Dell Latitude 14 5431 review – the more power is worth it

Design and construction

Dell has created this device using bioplastics and reclaimed carbon fiber. It is not the toughest competitor on the market, as it shows some signs of flex, but we are happy with the build quality.

Its matte texture is a huge repellant for fingerprints. It is considerably thicker than the Latitude 14 5430 – 20.95-23.6mm vs 19.3-20.9mm. Also, it weighs 1.49 kg, which is 130 grams heavier.

Unfortunately, the lid cannot be opened with one hand. Here, we observe thin bottom and side bezels, while the top one is quite pronounced. It sports an HD Web camera and a privacy shutter as a standard. One tier above sits the Full HD camera and an IR face recognition scanner, while the top model features an additional proximity sensor for express sign-in.

Next comes the base of the device. Its power button is placed in the top-right corner of the keyboard. It sits almost flush with the surface of the base and comes with an optional fingerprint reader.

The keyboard has a backlight, long key travel, and relatively clicky feedback. We find it pretty good for typing, but we would prefer the keystroke profile of the ThinkPad T14 Gen 3.

Further down below, there is the touchpad. Its size is 65 by 115 mm, which is not too big. However, it comes with a rather smooth surface and pretty accurate tracking.

Now, let’s turn the laptop upside down, and observe the two speaker cutouts. In addition, you can see a ventilation grill right below the fan, as well as two more in the top part of the bottom panel. The hot air, respectively, is exhausted through a vent on the left side of the machine.

Ports

On the left side, there are a couple of Thunderbolt 4 connectors, as well as a Smart Card reader. Switch sides and you will see 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 slot. Last but not least, the backside is home to the SIM card tray.

Author: Alex Iliev

Author: eng. Kroum NikolovHead of Engineering at LaptopMedia.com, inventor and innovator with 40+ years of experience in electronics and high technology.

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Tobi

2 years ago

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