Case and Equipment
The plastic case of the Dell Latitude 5500 shows high-quality workmanship and offers comfortable haptics. The smooth surface does not show fingerprints, and all the gaps are even. However, due to the low weight of the base unit, the display lid can only be opened when holding down the base with your other hand. The opening angle is 180 degrees, and the display lid is stable enough that it can be moved with one hand without getting warped.
The bottom of the case of the Latitude 5500 can be removed fairly easily, after all the corresponding screws on the bottom have been removed. You then get access to the insides, allowing you to expand the working memory or replace the SSD, for example. The latter is built into our test model in the M.2 format and can also be replaced by a 2.5-inch SATA hard drive. However, you cannot use both, since the M.2 SSD has to be placed across the free SATA slot.
You can find the most necessary connections on the sides of the Dell notebook, with the Thunderbolt-3 port in particular warranting some mention. However, you need to preconfigure this, since Dell also offers a USB-3.1 Gen2 connection in Type-C format as well. For business users, the optional smartcard reader might also be interesting. Not only is the card reader itself present with its slot for insertion of the corresponding card, but if necessary, the Latitude 5500 can also be equipped with a wireless contact area and an NFC sensor below that. In addition, the webcam has a mechanical cover to protect you from unwanted eyes.