It is laptop season, with so many manufacturers releasing their latest laptops, this year with AI-capable chipsets onboard.  We have already tested out a couple of new Dell XPS laptops (1,2) and loved them both although we were a bit indifferent to the new capacitive function button row.

Now it’s the turn of the more business-focused Dell Latitude 7350 which actually comes in at a very similar price to the Dell XPS 13 Snapdragon X Elite laptop reviewed last month.  The Latitude 7350 though is powered by the Intell Core Ultra 7 165U, which likely contributes to the price difference.

The Latitude 7350 from Dell is nothing special it seems or in marketing terms, it’s minimalistic.  It is a basic business laptop but that is not a bad thing.  There are many laptops now coming with different designs and functionality that are not required for a basic business laptop.  This Latitude 7350 is designed for business and it performs extremely well at this.

Specs

  • CPU – Intel Core Ultra 7 165U   1.70 GHz
  • RAM – 32GB
  • SSD – 512 GB, M.2 2230, TLC PCIe Gen 4 NVMe, SSD
  • Neural Processor – Intel AI Boost NPU
  • Display – 13.3″ FHD+ (1920×1200) IPS, 300 nits, FHD IR Cam+IP, WLAN
  • Ports –
    • 1 USB 3.2 Gen 1 with Power Share
    • 1 Universal audio jack
    • 1 HDMI 2.1 port*
    • 2 Thunderbolt™4.0 with Power Delivery & DisplayPort (USB Type-C)
  • Camera – FHD HDR IR Camera with ExpressSign-In (Windows Hello) + Intelligent Privacy, TNR, Camera Shutter, Microphone
  • Battery – 57WHrs
  • Communication – Intel BE200 Wi-Fi 7 2×2, Bluetooth 5.4
  • Power supply – 65W Type C AC adapter
  • Dimensions – 299 x 212.8 x 16.76- 17.75mm
  • Weight – 0.99kg

Design

First up you will notice that the Latitude 7350 is extremely lightweight.  At under a kilogram, it certainly feels it and that is thanks to a redesigned chassis with a lighter and more durable magnesium alloy. Not just that but it is thin, very thin. It is not quite MacBook Air thin but still very thin.

The lid of the laptop is very Dell, a plain colour with Dell’s logo centred on it.  Minimalistic, that’s for sure.  

The right-hand side of the device houses a universal audio jack, a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 with PowerShare port and a wedge lock slot.  The left-hand side on the other hand has two Thunderbolt 4.0 with Power Delivery & DisplayPort (USB Type-C) and a HDMI 2.1 port.

You can choose a version with a uSIM card slot if you need that but surely most folks would just tether with their phone these days?  I can’t think of any other ports you may need on a business laptop, and for me, it certainly was enough.

When closed, the laptop was super easy to open with one hand thanks to a small notch carved into the base/palm rest section of the laptop.

The lid can feel difficult to open once it gets to 90 degrees but after some closer inspection, that’s just the function of the lid taking over the support of the rear of the laptop.  Phew, I thought it was broken at first but no, that’s just how it works.

Display

The display in the review Latitude 7350 is a 13.3-inch 1920 x 1200 touch display which looks good but you can certainly see where the OLED display on the XPS takes the cake.  While the colours are good on the Latitude 7350, they are just not as vibrant but that isn’t expected and is the difference between an IPS display and an OLED display.

The bezels around the display are not as small as those on the XPS 13 but they are still small – there aren’t many laptops with big bezels these days.  The upper bezel is larger than the sides but the upper bezel does house the FHD IR camera which works great for Windows Hello – which is just as well because there is no fingerprint sensor on this review model.

The built-in video camera also has a physical shutter that you can easily slide over the camera for extra privacy.

Keyboard and touchpad

The keyboard is really good with a good amount of gap between the keys with some decent travel to them.  There is nothing fancy to this, and Dell has not included the strange flat keys with near-zero gap that they had on the XPS 13 (that I hated).

The typing was a comfortable, pleasant, and most importantly, accurate experience, which is what it should be on all keyboards, not just laptops for business use.

The touchpad is not the largest I have used but I’m ok with that.  Most folks tend to use the centre section of the touchpad so a larger one is just not needed and a waste of money and space.  It was accurate and consistent in its clicks although the clicking could be a bit more clickety and louder.

The touchpad is what Dell call a collaboration touchpad, which means the touchpad includes soft buttons for Zoom and Teams meetings for easy collaboration with colleagues while in a meeting. I could not get this working using Teams or Zoom myself, and that is because it seems you need a work or education Teams/Zoom account for this to be active. Big miss here but it is a business laptop so hopefully your work has these accounts if you wish to use the collaboration keyboard.

On either side of the keyboard is a speaker grille.  Now the speakers are okay but nothing special.  You will not be using this to play music for your BBQ any time soon.

Performance

The speeds the Latitude 7350 performs at are nothing to write home about but I had a great experience using it, with the laptop easily able to run multiple windows and tabs open in Microsoft Edge browser, along with spreadsheets.  This is all while extending the display to a 4K gaming monitor using one of the Thunderbolt 4 ports.

As a business-use first laptop, the Latitude 7350 has all the performance you might need.

AI

2024 is all about AI capabilities in a laptop but Dell has not added any of their own tweaks. There are a few for AI boosts of audio and image while in a meeting that is already built into Windows but there is nothing Dell-specific.  

“If you build it he will come.” Field of Dreams, 1989 and also from someone at Microsoft, 2024.  The full functionality and use of AI on-device is yet to be recognised in many apps but hopefully there will be many more apps with AI capabilities built-in coming in the pipeline soon.  

Hopefully, the AI capabilities that are currently built in will be good enough to run these AI apps when they do come.

Battery life

The battery in the Dell Latitude 7350 is a 57Whr battery and using it as a laptop only I was easily able to get over 11.5 hours of business-type use, with that dropping to about 8 to 9 hours when extending to the external monitor.  That’s enough for a single day, but if you will be extending it to an external display for a day I’d suggest having the USB-C charger handy.

Should you buy it?

The Dell Latitude 7350 laptop is a great little laptop. The keyboard is pleasant to type on without any new fancy, less ergonomic keys, the touchpad is useful for meetings although I doubt I would ever use it and it has everything you may want or need in a business-use laptop.

The multitude of ports of all types has you covered along with a decent camera with manual shutter and IR capabilities for Windows Hello secure login it is perfect for the business professional on the go. The lightweight, compact nature of it make it ultra portable.

If you are looking for a basic laptop without any useless bells and whistles but has everything you actually need, along with future AI-onboard support with the Intel Core Ultra 7 165U chipset then this is something you should be looking at.

The Dell Latitude 7350 laptop is available from Dell starting at $2,349.