Dell Latitude 9450 2-in-1 laptop review

Dell Latitude 9450: 30-second review

Dell is known for making solid business machines with a touch of flair, and the Dell Latitude 9450 is no exception.

This metal-skinned 2-in-1 cleverly fits a 14-inch display into the size of what would typically be a 13-inch chassis. The screen is a 16:10 InfinityEdge QHD+ model that is made to work as well in tablet mode as it will in laptop configuration.

At the heart of this machine is the latest Core 2 Ultra series processor from Intel, which Dell touts as the pinnacle of security, performance, and power efficiency. Except one of those claims is a massive overreach. Can you guess which one?

It also jumps on the AI bandwagon, even if most users aren't embracing that technology daily.

To be more realistic, this is a well-crafted 2-in-1 machine that feels robust and built-for-purpose, and most users will find it is more than adequate for whatever typical office tasks they are allocated.

The snag, and with budgets under pressure, is the cost that starts at around £1865 ($1950) for a Core Ultra 5 powered model, but at least £450 ($440) more than that for a Core Ultra 7 processor option. With the maximum memory and storage, it is possible to break £3,000 ($3000) for a Latitude 9450 without a Thunderbolt dock.

It isn't the best 2-in-1 design, but it is an excellent piece of equipment that comes at a premium price but delivers useful features. However, due to some historical strategic misplays by Intel, it's far from the quickest machine available for those who like their computing portable and lags comparable AMD platforms by some measure.

Sadly, the lack of raw performance on this makes it unlikely to make our round-up of the best business laptops, but it might steal a way into the best 2-in-1 laptops we've reviewed.

Dell Latitude 9450: Price and availability

• How much does it cost? From $1950/£1,865
• When is it out? Available now
• Where can you get it? Direct from Dell

For American customers, Dell has three SKUs of the 9450, starting with the Core Ultra 5 machines for $1949, climbing to $2,389 for a Core Ultra 7 model. Both these lower-spec machines have only 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. For $2,779, the top SKU comes with 32GB of LPDDR5X memory and 512GB of storage.

Oddly, Dell in the USA will offer a maximum of that amount of storage on this machine, which seems inadequate.

For European customers, Dell doesn't break out the design into SKUs, allowing the customer to fully customise the chassis from the outset.

UK buyers can opt for a Core Ultra 5 processor with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for £1,864, which can be upgraded to the Core Ultra 7 CPU with 64GB of RAM and 1TB of storage for £2,570.

For those who want the extra functionality, additional upgrades for 5G Comms and a long-lifecycle battery can increase the cost even further.

The Dell Latitude 9450 is at least double the Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 Gen 9 cost and is even more expensive than the Lenovo ThinkPad X12 with the detachable keyboard.

It's also undercut by the HP Envy x360 14-inch model, which, when supplied with a Core Ultra 7 processor, is less than £900 ($805).

Overall, Dell thinks its customer base is willing to pay for the engineering in the Latitude 9450, although most of the other laptop brands have adjusted their price points downwards.

It's also worth noting that the majority of laptop makers have more AMD processor options for these types of machines than Intel CPUs since the Ryzen processor series offers better power efficiency and performance while being cheaper.

• Value: 3 / 5

Dell Latitude 9450: Specs

Dell Latitude 9450: Design

• Heavyweight 2-in-1
• Zero-lattice keyboard
• Limited ports

At just over 1.53kg, the Latitude 9450 is distinctly heavier than the Latitude 7455, which I recently covered here. As they both use a similar-sized screen and construction, I conclude that the added battery capacity on the 9450 had somewhat tipped the scales.

While the weight isn't excessive, with its sharp metal edges, this isn't a laptop I'd want to drop on my foot at any point.

For an ordinary laptop, that wouldn't be an issue, but as a 2-in-1 that might be carried in tablet mode, it could prove tiring to carry for long periods of time.

Dell engineers went with the simple but effective double hinges, which allow the 9450 to be used at full angles and offer a tent mode between a laptop and a tablet.

The hinges have sufficient friction that any angle is possible over the complete range, although there are limits to those that are practical for use.

When opened, the most striking aspect of this design is how narrow the screen bevel is, leaving a skinny border around the screen on all sides. The only downside to this borderless design is that if you use apps that require off-display swipes, you might find it more challenging to execute on the 9450.
According to Dell's spec sheet, the Latitude 9450 has the world's first zero-lattice keyboard in a commercial PC, although it didn't feel substantially better or worse than other membrane designs I've recently used. The layout takes some adaptation, as these keys have only a narrow gap between them, so a misplaced press can strike up to four keys.

There might have been more space for the keyboard had the engineers not bracketed it between the speakers, taking up at least 14mm along either side.

It improves on prior designs because this keyboard uses tiny Mini-LED backlights, which allegedly reduce the power consumption of typical keyboard LEDs by 75%.

Where this Latitude becomes more openly annoying is in its port selection. There are three Thunderbolt/USB 4.0 ports, an audio jack and a security slot, and that's it.

