Latitude 7480

The specifications on page 58 of the 7480 Owners Manual say the viewing angles are +/- 80 degrees which means IPS or equivalent technology. Even the HD panel has good viewing angles, which is progress, as it has usually been low quality.

John

 

Hi John,

Yes, I would have liked it to be at the back as the rest of their business line up over the years. I like where the less used ports and the power connector are at the back and the other stuff is on the sides.

The power connector being on the side means I can't rest the laptop on my lap as I'm doing right this minute while plugged in. It also means the beautiful power plug light ring is going to be constantly shining in front of your face.

Sounds nit-picky, but I'm a little disappointed, this was going to be the one! I guess E7470 is the golden standard for now (for me).

There's also some hope in the 5480 where the power adapter is at the back!

 

Nice review, but for accuracy's sake, the model name is Latitude 7480, not E7480. The "E" (and "D" and "C" before it) denotes the generation of Dell Dock connector the notebook uses, and this model has none.

 

I share the confusion expressed earlier as to why the 7480 is more expensive than a Precision 5520 configured as equivalently as possible, even though the latter bags you a quad-core CPU, larger display, and aluminum/carbon fiber construction, plus the option to add either a much larger battery or a second hard drive and of course a dGPU. Now that the dock connector has been eliminated, other than the previously noted lack of WWAN support, the only potentially meaningful downsides I can see with the Precision are that it weighs more, requires a beefier AC adapter, and lacks the wired LAN port and smart card reader still found on the 7480 -- but that wouldn't seem to account for the price difference especially with the aforementioned upsides. I know the 5520 benefits from cost sharing with the XPS 15, but Precisions tend to carry premiums, whereas I figure the Latitude 14 7000 models are probably Dell's bread and butter in the very competitive 14-inch business notebook segment. So out of curiosity, does anyone have guesses as to what gives here?

Also, can anyone who has used both compare the keyboard and touchpad on each?

 

Yeah, we realized that after we posted it. Thanks though. Fortunately, search engines seem to make the best of it.

Charles

 

The underlying problem is the hinge design on the 7480. The bottom of the display drops down behind the back edge of the computer (so that it can be sort of flat, perhaps for touchscreen use) and any cables will prevent this.

John

 

It's unfortunate to see Dell choose design over functionality and practicality.

The balance of design and functionality was something that I have loved about all my Dell business machines over the years. It's sad to see them go this way.

First the removal of full keyboard, then the separate touchpad buttons on some machines (such as the precision 5510) and now this.

Not to mention that beautiful Latitude hinge/back design has been with us for what, over ten years now?

Just look at it, simple, functional, and serviceable.

E7450: http://www.notebookcheck.net/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_hinten_61347e89a9.jpg
Image source: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Latitude-14-E7450-Ultrabook-Review.135484.0.html

 

I've got the E7450 (but don't really need it any more because it sits between my 5510 (for power) and my 7370 (for greater portability). Indeed, if my eyes hadn't demanded a bigger screen for everyday usage then I would be still be using the E7450 as the main machine. I look on the E5470 as the successor to the E7450. However, the 5480 has lost the Dell dock connector as we get pushed towards Thunderbolt (Dell would like us to spend $$$ on new TB3 docks) although it still has the other ports in the usual places.

After the E7450 the 7 series got thinner and less utilitarian. They have their niche in the market.

John

 

Wow, I didn't even catch the keyboard change in the photos. On my work E7440 I have dedicated buttons for Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn, whereas on my personal XPS 15 9530 I have none of those, and using the Fn key in conjunction with Ctrl/Shift and those keys feels awkward and can be aggravating since you have to press Fn immediately before the navigation key (i.e. after Ctrl/Shift), otherwise it won't work properly. I see that on the 7480 PgUp and PgDn are retained, but those buttons don't exist on the Precision 5520 even though the spaces for them are right there. What's that about? Was that a design decision driven by the gamer-oriented XPS 15 to get rid of "geeky" keys?

I'm right there with you on touchpad buttons too. I remember my old Precision M6800 not only had the full set of "geeky" keys in the upper-right corner and in the proper 3x2 arrangement you find on regular desktop keyboards (though even those have been altered....), but it also had three dedicated touchpad buttons. I loved being able to middle-click that way.

 

The keyboard change on the Latitude came with the E7450. Why they lost the Home + End is a mystery to me but at least they kept the pgUp and PgDn. The other change on the keyboard was the move to the separated key arrangement which is much more rigid as there are fixing screws within the keyboard which are then covered by the plastic grid. Why the 5510 / 5520 doesn't have the PgUp / PgDn is another mystery but is most likely related to it being a close relative of the XPS15 whose designers assumed that people would use either the touchscreen or pouchpad gestures for our navigation. It's one of those details which could make a future version an attractive upgrade (along with an extra 1mm travel in the keyboard even if it caused a 1mm increase in the notebook thickness).

John