The firmness of the lid has also been a success. This could only be bent holding the edges to a small extent. The surface consists of brushed aluminum, and can be dented inwards in the middle. Fingerprints may be slightly visible, but do remain, and have to be removed with a cleaning cloth. While the consumer world is opting for thin, flat, and light attributes, Dell has instead chosen to add a little on top. The weight of 2.33 grams lies heavy in the hand, and the cumbersome height of 2.4 centimeters will prevent it from slipping out of your hands by accident. The weight and dimensions may have a slightly detrimental effect on the mobility, but they provide for stability and quality. Dell has opted for high-quality but heavy materials. Although 'ruggedized' is not quite appropriate, the 14 inch notebooks is definitely built for day to day use.

As a real deal business notebook the Latitude E5420 can offer everything that can be wished for when it comes to communication technologies. Since we opted for the Basic-Version, the tested device contains neither Bluetooth or an HSDPA module. The corresponding mini PCIe slots (2x) next to the antenna and the SimCard slot are of course available. It’s honestly the worst touchpad we’ve used in years. We became so frustrated that, at one point during testing, our reviewer rage-quit the laptop entirely and walked off to finish the day’s work on a desktop. Office rooms are more mobile than ever, most of the time users only need their data, and these are always available at hand on the small folding computer. What is less important when it comes to use are performance and high-end features, instead 'mobility, productivity, and robustness' are more pertinent. It is precisely these characteristics with which Dell is marketing its newest business spouse; the Latitude E5420.

Apple Silicon still has it beat, though. The MacBook Pro we recently tested handled 14 hours of our battery life, a full four and a half hours more than the Latitude 5420. The speakers sound powerful

The graphics unit integrated into the processor will not be very appealing to gamers, but serious office users will have a low power consumption and almost six hours of battery life with the Intel HD 3000. The non-reflective WXGA display is a little too dark though for use outside or in bright surroundings. Narrow viewing angles, a tight color space, and low contrast all lead to a very weak display rating.Tradition obliges. The Latitude E5420 Essential from the business line of Dell notebooks certainly lives up to its name. The 14 inch device is a solid notebook with matte high-quality surfaces, and top-notch input devices. Fingers fly across the touchpad and keys with ease and accuracy. Meanwhile users will easily forget that there is only a Core i3-2310M processor under the hood. Although this doesn't quite deliver the same performance of the newer Sandy Bridge Core i5 CPUs with Turbo-Boost 2.0.