Laptop Dell Latitude E6540 I7 VGA Rời 2G

Once again, there have been small changes: The dark gray, brushed display cover of the predecessor has been replaced with a polished, matte aluminum cover. Small details like the keyboard frame have also been changed; it is now black, similar to the keyboard and the palm rest. The latter is made of rubberized plastic and leaves a high quality impression but is not easy to clean. Fortunately, it does not really attract grease spots or fingerprints.

Dell especially advertises the solid construction of the new Latitude with keywords like Military standards or Tri-metal chassis and the stability of the notebook is actually very good. It cannot be twisted and only the display cover can be slightly pushed in. The critical area above the optical drive however is very stiff; magnesium is used inside the case to improve the construction but has a negative impact on the weight: We measure a total weight of 3.0 kg (~6.6 pounds) with the protruding 9-cell battery.

Communication

Besides the mandatory Gigabit-LAN Dell also integrates the high quality Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300, which has a better reception with three antennas and works with all a/g/n wireless networks. Even a distance of 40 meters (~44 yards) to the router and a wall in between were no problem at all. There is also an UMTS module for Internet on the go, the Sierra Wireless MC8805 supports HSPA+, GSM, GPRS and EDGE; LTE is not available. The SIM card tray in the battery slot only supports micro-SIM cards.

Security

According to Dell, the Latitude E6540 is the most secure notebook in the world. The fingerprint reader and TPM modules are certified according to the FIPS 140-2 standard, unfortunately all that is currently not yet available. At least the provided Dell Protected Workspace is an effective malware protection.

Accessories

There are many accessories for the Latitude E6540: You can purchase a docking station for 180 Euros (~$238) and a stand for 125 Euros (~$165), which lifts the notebook display to a more ergonomic height. A 6-cell battery is also available for around 50 Euros (~$66) if you do not like the protruding 9-cell battery. The optical drive can also be removed and replaced with other accessories, for instance a 3-cell battery for 110 Euros (~$145) or other optical and hard disk drives.

Maintenance

Easy maintenance is very important for business notebooks. Nothing changed in this regard compared to the predecessor. You have to lift the whole bottom cover to access RAM and PCI Express. The cover is secured with just three screws; the HP EliteBooks provide a more comfortable solution without screws. Once you have lifted the cover you have access to all the important components: Fan, RAM, WLAN and WWAN module, even the CMOS battery are accessible. Optical drive and mass storage can be replaced from the side, the removal of the bottom cover is not necessary.

Warranty

Three years ProSupport is preselected in the Dell shop. For 108 Euros (~$142) (excl. tax) you get comprehensive support with the installation and operation of the new system as well as an On-Site service on the next business day. Without this additional charge you get a 3-year Standard service, which also includes On-Site service on the next business day. Both services can be extended up to 5 years.

Our stress test tortures the processor and the graphics card for more than one hour. It determines if the cooling system is sufficient. The graphics performance remained constant for the whole test; the base clock fluctuates between 850 and 900 MHz. The temperature leveled off at 87 °C (188.6 °F).

The performance of the CPU on the other hand fluctuates more; after a short while the maximum clock of all four cores is at 1.7 GHz. The temperature of the CPU is raised to 98 °C (208.4 °F) in this case, which is pretty close to the maximum allowed temperature of 100 °C (212 °F). The result is a reduced clock of 1.1 GHz, even lower than the nominal clock. Unfortunately, this is a case of throttling. As soon as the temperature is below 90 °C (194 °F) the clock is raised again and fluctuates between 1.3 and 2.0 GHz.

A 3DMark 06 benchmark run directly after the stress test results in a lower score, it drops from 13,118 to 11,947 points and the impact on the CPU score is even worse: 3,928 instead of 5,411 points. If you use the notebook under maximum load for a long time you cannot use the full performance of the components.     

The speakers are very loud and should have no problem supporting a presentation in a small room. There are no deviations with high volumes, but you should not expect too much sound quality. Bass does not exist, otherwise the performance is clearly above average.  

Dell”s 9-cell battery has a very large capacity of 90 Wh, which is enabled by a protruding design. If you do not like that you can purchase a smaller 6-cell battery - another battery for the modular drive bay is also available. 

We determine the maximum battery runtime with the Battery Eater Reader’s Test that simulates reading of a document. The display brightness is reduced, all the wireless connections are deactivated and we use the energy saving profile. The Latitude E6540 manages a runtime of more than 8 hours in this scenario. 

The more realistic WLAN scenario simulates web browsing with an adjusted display brightness at around 150 cd/m². We use the Quiet energy profile from Dell and the result is a runtime of six and a half hours. Competitors from HP, Toshiba and the predecessor only have a 60 Wh battery so the runtimes are worse. The ThinkPad T530 however manages around eight hours with a similar battery capacity. 

The runtime during DVD playback is sufficient for almost all movies; the runtime under load is comparatively short with one and a half hours because of the high energy consumption. A complete recharge of the battery takes around two and a half hours.

The Dell Latitude E6540 is a business notebook, so the display, input devices, quality and service are especially important. The E6540 does not disappoint us and is convincing in these categories. The slightly bouncing keyboard and the small quality problem at the display cover are compensated by the matte Full HD display.  

A small drawback is the limited port variety; you have to waive ExpressCard, FireWire and DisplayPort. Our review unit also lacks security features like a fingerprint or a SmartCard reader.

So far, the Latitude E6540 does not stand out from the competition but it is equipped with the latest and very powerful components. If you want to buy a new business notebook based on the Haswell architecture there is almost no alternative at the moment.

The competition cannot keep up in regard to the performance but the price for this is the high emissions and throttling under maximum load. The large 90 Wh battery has sufficient power for mobile working (runtime of 6 to 7 hours).

Due to these small drawbacks, the notebook will certainly not be ideal for everybody and a retail price of 1,860 Euros (~$2455) is also quite expensive.