Dell Latitude 7455 review

Dell Latitude 7455 review

Having recently reviewed the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, another Snapdragon X design, the timely appearance of the Dell Latitude 7455 provided more insight into the practicalities of everyday office machines that don't use Intel or AMD processors.

Installed in a classic 14-inch Dell Latitude chassis, this model boasts a better CPU than the T14s Gen 6, marginally, although the asking price is slightly more for a system with the same amount of memory and storage.

This design also looks much more like a laptop of this era and less like a homage to a previous one.

Overall, the 7455's specifications are excellent, and unlike the Lenovo machine, Dell offers relatively easy storage upgrades for its machine.

The only major weakness of this design is that it has relatively few ports, effectively forcing the purchase of a docking station if you want to connect to a wired LAN or external monitor.

On the plus side of this equation, the 14-inch panel is high quality and better than 1080p resolution, the build quality is exceptional, and the Snapdragon X delivers incredible battery life.

While we've seen much-improved power efficiency on the new Core Ultra products from Intel, the ARM SoC machines still hold the high ground for getting the longest operational life from relatively modest battery capabilities.

As this system runs an ARM-compiled version of Windows 11, a few legacy applications refuse to run, but these are small in number, thankfully.

One caveat of this and other Snapdragon X systems is an ongoing spat between ARM Holdings and Qualcomm over ARM technology licensing. There is a disturbing possibility that the Snapdragon X and all of Qualcomm's other ARM-based chips might become unavailable in the future.

Like the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, the Dell Latitude 7455 demonstrates that an effective Windows machine doesn't necessarily need an AMD or Intel processor.

Dell Latitude 7455: Price and availability

• How much does it cost? From $1510/£1,380
• When is it out? Available now
• Where can you get it? Direct from Dell

The starting price of the Dell Latitude 7455 is $1510.06 in the USA for a machine with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Increasing those amounts to 32GB of RAM and 1TB increases the cost to $1,956.45, which seems excessive for 16GB of RAM and 768GB of SSD space. With a 5G WLAN module, you can spend $2,246.02 on one of these.

It is possible to buy a machine with 32GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $1,735.21, and a Kioxia 2230 1TB SSD can be sourced for only $115; that might be the path to take for some savings.

In the UK, the base configuration using the Snapdragon X Plus (not Elite) CPU with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage is £1,380.60. But curiously, choosing 256GB of storage makes it more expensive, not cheaper.

The top specification model from the UK with the Elite processor, 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage costs £1,776.06.

Comparing this to the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, the base model of the 7455 costs more, but the fully specified options are generally cheaper. For whatever reason, Dell didn't offer the 64GB memory option that Lenovo has, but the screen is a higher resolution on all models.

An alternative we've yet to look at, the HP EliteBook Ultra G1q, is cheaper, with a cost of £1,475.99 in the UK for a machine with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. In the US, this is offered with 512GB of drive space, and it costs $1399.

The impression is that the Dell Latitude 7455 is positioned more to compete with the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 and not the HP, but it's not the most aggressive pricing from Dell.

Given that the sales of Snapdragon X machines have generally been soft, as we reported in this news story, perhaps all three need to consider making these options cheaper.

• Value: 4 / 5

Dell Latitude 7455: Specs

Dell Latitude 7455: Design

• Built for home and office
• Great display
• Limited ports

Dell's designers made a particular effort with this model to make it look and feel like a typical Intel-based Latitude. It has a sleek appearance, cool-to-the-touch aluminium skin and a slightly brushed metal finish.

Compared with a typical Intel or AMD system, the 7455 has modest ventilation. Air is drawn from two side slots near the front and then ejected from a larger perforated section that goes almost fully across the underside at the back.

The danger of this arrangement is that if the exit vent becomes covered, things could heat up inside rather rapidly, but this machine has a clever rear hinge design that negates this issue. As the screen rotates past vertical, the lower part of it extends a foot that elevates the rear for additional ground clearance.

Many laptops could use that, as anyone who has tried to use a small laptop balanced on their knees can attest.

Opening the 7455, the working area of this machine is well-proportioned with the keyboard and trackpad in roughly a 60-40% ratio. The keys aren't the largest ones we've seen, but the spacing between them makes typing on it less prone to mistakes than most. The trackpad here is one of the better Dell ones we've tested, and on this platform, it's impressively responsive to taps and gestures.

There are two narrow speaker vents on either side of the keyboard, and shockingly, these speakers don't sound horrific and have much more volume and bass than was anticipated.

The screen is less surprising since the specifications of this display hint that it was one of Dell's more costly components. With 400 nits of brightness and a natural resolution of  2560 x 1600, this is a 16:9 ratio panel with tiny borders on the left and right.

Any higher resolution at 14 inches would be pointless, but it's a significant notch up from an equivalent 1080p panel, and that it is on all the Latitude 7455 models is excellent news.

