- [Michael] When Dell offered
to let me borrow its new 7400 Two-in-One for review,
I agreed for one reason:
It's the first laptop that ever promised
to turn itself on just because I walked up to it.
That's not quite enough for a video by itself.
But after 10 days,
I discovered that there are many more reasons
to put this on your list
of portable PC possibilities,
just as long as you're not fixin for a featherweight.
(upbeat music)
Now if you watch my last laptop review, you're gonna say,
of course you think the Dell's too heavy.
You're coming from a physics-defying LG GRAM.
Fair point.
But no matter what machine you're used to,
picking up a laptop this small,
you expect it to weigh, well, less than this.
There are benefits to that bulk.
See Dell sent me the configuration
with the larger six-cell battery,
rated at 78 watt-hours.
To put that in context, that's almost as big as the battery
in my much larger 15-inch MacBook Pro,
and it shows.
I started today with an 83% charge,
and ended it at above 20%,
with several hours still left in reserve,
on the estimated meter anyway.
The only time I had trouble with endurance
was when the laptop didn't sleep properly,
an issue I've had with many Windows machines before,
and one I really wish Microsoft would finally address.
And when you do need to recharge,
there's an available 90-watt adapter.
It's big and clumsy but it also takes you
from empty to 80% in about an hour.
The laptop charges via one of two USBC ports,
and in addition to those, you've also got two USBA,
one HDMI, a headphone jack, and a micro-SD slot.
If you need even more IO than that,
well Dell's got a dock it can sell you.
The 7400 is also rated to MIL Standard 810G
for durability.
And while that's a pretty nebulous standard,
Dell was kind enough to send along a list
of exactly which tests it had passed.
And as these scratches can confirm,
I put it to the test in the real world too.
Yeah, I accidentally dropped it onto the street
from about chest height.
But aside from the odd dent in the aluminum,
the machine didn't miss a beat,
another reason to forgive its bulk.
I kept forgetting this was a two-in-one during my testing.
I mean, everything about this machine just screams business,
from the board-room silver color way
to the lack of discrete graphics, to the display,
which gets points for touch screen layer,
but tops out at just full HD.
Flip it back around to laptop mode,
and you'll find a keyboard that's conventional,
but comfortable in the extreme.
The keys are widely spaced, with lots of travel.
And feedback was firm, without being mechanical,
soft, without being mushy.
I expected to have trouble with the closely-paired
enter and backslash, but I didn't.
Instead it was the page up and down buttons.
Even after two weeks, I still keep smackin em by accident.
I'm not here to tell you whether this is worth your money,
not really.
As Windows Central's Daniel Rubino reminded me,
the 7400 isn't really aimed at Best Buy bargain shoppers.
IT's for enterprise customers who buy in bulk for fleets.
So, from a practical standpoint,
the most useful thing I can tell you is probably,
if you get issued this by your company,
and it's the same trim as my review unit,
it'll last a while on a charge,
and it will hold up to some abuse.
But that thing that caught my eye in the first place,
well that's the thing I'll close out on,
because like that Huawei Share function
on the MateBook X Pro,
this is a feature every PC should have.
There's no need to close it when you step away.
Just put it to sleep,
or, it will put itself to sleep in a minute.
When you come back, you don't even have to touch it.
The IR sensors detect you approach, wake the screen,
turn on the camera, and Windows Hello signs you back in
by scanning your face.
When Windows Hello works, about 70% of the time,
it's so refreshingly seamless.
When it decides your face isn't quite your face,
well that's Window's Hello.
Like the laptop itself,
this feature is nothing that's gonna change the world.
It's kind of like wireless charging for phones.
Once you get used to the convenience,
going back to a machine that doesn't have it
feels kind of antiquated.
The 7400 is available now starting at just above 1300,
and going all the way up to $2800 for the model seen here.
For a deeper dive, stay tuned to Windows Central
for their full review.
Folks, sound off in the comment.
Let me know which laptop you want Mr. Mobile
to cover next, keeping in mind that,
if you're gonna say Asus Zenbook Pro Duo,
I've been asking.
Believe me, I've been asking.
Please subscribe to the channel,
so you don't miss that video when I finally do make it.
This video was filmed after two weeks
with a Dell 7400 review sample, on loan from Dell.
As always, I don't accept compensation for reviews,
and Dell did not get a preview of this video.
They're seeing it at the same time you are.
Until next time, thanks for watching.
And stay mobile my friends.