6 support. By the way, speaking of the display, there are two iterations, one of which has a reported 300 nits of brightness, while the other stands at 220 nits. Bear in mind that this is not the only difference, as the latter (and the one we actually have) has a significantly lower color coverage, so ask your retailer for the specs of their model’s panel, if you need a more capable display.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/us/series/dell-vostro-14-5402/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Dell Vostro 14 5402 - Specs

  • AUO B140HAN-N4HYV (AUO453D)
  • Color accuracy  4.8  3.8
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 2000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 32GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Pro, No OS, Windows 10 Home
  • Battery
  • 40Wh, 3-cell, 53Wh, 4-cell
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate, Aluminum
  • Dimensions
  • 321.3 x 216.2 x 16.7 ~ 17.9 mm (12.65" x 8.51" x 0.66")
  • Weight
  • 1.41 kg (3.1 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 2x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
  • HDMI
  • 1.4b
  • Card reader
  • MicroSD
  • Ethernet LAN
  • 10, 100, 1000 Mbit/s
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.0/5.1
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • Web camera
  • HD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Microphone
  • Dual Array Microphones
  • Speakers
  • 2x 2W, Stereo Speakers
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot
  • Wedge Lock Slot

All Dell Vostro 14 5402 configurations

#CommissionsEarned

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, we found a 45W power brick (there are units that ship with 65W adapters), some paper manuals, and the laptop, itself.


Design and construction

This device’s design is a mixture of aluminum for the lid and plastic for the rest of the chassis. It weighs 1.41 kg and has a profile that goes from 16.7mm in the thinnest spot to 17.9mm in the thickest. This, itself, makes the Vostro 14 5402 a fairly portable little machine, that is comfortable to hold and carry around. Also, it is pretty rigid, if we have to be honest, although the lid shows a little flex when twisted.

Speaking of the lid, unfortunately, you won’t be able to open it with a single hand. However, it is made in such a way that it lifts the backside of the base when it is opened so that more air enters the fan with less effort. Also, the comfortability and ergonomics are arguably better. By the way, once you open the lid, you will see relatively narrow bezels around the matte display. And the camera is positioned in its orthodox location above the display. We should also mention the physical privacy shutter it sports.

Now, when we move to the base, we see a keyboard, that suffers from some deck flex under pressure. Thankfully, though it has a backlight for a better night-time experience. Nevertheless, we think that the key travel is a bit short, and the feedback from the keys is clicky but definitely softer than what the Latitudes and ThinkPads have.

On the bright side, the touchpad has a decent size, good gliding, and somewhat accurate tracking. Although it doesn’t have dedicated buttons, we can deem it as comfortable.

Looking at the bottom panel, there are the speakers, as well as the ventilation grill. Hot air, on the other side, is exhausted from in between the lid and the base.

Ports

On the left side, you can see the charging plug, followed by an HDMI 1.4b connector, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, and a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port with DisplayPort and Power Delivery functions. And on the other side, there is the wedge lock, an RJ-45 connector, another USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, an audio jack, and a MicroSD card reader – not bad at all, despite the lack of Thunderbolt connectivity.


Disassembly, upgrade options, and maintenance

There are only 7 Phillips-head screws that are separating you from this notebook’s internals. Two of them, located on the back corners, are captive, and after you undo them the bottom panel will slightly lift. This is where you want to start the prying process.

Once you’re inside, you will find the 40Wh battery pack, which powers the laptop when it’s away from the plug. This device can also be found with a 53Wh unit.

Here, the cooling solution comprises a single heat pipe and a rather small heat spreader.

Thankfully, there are two RAM SODIMM slots, that can fit up to 32GB of DDR4 memory in dual-channel mode. As for the storage, there is one M.2 PCIe x4 slot. Also, there seems to be a second one, but the situation there is very weird. In our unit (which has the smaller battery), we won’t be able to use this slot, because the shape of the speaker prevents us from installing a drive in it. However, according to Dell, if you order the laptop with Intel Optane storage, you will be able to use it. Sounds quirky, doesn’t it?


Display quality

Dell Vostro 14 5402 is equipped with a Full HD display, model number AUO N4HYV-B140HAN (AUO453D). Its diagonal is 14″ (35.56 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 157 ppi, their pitch – 0.161 x 0.161 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 56 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

Its viewing angles are excellent. We have provided images at 45 degrees to evaluate quality.

The maximum measured brightness is 239 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 227 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 13%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6760K (average) – slightly colder than the 6500K optimum for sRGB.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective.
Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is good – 1440:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Dell Vostro 14 5402’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 50% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Dell Vostro 14 5402 with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display can reproduce dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 30 ms

After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.


