Notice: Minor Cosmetic Imperfections.
Dell's new Latitude E5000 series leaves a very solid impression in all our test sections. This starts with the chassis, because it is very robust and noble.
There are hardly any build quality issues, but we would like to see maintenance hatches or at least a removable battery for future iterations.
Probably the most important aspects are the input devices. The keyboard provides a good typing experience, but the travel could be longer. The only real problem of
Case
The manufacturer follows its usual design philosophy and uses a matte black plastic chassis for the new Latitude. The exception is the dark-silver hinges at the back. Overall, the chassis leaves a simple yet very noble impression. The build quality of the case is satisfying. All edges and corners are carefully rounded, which does create a convenient tactile feel. We could not find any protruding plastic elements or bigger build quality issues even under a closer investigation. The stability of the Latitude is very good; the only exception is the display cover, which can easily be pushed in. The display hinges are much wider compared to the rivals from Lenovo. They are perfectly firm in our case, so there is no display bouncing. However, there are no special certifications according to military standards for the 14-inch business device, which are offered by some rivals.
We can neither find maintenance hatches nor a battery at the bottom of the case. This means you will have to remove the whole bottom cover to gain access to the components.
Connectivity
The manufacturer did not change the port layout and distributes all the ports very cleverly at almost all the sides. At the back are the stationary ports (Ethernet, VGA, HDMI, 1x USB 3.0, power), so the space on the desk is not limited. Peripherals like mice can be attached via USB at the side (one on each side). Specialties of the business device are a SmartCard reader, NFC reader, fingerprint scanner and a SIM slot (WWAN module optional and not included). There is no Mini-DisplayPort, so you cannot drive a 4K panel at 60 Hz.
We use our reference card Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II to evaluate the performance of the SD-card reader. We copy around 300 JPG pictures (~5 MB each) and can measure high transfer rates of up to 151 MB/s. AS SSD determines sequential transfer rates of 202.95 MB/s (read) and 117.16 MB/s (write) for the card slot.