Dell Latitude 7430 Review. Quiet and powerful notebook for many tasks

We start the test of the Dell Latitude 7430 with the specifications. There are various processors to choose from, from the Intel Core i5-1235U to the Intel Core i7-1270P. The letters U and P mean that the processor consumes 15 W and 28 W respectively. The device we tested is equipped with an Intel Core i7-1235U processor.

The 14-inch screen is not a Touchscreen (there are also versions with Touchscreen) and the graphics are provided by the Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 chipset. The RAM can be selected between 8 GB and 32 GB. The device we used was equipped with 16 GB. The operating system can be selected between Windows 11 Pro and Home as well as Windows 10 Pro. There are also two housing options: one made of aluminum and one made of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic. The carbon fiber case, with which the test notebook was equipped, is about 70 grams lighter than the aluminum version, resulting in a total weight of about 1.33 kg

Dell Latitude 7430 - Construction

The carbon fiber-reinforced plastic version of the Dell Latitude 7430 in black is lighter than the aluminum version, but also slightly thicker. The surface with the woven carbon fiber pattern on the lid looks very classy, although the brushed aluminum surface of the second variant also looks very good

Keyboard and touchpad

I was pleasantly surprised by the keyboard of the Dell Latitude 7430 model, which offers a decent key travel and feedback. Of course, the numeric keypad is missing, which is understandable as this is a 14-inch laptop, but the spacing between the keys is very reasonable and the overall typing quality is very good. The 5.2-inch touchpad has a surprisingly smooth glass surface. It's a pure pleasure to use, as fingers glide effortlessly across the surface and fingertips don't chafe. A great thing, in my opinion even better than the XPS 9320. Of course, there is also multi-touch support, but that is standard these days

14-inch screen

The Dell Latitude 7430 is equipped with a pretty decent 14-inch FHD IPS screen. It offers good viewing angles and decent coverage of the sRGB color space, but the DCI-P3 coverage suggests that this notebook is not recommended for video or multimedia editing. The notebook's brightness is specified at 400 nits, during the test we achieved around 374 nits, which is quite close to the specification. The difference is relatively small, so there should be no problems with multimedia use on the Dell Latitude 7430. It is pleasing that Dell has implemented the active ComfortView Plus function, which limits the emission of harmful blue light and at the same time offers excellent color reproduction. The monitor is TÜV-certified

Dell 7430 - Connections

The model I have is equipped with a uSIM card slot, two Thunderbolt 4 Type C ports with Power Delivery and DisplayPort function, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port with Power Share function, a Universal Audio Port and an HDMI 2.0 port. I can't complain about the connections

Battery

We tested the battery life with the PCMark10 battery test and general video playback. Depending on usage, you can easily achieve between 4 hours (watching movies) and 7.30 hours (office work with WLAN) per full charge, which is pretty decent. This is definitely one of the better results in the business notebook category and thanks to the ExpressCharge function, the notebook can even be charged up to 80 percent in just 60 minutes

Sound

The sound from the 2 x 2 watt stereo speakers is quite loud. This makes the notebook well suited for smaller presentations. The sound during phone calls is improved by the Intelligent Audio System, an artificial intelligence that optimizes the sound and voice quality depending on the ambient conditions. The neural noise suppression technology eliminates unwanted background noise during calls

High-quality connectivity

A very cool feature is ExpressConnect, a technology that allows you to use two networks simultaneously - the world's first feature that enables simultaneous connection to multiple networks. This speeds up data transfer and enables smooth streaming of videos. This means that you can, for example, be connected to two different networks such as AMSO 1 and AMSO 2 at the same time. For example, the hardware/system uses one network to download and play videos and the other to browse websites at the same time. In this way, both processes are used with the full performance of both connections. Does this work well? In general, both networks are used well, but not at 100% performance. In tests, we have achieved throughput rates of 453 Mb/s and 385 Mb/s with "2 Wi-Fi networks", which is good, but you have to keep in mind that we have fiber optic internet with a performance of 1000 Mb/s. The router uses Wi-Fi 6 802.11aX, which is compatible with the standards in laptops. So the result is good, but not perfect

The notebook also has an excellent network connection via both WLAN and WWAN. It uses Wi-Fi 6E with an additional 7 channels to ensure higher bandwidth and faster and smoother Wi-Fi functionality, especially in areas with a dense network infrastructure. In addition, 4G LTE connectivity guarantees a reliable connection everywhere.

Security

The presence detection function should also be mentioned here. It not only warns the user if someone is looking at the screen from the side, but also automatically darkens or blurs the image. In addition, the "Look Away Detect" function also reacts to moments when the user averts their gaze, which automatically darkens the screen. This not only increases data protection, but also effectively saves energy

Dell Latitude 7430 - A quiet notebook for many years to come

The Dell Latitude 7430 is a near-perfect device with a very quiet fan (a specially designed heat dissipation system on the side and rear works brilliantly) and incredible performance. The total number of cores of the i7-1265u processor is 12, including 2 powerful and 10 efficient cores, which means that this laptop runs absolutely smoothly. Especially when you consider that 16 GB of LDDR5 RAM and an NVM hard disk are soldered in. All of this makes it a device that will last its owner for years to come. I can highly recommend it

Dell Latitude 7430 (carbon fiber case) - Specifications:

• Height: 17.27 mm (0.68")
• Width: 321.35 mm (12.65")
• Depth: 208.69 mm (8.22")
• Weight: 1.22 kg (2.69 lbs)

7430 (aluminum housing) - Specifications:

• Height: 16.90 mm (0.66")
• Width: 321.35 mm (12.65")
• Depth: 208.69 mm (8.22")
• Weight: 1.27 kg (2.79 lbs)

Carbon fiber, Intel® Core™ P-Series processors (28 W) - Specifications:

• Height: 18.47 mm (0.727")
• Width: 321.35 mm (12.65")
• Depth: 208.69 mm (8.22")
• Weight: 1.24 kg (2.73 lbs)