The Latitude 9000 series is somewhat of Dell’s XPS for businesses, with the same flawless build quality, attention to detail, and similar slim design. Which becomes extra confusing as XPS also comes in a business version. But none like this, with a 360-degree flippable touchscreen and pen support. Now that XPS computers have fully adopted XPS Plus’s odd design choices, this feels like a more sober alternative, with real function keys and a touchpad you can actually see.
The slightly dizzying price of over 3,200$ includes some things that mainly businesses appreciate but which might be unnecessary for a private user. Three years warranty with on-site service, vPro support, Windows 11 Pro, and TCO certification.
Even without these, the computer would have been quite expensive, and it doesn’t even include the stylus, which you have to choose for about 100$ when ordering, or buy separately. With a 14-inch screen, glass layer in front of the touchscreen, and a sturdy metal chassis, the Latitude 9440 2-in-1 is not exactly ultralight, 1.54 kg is a weight I more expect from a 15-inch.
World-class build quality
But it’s undeniable that there’s quality in every gram. From the keyboard with clear mechanics and well-balanced key travel to the large touchpad with haptic feedback, and the glossy anti-reflective screen.
The folding mechanism in the screen hinge allows me to open the laptop with one hand, without it being so loose that it becomes wobbly, and it’s smooth all the way around to inverted tablet mode. Then you’ll have to accept sharper edges that make it uncomfortable to carry around as a tablet, but you probably weren’t planning to do that with a 1.5 kg laptop anyway.
The Latitude 9440 was released almost a year ago and therefore has a 13th generation Intel Core i7-1365U processor instead of the newer Intel Core Ultra 7. This is not noticeable in everyday performance, which keeps almost even pace with power-efficient Core Ultra processors in U-class. I get higher measurement results on single-core operations than with a laptop with Core Ultra 7 155U, but slightly lower in multi-threading. But it’s fairly comparable.
Even graphics performance is quite close. As neither of them has Intel Arc graphics, even the 13th generation’s Iris Xe graphics measure up fairly well to its successor. A generous amount of RAM, a full 32 GB, also contributes to fast information handling and stable multitasking, and an SSD with a read speed of almost 5 GB/s is not bad. But I would have preferred to see a slightly larger one. The computer has no slot for SD cards, so 512 GB is the space you get.
Sharp screen without extra color
The screen is 14 inches and 2560 x 1600 pixels give a sharp image. It’s built on IPS technology, with excellent viewing angles, smooth, accurate, neutral colors, flicker-free dimming, and brightness up to about 500 cd/m2. It’s a screen mainly for office use, but it’s also good for enjoying a movie or designing your website. I miss the color intensity that I can get in a good OLED screen, and in real IPS screens for media professionals, but stable and reliable sRGB, which you get here, takes you far.
The screen has “only” 60 Hz refresh rate which means that, for example, scrolling on the web doesn’t look as nice as in some competitors, but otherwise it’s hard to complain. The screen brightness is almost enough to work outdoors, but strong sunlight becomes too much for the screen to handle.
It delivers acceptable sound, a bit weak in the details in the midrange and clear but not so full and warm bass. Good for voice but more moderate for music. It’s good for video meetings, and the webcam is excellent, with clean and clear 1080p image without drag and noise and nice color tones. You even get support for the AI features in Windows Studio Effects, auto-framing, blurred background, and eye contact adjustment, despite it not being a new AI-packed processor.
Type C all the way
All external connections are USB-C type and there’s full Thunderbolt 4 functionality on all three. So you can connect both charging, display, and USB accessories to any of them. Or why not a docking station that handles everything? Sure, one or two USB-A ports and an HDMI would have been welcome, but if you’re paying this much for a laptop, a thousand SEK more for a good docking unit isn’t so bad. You also get an analog headset port, so in that way it’s a step up from the latest generation of XPS laptops.
The pen you can buy has fine control and comfortable grip. Rechargeable with USB-C and connects with Bluetooth. The top of the pen has a special button that activates various functions, such as menu for touch apps, settings, and a customizable third with click, double-click, and long press. The control is direct and excellent, although I think the pressure sensitivity is a bit high. However, it’s easy to adjust.
As far as I can see, there’s no natural place to attach the pen in tablet mode, but in laptop mode it snaps nicely onto the screen lid. I don’t know if it’s meant to be like that, or if it has a magnet there for another reason, but it works and looks good.
The Latitude 9440 2-in-1 comes with Windows 11 Pro and with minimal unnecessary software. Only a small collection of Dell’s own settings programs. The one I’m most curious about is Dell Display Manager. Are there better screen settings here? Unfortunately not. It’s a tool for managing external Dell screens.
Specifications
- Product name: Dell Latitude 9440 2-in-1
- Tested: May 2024
- Manufacturer: Dell www.dell.se
- Processor: Intel Core i7-1365U, 2 P-cores up to 5.2 GHz + 8 E-cores up to 3.9 GHz
- Graphics: Intel Iris Xe
- Memory: 32 GB DDR5
- Storage: 512 GB SSD
- Display: 14 inch glossy IPS, 2560×1600 pixels, 120 Hz, multitouch
- Webcam: 1080p with IR
- Connections: 3x Thunderbolt 4, headset
- Wireless: 5G, Wifi 6e, Bluetooth 5.3
- Operating system: Windows 11 Pro
- Other: Fingerprint reader, backlit keyboard, flippable to tablet mode, 3 years warranty
- Noise level: 0-36 dBA
- Battery: 60Wh, 1 hour 25 min (high load, full brightness), approx. 19 hours (low load, low brightness)
- Size: 31.1 x 21.5 x 1.63 cm
- Weight: 1.54 kg
Performance
- Cinebench 2024, CPU all cores: 392 points
- Cinebench 2024, CPU single core: 104 points
- Cinebench R23, CPU all cores: 7,524 points Cinebench R23, CPU single core: 1,790 points
- Geekbench 6, CPU all cores: 9,102 points
- Geekbench 6, CPU single core: 2,445 points
- Geekbench 6, GPU: 15,214 points
- Disk, reading: 4,867.4 MB/s
- Disk, writing: 4,635.5 MB/s
