Latitude vs Precision

Assuming you don't need the dGPU, yes, that's as good as Dell makes. Without going to exorbitantly priced Xeon chips with only marginally higher performance at a much higher price, or a handful of announced chips I'm not aware of anyone selling laptops with (i7-6920hq, i7-6870hq, i7-6970hq) it's the fastest processor overall that you can buy in a laptop right now. If you can get the Iris Pro ones at some point (besides the better iGPU) the L4 cache can make a big difference in some data-intensive compute workloads.

Although "fastest" always depends a bit on your workload. Back when they still had full-wattage i5 and i7 dual-core CPUs, there was a bit of a trade-off between the maximum single-core performance and having the two other cores. Now, there isn't, but even so the performance on largely-single-threaded workloads on the dual core ultrabook chips is ecellent these days. Whether there is a meaningful performance difference between say, the i5-6300U, i5-6440HQ, or the i7-6820HQ depends on whether your workload can take advantage of the extra cores, and the extra threads on the hyperthreaded quad core.

The quality of the cooling also matters; how much it's going to reach its theoretical maximum speeds depends a lot on adequate coolling, and really maximizing that is a big part of why the 7510 is so much heavier even than the 5570. The 5510 and M3800 both do a good job of cooling, but they are LOUD at full fan (even with dGPU idle.)

Personally, because of my tendency to have to use this on planes, depth matters more to me than width, and the 5510 is closer to a 14" machine in depth than to the other 15" ones. It also lacks the numeric keypad, which I find an ergonomic advantage to not have but some people really want.

As for the sizes:
E7470 - Height: 0.76" (19.4 mm) x Width: 13.19" (334.9 mm) x Depth: 9.13" (232 mm) Starting weight: 3.13lbs / 1.42kg
E5470 - Width: 13.2" / 334.9mm Height (front): 0.9" / 23.2mm Depth: 9.1" / 231.1mm Starting weight: 3.88 lbs. / 1.76 kg2
M5510 - Height: 0.45” (11.48mm) x Width: 14.06” (357.23mm) x Depth: 9.27” Weight: 3.93lb (1.78kg)
E5570/M3510 - Width: 14.8" / 377.1mm Height (front): 1.0" / 24.6mm Depth: 9.9" / 252.6mm Starting weight: 4.61 lbs. / 2.09 kg2
M7510 - Front 1.09” (27.76mm) – 1.3” (33mm) x Width: 14.88” (378mm) x Depth: 10.38” (261mm) Weight: starting at 6.16 lbs (2.79kg)

At least for the M3800/XPS 15 9530, the construction was exactly the same. The 5510 seems to be built fairly similarly; it feels a bit more robust, but it's also brand new (about 4 weeks of use) and the aging-poorly aspects of the M3800 were not immediately apparent. I'm not sure it's quite as identical between the XPS 15 9550 and 5510, but you could probably find out if you look at the new XPS thread.

Some other aspects (thinner power connector, and clickpad) are still exactly the same between the two. Also, the XPS is their "premium" consumer line.

If your workloads are mainly single-threaded, and you don't need the quad-core CPU, it would probably be my recommendation. The E7470 is their "flagship" business laptop, and has the best construction of the Latitude line, the best screen option (if you like HiDPI -- QHD 2560x1440) and is a bit lighter and more compact. The L4 cache and bigger iGPU will give you a bit of a speedbump over other ultrabook CPUs, and the single-threaded turbo performance of the Skylake-U chips is excellent.

OTOH, if you have a heavily multithreaded workload, there's no way that will match the performance of two more real cores even on the i5-6440HQ.

No, but it might be an acceptable compromise if you really need the dGPU. The performance difference at the full 45W spec of the i5-6440HQ and the i7-6820HQ are not hugely different -- the main difference being a slightly smaller cache and no hyperthreading. What I don't know is how big a clock speed hit you take on the i5-6440HQ when configured down for 35W use which is what Dell has documented for the 5470 (the 6820 is listed by Dell as 45W, and is I assume actually run that way.)

It's a great deal, as long as you can live without the dGPU. If you need the dGPU, the i5-6440HQ is definitely worth considering.

I tend to be very hard on my machines, and the combination of Windows XP and that machine REALLY liked waking up from sleep while in my laptop bag.

I ran Gentoo on my spare, and found it tolerable even after I had retired the Windows one. That said, I got on the SSD bandwagon really early, and the lack of SATA in those and the relatively low memory limit was a killer. Memory is my big need; I'm happy with the CPU and disk in my M3800, but only having 16GB is kind of a killer for work (and some of its weird habits related to the bad power connector are really annoying too, and quite a few games just don't play nicely with Windows 10 + dual graphics + HiDPI.)

The big difference in the E5470 is that the i5-6440 is paired with a dGPU, while the i7-6820hq is not. That said, there may well still be some cooling related issues or slower speeds; if any of the existing buyers have followed up on that in this thread, I missed it. I'll try to report back, as compared to the M5510.

 

Two further thoughts:
* the E7470 with i7-6650U (Iris Pro 540 iGPU, 48EU + 64mb of eDRAM) is now actually showing up as orderable on Premier (sadly no i5-6260 option), so it should be orderable by the general public soon enough if it isn't already.
* Throttling issues aside (which may well still be the case for the e5470) the Lenovo T460p might well be the best option, since it's i7-6820HQ + NVidia Geforce 940MX + HiDPI available seems a bit closer to the originally hoped for spec. Heavy ol' 135W adapter, though!

