It is the Latitude 9420 2-in-1 and is packed with features. Some of these include 5G support, an automatic Safe Shutter and a proximity sensor. It is made of premium materials, further enhancing its high-end appearance. Ultimately, Dell is targeting a very small segment of the business market, as not many people are willing to pay more than $2,000 for their business notebooks. means that the Latitude 14 9420 2-in-1 will not be the brand’s best-selling device, but it will certainly challenge the status quo in the world of business computing.
There are a couple of hardware features that aim to make this possible. First, Tiger Lake processors, a must-have feature at this stage. Then there is the 16:10 IPS display with 1920 x 1200 or 2560 x 1600 resolution. Interestingly, Dell provides information on the maximum power consumption for both panels: the former has a maximum power consumption of 2.85 W, while the latter goes up to 3.70 W. In addition, optional IR facial recognition and a fingerprint sensor are available.
Design
The Dell Latitude 9420 2-in-1 is designed for business, which means it is made of metal and silver in color. Honestly, I would call the design bland, with the brushed aluminum lid. It is not as sexy as a Dell XPS or an HP Spectre x360. But, like an HP EliteBook, it is not available in other colors. This is a standard feature for a business laptop, unless the product is made of carbon fiber, as some are.
The weight is 3.2 pounds, so a bit heavier, and that is due to the heavier material. If you want something lighter, we recommend trying the carbon fiber Latitude 7320. However, it is worth remembering what we have to compare it with. This is only the second generation of the Latitude 9400; before that, the 9000 series did not even exist. Dell created it for a new level of quality. For that reason, I expect a convertible like this to compete with a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga or an HP EliteBook x360 1040. Both of these devices weigh three pounds or less.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard on the Dell Latitude 9420 2-in-1 is fairly standard. It is backlit with chiclet-style keys and is quite comfortable. It is by no means a sore point; in fact, it is very accurate. However, we feel that some improvements have been made and it is good that Dell has tried to do better. Below the keyboard, there is a glass Precision touchpad that makes use of most of the available space.
In fact, we really appreciate when a company does not leave extra space that could have been used for a larger touchpad. It is very nice. It also has a fingerprint sensor in the power button, in case you don’t like the infrared camera. Unfortunately, Dell is still the only company that forces you to scan your finger after starting the PC, rather than when you press the button.
Display
Two display options are available: a 14-inch FHD+ (1920 x 1200 pixels) non-touch panel and a 14-inch QHD+ (2560 x 1600 pixels) touchscreen, found in the unit under test. Choosing between the display options usually means getting an optimal viewing experience at the expense of battery life or vice versa. Miraculously, this is not the case with the QHD+ display. Details on battery life are below, but the advice is to expect all-day battery life and beyond.
The appearance is great. Bright, colorful and vivid, we really enjoyed watching movies, sports and YouTube videos with the Latitude 9420 2-in-1. Not my usual advice: if you can, buy the higher resolution panel. Details were sharp; we could easily spot the ball and the smallest movements and touches of even fast players like Raheem Sterling. Our tests of the display showed how much better this QHD+ screen is than the basic displays on competing business laptops.
The Latitude 9420 2-in-1 covers 89 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut, being more colorful than those of the EliteBook x360 1040 G7 (76 percent), ThinkPad X1 Yoga (71 percent) and last year’s Latitude 9420 (78 percent). The category average is 83 percent. With a brightness of 477 nits, the Latitude 9420 2-on-1’s screen can easily be used outdoors on a bright day. The Latitude outperformed all of its competitors, including the EliteBook x360 1040 G7 (344 nits), the ThinkPad X1 Yoga (351 nits), the Latitude 9410 (287 nits) and the average (387 nits).
Audio
The quad speakers, two with top output and two with bottom output, offer good sound quality and enough volume to fill a home office. Listening to “Focus” by the Slender bodies, the subdued vocals and complex electronic tones were crisp.
Unfortunately, the treble suffered from some piercing hi-hats, which sounded thin compared to the pleasantly heavy mids and bass. The beautiful acoustic cover of José González’s “Heartbeats” was delicately balanced, with guitar strumming creeping in between the solemn vocals. When we heard The Knife’s original version, the electric bass tones were thunderous.
