Dell Latitude 14 9420 (2-in-1) review – they have gone 16:10 with this one as well

Today we have a super premium business convertible. It is the Latitude 9420 2-in-1 and comes flooded with features. Some of them include 5G support, automatic SafeShutter, and a proximity sensor.

It is made from premium materials, which further enhances the high-end look. Ultimately, Dell targets a very narrow segment of the business market, as not many people are willing to pay more than $2000 for their work notebook. This means that the Latitude 14 9420 2-in-1 won’t be the best-selling device for the brand, but will definitely challenge the status quo in the world of business computing.

There are a couple of hardware features that aim to make that possible. First, you get Tiger Lake processors – something mandatory at this stage. Then, there is the 16:10 IPS display with either 1920 x 1200 or 2560 x 1600 resolution. Interestingly, Dell provides information on the maximum power consumption for both panels, as the first one maxes out at 2.85W, while the latter goes up to 3.70W. In addition to that, you get optional IR face recognition and a fingerprint sensor.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-latitude-14-9420-2-in-1/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Dell Latitude 14 9420 (2-in-1) - Specs

  • AUO 5NW15-B140QAN (AUOD991)
  • Color accuracy  4.4  1.5
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 1000GB SSD
  • M.2 Slot
  • 1x 2230 M.2 NVMe slot 
  • RAM
  • up to 32GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Home
  • Battery
  • 60Wh, 4-cell, 60Wh, 3-cell
  • Body material
  • Aluminum
  • Dimensions
  • 310.59 x 215.18 x 8.42 ~ 13.91 mm (12.23" x 8.47" x 0.33")
  • Weight
  • 1.40 kg (3.1 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Sleep and Charge
  • 2x USB Type-C
  • Thunderbolt 4, Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
  • HDMI
  • 2.0
  • Card reader
  • microSD (SD/SDHC/SDXC)
  • Ethernet LAN
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.2
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Microphone
  • Quad-array microphone
  • Speakers
  • 4x 8W, Speaker System
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot
  • Wedge Lock Slot

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, we found a 65W USB Type-C power brick and a couple of paper manuals.


Design and construction

Even to the more conservative out there, this device looks good. It is built from CNC aluminum, as its design offers a matte finish on the top and base, with reflective “diamond” cut sides. Unsurprisingly, the notebook is pretty strong, as it shows very little flex when twisted. In terms of height, it goes from 8.4mm at the front, to 13.9mm at the back. Also, it weighs about 1.40 kilos, which is not much at all.

Even though it is a 2-in-1 model, the lid can be opened easily with a single hand. This is the result of smooth 360° hinges and reveals the glass-covered display. It has extremely thin bezels all around but this didn’t stop Dell to put an HD camera with IR face recognition inside of the top one. Also, there’s a proximity sensor, which puts the notebook to sleep, when you go away from it.

Next, let’s take a look at the base. There, you can see the backlit keyboard, which is surrounded by a couple of speakers. The board shows a very slight deck flex, but thankfully, it has decent key travel and clicky feedback. Overall, it is comfortable for typing. Also, the power button houses a fingerprint reader.

We were happy to see that the laptop is equipped with a pretty large touchpad. It has a glass cover and is surrounded by chamfered edges. The cover offers an extremely smooth gliding experience, while the clicking mechanism feels satisfying.

Now, turn the laptop upside down, and you will see only one ventilation grill, placed just beneath the fan. Hot air, on the other hand, is exhausted from the right side of the device.

Ports

Most of the I/O here is located on the left side of the device. This includes a security slot, an HDMI 2.0 port, two Thunderbolt 4 connectors, a MicroSD card slot, a SIM card slot, and an audio jack. Then, on the right, you will find a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port. If you look closely, you will notice the WWAN antennas.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

To get this laptop open, you need to undo 8 captive Phillips-head screws. Then, you have to pry the bottom panel with a plastic tool, starting from the hinge gaps.

The battery inside can be either a 40 or 60Wh unit.

Sadly, all of the memory is soldered to the motherboard. There are configurations with 8, 16, or 32GB, and all of them work in dual-channel mode. On the other hand, the storage options comprise one M.2 PCIe x4 slot, which fits 30mm drives.

Lastly, there is the cooling solution. It features two heat pipes, and a fan, which blows the hot air through the side.


Display quality

Dell Latitude 14 9420 (2-in-1) in the configuration we tested has a touchscreen IPS display, model number AUO 5NW15-B140QAN (AUOD911). Its diagonal is 14″ (35.6 cm), and the resolution – 2560 x 1600p. Additionally, the screen ratio is 3:2, the pixel density – 216 ppi, their pitch – 0.12 x 0.12 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 41 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 524 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 495 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 10%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6440K (average) – slightly warmer than the 6500K optimum for sRGB.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 47% Brightness (White level = 142 cd/m2, Black level = 0.087 cd/m2).
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 very good – 1650:1.

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 an 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 14 9420 (2-in-1)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 99% 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 14 9420 (2-in-1) 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 = 25 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.

Dell Latitude 14 9420 (2-in-1)’s display doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment at any level. This makes it safe for your eyes even after long exposure.

