In this article, reviewing the Dell Latitude 7440, an ultralight laptop with QHD plus 2560 by 1600 resolution and is equipped with a touch display featuring matte finish, ensuring you don’t have to deal with any unnecessary glare or reflections. Additionally, it offers an optional 5G modem, a 13th Gen processor, a really nice keyboard, and an overall sleek and professional look. This laptop is perfect for business use and highly portable at the same time. Let’s know the full review of the Dell Latitude 7440 ultralight.
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Unboxing and Design
Inside the box, we get a 60-watt power adapter, along with the Dell Latitude 7440. We also receive a USB-C cable, which is a positive addition, and, of course, you get your power cord. Additionally, there is some documentation for the Latitude 7440, including warranty and safety regulatory information. The river color of the laptop is quite beautiful; I like it. It’s almost like a grayish bluish color, and it looks really nice. The laptop is made of river color magnesium alloy, making it super light. According to my scale, it weighs 1.226 kilograms, which is very close to the manufacturer’s claim of 1.05 kilograms, although my scale might have a slight discrepancy. Let’s now calculate the total travel weight, including the power charger, USB-C cable, and power cord: it comes out to be 1.47 kilograms, or to be exact, 1.469 kilograms, which is equivalent to 3 pounds and 3.8 ounces. This laptop is very travel-friendly, making it a great option for people on the go.
Dell Latitude 7440 Ports
The port selection on the left side includes an HDMI 2.0 port, and then you get two USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4 ports that are full function, supporting data charge and display out. Now, over to the right side, there’s the SIM tray for the optional 5G modem, which is always great for the mobile road warrior. Additionally, you get a 3.5-millimeter microphone headphone combo jack, and two Legacy ports: two USB Type-A ports that are 3.2 Gen 1, which is great to see, of course. Finally, rounding out the ports is a Kensington lock slot. That’s all the ports you get on dell lattitude 7440. Notably missing, there’s no micro SD card reader that you got last year; you don’t get it this year as they’ve done away with that. So, a little bit of a downer there, but overall, it’s a pretty decent port selection, especially for an ultraportable.
Internals and User Upgradeability
To access the laptop’s interior, it is really easy. There are eight captive screws; all you need to do is loosen them and off the bottom plate. Once you’re inside, you’ll notice a single fan for cooling and a 57-watt hour battery.
| All | Read (MB/s) | Write (MB/s |
|---|---|---|
| SEQ1M Q8T1 | 3631.32 | 2530.55 |
| SEQ1M Q1T1 | 2643.06 | 1590.74 |
| RND4K Q32T1 | 435.06 | 366.24 |
| RND4K Q8T1 | 76.06 | 139.64 |
Now, my review latitude 7440 has a 2242 SSD, so that is the only SSD slot, and it is m.2, so it is user-upgradeable. If you need more storage, you have that option. As you can see from these reads and writes, these are what we would expect with an m.2242. Not the fastest when you compare it to the larger-sized SSDs, the 2280s, but this definitely will get the job done, no doubt about it.
Like most ultraportables nowadays, the RAM is soldered into the motherboard and not user-upgradeable, so just keep that in mind. This unit has 16 gigabytes of LPDDR5 RAM running at 4,800 megahertz and in dual-channel mode. You’re also looking at Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth 5.3 combo card soldered into the motherboard, not upgradable by the user, so just keep that in mind. But Wi-Fi 6E is working great, and so is the Bluetooth on this unit. When it comes to the optional mobile broadband 5G, there is an option here, and the great news is that the antenna leads are already included and configured. All you need to do is get the modem, which is an option. A lot of business users would definitely want to have it, especially when they work on the road and want to have an always-on secure connection.
Display and Webcam
There are two display options for the Dell Latitude 7440. The first one is a Full HD option with a resolution of 1920×1200, which I don’t have here. However, the option I have is the 14-inch QHD plus display with a touch layer on it. It boasts a 2560×1600 resolution and is a ComfortView Plus IPS display. The display quality is pretty great, with deep blacks, good white point, excellent contrast, and good coverage of the color gamut. It is color accurate, making it suitable for content creation in applications like Lightroom, Photoshop, and even some light video editing at 1080p resolution. The touch layer works well, allowing easy pinch-to-zoom and navigation of the OS with your finger.
Additionally, the display is matte, so you won’t have to deal with unnecessary glare or reflections, which is beneficial for productivity tasks. When you want to enjoy downtime and watch movies on platforms like Netflix, Amazon, or YouTube, the display performs excellently, providing a good viewing experience.
One thing to note is that the display has a 60Hz refresh rate, and there is no option for a higher refresh rate. This is not too unusual for a business-focused ultraportable, as the focus is on longevity and battery life, which are both excellent in this laptop.
