Dell has presented its first premium product based on Qualcomm business laptopthe Latitude 7455, at Dell Technologies World 2024. The device, which the PC maker says is its thinnest Latitude laptop yet, features a Snapdragon X Elite o CPU X Plus, an upgraded variant of the chip used in popular smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Both Snapdragon X units come with a Nuclear Nuclear Unit (Neural Processing Unit) that can reach between 40 and 45 TOPS (Billions of operations per second) and an Adreno 740 GPU; both essential for AI tasks. The slower Plus version has 10 CPU cores running at up to 3.4 GHz, while the Elite has two additional cores.
Further highlighting its mobile roots is the presence of LPDDR5X memory (up to 32 GB on board) and optional 5G connectivity. On the other hand, the laptop has a 14-inch 16:10 QHD+ touchscreen display and is likely to be a true 2 in 1 convertible laptop (A non-touch screen option is not offered.)
Qualcomm ready to shine
Going with Qualcomm hasn't made the 7455 particularly portable compared to the competition. It weighs 1.44 kg and takes up slightly more space than an A4 sheet at 314 x 224 mm. Its height of 17mm is 1.2mm shorter than the Latitude 7450.
Dell hasn't given any indication on the device's expected battery life (it has a 3-cell, 54Wh battery), but you can expect it to be in the double digits. Dell has also been keen to emphasize the green credentials of this laptop which uses recycled aluminum and its battery will ship with 50% recycled cobalt later this year.
Other features include four speakers, two microphones, a spill-resistant keyboard, up to 1TB SSD (Gen 4 PCIe NVMe), optional fingerprint reader, three USB ports, a microSD card reader, and a host of security features .
The laptop comes with Windows 11 Home Arm edition with a Windows 11 Pro variant offered – not mentioned ubuntu, the popular open source Linux distribution. Although pricing and availability will be revealed later this year; At the time of writing this article, a Dell Latitude 7450 with touchscreen retails for over $2,100 (around £1,650, AU$3,140).
Qualcomm has thrown down the gauntlet to Intel and AMD as it embarks on what looks like an exciting year for the Arm-based CPU supplier. In addition to Dell, all major PC vendors (and minor ones) are expected to launch Qualcomm-based CPUs in the second half of 2024 as part of a major AI laptop and PC drive orchestrated by Microsoft.
A more conventional version of the Latitude 7455, called the 5455, is expected to launch later this year.