 

I guess we should clear up a few things

6820hq and 6440hq is spec's at 45W TDP and 35W configurable TDP down

http://ark.intel.com/m/products/889...-Cache-up-to-3_60-GHz#@product/specifications

TDP
Thermal Design Power (TDP) represents the average power, in watts, the processor dissipates when operating at Base Frequency with all cores active under an Intel-defined, high-complexity workload. Refer to Datasheet for thermal solution requirements.

Configurable TDP-down
Configurable TDP-down is a processor operating mode where the processor behavior and performance is modified by lowering TDP and the processor frequency to fixed points. The use of Configurable TDP-down is typically executed by the system manufacturer to optimize power and performance. Configurable TDP-down is the average power, in watts, that the processor dissipates when operating at the Configurable TDP-down frequency under an Intel-defined, high-complexity workload.

And this is the behavior we see in real life for Dell and thinkpad

 

The i5-6440HQ in my E5570 is nominally 35W but the most I have observed using HWiNFO is 33W when running Cinebench. The cTDP doesn't appear to affect the raw CPU performance (3.1GHz for wPrime 1024M with 4 threads, 3.2GHz with 2 threads and 3.3GHz sustained for one thread) but may limit some combinations of CPU + GPU workload.

Under heavy load the noise from the E5570's cooling system is actually from the air flowing through the heat sink and not from the fan itself. I'm wondering if the E5470 has the same size fan (see dimension on photo) or is it a size smaller due to the smaller chassic?



If fan noise is a concern and the E7470 is an option then it would be prudent to check what the E7470's fan looks like. My E7440 had a relatively crude and noisy fan while my dGPU version of the E7450 has a much better quality fan (similar to the photo above) which is less noisy.

John

 

Has anyone definitely reported that behavior for the non-GPU i7 systems on the E5470? In any event, it's acceptable for me if so -- I'm coming up from a 37W system (i7-4712HQ) and have a fully-cooled 45W if I need one.

The 35W figure for the E5470 i5s is direct from the Dell Outlet listing for those machines (oddly, the new sales lists them all as 45W along with the i7s.)

Good reminder to get a closeup of the fan when I do my memory swap this afternoon/evening (assuming no Fedex delay.)

 

Ding ding ding, there it is! It's everything I need.

Looks like the panel is IPS also, better than the Latitude's regular display.

I don't like straying from Dell. Back in the IBM days, I thought Thinkpads were overrated and usually underpowered. How do modern Thinkpads compare to Latitudes?

EDIT: Reviews don't seem to like the T460p due to cooling and battery issues.

If it really has a battery that mounts outside the case, that's silly.

 

I have e5470 + i7 6820hq igp-only

At worst case, it does hit 45w, then throttles to 35W under a minute. With prime95 max heat generation, it throttles to 2.5 90degrees(base freq is 2.7ghz, so this isn't ideal), but the other stress tests (and real world) goes between (2.8-3.3ghz at 90degrees), so I'm not that worried about throttling under real world

T460p

Why do you say the display is better (other than option of hidpi)

T460p 6cell 72whr battery does stick out and is heavier with a gpu(3cell 23whr battery doesn't stick out), but e5470 battery is not user accessible without screwdriver(4 cell 62whr)

Your choice if you want dGPU(which is roughly 2x faster on paper, but perhaps eats more battery life). Unfortunately, notebook check only had ULV e5470 and HQ+dgpu t460p review, no HQ 5470 review

 

T460p has a similar construction as T460, but the materials are different: Palmrest is made out of plastic, the lid is made out of ABS plastic, and the base cover is made out of Magnesium alloy.

Actually I'd pick xps 15 over T460p: far better dGPU, better chassis, better screen, similar CPU, better portability.

I guess that means Precision 5510 over T460p.

 

Any display described by Dell as "wide viewing angle" is IPS or equivalent technology and I think all the Latitude FHD panels fall into this category. The 1366 x 768 panels, however, are in a somewhat lower league.

I once had a T420s which had a very noisy, but ineffective fan and the CPU throttled. I looked at the fan in the notebookcheck review and it looks to be one I would not want in my notebook now I have experience of what a good fan looks like and sounds like.

John

 

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm not interested in anything larger than 14" because it simply takes up too much space on a desk. 14" is the perfect size.

The T460p seems perfect with the HiDPI LCD, dGPU, and 6820HQ though I might just choose a FHD screen.

That battery location is extremely dumb and clunky, except for the 3-cell which isn't enough for a powerhouse quad laptop.

It's either the Lenovo or the E5470 with the 6820HQ. Both seem like the best 14" business notebooks available. What say you all?

It seems like there's negative sentiment about Lenovo's build quality, like John has mentioned. Inefficient cooling is definitely a problem. I got to play with a Latitude E7470 at the university today. Very nice machine, excellent size, display, keyboard and mouse. Perfect really. Fans make noise but were very quiet, and the machine was snappy to boot with an i7.

Unfortunately, it looks like the Lenovo has the dreaded clickpad. Like I said, I don't care about battery life either way. I'm never anywhere where power isn't immediately available and battery life goes downhill after a year or so anyway.

About the display, I was just referring to the resolution.

paper_wastage how do you like your 5470?