The aspect ratio is 16:10, which is more modern and welcomed compared to the dated 16:9 aspect ratio of the 7330 model from last year. This change aligns with other modern laptops, and it’s great to see this improvement.
Regarding the camera, the Dell Latitude 7440 ultralight for 2023 has a 5-megapixel IR camera. It supports face recognition with Windows Hello for secure and convenient login. The video quality you’re seeing is 1440p, and the audio quality of the mics is also well-performing, effectively suppressing background noise. Studio Effects, such as auto framing and background blur, are available, making it suitable for Zoom calls and video conferencing.
Performance, Benchmarks and Gaming
The performance of the Dell Latitude 7440 with the Core i5-1345U processor, which is a part of Intel’s 13th generation lineup. This CPU features 10 cores, including eight efficient cores and two performance cores, and operates at a 15-watt power consumption.
| PCMARK 10 | 5,449 |
| GEEKBENCH 6 (Single-Core) | 2,436 |
| GEEKBENCH 6 (Multi-Core) | 9,038 |
| CINEBENCH R20 | 2,439 |
| CINEBENCH R15 | 1,486 CB | 93.47 FPS |
| CINEBENCH R23 | 1,707 Single-Core, 9,767 Multi-Core |
| 3DMARK Fire Strike | 4,099 |
| 3DMARK Time Spy | 1,487 |
The Benchmark results indicate that the laptop performs well for everyday tasks such as Microsoft Office, email, and web browsing. It delivers a good single-core score, as demonstrated by the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1707, making it suitable for various everyday tasks.
| Asus Zenbook 14X OLED (Q420VA) Core i7-13700H | 13,446 |
| Lenovo Slim Pro 7 (2023) Ryzen 7 7735HS | 12,552 |
| Asus Zenbook 14X OLED (Q410VA) Core i5-13500H | 12,299 |
| HP Dragonfly Pro Ryzen 7 7736U | 10,610 |
| Dell Latitude 7440 Ultralight Core i5-1345U | 9,767 |
The multi-core score is also impressive, achieving a score of 97.67, which is commendable for a Core i5 processor. This level of performance ensures smooth multitasking and handling of more demanding applications.
| Titles | Low | Medium | High | 4K |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Witcher 3 | 86 FPS | 53 FPS | 29 FPS | 13 FPS |
| GTA V | 101 FPS | 93 FPS | 29 FPS | 9 FPS |
| DOTA 2 REBORN | 108 FPS | 85 FPS | 61 FPS | 56 FPS |
| F1 22 | 40 FPS | 36 FPS | 25 FPS | 19 FPS |
However, it’s important to note that the Dell Latitude 7440 is not primarily designed for gaming. It is a business-focused ultraportable laptop, and gaming performance is limited due to the integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics. While you can play some games on this laptop by lowering settings, it won’t provide the optimal gaming experience for more graphically demanding titles. The integrated graphics act as a bottleneck for gaming performance. If you’re looking to enhance gaming capabilities, you do have the option to theoretically add an external GPU via one of the two Thunderbolt 4 ports.
Thermals, Surface Temps and Fan Noise
The Dell Latitude 7440 handles thermal performance reasonably well under heavy load. During the Time Spy stress test, it scored 94.9 percent, indicating that it experienced some thermal throttling, but it was not excessive. The passing score for this test is 97, so the laptop’s performance was still close to the expected level, which is good to see.
Surface temperatures did increase above the keyboard and below the display during heavy use, reaching around 55 degrees Celsius. The heat seems to dissipate from this area, where there is a vent. The underside of the laptop also experienced some hot spots, but overall, the temperatures were not too extreme. While the laptop can get a little hot under heavy load, it remains within reasonable limits and should not cause any major issues.
Battery Life
| Laptops | PCMARK 10 Modern Office | PCMARK 10 Video Playback |
|---|---|---|
| Dell Latitude 9440 2-in-1 60Wh | 12 hours 45 minutes | 12 hours 40 minutes |
| Dell Latitude 7440 Ultralight 57Wh | 12 hours 00 minutes | 12 hours 04 minutes |
The Dell Latitude 7440 ultralight boasts excellent battery life with its 57-watt hour battery. When compared to its sibling, the 9442-in-one, which has a slightly larger 60-watt hour battery, the Latitude 7440 performed very comparably. It achieved an impressive 12 hours exactly on the PC Mark 10 modern office battery test, showcasing its longevity, which is crucial for an ultralight laptop. This laptop delivers on its promise of outstanding battery life.
During the video playback test, the Dell Latitude 7440 continued to impress, achieving a remarkable 12 hours and four minutes of playback time. This result reinforces the fact that this ultraportable laptop is well-suited for extended usage on the go.