Dell assumes that all potential purchasers would also buy a Thunderbolt dock to provide all the ports left off it. Admittedly, Dell does include a USB 4.0 to USB-A adapter as a notional nod to most computer users who still have a mouse, external drives, or other USB-A devices.

I blame Apple and its MacBook for this excessive minimalist approach to hardware and Dell for copying them.

There is also a Nano SIM slot for those who take the mobile comms option, but this wasn't included on my review machine, so I can't comment on that aspect.

Overall, the Latitude 9450 is an elegant chassis with a terrific 500-nit screen, but it's slightly undermined by the one-port-fits-all mantra of Dell's design team.

• Design: 4 / 5

Dell Latitude 9450: Hardware

• Core 7 Ultra 165U
• LPDDR5x-8448
• Limited upgrades

Intel has taken PC owners on an odd magical mystery tour in the past decade, bouncing tigger-like between prioritising different parts of its silicon platforms when the mood took it.

The Core 7 Ultra 165U from its Meteor Lake generation results from this excessive dithering and Intel's lack of a holistic approach to chip design. In both the mobile and desktop space, Intel wanted to be proclaimed the fastest chips available and set about delivering the best single-thread pipeline to demonstrate this.

Then, having realised that this approach resulted in hot and power-inefficient designs, it entirely pivoted its efforts, resulting in the Meteor Lake chips.

This chip is a classic example of trying to have the cake, eat it, and save some for later. At least a decade after AMD took that route, it started down the power efficiency path, resulting in a processor that is indeed power-efficient, but its performance was sacrificed to achieve that.

This chip has only two performance cores, eight efficiency and two low-power cores.

The upshot is that the Core 7 Ultra 165U is a highly power-efficient mobile processor that gets left for dust by the latest AMD Ryzen processors in processing power, and it also ended up with four Xe cores GPU that is on the lacklustre side of integrated graphics.

However, it has a few high points, including support for LPDDR5x-8448 memory.

Regrettably, this memory doesn't use the classic SODIMM package but is surface-mounted to the motherboard.

That means no memory upgrades for those willing to venture inside, and the scenario for storage is equally a dead end. The maximum amount of storage available on the Latitude 9450 is only 1TB. Dell only blessed this machine with an M.2 2230 storage slot to save space. That limited the capacity and performance available over an M.2 2280 that most desktop systems use and better laptop designs. There is also no second slot, so any drive cloning exercises will require an external M.2 caddy that is Thunderbolt or USB 4.0 compliant.

To put it bluntly, 1TB isn't nearly enough, and one drive slot isn't enough unless you only use this equipment for browsing or accessing web-based applications.

• Hardware: 4 / 5

Dell Latitude 9450: Performance

It was challenging to decide what to compare the Dell Latitude 9450 with, but ultimately, I went with the Asus Expertbook. It's an inexpensive option that uses the Intel Core Ultra 5 226V, another Series 2 chip design.

The results were concerning, even if the 9450 won some tests. It is a mystery why a Core Ultra 7 processor with twelve cores can be outperformed by a Core Ultra 5 design with only eight cores on multi-threaded tests. Either the efficiency cores aren't used properly, or they're excessively slow. Admittedly, the ratio of cores to performance is bad for both Intel chips.

The Intel Core Ultra 5 226V has the ARC 130V GPU in its corner, which has more Xe cores than the limited collection in the Core Ultra 7 165U.

What is truly daunting is that if any of the graphical tests were against the Snapdragon X machines, like the Dell Latitude 7450, this machine would get trounced. The toughest test, Steel Noman lite, scores 2140 on the Snapdragon X, whereas the Intel score of 1140 is almost half as much. Things get even worse if it's compared to a machine using the AMD Ryzen 7 7840U, like the Framework 7040, which uses the AMD Radeon 780M.

The chink of light at the end of the Intel tunnel is the excellent battery life, which is easily a couple of working days or more. However, it only just beat the Lattitude 7455, which managed only one minute less and had 10Wh less battery capacity.

The Dell Latitude 9450 proves that, as claimed, Intel has made a power-efficient mobile processor, but it also included many performance-enhancing features to achieve this. Not a win-win for Intel.

• Performance: 3 / 5

Dell Latitude 9450: Verdict

From the outset, something special about the 9450 spoke loudly to my pragmatic side. It exudes efficiency at every turn. Who needs a performance powerhouse when it can run for over 19 hours on battery?

The issue is that power users, those who might want a Latitude, need battery life and the ability to sprint to a computed conclusion. This machine is running a three-legged race, with two of its legs heading in opposite directions.

When you factor in Dell's high cost of cutting-edge hardware, the market for this machine might be small, assuming IT managers are still researching buying decisions.

This might make it perfect for the executive class, as they're unlikely to notice its limitations and will be happy to find the battery isn't flat when they occasionally pick it up.

Should you buy a Dell Latitude 9450?

Buy it if...

Don't Buy it if...

For more options, we reviewed the best Dell laptops.