Dell Latitude 15 5530 review

Dell has been increasingly conscious about the environment with their latest business series notebooks. What the company did with the Latitude 15 5530 is to include 21% bioplastics, 30% recycled plastics, and 20% reclaimed carbon fiber for its lid. Furthermore, the packaging has been really reworked to be fully sustainable.

But hey, sustainability is not the only thing that drives your business towards success. Having a good laptop helps too. This is why we are going to focus on the more technical aspect of the Latitude 15 5530. First and foremost, it is one of the first Dell laptops that come with the 12th Generation Intel CPUs (Alder Lake).

Interestingly, there are a ton of customization options. They provide the option for both 15W and 28W processors, and you should choose the most appropriate one based on your workload. Since the competition is pretty harsh in this class, we expect to see decent upgradability, I/O, and input devices. So, let’s waste no more time, and get right into the review.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-latitude-15-5530/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Dell Latitude 15 5530 - Specs

  • BOE 1DW1M-NV15N4V (BOE0A86)
  • Color accuracy  5.2  3.9
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 2000GB SSD + up to 2000GB HDD
  • M.2 Slot
  • 1x 2280 M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 + 1x 2280 M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4  See photo
  • RAM
  • up to 64GB
  • OS
  • Windows 11 Pro, No OS, Windows 10 Pro, Windows 11 Home
  • Battery
  • 58Wh, 4-cell, 41Wh, 3-cell, 58Wh, 4-cell, 8Wh, 4-cell
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate, Carbon
  • Dimensions
  • 357.80 x 233.30 x 20.77 - 22.15 mm (14.09" x 9.19" x 0.82")
  • Weight
  • 1.59 kg (3.5 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
  • Ethernet LAN
  • 10/100/1000 Mbit/s
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.2
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HD/FHD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • optional
  • Microphone
  • Dual-Array Microphones
  • Speakers
  • 2x 2W Stereo Speakers
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot

All Dell Latitude 15 5530 configurations

#CommissionsEarned

What’s in the box?

Interestingly, this laptop came with a completely unbranded black cardboard box. It’s like Dell has started selling cigarettes in western Europe. Nevertheless, it houses a 90W USB Type-C charger and some paperwork.


Design and construction

For starters, it’s worth noting that this laptop’s design hasn’t changed a lot since last year. The usual gray finish is also present, which is great because that way, the laptop is pretty resistant to smudges and fingerprints.

At the same time, the laptop is pretty thick, compared to some of the competition, with a profile that stands from 20.77mm to 22.15mm, while the weight is about 1.59 kilos, which is really light for a 15-inch device.

Unfortunately, its lid can’t be opened with a single hand. However, the bezels around the matte display are rather thin. Plus, the top one houses an HD Web camera with a privacy shutter. By the way, there is an optional Full HD snapper, that has an IR face recognition scanner beside it.

Looking at the keyboard, we see a unit with an optional backlight, that lacks spill resistance – unlike the competition from Lenovo. Other than that, the keyboard is pretty comfortable for typing with its long key travel and rather clicky feedback. You also get a NumPad of normal size and a Power button with an optional fingerprint reader.

Now, the touchpad is not exactly something we’d call comfortable. Its surface is a bit rough and prevents smooth gliding. Nevertheless, it is really snappy and responsive.

If we turn the laptop upside down, we will see the speaker cutouts, as well as the single ventilation grill placed beneath the fan. Respectively, the hot air gets exhausted from the left side of the machine.

Ports

On the left side, there are two Thunderbolt 4 connectors and an optional Smart Card reader. Then, on the right, you get a security lock slot, a LAN port, an HDMI 2.0 connector, two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, an audio jack, and a MicroSD card reader.


Disassembly, upgrade options, and maintenance

To take this notebook apart, you need to undo 8 captive Phillips-head screws. Then, pry the bottom panel starting from the hinge gaps. It would be best to use a plastic tool.

There are two battery options. A 41Wh and a 58Wh one. We got the bigger one, and it lasted us 11 hours of Web browsing, or 8 hours and 30 minutes of video playback. To take it out of the laptop, unplug the connector from the motherboard, and undo all three captive Phillips-head screws holding it in place.

In terms of memory, there are two SODIMM slots, which can add up to 64GB of DDR4 RAM in total. Storage-wise, you also get two M.2 PCIe x4 slots, one of which can fit Gen 4 drives.

Here, the cooling comprises two heat pipes, which are approximately two miles long. They connect to a side-mounted heat sink, where a medium-sized fan blows the heat away.


Display quality

Dell Latitude 15 5530 has a Full HD IPS panel with a model number BOE 1DW1M-NV15N4V (BOE0A86). Its diagonal is 15.6″ (39.62 cm), and the resolution is 1920 х 1080 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 142 ppi, and a pitch of 0.18 х 0.18 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at distance equal to or greater than 60cm (24″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).

Viewing angles are comfortable. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

The measured maximum brightness of 306 nits in the middle of the screen and 286 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 10%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 6370K – slightly warmer, almost matching the sRGB standard of 6500K, which is great.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. In other words, the leakage of light from the light source.

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. The contrast ratio is good – 1240:1.

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. Basically, 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 Latitude 15 5530’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 Latitude 15 5530 with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really 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 = 27 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.

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.


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.

Dell Latitude 15 5530’s display doesn’t use PWM at any brightness level. This makes it comfortable and safe in this aspect.

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.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Dell Latitude 15 5530 configurations with 15.6″ FHD IPS BOE 1DW1M-NV15N4V (BOE0A86).

