Dell Latitude 14" 5420 2023 Review

The Dell Latitude 5420 is a business laptop that makes some clear trade-offs. Its Intel Core i7-1185G7 CPU lands in the 19th percentile for performance, which means it's fine for Office apps and web browsing, but you'll feel it strain with anything heavier. You get 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, which are decent specs, but they only rank in the 32nd and 34th percentiles respectively. The 14-inch 1080p touchscreen display is a nice feature, even if its quality sits in the 16th percentile. This machine is built for connectivity and portability, not raw power. It weighs 3.4kg, which is on the heavier side, but its Thunderbolt port and WiFi 6 are solid modern features. Its best scores are for being compact (61st percentile) and having good port selection (77th percentile), which tells you exactly what it's for.

Let's be real, this isn't a performance machine. That 19th percentile CPU score means it's slower than over 80% of laptops we track. The 4-core Intel i7-1185G7 is fine for opening a dozen Chrome tabs and running Excel, but ask it to handle video editing or complex data analysis and it'll start to sweat. The integrated Intel graphics are even weaker, sitting in the 18th percentile. Gaming is a non-starter, scoring a dismal 9.6 out of 100. The 16GB of DDR4 RAM and 512GB SSD are the workhorses here, providing enough headroom for multitasking and decent storage. They're not class-leading, but they get the job done without bottlenecking the modest CPU.

The price is all over the place, ranging from $263 to $420 depending on the vendor. That's a $157 spread, so shopping around is crucial. At the lower end, around $263, this laptop represents okay value for a basic business machine with a touchscreen and good connectivity. Pushing $420, it becomes a much harder sell. You're paying a premium for the Dell Latitude brand and Windows 11 Pro, but you're getting last-gen performance and mediocre scores in key areas like reliability and screen quality. The sweet spot is definitely on the lower end of that price range.

Compared to something like the ASUS Zenbook Duo, which likely has a better screen and more modern specs, the Latitude 5420 falls behind in performance and display quality. It's not even in the same league as the gaming laptops on the competitor list, like the MSI Vector or Gigabyte AORUS. A more direct comparison might be an older MacBook Pro. While the MacBook would have a vastly superior screen and likely better battery life, the Latitude wins on port selection and running Windows natively. Ultimately, this laptop's value is in its specific feature set—Thunderbolt, touchscreen, Windows Pro—for a low price, not in competing on raw specs.

This is a niche pick. If you need a Windows 11 Pro laptop with a touchscreen, Thunderbolt 4, and you found it for close to $263, it's a reasonable deal for light business use. The moment your needs include anything performance-related, like data processing, multimedia, or even expecting high reliability, its low percentile scores become a problem. For most students or professionals, there are better, more modern options with stronger performance and better displays for a similar price. Only buy this if its specific ports and OS are mandatory and you're getting it cheap.