Dell has expanded its business offerings in recent years, and now the company sells everything from detachable tablets to powerful (and expensive) rugged workstations. Each machine has its own strengths and weaknesses, and every consumer has their own individual needs, so we've rounded up our favorite Dell business laptops by category.
Comfortable keyboards (for touch typists), durable chassis (for mobility), and a wide range of dynamic security features are just some of the perks you can expect from these top-notch enterprise notebooks. Here are the best Dell Precision and Latitude laptops you can buy today; read on to find the best one for you.
- Looking to save a few dollars? Check out our Best Dell Deals page.
- Our list of the best accessories for Dell Latitude laptops.
Best Dell business laptops
1. Dell Latitude 7410
2. Dell Latitude 7320 2-in-1
3. Dell Latitude 7320 Detachable
4. Dell Precision 7550
5. Dell Latitude 5490
6. Dell Latitude 9510
7. Dell Latitude 5290 2-in-1
8. Dell Latitude 5420 Rugged
The Dell Latitude 7410 is the business laptop that convinced our reviewer to put their own laptop and desktop combo into sleep mode. Capable of acting as both a portable notebook and powerful stay-at-home solution, the Latitude 7410 helped is all about creating a more efficient workflow.
The 7410 combines a sleek aluminum design with powerful 10th Gen Intel processors and a gorgeous 4K display to work as both your business laptop and day-to-day notebook. It's good for use in the office now that many companies are returning to a state of normalcy.
See our full Dell Latitude 7410 review.
The Dell Latitude 7320 2-in-1 is a lightweight business laptop that is the ideal companion for mobile professionals. Outfitted with an Intel Core i5 vPro processor and Intel Xe integrated graphics, the 7320 2-in-1 can handle just about any workload you throw at it. Plus, the laptop has a host of useful security features and over 12 hours of battery life in case you need to put in some overtime. If you’re looking for a serious work notebook, you’ve found it. The Dell Latitude 7320 2-in-1 is a genuinely portable unit you will enjoy moving around your home, office, or taking on a business trip.
See our full Dell Latitude 7320 2-in-1 review.
Adopting many of its rival's best bells and whistles, the Latitude 7320 swims toward the top of our best tablets and best 2-in-1 laptops rankings. Standout features include a gorgeous 13-inch display, fast performance, a comfortable detachable keyboard with a built-in stylus slot, useful security features, and a class-leading webcam (yes, you read that right). These are all packaged in a sleek metal chassis that can easily be slipped into a backpack or purse.
See our full Dell Latitude 7320 Detachable review.
If you’re looking for the king of workstations, we might’ve just found it. The Dell Precision 7550 offers incredible performance from its Intel Xeon W-10885M CPU and Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000 GPU. There’s also a bright 15.6-inch, 4K display, long battery life, a comfortable keyboard and even a pair of high-quality speakers. Not to mention, this machine is super configurable.
To top it off, the display isn’t as colorful as the price tag would indicate. However, given all of the pros that come with this laptop (especially the battery life and power combo), the Dell Precision 7550 is undoubtedly one of the best workstations you can buy, if you can afford it, that is.
See our full Dell Precision 7550 review.
If you're running a startup or small business and don't have the funds to buy every employee a workstation, then go with the Latitude 5490. Starting at $399, this affordable business laptop gives you a lot for your money, including strong performance, nearly 9 hours of battery life and a comfortable keyboard. Most important, the Latitude 5490 has a bunch of security features — including a fingerprint sensor and IR camera — to ensure your company's sensitive data is protected.
See our full Dell Latitude 5490 review.
The Dell Latitude 9510 features a bright 15-inch screen and solid performance packed inside a super slim design, and it'll last you two workdays on a single charge.
However, at the price of some configurations ($1,899 and higher), it might just be cheaper to sell your digital soul. But if you have money to blow and don’t care about the display resolution or having discrete graphics, the Latitude 9510 is for you, and it certainly makes its mark as one of the best business laptops. In short, if you are a discerning manager eyeing this laptop because you want to equip your employees with a top-of-the-line laptop, then you’ve found it.
See our full Dell Latitude 9510 review.
Tablets are great for getting work done on the road (or in the air) because of their compact size and responsive touch screens, but they're not always convenient to use. Dell's answer to the Microsoft Surface Pro, the Latitude 5290 2-in-1 fixes our biggest gripes with detachables by using an auto-deploying kickstand. Just press the bottom edge of the laptop down on a desk and out pops an adjustable kickstand. The ingenious mechanism — combined with the 5290 2-in-1's long battery life — make it the perfect travel companion.
See our full Dell Latitude 5290 2-in-1 review.
The Latitude 5420 Rugged didn't flinch when we dropped it from 3 feet, then doused it in water. This practically indestructible beast passed a range of military-grade durability tests, from repeated drops to exposure to sand and dust. Further proving that the Latitude 5420 Rugged belongs outdoors are its excellent battery life and super bright touch-screen display, which is clearly visible on the sunniest of days. For gaming or running graphics-intensive programs, the Latitude 5420 Rugged has a discrete GPU and comfortable RGB keyboard.
See our full Latitude 5420 Rugged review.
How we test laptops
When we bring a laptop into our lab, our goal is to see how it would work if you brought it into your home or office. While we use a number of industry-standard benchmarks, such as Geekbench and 3DMark, we focus heavily on real-world tests that we have developed in-house.
To test endurance, the Laptop Mag Battery Test surfs the web at 150 nits of brightness until the system runs out of juice. To judge pure processing power, we use a giant spreadsheet macro that matches 65,000 names with their addresses, a video transcoder that converts a 4K video to 1080p and the Geekbench 4 synthetic test. We measure graphics prowess with both 3DMark Ice Storm / Fire Strike and a series of actual game titles.
We use a colorimeter to measure screen brightness and color gamut while other instruments help us determine a laptop's key travel and ambient heat. See this page on how we test laptops for more details on our benchmarking procedures.
Specs to look for
- Screen Resolution: Unfortunately, 66 percent of consumer laptops and 51 percent of business systems have low-res screens. If possible, get a display with a 1920 x 1080 (aka 1080p, or Full HD) or higher resolution.
- CPU: An Intel Core i5 provides good mainstream performance. Some budget systems will come with Core i3, Celeron or Pentium CPUs, which are good for basic tasks but not heavy multitasking. Get a Core i7 or a quad-core processor (serial number ends in HQ or HK) for gaming or high-end productivity tasks such as video editing and 3D modeling.
- RAM: 8GB is ideal for most, but power users will want 12 or 16GB. 4GB is acceptable for budget systems. Secondary laptops and Chromebooks may have less.
- Storage: Unless you're a gamer or a power user, 256GB of internal storage is probably enough. If possible, get an SSD (solid-state drive) rather than a hard drive, because it's going to make your computer a lot faster.
- Graphics Chip: Gamers and creative professionals need to do some research and figure out which discrete GPU from Nvidia or AMD is good enough to run their favorite software. Everyone else will be happy with the built-in Intel HD Graphics that come with the CPU.
- Bottom line: 1080p / Core i5 / 8GB are the specs to look for. You can spend a lot of time delving into specs, but these are the key components to think about when buying a 17-inch laptop. If you just want really good mainstream performance, go for a Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and a 1080p screen.