*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 Latitude 15 5530’s speakers produce a sound of good quality. Its low, mid, and high tones all have some deviations from clarity.


Drivers

All drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/latitude-15-5530-laptop/drivers

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with the 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 laptop’s 58Wh battery pack delivers 11 hours and 7 minutes of Web browsing, or 8 hours and 33 minutes of video playback.


CPU options

This laptop comes with a lot of different CPU options. Some of them are part of the 15W Alder Lake-U series, while others are from the Alder Lake-P lineup, which features a TDP of 28W. The roster includes the Core i3-1215U, Core i5-1235U, Core i5-1245U, Core i7-1255U, Core i7-1265U, Core i5-1240P, Core i5-1250P, and Core i7-1270P. In addition to having a higher TDP, the Core i5 and Core i7 from the Alder Lake-P series feature 4 P-cores and 8 E-cores, in contrast to the 2 P-cores and 8 E-cores setups of the U-series.


GPU options

In addition to the integrated Iris Xe Graphics, the Latitude 15 5530 can be found with the GeForce MX550 with 2GB of GDDR6 graphics memory.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS123 fps88 fps55 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS130 fps86 fps51 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 P-core frequency; Average E-core frequency; CPU temp.; Package Power

Intel Core i5-1235U (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Dell Latitude 15 55303.57 GHz @ 3.02 GHz @ 94°C @ 52W2.03 GHz @ 2.09 GHz @ 76°C @ 21W2.24 GHz @ 2.19 GHz @ 64°C @ 23W

Interestingly, the Latitude 15 5530 doesn’t like running at high frequencies for long periods of time. On the other hand, the temperatures are extremely low, while the TDP stays at 23W, which is significantly higher than the supposed 15W it should run at.

Comfort during full load

Furthermore, the fan is not too loud during extreme workload, and the hottest spot of the keyboard is way out of the most common places you put your hands or fingers at.


Verdict

We are happy that most of the manufacturers are doing more to help the environment. Given the volumes of electronic waste, they are highly responsible for improving the situation we live in. And yes, we think that this is a valid reason to buy a laptop that aims to be sustainable.

Nevertheless, there are more reasons to get the Latitude 15 5530. Although it is the first proper laptop that comes with an Alder Lake-U processor we’ve tested, we are positive that it is a very big step up, compared to the Tiger Lake models. We saw a good boost in tasks like 3D model rendering, but the biggest improvement here was with Photoshop. The scores are very similar to those of the Core i7-11800H, which was one of the top processors of last year. And keep in mind we “only” had a Core i5-1235U.

Thankfully, if you need more raw power, you can choose a P-series processor, and even opt for a GeForce MX550.

Dell Latitude 15 5530’s IPS panel has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, and a good contrast ratio. Furthermore, its backlight doesn’t use PWM for any brightness level. On the other hand, the color coverage is quite limited.

In addition to that, the battery life is pretty good with more than 11 hours of Web browsing, or about 8 hours and 30 minutes of video playback on a single charge. Besides the battery, the internals house two SODIMM slots for RAM expansion of up to 64GB in total, while the storage options comprise two M.2 PCIe x4 slots, one of which can fit Gen 4 SSDs.

On the outside, the stuff looks equally impressive, with two Thunderbolt 4 connectors, a LAN port, a MicroSD card reader, and more. And if you need, you can put a WWAN module with LTE support.

As you have just figured, you get no option of 5G support. Neither is the keyboard spill-resistant, which is a bit of a bummer when it comes to secure notebooks, which may hold sensitive information.

All in all, the machine is more than decent, and we think that one of the big wins it achieves is thanks to Intel’s fantastic job with Alder Lake.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-latitude-15-5530/

Pros

  • Wide I/O, which includes a MicroSD card reader and 2x Thunderbolt 4 ports
  • Two M.2 storage slots, one of which runs at 4.0 speeds + 2x RAM SODIMM slots
  • Fingerprint reader embedded in the power button + optional IR face recognition
  • Doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment (BOE 1DW1M-NV15N4V (BOE0A86))
  • Comfortable keyboard with a backlight
  • Good battery life
  • Fantastic performance in photo editing


Cons

  • Covers only 53% of sRGB (BOE 1DW1M-NV15N4V (BOE0A86))
  • No 5G support and no spill-resistance

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Freddie
Freddie
1 year ago

“the cooling comprises two heat pipes, which are approximately two miles long.”

Inane, isn’t it? The CPU is clearly misplaced and should be moved all the way to the right, down the heatpipes, close to the fan. As though cooling the darn thing was an afterthought. Simply incredible.

Freddie
Freddie
1 year ago

“And if you need, you can put a WWAN module with LTE support.” appears not to be correct: The manual makes no mention of it. The slot is there, but the antennae are probably missing.

Dvir
Dvir
7 months ago

Tiny error – it says 50% of color spectrum and in the summary 53% of color spectrum

Ujahmycine
Ujahmycine
5 months ago

Is there any advantage to the two mile cooling pipe? A fair system by the way. It is expensive for its configuration.

Freddie
Freddie
5 months ago
Reply to  Ujahmycine

None whatsoever. Ideally, the cooled section of the heat pipes should be longer than the heated section – the idea is to drain the heat as fast as possible without letting it build up in the heat pipes. The two miles of heated pipes is a disadvantage in this regard.

Freddie
Freddie
5 months ago
Reply to  Ujahmycine

Take a look at the cooling solution for the Dynabook Tecra A50-J on this site as an example of an efficient cooling design.