Dell Latitude 7320 Review — A good-looking compact convertible let down by the keyboard

• The Dell Latitude 7320 is a portable 2-in-1 business laptop.
• It provides easy access to IT thanks to vPro functionality.
• Starting at ₹85,000, it can be set up in a variety of configurations according to an enterprise’s needs.

What do you think of when you come across the word ‘business laptop’? A plain-Jane design, barely enough performance so that you can fill out your spreadsheets, right? Well, Dell is trying to add a bit of flair to this category of laptops with the Dell Latitude 7320. There are actually two variants in this line-up, the vanilla Latitude 7320 which is a 2-in-1 laptop capable of a full 360-degree split and the Latitude 7320 Detachable which comes with a detachable folio keyboard.

I got to spend a couple of weeks with the former and I found it pretty refreshing, to say the least, and here’s how it fared in my review.

Design & I/O

Let’s start with one of the things that I really came to like about the Dell Latitude 7320 — its design. It’s not too mundane like most business laptops in the wild nor is it trying too hard to impress with something gaudy. It has a minimalist yet timeless design.

It’s crafted out of aluminium, which yields it a premium feel and its overall footprint is pretty portable. Although it’s marketed as a lightweight laptop, tipping the scales at 1.12kg, it feels a bit heavy in your lap because of how dense it is. But given all this, it still can be carried around easily in a backpack.

Opening the lid is manageable with a single hand, and once you do that you are greeted with a 13-inch display, keyboard and trackpad. Thanks to the aluminium build, there’s very little flex on the keyboard deck as well as the lid.

In terms of I/O options, on the right side of the laptop, you’ll find a microSD card reader, a USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4 port, a USB-A port, an HDMI port, and the wedge lock slot. The left side features another Thunderbolt 4 port and a combo audio jack.

This laptop only charges via Type-C and ports on both sides can be used — something that I find really practical. It usually sucks when the direction of your AC socket is opposite to that of your charging port, so the ability to charge your laptop via both sides is really convenient.

Specifications and Pricing
Since this is a business laptop, it comes in a plethora of configurations to choose from. This is because employers buy such laptops in bulk, and configure them to their liking. But Dell says that in its top configuration, you can power it up with Intel’s vPro-enabled 11th-Generation i7-1185G7 processor paired with Iris X integrated Graphics, 32GB of LPDDR4X RAM and a terabyte of PCIe Gen 3 M.2 SSD. It is also TPM 2.0 compliant, so you may get support for Windows 11.

The vPro badge basically means IT can have remote access to your laptop and can also provide timely updates tailored to your company’s needs.

In terms of pricing, Dell says the bare basic version of Dell Latitude 7320 starts at Rs. 85,000 (exclusive of taxes) and then you can start building it up according to your enterprise’s needs.

Having said that, my review unit came with an Intel i5-1135G7 processor paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB PCIe NVMe Class 35 SSD. All this was backed by a 42WHr battery that was accompanied by a 65W charger.

Hardware performance
The hardware was good enough to get through most of my casual work which mostly included some heavy Chrome browsing. Heavy spreadsheets along with some docs and CMS duties worked just fine -- both with and without the charger.

This laptop also comes with Dell Optimizer pre-installed. Once I took out the time to set it up (and not treat it as yet another piece of bloat), I ended up liking it. For starters, it gave me access to ExpressConnect, which made sure I connected to the fastest access point available around me, something that I found really useful in the office. ExpressSign-in is another such feature that I found useful. It used the laptop’s proximity sensor enabled by Intel’s Context Sensing Technology to determine when to ask me for the four-digit pin to log in. It worked well in the day, but the night I could see it faltering. Then you also have ExpressResponse, which may be the most undervalued of all these. It lets you prioritise the apps you use the most so that you can open them faster.

I didn’t expect much in terms of video editing or gaming, as my unit lacked standalone graphics and sufficient RAM, and I was mostly right. Adobe Premiere Pro was mostly unusable due to the stuttering and 13-inch screen size. The same is the case with gaming. F1 2020 was too slow to be played. But older titles, such as Age of Empires 2 and Stronghold Crusader HD from Steam worked fine. So if you’re a person who is into casual gaming, you may not mind it all that much.

Display
While we are on the topic of screen size, I think the 13-inch display of this laptop is actually pretty good at what it does. As the full HD resolution isn’t being stretched much, it looks crisp. I also like the colour saturation of the display— it’s vibrant and very much to my liking. The display also comes with ComfortView technology that claims reduces blue-light emissions, making sure your eyes aren’t stressed when you’re working for long hours.

The display has a glossy finish, so reflections are going to be problematic if you’re planning to work outdoors or in a brightly lit room. But indoors, it’s pretty much manageable.

The touchscreen performance was nothing to write home about. Sometimes it was pretty responsive to my inputs, sometimes it wasn’t. But swipe gestures were a bit difficult to execute precisely overall. The speakers, though downward-firing, sounded a little tiny to my liking and lacked thump. Further, the glossy nature of the display also makes it a fingerprint magnet, something that becomes more noticeable when you use it in tablet mode.

It was nice, nevertheless, to have 2-in-1 functionality. I’m a bit of a loner and I liked having a big-ish display to accompany me in the kitchen (I don’t recommend you do this) as I watched the latest episode of Young Sheldon.

The top of the display also houses a 720p webcam with a privacy slider. It doesn’t take up a lot of bezel real estate and is compatible with Windows Hello, which means you can unlock your laptop with it. The webcam quality is nothing extraordinary, but it’s not terrible either and you can totally use it to attend Zoom calls or Google Meets.

Keyboard and trackpad
Given its small footprint, the Latitude 7320 has a surprisingly well-spaced keyboard. But that didn’t translate into a good typing experience. While I did like the size and travel of the keys, I didn’t like the feedback. I wasn’t quite sure about my inputs getting registered at times, which is a bummer for a work laptop. One thing I did like was the distinctive feel of the power button and how well it was integrated into the keyboard. I never pressed it by accident, and whenever I did press it, it felt purposeful and deliberate. The trackpad, though small, was pretty responsive and I had no issues with it.

Connectivity
In terms of wireless connectivity, you have the latest WiFi 6 offering along with Bluetooth 5.1 across the lineup. Connecting to a network is quick and so are the data speeds. I also connected a pair of headphones and speakers wirelessly via Bluetooth, and the results were acceptable, offering about 7-8m of uninterrupted wireless connectivity.

Battery
Battery backup is pretty important for a business laptop like this and I was able to extract eight hours easily. This was achieved while browsing some Chrome, filling spreadsheets, playing videos and writing documents. Playing Age of Empires 2 for an hour, cut the backup by an hour and a half, which isn’t terrible by any measure.

Verdict
Given the great design, portability, build quality, crisp display and good battery life, the Dell Latitude 7320 makes for a good business laptop. The keyboard, though pretty well laid out, wasn’t very comfortable for my long fingers, but the typing experience may be slightly different for you. Given the vPro functionality, it can be a great choice for enterprises, but if you’re trying to buy something for yourself, there are better options available in the form of Dell Inspiron 15 and HP Envy x360 13 that are better specced for end consumers.