Dell Latitude 13 7370 review - a premium business laptop

From the outset, the Dell Latitude 13 7370 caters to business users with its sturdy build quality, excellent keyboard and additional security features. In fact, it has a lot in common with Dell’s excellent XPS 13, as it shares the same 13in InfinityEdge display and top-notch design, making it a tempting proposition for mobile workers.

It certainly looks the part, as its stylish, premium materials make it feel reassuringly rigid and well-made. I reviewed the carbon fibre model, but lower specifications come with an aluminium lid. Either way, it should be able to handle a fair amount of abuse in your backpack, and at just 1.1kg, it shouldn’t weigh you down too much either.

Performance

That gorgeous design does come at the cost of performance, though, as the entire range uses a low-voltage Intel Core M chip. In most cases, you’re looking at a dual-core 1.1GHz Core m5-6Y57 processor, but the cheapest model has a 1.1GHz Core m5-6Y54 processor, while the most expensive model has a 1.2GHz m7-6Y75 chip. All come with 8GB of RAM.

My review unit came with an m5-6Y57, but even this is a far cry from the more powerful Core i5 or Core i7 processors you’ll find in its XPS cousin. In our rigorous 4K benchmarks, for example, the Latitude 13 7370 scored just 22 overall, so it’s not particularly cut out for heavy-duty media work. It’s fine for everyday tasks such as word processing and web browsing, but for sake of comparison, our Core i7-equipped XPS 13 managed a much more respectable 46 under the same conditions.

Its integrated Intel HD 515 graphics chip was also pretty underwhelming, but you should still be able to fit in a bit of light gaming if you find yourself between meetings. While it failed our usual Dirt Showdown test, I did manage to get a decent 32.5fps when I set the graphics quality to Low and turned off anti-aliasing at a resolution of 1,280x720. As a result, it should be capable of playing simple games like Minecraft or Hearthstone if you need to take a break from work.

Keyboard and touchpad

Fortunately, working on the Latitude 7370 is a real pleasure, as its backlit keyboard is easily its crowning achievement. It has three backlit brightness settings available, making it great for typing in low lighting conditions, and the keys themselves are incredibly tactile, providing a decent amount of feedback and excellent travel. Only occasionally did it miss the odd keystroke.

The touchpad is great to use, too, and is particularly responsive during extended use. It’s certainly a great replacement for your mouse when you're on the move, and its dedicated buttons are another welcome addition. The laptop can get a little hot under load, but thankfully the palm rest stays relatively cool even when the fans are kicking up a fuss.

Display 

Then there’s Dell’s 13.3in InfinityEdge display, which looks just as stunning here as it did on the XPS 13. With its super slim bezels, it’s hard to go back to another laptop screen once you’ve been using this for a while, even if it does only have a 1,920x1,080 resolution. The top spec has a 3,200x1,800 panel, but that will set you back nearly £1,800 inc VAT. The XPS 13, on the other hand, comes with a 3,200x1,800 resolution as standard unless you choose the £949 Full HD entry-level model.

Of course, Full HD still looks perfectly sharp on a 13.3in display, but the Latitude 7370’s image quality leaves something to be desired. This is partly because it has a matt, anti-glare coating, so it’s never going to look as rich and vibrant as the XPS 13, but its sRGB colour gamut coverage of just 79.2% is still rather disappointing. It also has a rather low peak brightness of 278cd/m2, so you’ll probably have to turn it up to max to use outside in bright sunshine.

It comes with Dell’s automatic dynamic contrast settings, too, which we found a constant irritation on the XPS 13 as well. This forces the brightness levels to jump around based on what’s currently onscreen, and it’s not only off-putting, but you also can’t turn it off. Despite this, I managed to record an impressive contrast ratio of 1,324:1 and a peak black level of 0.21cd/m2, so dark images should still have plenty of detail even on the highest brightness settings.

Battery Life

It’s a shame the screen isn’t quite up to scratch, as the Latitude 7370’s battery life was pretty impressive, coming in at just over seven hours in our continuous video playback test with the screen set to our standard brightness level of 170cd/m2. A full charge should last you an entire working day if you tinker with some of the battery saver settings, and the charger isn’t too unwieldy to carry around when you’re out and about, either.

Ports and speakers

The Latitude 7370 has plenty of connectivity options, too. The built-in fingerprint scanner and smart card reader give peace of mind when it comes to security and there’s also a Micro-HDMI port for connecting it to external displays. There are also two Thunderbolt powered USB Type-C ports along with a single, bigger, USB3 port, an SD card reader, a headphone jack and optional microSD and micro SIM card slots for mobile data.

The latter may well be worth getting, as there’s no Ethernet port on the Latitude 7370, so the only way you’ll get online without a data SIM is by using its built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi.

The forward-facing speakers are surprisingly punchy for a business laptop, so you shouldn’t have any trouble playing videos or audio files during presentations. They’re pretty loud, too, so they should be more than capable of filling a room. However, since your arms are often in the way when you’re using the laptop to type, the sound can sometimes appear a little muffled.

Conclusion

There’s a lot to like about the Dell Latitude 13 7370, from its stunning design to its brilliantly tactile and responsive keyboard. However, when its display and performance just don’t match up to the vastly superior and cheaper XPS 13, it feels like business users are getting a pretty raw deal for the Latitude’s additional security features, three-year ProSupport and next business day on-site service.

In my eyes, the XPS 13 is a much better buy overall, as it not only has a more beautiful display, but it’s also better equipped to deal with everyday business tasks. If neither of these laptops are right for you, though, then check out our list of 2016's best laptops.

Buy the Dell Latitude 13 7370 now from Dell