Dell Latitude 15 7520 review – get into the business world with style

On paper, the Latitude 15 7520 seems like a very promising machine. Optional UHD display with HDR capabilities. LTE connectivity and Tiger Lake processors are other features.

Ultimately, this device doesn’t look like a typical business device. In addition to being productive, it looks absolutely stunning. Interestingly, Dell offers the machine with either an aluminum or a Carbon Fiber chassis. From the pictures that lie ahead, you can see that we were able to lay our hands on a Carbon device.

So, by addressing the looks factor, Dell is trying to salvage some users from Lenovo, as the Chinese brand pushed hard for its new ThinkBook brand a couple of years back.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-latitude-15-7520/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Dell Latitude 15 7520 - Specs

  • 559D1-156WFD (LGD0684)
  • Color accuracy  4.9  3.8
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 1000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 32GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Home
  • Battery
  • 63Wh, 4-cell, 63Wh, 4-cell , 42Wh, 3-cell
  • Body material
  • Aluminum, Carbon
  • Dimensions
  • 357.7 x 229 x 17.5 mm (14.08" x 9.02" x 0.69")
  • Weight
  • 1.53 kg (3.4 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 2x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 2x USB Type-C
  • Thunderbolt 4, Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
  • HDMI
  • 2.0
  • Card reader
  • uSD 4.0
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.1
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • Full HD & HD IR
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Microphone
  • Noise reducing array microphones
  • Speakers
  • 2x 2W, Stereo Speakers
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, we found the mandatory paperwork, as well as a 65W USB Type-C power brick.


Design and construction

Before we give our full attention to our device, we would like to tell you the differences between the aluminum, and the Carbon fiber Latitude 15 7520. In addition to the obvious material variance, the metal model sits about 0.49mm lower with a profile of 18.4mm. However, the Carbon device is way lighter, stopping the scales at 1.53 kg vs 1.76 kg for the other type. So, as we said, we had the non-metal unit, and honestly, it is pretty sturdy. Yes, there is some flex when you twist the laptop, but it is not too much, whatsoever.

Its lid can be opened with a single hand, but weirdly, the hinges stiffen at 90°. Also, the manufacturer has implemented a leverage mechanism, but you have to open the lid way too much for comfort. Ultimately, the bezels around the matte display are thin, but there is some sorcery happening in the top one. First of all, there is the camera. It can be either an HD or an FHD unit. Then, you get an IR face recognition sensor for Windows Hello authentication. And last but not least, you get a proximity sensor, which has the function to look for your presence, and when you’re not around, the dedicated software turns the display off.

Moving to the keyboard, we see a centered unit, which lacks a NumberPad section. It is backlit though and feels generally comfortable for typing, once you get used to the position (if you are unfamiliar with NumPad-less designs on 15-inch laptops). Additionally, we found some deck flex, but as with the chassis – it is nothing to worry about.

Then there is the touchpad. It has a large footprint and offers smooth gliding. With that said, it is not as responsive as the trackpads of the Apple world but it won’t push you towards a wireless mouse in our opinion.

A quick look at the bottom panel reveals two speaker cutouts, and a ventilation grill placed just beneath the cooling fan. Hot air, on the other hand, escapes the device through the left side of the device.

Ports

This laptop is well equipped when it comes to I/O. On the left side, there is a Thunderbolt 4 connector, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, an audio jack, and an optional Smart Card reader. Switch sides, and you will see a wedge-shaped security slot, followed by an HDMI 2.0 connector, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, a Thunderbolt 4 connector, a MicroSD card slot, and a SIM card tray.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

To get inside the laptop, you have to undo a total of 8 captive Phillips-head screws. Then, pry the bottom panel, starting from the hinge gaps.

Once you pop the panel open, you will see the 63Wh battery pack.

Unfortunately, the memory here is soldered to the motherboard. However, you get to choose from configurations that come with 8, 16, or 32GB of dual-channel RAM. In terms of storage, you get only one M.2 PCIe x4 slot.

Looking at the cooling solution, we see two rather long heat pipes, which are connected to a thin profile heat sink.


Display quality

Dell Latitude 15 7520 in our configuration is equipped with a Full HD IPS panel with a model number 559D1-156WFD (LGD0684). 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 excellent. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

The measured maximum brightness of 297 nits in the middle of the screen and 285 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 9%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 7100K – colder than the sRGB standard of 6500K.

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 – 960:1.

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 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 7520’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 53% 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 7520 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 = 24 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.


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 7520’s display doesn’t use PWM to adjust its brightness levels at any point. This makes it comfortable for use during long work periods, without harming your eyes 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 display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Dell Latitude 15 7520 configurations with 15.6″ FHD IPS 559D1-156WFD (LGD0684).

*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 7520’s speakers produce a sound of very good 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-15-7520-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 device’s 63Wh battery pack lasts for 10 hours and 18 minutes of Web browsing, and 9 hours and 17 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

This laptop is offered with four processors – Core i5-1135G7, Core i5-1145G7, Core i7-1165G7, and Core i7-1185G7.