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 display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Dell Latitude 14 9420 (2-in-1) configurations with 14.0″ AUO 5NW15-B140QAN (AUOD911) (QHD, 2560 x 1600) 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 Latitude 14 9420 (2-in-1)’s speakers produce a sound with commendable quality. Its 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/latitude-14-9420-2-in-1-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 packs the larger 60Wh battery. It lasted for 12 hours and a half of Web browsing, and 10 hours and 46 minutes of video playback.

In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.


CPU options

Currently, the notebook features a Core i5-1135G7, Core i5-1145G7, or Core i7-1185G7.

Dell Latitude 14 9420 (2-in-1) CPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the CPUs that can be found in the Dell Latitude 14 9420 (2-in-1) models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which Dell Latitude 14 9420 (2-in-1) model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different CPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / CPU.

Results are from our Photoshop benchmark test (the lower the score, the better)


GPU options

Respectively, the only available graphics options are the integrated Iris Xe Graphics G7 with 80EUs or 96EUs.

Dell Latitude 14 9420 (2-in-1) GPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the GPUs that can be found in the Dell Latitude 14 9420 (2-in-1) models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which Dell Latitude 14 9420 (2-in-1) model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different GPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / GPU.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS136 fps98 fps61 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS113 fps72 fps49 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 Latitude 14 9420 (2-in-1)3.57 GHz (B+49%) @ 99°C @ 49W3.14 GHz (B+31%) @ 94°C @ 36W1.98 GHz @ 62°C @ 15W
Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 23.64 GHz (B+52%) @ 91°C @ 49W3.47 GHz (B+45%) @ 95°C @ 43W2.20 GHz @ 64°C @ 20W
Dell XPS 13 93103.15 GHz (B+31%) @ 100°C @ 40W2.73 GHz (B+14%) @ 100°C @ 30W1.65 GHz @ 73°C @ 15W
Dell Vostro 14 54023.02 GHz (B+26%) @ 99°C @ 29W2.61 GHz (B+9%) @ 99°C @ 25W2.00 GHz @ 76°C @ 15W
Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga3.52 GHz (B+47%) @ 94°C3.24 GHz (B+35%) @ 94°C2.63 GHz (B+10%) @ 75°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

Well, as a typical business device using an Intel processor, the temperatures skyrocket as soon as you throw an extreme workload at it. Eventually, the temps drop back to 62°C, but the frequencies go well below the base clocks.

Comfort during full load

On the bright side, the laptop is both cool and quiet, even under extreme conditions.


Verdict

Usually, we are harsher on devices that come at a premium price. Especially when their manufacturers are promising so much, that it seems unreal. Unfortunately, the Latitude 14 9420 (2-in-1) isn’t perfect. Well, nobody expected it to be, but the major caveat in our view is the lack of memory upgrades. On the bright side, you get three possible configurations – one with 8, 16, and 32GB of RAM, all working at dual-channel mode. However, if you pick the lowest one, you have to keep in mind that first – the integrated GPU is going to eat up 1/8th of your memory, and two – you won’t be able to expand it in the future.

Also, we were a bit surprised that Dell limits you to only 30mm M.2 drives in regards to the storage. Other than that, the laptop was a pleasure to use. We got more than a decent battery with 12 hours and a half of Web browsing and 10 hours and 46 minutes of video playback.

Also, the performance was good on the graphics side, and average on the computational one. And although we weren’t pleased with the port situation on the inside, that on the outside was on point. You get two Thunderbolt 4 connectors, as well as a USB Type-A port, a MicroSD card slot, a SIM card reader, and more. Plus, that SIM card reader can enable you to use 5G WWAN for blazingly fast Internet on the go. Not in the last place, there are the great input devices.

Dell Latitude 14 9420 (2-in-1)’s touchscreen IPS display (AUO 5NW15-B140QAN (AUOD911)) has a high resolution, comfortable viewing angles, high maximum brightness, and a very good contrast ratio. Additionally, it covers 99% of the sRGB color gamut, which basically means you get punchy and vibrant colors. Thankfully, its backlight doesn’t flicker at any brightness level. Our Gaming and Web design profile improves the color accuracy to a standard matching Average dE of 1.5.

Indeed the privacy features like the fingerprint reader, and the IR face recognition camera just add to the very well-built package. If you can afford it, the Latitude 14 9420 (2-in-1) is a good purchase. Don’t forget that the 16GB is probably the sweet spot for a future-proof machine in this case.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-latitude-14-9420-2-in-1/

Pros

  • Stylish and strong all-aluminum design
  • 99% sRGB coverage a great color accuracy with our Gaming and Web design profile (AUO 5NW15-B140QAN (AUOD911))
  • Great battery life
  • Two Thunderbolt 4.0 ports, a MicroSD card reader, and an optional 5G connection
  • Supports PCIe x4 M.2 SSDs
  • No PWM (AUO 5NW15-B140QAN (AUOD911))
  • IR face recognition and fingerprint reader
  • Good input devices


Cons

  • No stylus
  • Soldered memory

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