Health impact – PWM / Blue Light

PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

The light coming from Dell Vostro 14 5402’s display does not flicker at any brightness level, which makes it comfortable for long periods of use.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Conclusions

Dell Vostro 14 5402’s IPS panel has a Full HD resolution, good contrast ratio, comfortable viewing angles, and adequate default settings. More importantly – its backlight doesn’t flicker. On the downside, it only covers 50% of the sRGB color gamut.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Dell Vostro 14 5402 configurations with 14.0″ AUO N4HYV-B140HAN (AUO453D) (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS panel.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

Dell Vostro 14 5402’s speakers produce a sound with good quality but not very high maximum volume. However, the low, mid, and high tones are clear of deviations.


Drivers

All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/vostro-14-5402-laptop/drivers

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This notebook’s 40Wh battery lasts for 9 hours and 53 minutes of Web browsing, and 5 hours and 56 minutes of video playback.


CPU options

This device can be found with three processor choices – the Core i3-1115G5, Core i5-1135G7, and the Core i7-1165G7.


GPU options

In addition to the dedicated GeForce MX330, and MX350, there are three integrated GPUs, depending on the CPU – the Intel UHD Graphics, Iris Xe Graphics G7 (80EU), and the Iris Xe Graphics G7 (96EU).


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS77 fps58 fps27 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS81 fps50 fps32 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i5-1135G7 (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Dell Vostro 14 54023.02 GHz (B+26%) @ 99°C @ 29W2.61 GHz (B+9%) @ 99°C @ 25W2.00 GHz @ 76°C @ 15W
MSI Modern 15 (A11X)3.59 GHz (B+50%) @ 94°C @ 44W3.45 GHz (B+44%) @ 95°C @ 40W3.18 GHz (B+33%) @ 91°C @ 34W
Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga3.52 GHz (B+47%) @ 94°C3.24 GHz (B+35%) @ 94°C2.63 GHz (B+10%) @ 75°C
Lenovo ThinkPad E15 Gen 23.35 GHz (B+40%) @ 90°C3.14 GHz (B+31%) @ 71°C2.57 GHz (B+7%) @ 64°C
HP ProBook 450 G83.73 GHz (B+55%) @ 90°C2.44 GHz (B+2%) @ 71°C2.09 GHz @ 64°C
Lenovo Yoga 7 (14)3.34 GHz (B+39%) @ 94°C2.97 GHz (B+24%) @ 94°C2.39 GHz @ 75°C
Acer Aspire 5 (A514-54)3.54 GHz (B+48%) @ 87°C2.01 GHz @ 66°C2.03 GHz @ 67°C

This notebook’s cooling solution isn’t really reliable, as it can’t maintain high power limits, and it skyrockets to 99°C mere seconds after the test has started.

Comfort during full load

On the bright side, it’s not too loud under extreme workload, but the hot internals result in a keyboard that reaches over 40°C in its hottest point.


Verdict

Ultimately, Dell has built a device that will satisfy your office needs (no it won’t pour you coffee). However, there are some questionable decisions made here, that could have been easily avoided. For example, there is the battery, which sounds small even on paper, with its 40Wh capacity. Well, in terms of single-page Web browsing it fairs well, with its almost 9-hour screen-on time. However, if you are in a movie session, your battery will run out of juice in less than 6 hours. Considering the fact, that the laptop is offered with a 53Wh version, as well, why not only supply it with the bigger one, Dell? This is an office/business machine, right?

Still regarding the battery, there is a weird conundrum with the second M.2 storage slot. You get it with both battery versions, but if you choose the smaller one, you can only use it, provided you purchased your device preconfigured with an Intel Optane drive. Does that mean you can still put a regular drive, in the Optane one’s place?

Nevertheless, if we take this out of the equation because it doesn’t really affect the actual usability of the notebook, we are left with a decent piece of technology.

The performance is not there with the best in the class, but it will breeze past every daily task you throw at it. Also, the I/O is spot on, and although it lacks Thunderbolt connectivity, we are generally happy with what Dell offers in this aspect.

Dell Vostro 14 5402’s IPS panel has a Full HD resolution, good contrast ratio, comfortable viewing angles, and adequate default settings. More importantly – its backlight doesn’t flicker. On the downside, it only covers 50% of the sRGB color gamut.

If we have to draw the line solely from our unit, the Vostro 14 5402 is a rather average notebook. However, if you pick the configuration that comes with the 53Wh battery (which weirdly enables the second M.2 slot, due to poor design choices), and if you manage to get your hands on their more high-profile display, things will take a whole different turn.

Pros

  • Wi-Fi 6 connection, MicroSD card slot, and a well-populated I/O
  • Two RAM SODIMM slots, and PCIe x4 support for storage
  • Thin and light body
  • PWM-free display (AUO B156HAN02.1)


Cons

  • A ton of confusion around its second M.2 slot
  • Covers only 51% of the sRGB color gamut (AUO B156HAN02.1)
  • The model with a 40Wh battery doesn’t shine with great screen-on times

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/us/series/dell-vostro-14-5402/

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Davi Daroz
Davi Daroz
3 years ago

Great review .. Can you tell me if the model with 53 Wh battery is the model that comes with the 300 nits display and capable of placing the second ssd?