Because the Latitude 13 7370 has a solid state drive, Dell can keep the chassis down to a pleasingly portable size. Add to that a space-saving Intel Core M5-6Y57 processor, and we are looking at a seriously compact laptop given its business-orientated functionality. When open, it only measures 14.32 x 304.8 x 210.5 mm and weighs just 1.12kg.
As with the rest of its Latitude series, Dell leans on the security benefits of this laptop. Features such as Dell’s ControlVault, which allows for the processing and storage of your sensitive data, are present. A fleet of 7370s might be advisable if you’re looking to buy for enterprise or even for a small business. But the benefits of the hardware, such as the built-in fingerprint scanner, will appeal to individuals and the self-employed as well as those at Fortune 500 companies.
You won’t be embarrassed getting this laptop out on the train, and nor frankly will you really notice it in your backpack - a win win situation.
Even though the Latitude 13 7370 has a diminutive body, Dell has packed in an SD card reader, USB 3.0 port, lock slot, two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports, micro HDMI slot and room for two optional micro SIM card slots. This is excellent for a laptop of this smaller physical size.
The inclusion of Thunderbolt 3, Intel’s USB-C standard, is good to see and shows that the computing (and smartphone) indsutry is moving to adopt it over USB-A or micro-USB. Thunderbolt 3 allows for charging, data transfer, dock and display connection and charging of portable devices all through the same port. Versatility alongside universality in the coming years will ensure USB-C becomes the standard connection for the majority of laptops.
The keyboard of the Latitude 13 7370 is the biggest difference between it and consumer laptops like Dell’s XPS 13 and, more broadly, MacBooks and other competitors. It is the one give away that this a business laptop, with the traditionally more accented, raised keys. It’s a full size keyboard but somehow feels slightly cramped, though this is probably down to the admittedly small form factor. Dell has included all the Fn (function) keys you’d expect and the keyboard is backlit too but with only two brightness settings, as well as off.
We took a little while to warm to the keyboard having been used to a full desktop keyboard, but if you are used to this style of slightly concave, clicky key, then it won’t a problem. However, if you’re thinking of buying it’s always advisable to try one out before you spend.
The trackpad on the 7370 is good, but we’d like to have seen a larger mechanical one rather than the traditional two physical left and right click buttons underneath it. We appreciate this decision is likely to cater for business users used to this setup, but it means that the trackpad is a tad too small. You’ll probably want to fiddle with the sensitivity settings of both the mouse and the scroll speed before you’re comfortable using it. Of course, you can always use an external mouse. Here’s our roundup of the best PC mice.
The screen is a non-touch 13.3in FHD (1920 x 1080 resolution). Colours look great and text crisp, but we found we wanted the brightness cranked right up in order to fully appreciate it. Turned down the screen has a not-too-off-putting grey tint, but a gloomy feel nonetheless. Viewing angles are excellent, and Dell claims the screen is anti-glare, but it’s no different to the majority of other machines - in direct sunlight you’ll find it hard to use.
As mentioned before though, the FHD resolution here is accentuated by the design of the screen, and the fact there’s hardly any bezel. It probably isn’t that impressive on its own, but the combination here of form and function is excellent, and Dell should be praised for that, particularly in a laptop market where Apple usually wins all the design plaudits. It’s all the more impressive here that Dell has managed it on what remains a business computer.
The Latitude 13 7000 series all ship with Windows 7 Professional, with the opportunity to upgrade to Windows 10 Professional. Our review unit ran the latter, and we found this preferable - though we acknowledge that we’re used to Windows 10 by now. Business users who may still be using Windows 7 (many companies still enforce it) might prefer that option.
The Core M5 processor more than coped with multi-tasking through Windows 10 when we were using the computer for a full day of work. Core M has a somewhat unfair reputation in some circles given that, spec-wise, it is not as powerful as the Intel Core i3, i5 or i7 processors. The advantages of M though are silent running, the possibility of better battery life and a smaller form factor alongside the adoption of USB-C. The Latitude 13 7370 runs buttery smooth with this set up and we ran some benchmarks to show you in the section below.
