Dell Latitude 15 5000 review: A secure 15.6" business laptop

With the numerous accounts of hacking, phishing, malware, and other attempts to get into your system these days, data security is at the forefront of people’s minds — especially those in the business sector. Giving your employees laptops to use instead of desktops not only helps with mobility, but can also increase the risk to data hacks, especially when those systems are taken off site. Our Dell Latitude 15 5000 review takes a look at a 15.6″ laptop with many included and optional security features for your peace of mind. Read on to see why it earned a spot as one of our Top Picks.

Specifications

The Dell Latitude 15 5000 as tested had the following specifications:

IntelCore i7-6820HQ quad-core CPU @ 2.70GHz
16 GB DDR4-2133 RAM
Intel HD Graphics 530 w/ 2GB VRAM
15.6″ FHD (1920×1080) WVA Touch with Corning Gorilla NBT, Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer LCD Back
256GB SSD hard drive
10/100/1000 Ethernet
Intel Dual-Band Wireless-AC 8260 Wi-Fi Wireless Card
3x USB 3.0, HDMI, VGA, RJ-45, external SIM card tray, SD 4.0 memory card reader, EDock port, lock slot
Realtek High Definition Audio with MaxxAudio Pro by Waves
Primary 4-cell 62W/HR Battery
FIPS 140-2 Certified TPM 1.2/FIPS 140-2 Certified TPM 2.0 (field upgradable from FIPS 140-2 Certified TPM 1.2) (Early 2016)
TCG Certified TPM 1.2/TCG Certified TPM 2.0 (Spring 2016)
DDP | Security Tools
DDP | Protected Workspace (1 year subscription included)
Windows 10 Pro
Width: 14.8″ (377.1mm)
Height (front): 0.9″ (23.8mm)
Depth: 9.9″ (252.6mm)
Weight: strarting at 4.37 lbs (1.98kg)

What’s in the Box

Dell Latitude 15 5000 E5570 laptop
Power cable

Design

As far as laptops go, the Dell Latitude 15 5000 is definitely business oriented with its basic black look — and that’s not a bad thing. After all, business machines are usually purchased with performance and productivity in mind, not flashy exteriors.

The top of the laptop features a structure-enhanced carbon fiber reinforced polymer cover, with the Dell logo inset in the middle. The hinges are anodized, and allow you to open the laptop a full 180 degrees so you can lay it flat on any surface. The laptop features a spill-proof keyboard with full number pad — a feature I quite prefer in any laptop. One thing that was missing from the keyboard was backlit functionality, however that is an available option. The keyboard was really nice to the touch, and the fairly low travel in the keys made typing a bit of a treat.

Dell-Latitude-15-5000-Review-01 — Dell Latitude 15 5000 top.

The touchpad on the Dell Latitude 15 5000 was actually very nice and fluid to use. The multi-touch touchpad was very responsive and the left and right buttons are coated for a nice soft touch. In addition, one thing that I haven’t seen on many Dell laptops is the inclusion of a pointing stick between the G/H and above the B key with two buttons below the spacebar. I’m not a fan of these, but it’s another option for control that some people do prefer and it worked just fine during testing.

As for ports, there are plenty on this business laptop. The right side includes the universal headphone jack, an SD 4.0 card slot, 2 USB 3.0 ports, and a lock slot. The back of the laptop is where you’ll find the RJ-45 Ethernet port, VGA connector, optional uSIM tray, full size HDMI port, a third USB 3.0 port, and the power adapter port. Finally, the left side is mostly bare but you can get an optional contacted smart card reader slot here. Finally, the bottom of the laptop is where you’ll find the E-Dock port for docking to a Dell docking station and the two speakers which are near the front of the underside.

Dell-Latitude-15-5000-Review-10 — Dell Latitude 15 5000 right ports.

In addition, the Dell Latitude 15 5000 has undergone extensive military-grade MIL-STD 810G testing that ensures your system can withstand real-world conditions. Overall this is a well-built, decent looking laptop with all the right ports in the right places.

Display

The 15.6″ FHD (1920×1080) touch screen display is crisp and clear, and colours were sharp and vibrant. At max brightness however, it feels a bit dimmer than most laptops and I’d like to see it be able to go a bit brighter.

The touchscreen was as responsive as could be expected, and there isn’t as much glare as can be seen on some other touchscreen laptops I’ve previously tested.

