[Video Review] Dell Latitude 14 5431 – The more performance is greatly appreciated



Dell Latitude 14 5431 in-depth review

There are different types of business laptops. Some need to be lightweight, snappy, and ready to get out of your bag ASAP. Others rely on more room for cooling because they either have to crunch large numbers or complex scenes.This is exactly how the Dell Latitude 14 5431 has sprung into action. It is a beefier, more powerful version of the Latitude 14 5430. There is a chance, that these two machines are very close, so a decision may be made based on price, cooling, or portability.What we know for sure, is that this machine will have a lot of performance. It is equipped with Intel's A[...]

Pros

  • Well-populated port selection
  • Up to 64 GB of DDR5 RAM
  • Fingerprint reader embedded in the power button + optional IR face recognition
  • Wi-Fi 6, PCIe x4 Gen 4, Thunderbolt 4
  • No PWM (LG 0HXCK-140WFH (LGD068D))
  • Comfortable keyboard with a backlight
  • Decent battery life
  • Optional LTE connectivity
  • Cool and quiet

Cons

  • 50% sRGB coverage (LG 0HXCK-140WFH (LGD068D))

Dell Latitude 14 5431 - Specs

  • LG 0HXCK-140WFH (LGD068D)
  • Color accuracy  5.7  4.4
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 2000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 64GB
  • OS
  • Windows 11 Pro, No OS, Windows 10 Pro, Windows 11 Home
  • Battery
  • 64Wh, 4-cell
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate, Carbon
  • Dimensions
  • 321.35 x 212 x 20.95 - 23.60 mm (12.65" x 8.35" x 0.82")
  • Weight
  • 1.49 kg (3.3 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Sleep and Charge
  • 2x USB Type-C
  • 4.0, Thunderbolt 4, Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
  • HDMI
  • 2.0
  • Card reader
  • microSD (microSD, microSDHC, microSDXC)
  • Ethernet LAN
  • 10, 100, 1000 Mbit/s
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.2
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • microSIM Card Slot
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HD / FHD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • optional
  • Microphone
  • Dual Array Microphones
  • Speakers
  • 2x 2.5W Stereo Speakers
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot
  • Wedge Lock

[Intro]

The Dell Latitude 14 5431 is exactly what we want to see from the 14-inch laptop market, especially those devices that don’t want to be the thinnest and lightest. The Latitude focuses solely on performance, putting great effort into taking care of the Core i7-1270P.

[Design]

Starting on the outside, the construction feels good to the touch, utilizing recycled plastics and carbon fiber, which is better for the environment. It’s not as good as metal, however, we’re still happy with the build quality. It weighs 1.49 kg, which is still pretty light while having a profile of 23.6 mm, not the thinnest out there. You also get an optional Full HD webcam with an IR sensor for facial recognition, however, we stuck with the tier below, which only has a 720p webcam.

[Input devices]

Continuing to the base, the keyboard lacks a NumPad but is otherwise great for typing, with long key travel and relatively clicky feedback. The touchpad isn’t the biggest that we’ve seen, however, it’s still very accurate and responsive.

[Ports]

Going to the sides to check out the ports, the laptop is packed. On the left side, there are two Thunderbolt 4 ports and an optional SmartCard reader. Then, on the back, you can see a SIM card slot. Lastly, on the right, there’s a LAN port, an HDMI 2.0 connector, two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, an audio jack, and a MicroSD card slot.

[Display]

At last, we arrive at the display. The Full HD IPS panel here doesn’t have the best color and brightness, however, you can upgrade to other versions which do have these and are more suitable for Creator work. The panel here is good for general use, and anything that doesn’t factor in color coverage or accuracy, aka any type of business work, which generally consists of emails, presentations, calls, etc.

Here we have to shout out our Lab and their Display profiles, which can improve the work of your panel. For the office beasts like you, our Office Work profile can be very helpful with making texts more legible and tables and spreadsheets clearer to see. We’ll have them linked down below.

[Sound]

On most office machines, the speakers don’t really matter, but it’s still nice to see the setup on the Latitude 14 5431 provide decent-quality audio with no major deviations across all frequencies.

[Performance]

Next, we move on to the performance of the laptop, which turns out to be pretty good, thanks to the Alder Lake P-series, a new breed of processors that try to be and succeed in being both powerful and efficient. Here we have the Core i7-1270P, which sits behind the Core i7-1260P inside the ThinkPad T14 Gen 3 in 3D Rendering but is still quicker in our Photoshop benchmark. We’re choosing the 1260P for comparison as it’s basically the same CPU when it comes to cores, threads, and cache.

You also have an MX 550 discrete GPU, which can help with video rendering, and game a fair bit, although we won’t get into that right now. What you can do is click the link down below, which sends you to our LaptopMedia benchmarks channel, where we have more than 30 games tested on the MX 550, with framerates and settings presets.

[Cooling]

The Latitude does a good job of cooling the Core i7-1270P, being the best laptop with this CPU. It spikes up to 50W for a few seconds, which is great for shorter bursts of performance. It also maintains 30W for more than 15 minutes, which is great. All of that performance doesn’t ruin the comfort at all, as noise levels are down, while the base heats up only up to 42°C.

[Battery]

The laptop is decently efficient as well, sparing its 64Wh battery pack, instead lasting for 13 hours of 20 minutes of Web browsing, or 9 hours and 5 minutes of video playback.

[Teardown and upgradeability]

When it comes to upgradeability, the Dell Latitude 14 5431 is a champ, offering two SODIMM slots for up to 64GB of DDR5 RAM. On the other hand, there’s only one M.2 slot for Gen 4 SSDs.

Our teardown video, which shows how to upgrade the machine is linked below.

[Verdict]

The Dell Latitude 14 5431 is a great office machine with a lot of power on the go. It manages to stay portable and the battery lasts for a while, so there’s next to nothing to be sad about if you decide to pick one up. Even the display can be swapped out for a better unit, so you’re not losing anything.

If you want more information about the Dell Latitude 14 5431, we have a full in-depth review on our website, which you can find below.

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