This machine is slightly lacking in the external ports department, where it has only three USB ports and an audio jack, and that's it. No HDMI, no LAN, and given that one of the two USB-C ports is needed for charging, this arrangement mandates a docking station.

Two docking stations might be required in the budget, along with the laptop, for those working between home and office.

It should be noted that the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 did at least have HDMI, which, on this machine, you would need an adapter to achieve if you don't have a dock with that facility.

Overall, this is an elegant and beautifully engineered laptop, let down only by Dell's agenda to sell more docking stations.

• Design: 4 / 5

Dell Latitude 7455: Hardware

• Qualcomm Snapdragon X1E-80-100
• LPDDR5x-8448
• Hexagon NPU
• Thunderbolt or not?

The difference between the Qualcomm Snapdragon X1E-80-100 in this laptop and the Qualcomm Snapdragon X1E-78-100 used in the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 appears more emotional than significant.

It has the same 12 cores with a 3.4GHz clock base and the same iGPU, with the only big difference being that it can turbo-boost limited cores to 4GHz. The little impact this has on overall performance hints that this feature isn't used much, mostly because Windows for ARM is tailored for the multi-threaded environment.

The Adreno X1-85 iGPU has the same clock speeds and shader numbers in both chips, so the X1E-80-100 can't be considered a graphics enhancement.

Those machines built using the Elite version of the Snapdragon X use LPDDR5x-8448 memory via a special DDR5 controller included in the SoC. While this offers excellent memory performance, the downside to LPDDR5x-8448 is that it is surface-mounted to the mainboards, removing the option to upgrade the memory. Therefore, those wanting 32GB of RAM and not the baseline 16GB need to have this installed in the factory, as it can't be changed later should you decide it would help.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon X1E-80-100 can address more than 32GB of RAM, but it's the maximum that Dell is offering on this line.

Dell and Microsoft are eager to highlight the advantages of AI, particularly the local model processing capabilities enabled by the Hexagon NPU integrated into Qualcomm's Snapdragon X architecture. Although AI localised processing is still in its early stages, opting for this setup does not preclude access to emerging AI features making their way onto desktop systems. That said, the practical benefits of this technology for the average user remain a topic of discussion.

There will be a tipping point at which NPU performance for local models becomes of real significance. But for now, it's mostly a curiosity.

According to Dell's specifications, the USB-C ports on here are USB 4.0, with no mention of Thunderbolt whatsoever. But, in the BIOS, there is a switch to activate Thunderbolt Technology Support, and we can confirm that these ports will talk to Thunderbolt docks and devices.

• Hardware: 4 / 5

Dell Latitude 7455: Performance

It was something of a no-brainer to present the benchmarks of the Latitude 7455 against those of the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, as they both use the Snapdragon X Elite processor.

In theory, with the slightly better processor, the Dell should have edged the Lenovo in the tests, but the numbers were actually not that way around in most tests.

But considering the typical variance we've experienced with synthetic benchmarks and Windows, these machines are practically identical. Most users wouldn't notice enough difference to say which was faster, certainly.

We can say that the 512GB Kioxia BG6 SSD isn't as fast as the 1TB Samsung in the Lenovo, but the 1TB version of the Kioxia might well match it.

The battery life is also a little less, but the battery capacity is less, which could easily account for that difference. Whatever the reason, a sufficient capacity is installed to get the Latitude 7455 through at least two reasonably intense working days, if not more.

Like the Lenovo, the Dell Latitude 7455 is an impressive machine that can cope with most office tasks easily.

• Performance: 4 / 5

Dell Latitude 7455: Verdict

The second Snapdragon X laptop your reviewer has seen, and the Dell Latitude 7455 didn't alter any of the conclusions that the prior Lenovo generated.

With a native version of Windows 11, the Snapdragon X Elite is a capable and highly efficient platform that enables a whole new level of battery life.

More powerful than the hardware we've tested using the Intel Core Ultra 5 226V and even the AMD Ryzen 7 7840U.

In a Dell Latitude 7455 package, this is an elegant, streamlined laptop ideal for those working between home and office where power efficiency is paramount.

A docking station can address The lack of ports, and the USB-C 4.0 ports can be made fully Thunderbolt-compliant using the BIOS.

With such new technology entering the market, Dell might have made it a little cheaper, but the cost isn't crazy.

We need to talk about the potential issues regarding Qualcomm and its licensing issues with ARM Holdings. At this time, it appears ARM intends to remove Qualcomm's license to make and distribute products based on ARM designs, which could have catastrophic consequences for both companies.

We asked Dell to comment on this situation, but they have yet to do so.

One can only hope that this MAD (as in mutually agreed destruction) mode that Qualcomm and ARM Holdings appear to have entered is merely bravado at some level and agreement can be reached before it impacts products like this one.

Meanwhile, if you need a modern laptop with extraordinary battery life, the Dell Latitude 7455 is available now, even if the uptake of Snapdragon X machines seems implausibly low.

Should you buy a Dell Latitude 7455?

Buy it if...

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