Latitude 7480

lol, we are having a meeting about this today. I'm leaning towards keeping Skylake machines for as long as possible. There really hasn't been discernible performance enhancements for productivity use since the Sandy Bridge days, and the notebook manufacturers insists on the smaller is better philosophy.

Yeah, the spacer isn't pretty, but it works perfectly fine. The docking connector is actually more robust than you think, those two guiding posts flanking the connector is quite well placed. Plus, the user should not be lifting the notebook out of the dock, they should be using the massive eject button that kicks the laptop out of the dock.

The good thing about the dock is that it lasts a good 10 years, which is good for IT since they (or myself) don't have to mess with anything for 10 years. I personally don't want waste a chunk of the annual budget on dock upgrades because it went from TB3 to TB4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. etc.

 

It is the future man, I guess not enough of us hounded dell to tell them we love the dock connector. Now that latitudes are going away from the dock style to the cable/port replicator style, there is really no reason to stick with the line that I can see. I am more keen to upgrade to the new technology, infinity screen, thinner/lighter chassis, etc. Especially seeing I am buying the same new dock either way I go. :| Sucks, but welcome to the future.

 

Was thinking the same thing, except the WWAN card is only available on the Latitude line, and that's a must for us...

 

Its the enterprise sector, it has always been about usability, not features. The future is nice, but if it adversely effects usability, we'll take our orders elsewhere.

 

Manufacturers should be able to create a drop-in TB dock which uses a USB-C socket placed on the bottom of the computer.

One failing of the Skylake TB3 is that a soon as anything is plugged into the USB-C port the controller wakes up and consumes around 2.5W to 3W even if no data are flowing. On my Precision 5510 the fans, which are usually off under light usage, come on so I lose the benefit of a quiet notebook.

I've just bought a Dell Outlet 7370 (two USB-C and only one USB 3 port) which shows the same power drain issue although the fan doesn't come on because there isn't one. Nonetheless, having anything plugged into the USB-C can potentially have the light usage run time on battery because the TB controller is guzzling more power than the CPU. No doubt the TB power management will improve in due course (is the Kaby Lake platiform using the same TB hardware?), but it should have been addressed from the beginning.

There's also the minor matter that the traditional docks are very affordable while the TB docks are expensive. I can anticipate this additional cost meaning that companies defer their notebook upgrades.

John

 

Do you actually see Dell putting a port back on the bottom? Especially in this day and age where all manufacturers seem enamored by "lets make it as thin as possible! screw usability" mindset? I agree that would be preferrable to cables but I can't see them going backwards like that. Lenovo still has it on their t470s, Maybe it is time to consider jumping brands *shrug*

 

There's the adage "where's there the will there's the way". A vertical USB-C socket would have a very small footprint within the computer but would require a decision about where to put it relative to the back edge of the computer so that the different notebooks would slot into the dock without much effort. One work-around might be to make the plug on the dock adjustable so it could be moved and locked into several different positions. The dock could also be designed to blow some air against the bottom of the computer to assist the cooling and reduce fan noise.

However, enough people need to suggest to Dell that it would be a very good idea to have an updated version of the traditional dock before they will think about addressing the problem.

John

 

agreed, bottom ports are dead / dying. *plays tiny violin*

As soon as I can custom build a 7480 with a WWAN card, i will be replacing my 7470 and posting impressions on how it works with the TB16. This guy points out some problems with sleep settings:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/5ngldq/tb16_dock_arrived_and_working/


I'll also be testing with my WiGi wireless dock, it works great at home, but it has a very limited range - and still requires you to have a cable connected for power .... so still you have a cable dangling. From my recent CES visit, I really hope 2017 is the year we start to see wireless charging on laptops, it is becoming ubiquitous everywhere else.

 

I wonder why they can't put a usb C style port on the back and design a dock that the computer can slide into and connect in the back. This would not add to thickness/thiness. They just have to move one of the side mounted usb C ports to the back.

My users don't want to have to plug in a cable every time they dock the computer. We may be stocking up on the 7470's for a while.

 

rear port might not work well with slice/extended bsttery (of course you can make the port height adjustable)

I get how multiple cables are annoying(power+displays+usb hub...)

But if it's just one cable (and no teething issues like tb15), cable is more flexible than dock. Users can decide to keep laptop aside and use external keyboard(like how dock works now), or use the laptop keyboard and be able to adjust laptop.

Heck, the cable is reversible too

Do they complain about having to charge their phones using cables, or do they all have qi/powermat charging?