Dell Latitude 7280 Notebook

Dell Latitude 7280 Notebook

Welcome to a Laptop Battery specialist of the DELL Laptop Battery

A great ultraportable business notebook needs several key components, including speed, security, durability and endurance. The 12-inch Dell Latitude 7280 (tested at $1,830; starting at $1,029) has all of the above, thanks to its 7th-generation Intel Core i7 processor and impressive battery life. Plus, this lightweight system is built to survive short drops.

Although we wish the screen were more colorful, companies looking for a portable and potent laptop for their employees will be pleased with the Latitude 7280.

I highly recommend you invest an additional $42 on the optional four-cell battery like DELL Latitude E6520 Battery, DELL Vostro 3460 Battery, DELL Vostro 3560 Battery, DELL Inspiron 5420 Battery, DELL Inspiron 15R 7520 Battery, DELL Inspiron 17R 7720 Battery, DELL Latitude 5437 Battery, DELL Latitude 5537 Battery, DELL Latitude 2521 Battery, DELL Vostro 3445 Battery, DELL Vostro 2521 Battery, DELL Vostro 3546 Battery. If you do, you can leave the Latitude 7280's power cable at home, as the notebook lasted 12 hours and 29 minutes on the Laptop Mag Battery Test (continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi). That beats the times posted by the EliteBook (9:23), the three-cell version of the ThinkPad (8:16) and the average for ultraportable notebooks (8:10). Only the ThinkPad, with its optional six-cell battery, lasted longer, at an incredible 17:14.

The Latitude 7280 won't make your hands sweat, but it heats up a bit on the bottom. After we streamed 15 minutes of HD video on the notebook, our heat gun picked up cool temperatures on its touchpad (87 degrees Fahrenheit) and G and H keys (90.5 degrees), but not on its underside (97 degrees), which breached our 95-degree comfort threshold.

The Dell Latitude 7280 packs speedy performance, a bright display and fantastic battery life into a thin, light design that's easy to carry. However, the screen isn't as colorful as we'd like, and the price can get pretty high, depending on which configuration you choose.

Among competing business notebooks, the HP EliteBook 1030 G1 offers great audio, but at the cost of performance and speed. For a faster hard drive, nearly 5 hours of extra battery life and a better price, consider the $1,160 configuration of the Lenovo ThinkPad X260, but keep in mind that it has a dimmer display.

Overall, if you're looking for a productivity powerhouse with a great display, a comfy keyboard and power to spare, you'd be hard-pressed to do better than the Dell Latitude 7280.