Dell doesn’t quote the expected battery life in hours, preferring in its marketing to promise ‘excellent standard battery life’. This is not grammatically correct, but rest assured the sentiment is - the 7370 has truly outstanding battery life. In initial set up, we noticed that the standby time is amazing. Close the lid for hours on end and when you open it up, not only does it spring to life but the battery is barely depleted - we’re talking about a 1% drop after we left it for a day.
This is down to the low-power needs of the Core M5. With no moving parts and improved performance, the chip allows not only smooth and reliable performance but also this good battery retention. It does of course go down under use, but if you are taking the 7370 between meetings all day, we’d be confident in saying you won’t need to take your charger with you. Just remember that you can’t borrow someone else’s if you run low though, because chances are not everyone will have a spare USB-C charger - give it a year or two.
It’s a business laptop, there’s no escaping that. But our time with the Dell Latitude 13 7370 was great - it’s probably the most accessible business laptop out there, with a form factor that everyone can get along with. If you are a small business owner and you need a laptop to hook up to a monitor in your home office but also take on a business trip and not need a plug all day, then this is one of the computers you should be considering. You might not even need or want another laptop for personal use either, which goes a long way to justifying the high price.
If you've bought an HP or Compaq laptop in the last three years, its battery could be a fire risk. HP has confirmed that batteries supplied over this period have 'the potential to overheat, posing a fire and burn hazard to customers'. Owners of affected ProBook, Envy, Presario, Pavilion Notebook and other HP and Compaq models have been strongly encouraged to stop using their laptops immediately. If you bought an HP or Compaq laptop between March 2013 and August 2015 you could be at risk. Keep reading to find out whether your laptop is on the danger list and how to claim your replacement battery. You can see how HP ranked in our computer reliability survey and which manufacturers you can trust in our guide to the best laptop brands. Is my HP laptop affected? The key to finding out whether your laptop is at risk is to check the bar code on the battery itself. Before doing so, turn off your laptop and disconnect it from the mains. Then slide open the battery release on the bottom of the laptop and remove the battery. If the bar code starts with any of the below combinations, then there's a chance you may be affected. What should I do next? If your battery is on the list, then you should head to the HP website to confirm whether your laptop is afflicted with the overheating problem – HP estimates that less than 1% of all its PCs sold in the above time period are affected. From there, you can double check that your particular model is in danger and then go through the validation process to claim your free replacement battery. Once validated, HP will send out the new battery. In the meantime, HP says that you can continue to use your laptop without the battery installed, by connecting the laptop to the mains. How does Which? test laptops? We review more than 100 laptops every year – including models from the likes of HP, Lenovo, Asus and Apple MacBooks – to make sure that you know which ones you can rely on for computing excellence. As well as telling you which have screens that dazzle and those that have cheap-feeling, unresponsive keyboards and trackpads, our test labs go to depths that other reviewers can't. Only Which? carries out full battery tests to see exactly how long you'll be able to use your laptop before scrabbling around for the nearest mains point, and we measure their processing power using real life scenarios such as timing how long they take to start up and transfer data.
Modern laptops have now arrived at a point where pretty much anything you purchase is going to offer enough power to handle web browsing, media streaming and basic work without any problems — unless it's really a budget machine. Modern processors and graphics chips are nice and powerful, and most software from big-name developers is pretty well-optimized. With that in mind, battery life becomes an increasingly important piece of the puzzle when people are choosing a new laptop. What you might not realize, however, is that battery performance is about much more than just hardware.There's a new type of web browser war going on right now, and the end result is nothing but big benefits for you, the end user. It started with Opera making the bold claim that by switching to its browser of the same name on your laptop would increase your battery life by a whopping 50%. That's a bold claim, and testing from independent sources found that the Opera browser did indeed have a big impact on battery life.