Since the case is identical to the previous model, with the exception of the keyboard”s charcoal colored bed, as mentioned above, we would refer to the in-depth 2011 review of the E6420. Here is a summary:

The subjective first impression is solid - as usual. Dell touts the so-called Tri-Metal case to be in accordance with a military standard (i.e. referring to the case stability). Materials such as aluminum and magnesium (mainly for the chassis) are installed, partly interwoven, to achieve the desired robustness.

The rigidness is still top-notch. Nothing yields, warps or dents. The hinges look like they could carry a much heavier burden, but they nevertheless allow us to open the lid easily and keep it precisely in the set opening angle (maximum approx. 185°). A lightly rubberized surface is used in the input devices” area. Apart from the wrist rest”s subtle rattle when we "tapped" on it, we did not notice anything negative - the E6430”s case makes a flawless impression.

Our Latitude test device features a low-end 14-inch screen (CMO 1469) with a resolution of 1366x768. It is not a tragedy that most contenders of this price range use a higher resolution of 1600x900 and consequently offer a lot more desktop on the same space - a sharper HD+ screen is available for the E6430 for a mere 34 Euros (~$44) extra (tested in the precursor).

Although we would recommend taking advantage of this low-priced upgrade (it is a great value), the given resolution of this screen is sufficient for most office tasks. Subjectively, it even renders a fairly pleasant picture due to not over saturated, but nevertheless vivid colors, and a balanced color temperature. The matte surface also helps prevent reflections. The maximum brightness of 206 cd/m² only allows indoor use or in shady areas outdoors. The screen is not suitable for use in direct sunlight since it cannot defy the sun.

Intel”s Core i5-3320M (details here) offers quite a lot for its comparatively low price in view of a default clock of 2.6 GHz, Turbo Boost up to 3.3 GHz and Hyperthreading technology. If that was too much jargon in a single breath, we will let the practical rates give you an impression of the CPU”s performance in the following.

Using Cinebench R11.5 (64-bit, single), we first test how well Turbo Boost speeds up the processor or whether there are any throttling issues, or if it is slowed down due to temperatures. The Latitude E6430 excels in this test: It achieves the 15^th overall place of all previously tested devices, which proves that the business laptop accelerates processes that only need one core properly. HWInfo illustrates, as seen in the right screenshot, that Turbo works efficiently and, above all, permanently. Even in the slowest measured speed (see right screenshot) one core appears to be pinned down at the maximum clock (3.3 GHz). However, both cores usually remain above 3 GHz.

This shows that it simply does not make sense to invest a lot of money in an expensive quad-core CPU for most applications (excepting highly parallelized ones such as video editing or high-end games). Our Core i5-3320M is even partly faster than laptops featuring a Core i7-3615QM! Even the Core i7-3520M in the more expensive ThinkPad T430 is only faster by an insignificant 6%.

The multithread test, where processors can benefit from every additional core, is also finished well. Our device is located in the midfield. The ThinkPad now has an 8% lead, HP”s Elitebook 8460p featuring a Core i7-2620M from the outdated Sandy Bridge generation lags behind our Latitude by 1%. Toshiba”s Tecra R840 featuring a Sandy Bridge Core i5-2520M falls behind by 7% and extracts a surprising amount from the somewhat slower processor.

We conclude: performance doesn”t have to be very expensive; all devices here are roughly on a par in terms of performance. The Toshiba and our Latitude are even about 300 Euros (~$387) cheaper than the HP or Lenovo.

The subjective speed is very constant and fast in routine use. There are no annoying stutters when watching HD videos on YouTube, no long delays mar the positive impression that the Latitude E6430 made until now. That is impressive since we mostly work in Dell”s Quiet, energy-saving, mode. This mode sets the fan speed to minimum and adapts the system”s performance accordingly.

However, we also want an objective basis for comparison and thus we unleashed our business device on PCMark Vantage and PCMark 7 in its so-called "Ultra-Performance Mode". Lenovo”s T430 and HP”s 8460p should have a considerable advantage here since they ultimately use a dedicated graphics card. However, our test device does not fall as far behind as we expected. It only lags 4% behind the HP and 12% behind the Lenovo in PCMark Vantage. The Lenovo is even surpassed by about 20% in PCMark 7 and the HP even lags behind by 35%. This great result is achieved because our Latitude”s computation score, the computing-intensive test range, places it at the top with a big gap to all previously tested laptops with its computation score (26762 points). It is impressive just how much can be squeezed out of the comparatively cheap hardware.

Our Latitude E6430 proved to be a pretty good performer until now. But how does the hard disk fit in the overall picture? When we speak of the HDD, we mean the 500 GB, fast spinning 7200 RPM Seagate Momentus model that did not exhibit any subjective irregularities during the test in our case.

HDTune confirms this subjective performance. Averaging93.7 MB/s, this storage device processes the demanded data relatively fast - considering that we are not dealing with a swift flash memory as installed in SSDs. This measured rate has to be seen as good; only the ThinkPad T430”s hard disk is a bit faster with 99 MB/s. The Elitebook 8460p”s average transfer rate is even roughly one-fifth slower.

We use CrystalDiskMark to assess the performance when loading small files, important when booting the operating system, for example. To be more specific, the 4K and 4KQD32 read speeds are of interest us. An overall awe-inspiring rate is not achieved here with 0.35 MB/s and 0.79 MB/s, though it is not bad compared with the competition. The Lenovo reads the small files about one-fifth slower and the HP is insignificantly faster (max. 8%). If you really want programs to load fast, you should install a SSD during the configuration. However, if you are accustomed to conventional hard disks, you will generally be pleasantly surprised by the speed of the HDD in our test device.