GPU options

Since there are no dedicated graphics card options, you have to count on the integrated Iris Xe Graphics G7 with either 80 or 96 EUs.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS154 fps111 fps69 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS116 fps67 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 i7-1165G7 (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Dell Latitude 15 75203.49 GHz (B+25%) @ 76°C @ 39W3.18 GHz (B+14%) @ 91°C @ 33W2.09 GHz @ 77°C @ 15W
Lenovo ThinkPad T15 Gen 23.65 GHz (B+30%) @ 99°C @ 49W3.42 GHz (B+22%) @ 99°C @ 41W2.37 GHz @ 73°C @ 20W
Dell Latitude 14 54203.80 GHz (B+36%) @ 98°C @ 51W3.27 GHz (B+17%) @ 98°C @ 35W2.78 GHz @ 96°C @ 26W
HP EliteBook x360 1030 G83.08 GHz (B+10%) @ 98°C @ 31W2.77 GHz @ 98°C @ 26W2.35 GHz @ 85°C @ 19W
HP EliteBook x360 1040 G83.43 GHz (B+23%) @ 98°C @ 40W2.84 GHz (B+1%) @ 88°C @ 27W2.43 GHz @ 69°C @ 17W
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro (14)3.90 GHz (B+39%) @ 85°C @ 61W2.57 GHz @ 69°C @ 26W2.37 GHz @ 57°C @ 20W
HP Pavilion 14 (14-dv0000)3.08 GHz (B+10%) @ 91°C @ 40W2.79 GHz @ 89°C @ 29W2.13 GHz @ 71°C @ 18W
Acer TravelMate P4 (TMP414-51)2.99 GHz (B+7%) @ 94°C @ 33W2.66 GHz @ 93°C @ 27W1.86 GHz @ 68°C @ 16W
ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX3713.48 GHz (B+24%) @ 90°C @ 43W2.79 GHz @ 90°C @ 27W1.95 GHz @ 69°C @ 14W
Acer Swift 3X (SF314-510G)3.74 GHz (B+34%) @ 95°C @ 45W3.45 GHz (B+23%) @ 95°C @ 37W3.09 GHz (B+10%) @ 85°C @ 28W

Interestingly, the Latitude 15 7520 performs slightly worse than both the Lenovo ThinkPad T15 Gen 2, and the 14-inch Latitude 5420, when it comes to thermal management.

Comfort during full load

On the bright side, the fan wasn’t too loud at all.


Verdict

Ultimately, the Latitude 15 7520 offers a great feel. The rubberized texture on the Carbon Fiber model is super satisfying on the hands, and the weight of just over 1.5 kilos is great for a 15-incher. It shows decent performance, which is more notable in graphically intensive load, rather than sheer computational power. In addition to that, you get good input devices and an optional touchscreen display.

Dell Latitude 15 7520’s touchscreen display has an IPS panel (559D1-156WFD (LGD0684)) with a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, and a good contrast ratio. Its backlight doesn’t flicker at any brightness level. However, it covers only half of the colors of the sRGB gamut, which is not ideal for Web design, or any kind of professional work.

By the way, the laptop can also be configured with a UHD panel that has HDR capabilities, and it will present a far better viewing experience. On the other hand, not all Windows 10 apps are optimized for this kind of resolution at 15-inches, so keep that in mind.

Additionally, you get a lot of I/O, including two Thunderbolt 4 connectors, a MicroSD card slot, and a SIM card tray. The latter (when combined with a WWAN card) enables LTE connectivity, so you can take advantage of an Internet connection practically everywhere.

Our unit was also equipped with a pair of sensors surrounding the camera. This includes the IR face recognition and the proximity one. Some units will feature a fingerprint reader, which will be embedded into the power button.

Of course, not everything is fun and games, as you don’t have any kind of memory expansion. You are stuck with what you get the device in the first place, so in our opinion – the 16GB option should be the bare minimum.

Other than that, the laptop is fast, secure, lightweight, and feels premium. If none of the few disadvantages doesn’t bother you, then purchasing this device won’t be a bad choice.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-latitude-15-7520/

Pros

  • Thin and light design
  • Good battery life
  • A bunch of privacy and security features
  • Dual Thunderbolt 4 support
  • Optional LTE card
  • No PWM (559D1-156WFD (LGD0684))
  • Choice between aluminum and carbon for the body
  • Abundance of ports


Cons

  • Quite expensive
  • Soldered memory
  • 53% of sRGB coverage (559D1-156WFD (LGD0684))

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Anonymous
Anonymous
2 years ago

In our company, we were going to buy Latitudes but moved to ThinkPads after Dell ditched pointing sticks and touchpad buttons in all Latitudes this year.

AAA
AAA
2 years ago

Dell offers the machine with either an aluminum or a Carbon Fiber chassis” – where did you see 7520 in aluminum body? There are only photos of it and dell doesn’t sell these!

AAA
AAA
2 years ago
Reply to  AAA

Ok, I’m wrong. It is possible to choose aluminum body, too. It’s a bit hidden but it’s there.