Dell Latitude 15 5500 [5500-2576]

Modern business laptop

It's no secret that Dell's laptop division focuses on the corporate segment, as well as small and medium businesses. Yes, they have gaming and multimedia series, but they are more associated with strong and reliable business laptops. Take the new Dell Latitude 15 5500 for example. It's a pretty interesting work laptop with a long-lasting battery, optimal hardware, enhanced security, and an unusual carbon fiber composite chassis. This fiber was partly made from recycled materials and has a stronger structure than regular plastic. How much stronger is a question, Dell did not mention anything about durability tests.

Reliable and durable laptop without frills

In terms of build quality, this is a reliable and durable laptop with no frills. The screen is fixed on strong hinges, the keyboard and the central places of the case are practically not pressed through, it will be difficult to accidentally damage it in a bag. The design has been modernized, the side edges have become smoother, the frames around the screen have narrowed, and the body has become a little narrower. This is a definite step forward, laptops of the past generation like the 5501 resembled antediluvian penny laptops, with which you ran for 5 years for couples, and then gave it to your grandmother. They didn’t bother with the display, it performs a purely utilitarian function here. The 15-inch WVA-matrix boasts excellent viewing angles and high contrast, but it lacks a bit of brightness (220 total cd / m2), and the colour reproduction is far from perfect (the colorimeter showed only 53% sRGB). Apparently, this one will do for work, you can see the letters, but what else is needed?

Up to 17 hours on a single charge

Naturally, it was upgraded in terms of security, on board there is a kensington / noble lock, a TPM security module and a camera shutter. Traditionally, there are a lot of connection options, there are regular USB, and the newfangled USB-C 3.2 gen2, and even a rare beast in the form of a LAN port. Of the unusual, we note the optional Smart Card reader, a waterproof keyboard and an additional trackpad that sticks out right in the centre of the keyboard. Also, you can not ignore the very tenacious battery, in a normal test with a browser at a brightness of 110 nits, the laptop worked for 17.5 hours! Next up is fast charging. This is a very cool result, which is difficult to justify even with an energy-efficient filling. After all, we've tested more than one model with similar specs (Core i5 8265G + 8GB DDR4 + 512GB SSD + integrated GPU), but few of them pulled more than 10 hours.