Hinges, Keyboard and Touchpad
You can almost open the Dell Latitude 7440 with just one finger, as it is a really light laptop. This is not something you normally encounter, but it is possible with this model. Another great feature is that the screen can be opened back 180 degrees, providing excellent viewing angles. The hinges are well-designed and tight, resulting in minimal, if any, screen wobble when typing, which is a pleasant detail. Screen wobble can be a bit of a pet peeve for some users, but with this laptop, it’s not a concern.
The keyboard on the Dell Latitude 7440 is pretty good overall. While it may not be the absolute best keyboard I’ve ever used, it is still very good and comfortable for getting work done. It may not quite match the exceptional ThinkPad keyboards in my opinion, which are regarded as some of the best in the industry, but the Latitude’s keyboard is still highly functional. I particularly enjoyed typing on the keyboard of the 9440 zero lattice model, which was quite special and a pleasure to use.
The multi-stage backlight of the keyboard works well, making it easy to see the keys and providing good contrast for working in dimly lit or dark environments. It ensures a productive typing experience even in low-light conditions. Regarding the touchpad, it is a Precision touchpad that was highly responsive and performed well with scrolling and all gestures. Everything works as expected, making it convenient and easy to use for navigation and productivity tasks.
Audio
The Dell Latitude 7440 ultralight is equipped with quad speakers, with two top-firing speakers and two bottom-firing speakers. The sound quality is surprisingly good, with pretty decent volume, well-balanced mids, and even decent bass for an ultraportable laptop. This level of audio performance is quite impressive and somewhat uncommon in the ultraportable category. Let’s take a moment to listen and appreciate the sound. Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment.
Specs
| Display | 14″ QHD+ (2560 x 1600) AG Touch, ComfView+, IPS 400 nit. |
| CPU | UP to 13th Gen Intel Core i7-1365U, vPro (12 MB Cache, 10 core, 12 threads, up to 5.20 GHz turbo) |
| Graphics | Intel Iris Xe Graphics |
| Memory | Up too 32 GB LPDDR5, 4800 MT/s, Integrated |
| Storage | 512 GB, M.2, PCIe NVME, SSD, Class 35 |
| Battery | 3-Cell, 57 Wh, Express Charge Capable |
| Connectivity | Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211, 2×2 802.11ax Bluetooth wireless card optional WWAN |
| Camera | 5MP IR MIPI Camera with built-in Camera Shutter |
| Audio | Stereo Speakers and Waves MaxxAudio Pro (Four top and Bottom firing speakers) |
| Ports | 1 External uSim card tray (WWAN Only) 1 Universal Audio Jack, 2 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A Port, USB 3.2 GEN Type-A port with PowerShare, 1 Wedge-Shaped lock slot, 1 HDMI 2.0, 2 USB Type-C thunderbolt 4.0 1 Smart card reader (optional) |
| Price | $1,950 AT AMAZON |
Final Thought
In conclusion, the Dell Latitude 7440 ultralight for 2023 has a lot to offer, and there are many aspects to like about it. The inclusion of a 16:10 aspect ratio is a welcome improvement, and the availability of a QHD plus display, with both touch and matte features, adds to the laptop’s versatility. The keyboard, touchpad, and performance of the Core i5 13th Gen processor all deliver good results. The optional 5-megapixel webcam with Studio Effects enhances the video conferencing experience, and the quiet fan noise, even under heavy load, is commendable. The quad speakers, both top-firing and bottom-firing, provide surprisingly good sound quality for an ultraportable laptop.
However, there are a few negatives to consider. The absence of an SD card reader may be inconvenient for some users, and the use of magnesium alloy in the chassis can result in some flex, affecting build quality. Additionally, the non-upgradable RAM is a limitation, though this is a common trend in laptops in 2023.
Overall, the Dell Latitude 7440 ultralight is an excellent choice for travelers who need a reliable device for business work on the go. The optional 5G connectivity ensures an always-on connection, and the laptop is well-suited for video conferencing with its impressive 5-megapixel IR webcam. Moreover, the laptop’s great battery life further enhances its appeal, making it a solid option for users in 2023.
the Dell Latitude 7440 ultralight is an excellent choice for travelers who need to get business work done while on the road. It offers the convenience of an always-on connection with the optional 5G feature and provides an exceptional video conferencing experience with its excellent 5-megapixel IR webcam. The overall package is impressive, especially considering the great battery life. Without a doubt, this laptop is a very good choice for 2023.
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Design8
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Hardware10
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Ports9
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Display10
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Performance9
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keyboard8
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ThouchPad9
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Audio9
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Thermals / Fan Noise9
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Webcam10
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Battery10
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Price value7
