Computer Shopper - UK (2020-01)

ISSUE383|COMPUTER SHOPPER|JANUARY2020 25

BACK-TO-SCHOOLseasonmay have come
and gone, but whether you’reaparent looking
to give yourkid an advantage or astudent
yourself,it’s not toolatetopickupasuitable
laptop.The DellLatitude 3300, an affordable
prospecteven at the nearly-top-spec £610
model we’ve tested, is an excellentcontenderrr.
This configuration hasa13.3in,1,366x768
HD display, an Intel Core i5-8250U CPU, 8GB
of RAMand an all-plastic chassis that’sabout
as inspiring as acalculator. Forstorage space,,,
it usesa256GB PCI-E SSD,and –unusually fooor
such acheap laptop –itrunsWindows 10 Prooo.

GREY MATTER
Dell hascertainlygone forautilitarian design
with the Latitude 3300.The colour scheme is
amixture of darkgreyand black, while the
body itself is made of cheap-feeling plastic. An
effort has been made to partiallyruggedise it,
however,withsome nice rubber edges on the
lidand basethat provide addedgripand drop
protection. Evenstill, it’s no tank, with aflimsy
lid that bends abit toomuch forour liking and
akeyboardplatethatdepressesatad toofar.
Dell hassparedmostexpense on the
keyboard. Keys feel cheap,havelittle travel
andproduceatinny,clicking sound during
typing. The touchpad’s surfaceisalsoabit
grainy,but sensitivityisfine,and palm
rejection works well.
The720p webcamisalso surprisingly
effective in low-light conditions,anarea in
which much pricier laptops can struggle.
Unfortunately,the dual speakers are scratchy
and unsuitable formusic, although they’re
loud enoughfor watching YouTube videos.
Displayquality is neither particularly
impressivenor disappointing. The 13.3in LCD
panelhas an adequatemaximum brightness of
215cd/m^2 and consistent brightness
uniformity,although its contrast ratio of 269:1
leaves alot to be desired. Addtothat apoor
overall sRGB colourgamut coverage of 53.5%,
and it’s aprettydrabaffair.It’s not the best

DELLLatitude3300

★★★★★

£610•From http://www.dell.com

WINDOWS 10 LAPTOP

platform forwatching films or editing photos,

but it’s as good as it needstobefor acheap

educationlaptop.Afterall,it’s mainlydesigned

forwriting text documents and theoccasional

spot of webbrowsing.

At leastDell has packed plenty of

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addition to the proprietary power port and

3.5mm audio jack, it fits in twoUSB3.1ports,

aUSB Type-C slot,anHDMIoutput and an

Ethernet jack. There’salso amicroSD card

slot thrown intothe mix. Forthe average

student, that’s more than enough.

MAKINGTHEGRADE

Thesame can be said aboutthe Latitude

3300’sperformance. With itsquad-core Intel

Core i5-8250U and8GB RAM, it actually has

prettydecent specs forthe price.Inour 4K

benchmark, theLatitude 3300achievedan

overallscoreof84–remarkable forsuch an

affordablelaptop. That includes respectable

individual scores of 107 in theimage test, 90

in thevideo test and 72 in the multitasking

test, so it’snot terribly weak at multithreaded

tasks,asbudget clamshells often are.

Withpower like this, the Latitude 3300is

easily fast enough formulti-tab webbrowsing,

office work, and even less demanding games

andcreative applications. Battery lifeispretty

good,too, as theLatitude 3300 survived

fffor 9h 7m of videoplayback

bbbeforegiving up the ghost.

If £610 is still toohighfor

youuurbudget, there arecheaper

configggurations available: thesestart

at just £3 33 95, foramodel with adual-core

IntelCeleron 3865U processor.

This obviously won’t be nearly

as powerful as anyofthe

CCCorei5specs, andwhile every

modelstillcomes with Windows 10 Pro,

yoooou’ll alsolose out on the256GB SSD in

exxxxchange fora64MB eMMCdrive.

We’d therefore recommend stretching to

the£610 modelifyou can. Thislooks

especially goodvaluewhenyou consider what

elsssseisavailable at the budgetend of the

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instance, is cheaperat£499 but only scored

32 in our benchmarks, andhas significantly

shorter battery life. The Avita Liber14

(Shopper382)also underwhelms, forthe same

reasons. TheLiber 14 is alot morestylishthan

the 3300, butwe’re notconvinced that’s a

good trade forits much lower practicality.

CLASSACT

The Latitude 3300 is an unexcitingbut highly

functional Windows machinethat comes

builttolast and,crucially, outperforms the

competition within its price range.Ifyou’re

aiming to getequippedfor school or

universityonabudget, thisisexactly what

you ought to be lookingfor.At£610, you’ll

struggle to do muchbetter than the Latitude

3300 –and you could easily do farworse.

TomBruce

VERDICT

Cheap,durable and surprisingly fast, the
Latitude 3300 is aproficient studying aid

SPECIFICATIONS

Windowsoverall

Multitasking

Battery life

0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100

Seepage84for performance details

PROCESSORQuad-core 1.6GHz IntelCorei5-8250U•RAM

8GB•DIMENSIONS231x330x22.3mm•WEIGHT1.56kg•

SCREEN SIZE13.3in•SCREEN RESOLUTION1,920x1,080•

GRAPHICSADAPTORIntelUHD Graphics620•TOTAL

STORAGE256GBSSD•OPERATING SYSTEMWindows 10

Pro•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILSwww.dell.com•

PART CODEn013l330013emea

9h 7m

72

84

In our 4K benchmark, the Latitude 3300 achievedanoverall

scoreof84–remarkable forsuch an affordable laptop