Software/Ecosystem

Our review unit came with Windows 10 Pro installed, perfect for using with the touchscreen. There are of course pre-installed apps that come with the Dell Latitude 15 5000 and include the Dell Command | Power Manager (for tweaking and managing power settings), Dell Command | Update app (for keeping your BIOS, drivers, firmware, and Dell applications up to date), Dell Digital Delivery (for installing digital purchases made through Dell such as Quest data protection and Dell SupportAssist), Dell Audio (more on that in the speakers section below), SupportAssist, and of course Product Registration.

It’s a good idea to at least run the Dell Command | Update app as out of the box there were 7 updates for everything from the BIOS, to the Wi-Fi card, and graphics driver. As previously mentioned, these apps come pre-installed but you can uninstall them if you wish.

As I’ve mentioned a couple times, the Dell Latitude 15 5000 was designed with security in mind, and Dell claims it’s their “most secure 15″ mainstream business laptop.” So what exactly does that entail? If you read the specifications list above, there are a probably a few lines that may have gone over your head — don’t worry, I had to look some of them up as well.

For starters, Quest data protection helps protect your applications and data with an always-on backup and recovery solution. The DDP | Security Tools solution is an end-to-end software solution that supports advanced hardware authentication through fingerprint scanners, smart cards, or contactless smart card reader options, and supports pre-OS login with self-encrypting drives, single sign-on (SSO), and can manage user credentials and passwords. On the other hand, the DDP | Protected Workspace places your web browser, PDF reader, and Microsoft office applications in a virtualized environment which prevent malware from infecting other programs and your main computer system. As mentioned in the specifications, the Latitude 15 5000 comes with a 1 year subscription to DDP | Protected Workspace.

TPM (Trusted Platform Module) has been around since 2006. The FIPS 140-2 Certified portion simply means that it meets the US government computer security standard use to accredit cryptographic modules, while TCG Certified indicates that the TPM on these laptops meets “a set of Compliance and Security Evaluation requirements that was developed with TCG membership and industry participation input.” TPM, in a nutshell, basically assures the integrity of your laptop, and is utilized in both the BIOS and operating system. TPM allows for use of full disk encryption applications and additional password protection, among other uses. The Latitude 15 5000 currently ships with TPM 1.2 installed but will be upgraded to TPM 2.0 some time this spring.

For even more security, Dell offers many upgradable features like fingerprint scanner, Smart Card Reader, or DDP | Encryption Software or Endpoint Security. If security is a concern, then Dell’s Latitude line certainly has you covered with both DDP and TPM tools and functionality.

Performance

I had no performance issues with the i7-6820HQ quad-core CPU and 16GB of DDR4-2133 RAM. Everything from CPU intensive Adobe apps like Photoshop and Premiere launched and ran smoothly, of course basic business apps like Office ran with no issues either. With the SSD drive, powering up and rebooting took very little time, and it’s nice to be able to hit that power button and be working sooner rather than later.

While primarily business focused, I was even able to run a few games with no issues on lower settings with the Intel HD 530 graphics. The integrated graphics had no problems in dual screen mode attached to a 4K resolution monitor either, and I was able to get around 40fps on Heroes of the Storm off of it while running in 4K resolution.

Speakers/Sound

The speakers on the Latitude 15 5000 were louder than I expected. Don’t expect much in the way of heavy bass, but when listening to music or watching videos, the sound was crisp and clean — even at maximum volume.

The pre-installed Dell Audio app includes options for Speaker and Microphone enhancement, and you could really notice the difference in sound when switching from Music to Movie to MaxxSense presets. An equalizer is also included in the app for fine tuning, and again makes a big difference with the sound produced from the laptop.

Dell-Latitude-15-5000-Review-18 — The Dell Latitude 15 5000 speakers.

Camera

The 720p web camera is about standard these days on laptops, and functioned as expected during a quick test video call.

Battery Life

Battery life on full featured business laptops is usually something to be desired, and with the Dell Latitude 15 5000 I managed roughly 5 to 5 1/2 hours on a single charge. That included a mix of web browsing, Photoshop use, and the odd game here and there just to mix things up. While it won’t get you through the day, depending on what you are using it’s definitely enough time to get you through an important meeting or doing some quick work at the coffee shop.

Price/Value

Starting at $749USD ($1049CAD), the Dell Latitude 15 5000 is a very reasonably priced laptop. Depending on your options, your price will vary and you can easily be looking at $1500USD or $2400CAD for the full package with the i7 processor and upgraded video card.