PCWorld – August 2019

84 PCWorld AUGUST 2019

REVIEWS DELL LATITUDE 7400 2-IN-1

by 7.87 inches deep by up to 0.59 inches

thick. We didn’t try it on an airplane tray table,

but it should fit just fine. That additional

thickness also lends Dell’s Latitude 7400 2-in-1

absolute stability, with no detectable flex

whatsoever.

Dell put equal care into the Latitude’s aural

ergonomics, too. Dell ships its Power

Manager utility inside the Latitude 7400, with

options for the default Optimized setting,

plus “Cool,” “Quiet,” and “Ultra

Performance.” I found the default Optimized

setting rarely turned on the system fan even

while running benchmarks. Enabling

Performance Mode increases the clock speed

and runs the fan more frequently, yet fan noise

was exceptionally quiet and unobtrusive to

the point that I had to cock an ear to even

detect it in the IDG offices. In the quiet of a

home office the dearth of fan noise allowed

me to hear a slight, intermittent staticky buzz

A well-vented laptop usually means a quiet laptop with little, if any, thermal throttling. The Latitude 7400

2-in-1 runs quietly, even without the fans manually throttled down, as part of its “Quiet” mode.

that louder PCs would have drowned out.

DELL’S EXPRESSSIGN-IN: A

CONVENIENT GIMMICK

Dell touts the Latitude 7400 2-in-1 as “the only

PC that senses your presence,” with a

technology the company calls ExpressSign-in.

If configured with Windows Hello,

ExpressSign-in will lock your PC automatically

when you walk away. But it will also detect

you when you approach, then use Windows

Hello to log you in.

The technology uses a sensor package to

determine when there’s no one nearby, then

automatically locks your PC. Windows already

does something somewhat similar (if enabled

via Windows settings): If you pair a phone via

Bluetooth, Windows can lock you out

automatically once your phone goes out of

range. However, Bluetooth’s range can be

long enough that Dynamic Lock doesn’t