Ultralight laptops can be an attractive option for workers who frequently find themselves on the road, in the air, or moving between temporary setups. Extreme portability is a great feature for a device that spends a lot of time on your lap or in a shoulder-carried bag, but a laptop that’s light on the scales ideally wouldn’t be light on power and business-class features. Instead, ultralight business laptops would provide solid performance that persists even while running on battery, plus a comfortable user environment, a variety of ports for connecting to common business peripherals without the need for multiple adapters, and professional-grade privacy and security features. Ultralight marketing often focuses on portability, but highly mobile workers need to know that a thin and light system can deliver the business-essential features they need to do their job well.
We used a combination of industry-standard benchmarks and hands-on tests to compare the performance and user experience of a 13-inch Dell Latitude 7340 Ultralight powered by an Intel Core i7-1365U processor to that of a 13-inch Apple MacBook Air (2022) powered by an Apple M2 processor. Because laptop performance can sometimes change when a system runs on battery power, we tested both systems in plugged-in and unplugged configurations. The Latitude 7340 received higher performance scores than the MacBook Air in every benchmark comparison we made, whether the system was connected to a power outlet or running on battery.
While evaluating the potential user experience that each system could provide, we noted that the Latitude 7340 provided more types of accessory ports than the MacBook Air. With more port options, users may find it easier to connect to common peripherals in temporary workspaces without having to keep track of multiple dongles. Because laptop heat output is a major element of user comfort, our tests also included taking multiple surface temperature readings from each system’s chassis while it ran sustained compute-intensive workloads. In each of our temperature-under-load comparisons, the Latitude 7340 stayed cooler than the MacBook Air.
The Dell Latitude 7340 Ultralight came with a suite of built-in AI-based Dell Optimizer Intelligent Privacy tools such as Onlooker Detection, Look Away Dim, Walk Away Lock, and Wake on Approach. These tools can help provide a secure work experience for employees who need to work on private content in less-than-private environments. When considering the combination of strong plugged-in and unplugged system performance, a variety of port types, cooler running temperatures, and Dell Optimizer privacy tools, the Dell Latitude 7340 Ultralight can provide a boost for workers who need to deliver seamless productivity on the go.
To read more about our Dell Latitude 7340 Ultralight performance comparison study, check out the report and infographic below.
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