Graphics
Intel Iris Xe graphics give the Latitude 9420 2-in-1 a major boost over the previous model. You won’t be able to ray-trace on a new AAA title at Ultra settings (you need a gaming laptop for that), but multimedia tasks and light gaming won’t be a problem. The Latitude scored a 5.258 in the 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark, beating the EliteBook x360 1040 (1.229, UHD), the Latitude 9410 2-in-1 (3.726, UHD) and outperforming the ThinkPad X1 Yoga (5.447, Iris Xe). The average is 4.615, well below what the Latitude 9420 achieved.
Our real-world tests were more difficult for the Latitude 9420 2-in-1, which played Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm at 23 frames per second. This is below our playability threshold of 30 fps, the ThinkPad X1 Yoga (34 fps) and the average (28 fps).
Performance
The model Dell sent us for review includes an Intel Core i7-1185G7 and 16 GB of RAM, a fairly standard configuration as far as units to review are concerned. We can’t say how many PCs we encountered with a Core i7-1185G7 and 16 GB of RAM, but this one was a little different because we had a lot of performance issues. Right now, my configuration includes a Thunderbolt dock, a 4K monitor, a FHD monitor, and the Dell Ultra Sharp 4K webcam. By the way, it is the best webcam on the market. We have previously used the Logitech Brio, but the Dell is still the best.
Anyway, the company sent it to me along with the Latitude and it is great for a home work setup. And yes, despite the 720p webcam, this is a company that really cares about the work-from-home experience, probably more than anyone else. Performance problems occurred when the Latitude 9420 2-in-1 was connected to the dock and the two monitors.
With battery or corded power, we did not experience any problems. However, this CPU with integrated Iris Xe graphics should have no problem handling the two monitors. As we mentioned, we have done this with many machines in the past. When docked, it did not handle multitasking well. Once I attended a Google Meet, listened to streaming music from the Apple Music web app, or watched a movie or TV series on Netflix or whatever, things started to crash. And we’re not talking about doing all three at the same time.
Battery life
“Are you sure?” we almost asked our lab testers, before we saw that we had already repeated the battery test. What made me doubt the result? The Latitude 9420 2-in-1, with QHD+ display, lasted for 15 hours and 2 minutes in our Laptop Mag Battery Test, which involves continuous web browsing via Wi-Fi at 150 nits. This is one of the most impressive run times ever, even taking into account the high-resolution panel, which is often a battery-destroying “upgrade.”
The fight for the title of battery life king is competitive in this category; in other words, business laptops tend to score well in our battery life test more than consumer models. However, the Latitude 9420 2-in-1 held its own against the ThinkPad X1 Yoga (14:45) and the premium average (10:56), but failed to outperform the EliteBook x360 1040 (15:45) and the Latitude 9410 2-in-1 (16:54).
Heat
Graphene paint, dual heat pipes and a dual ventilation system for maximum airflow keep the Latitude 9420 2-in-1 cool even under high workloads. The touchpad heated up to only 83 degrees Fahrenheit, while the keyboard reached 89 degrees after playing a 15-minute YouTube video.
Both temperatures are well below our comfort threshold of 95 degrees. The only area that exceeded this threshold was the bottom, although the 98 degrees reached is nothing to worry about.
Configuration options
At this price, the base model comes with a FHD+ (1920×1200 pixels) display, a Core i5-1135G7 CPU, 8 GB of RAM, and a 128 GB SSD drive. Spending another $100 upgrades to a Core i5-1145G7 CPU, 16 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD drive.
The high-end model with a QHD+ display (2560 x 1600 pixels) and a more powerful Core i7-1185G7 CPU costs $2,739. Our QHD+ touchscreen model costs $2,902 and boasts a Core i7-1185G7 CPU, 16 GB of RAM, a 512 GB SSD drive and a few extras, including a fingerprint sensor.
Conclusion
The Latitude 9000 series just exists. Until a couple of years ago, the series went all the way up to the 7000 series. At that point Dell said, “No, the 7000 is not premium enough and we need a whole new level in terms of premium that we want to achieve.” So the only way to do that is to compare it to business laptop titans like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga and the HP EliteBook x360 1040. Let’s be honest. The Dell Latitude 9420 2-in-1 has an excellent 16:10 display, a solid keyboard and small bezels. It also has a number of business features such as Express Sign-in, which wakes up the PC and logs in without the user having to touch it.
