PremiumNEW DELHI: Remote working is driving up laptop sales, with enterprise notebook purchases in India growing 105.5% y-o-y in the June quarter, as per IDC’s latest report. This growth has led to entry of new players like Xiaomi and Huawei into India laptop market with aggressively priced products.
The more established players have also got new products lined up for India market. A case in point is Dell’s new Latitude 9510, a 15-inch laptop with full aluminium body and lighter footprint. At 1.45kg, it weighs less than the likes of Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2kg).
The Latitude 9510 has got a few extra perks like the array of 4 microphones on top for better audio experience during video calls. Despite the thin bezel design which is the norm these days, Dell has managed to squeeze in a front facing camera on top. The speakers are also top facing and are placed on the sides of the keyboard, for a superior audio experience. The speakers are quite loud on their own and users can depend on them entirely for webinars and video calls.
The 15.6-inch Full HD screen looks sharp and has a non-reflective coating. It handles colours well and has wide viewing angles, but the 400nits of brightness feels a bit underwhelming.
The keyboard is backlit with ample breathing space between the keys. Though the keys are not as big as in MacBook Pro 16, the typing experience is comfortable and mostly accurate. The trackpad is wide and has a glass surface which feels a lot more responsive and smooth. Trackpads in laptops have come a long way. Some of the OEMs like Asus have taken it to next level with touchscreens as trackpads.
The Latitude 9510 has HDMI connector, supports WiFi 6 and uses USB type C for charging. It supports fast charging and can charge up to 35% of battery in 20 minutes. Fast charge technology is usually found in phones but is slowly making it ways into notebooks.
However, the Latitude 9510 won’t require frequent charging. We got 16-18 hours out of it on modest to heavy use involving video playback, web browsing and working, which is quite impressive.
The other interesting work centric feature is the AI enabled Dell Optimiser solution which adjust settings based on its understanding of user requirements. Like most AI backed solutions it becomes more efficient over time. It can optimise performance and audio output, launch frequently used apps faster and uses proximity sensors to detect person and wake up the screen automatically.
The Latitude 9510 runs Windows 10 on top of Intel Core i7 10th gen processor with 16GB RAM and Intel’s integrated graphics. The performance is largely niggle-free. Apps load quickly, web browsing was smooth and video calling was smooth. Even with multiple tasks running, the laptops didn’t feel sluggish at any point.
Starting at ₹1,49,000 (exclusive of taxes), the Dell Latitude 9510 with its big screen and work centric features is ideal for remote workers who rely extensively on video calls and collaboration tools. The pricing is a bit on the higher side but it is still costs less than the Apple MacBook Pro 16, which starts at MRP of ₹1,99,900.
If you are looking for a laptop at around the same price point as the Latitude 9510, you can go for the HP Envy Laptop - 15-ep0123tx. It starts at ₹1,49,999 (inclusive of taxes), runs on Intel’s 10th gen Core i7 processor, offers 1TB SSD, has a 15.6-inch Full HD screen, but most importantly comes with Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (6GB) graphics. This makes it a lot more capable with graphic intensive tasks. Its limitation is that it doesn’t have all those work-centric features and it weighs a lot more at 2.14kg.
