Google is reportedly working on a new social app for photo editing and sharing

Why it matters to you

Google’s apps are a little hit-and-miss — but if it’s good, the next big photo app could allow you to share and edit photos with your friends.

Google is working on yet another app. One of the company’s most-loved apps is Google Photos and it offers excellent options for photo editing, storing, and sharing — but it looks like Photos isn’t the only photo-based app Google is concerned with.

Reports indicate that the company working on another app, this time specifically for photo editing and sharing. Why? Well, it could be because of the pressure posed by the other large tech companies. Facebook, for example, offers Moments — and Google’s new app could be similar. The news comes from a TechCrunch report, which notes that the app allows groups to edit photos together, then organize them.

More: Google announces updates for Duo, Allo, Photos, and Google Search in Brazil

In another report, from Engadget, a Google spokesperson noted that the new app is just an experiment — so it’s possible it may not even see the light of day. In fact, Google doesn’t currently have launch plans, although that could, of course, change.

It’s important to note that reports indicate this won’t just be “another messaging app.” Rather, it will be aimed at collaborative photo editing — along with a splash of Google’s computer expertise.

Reports also note that the new app sounds very similar to Paths, an app that gained popularity for offering small groups of friends to share photos and chat. At the time, it acted kind of like a counterbalance to the more open sharing that had gained popularity on Facebook and Twitter. Incidentally, Google previously tried to buy Path. In the end, however, it was sold to Kakao, a Korean messaging giant, and its popularity has slowly but surely shrunk.

It will be interesting to see what Google’s new app ends up looking like if we ever see it at all. Google has a spotty history in social media, after all. It’s also possible that the features in the new app will end up being baked into Google Photos. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Facebook is testing out animated GIFs for comments in its Android app

The social network finally gives in to what the people really want.

The GIF is alive and well, folks, and it appears Facebook has finally caught on to its ubiquity. The social network is officially exploring its relationship with these animated images. It will soon begin testing the ability to add GIFs to comments in your feed.

In an email to TechCrunch, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed the addition of animated GIFs:

Everyone loves a good GIF and we know that people want to be able to use them in comments. So we’re about to start testing the ability to add GIFs to comments and we’ll share more when we can, but for now we repeat that this is just a test.

Those of you with poor internet connections or slower computers, you don’t have to worry too much. Facebook won’t allow embedded GIFs in the main feel; they’ll be ostensibly limited to use as reactions to main posts. The company wants to avoid the images become distractive, or disruptive to the main news feed.

But at the same time, the ability to comment on posts with an animated GIF should have been implemented a while ago. Most mainstream messaging apps and services already support animated GIFs, and I bet you can’t go a few hours without someone dropping in an animated Imgur link. The GIF has no plans of leaving the internet anytime soon.

Google partners with Howard University in an effort to recruit more black engineers

Juniors and seniors enrolled in Howard University’s computer science program can study for three months at the newly dubbed “Howard West.”

Technology has always had a diversity issue. But rather than relegate to the way things appear to be, some technology companies are instead electing to invest in changing the status quo. Google has been particularly active in its initiatives. The company announced that it’s partnered with Howard University to launch a school branch on its Mountain View campus, dubbed “Howard West.”

Students who are chosen for the program will have a chance to learn from Google’s own engineers and technologists for three months. They’ll receive a stipend to help cover housing and other expenses they might incur living in the statistically pricey Silicon Valley. Students will also earn school credit towards their degree.

“Howard West is now the centerpiece of Google’s effort to recruit more black software engineers from historically black colleges and universities,” writes Bonita Stewart, Google’s VP of global partnerships. She continues:

One of my all-time favorite quotes comes from acclaimed management consultant Peter Drucker: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” This is exactly the thinking behind Howard West, as the program is a way to create a future that reflects the values of diversity and inclusion Google has held since day one.

The program begins this summer. Google plans to eventually expand the program to other Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) around the country.

Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger reveal new Android Wear 2.0 watches

Six months ago it seemed like we shouldn’t expect  new Android Wear hardware, but now, there are several companies announcing watches, with the latest being fashion brands Hugo Boss and Tommy Hilfiger.

While at Baselworld 2017, they introduced two Android Wear 2.0 watches. The Hugo Boss watch, called the Touch, looks like a classic, formal watch with a leather band option. Wareable said it lacks a heart-rate sensor but will come with NFC. It should cost $395 (about £315) when it launches in August. As for Tommy Hilfiger’s watch, it’s called TH24/7You. Seriously. And because it’s Hilfiger, it looks easygoing.

Introducing the new @HUGOBOSS Touch, powered by #AndroidWear. #Baselworld2017 pic.twitter.com/o6EsGKyYr0

— Android Wear (@AndroidWear) March 24, 2017

• Android Wear 2.0: What’s new in the major software update for watches?
• Best upcoming smartwatches: Future wristwear to look forward to in 2017

It has an informal metal link bracelet and very on-brand, patriotic watch faces. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a heart-rate monitor or even NFC, and it still manages to cost $299 (about £250). Specs for these watches are scant right now. We don’t know how big they are or what kind of features they’re offering up. We also don’t know which markets they’re headed for, but we’ll let you know when we learn more.

Introducing the @TommyHilfiger TH24/7You watch powered by #AndroidWear. #Baselworld2017 pic.twitter.com/EiIZMDHgS6

— Android Wear (@AndroidWear) March 24, 2017

Check out all the other connected watches announced at this year’s Baselworld here.

Latest Samsung Galaxy S8 leak is a video of someone typing really fast

Another day, another Samsung Galaxy S8 leak.

As spotted by SamMobile, there’s a new video that shows Samsung’s next flagship, the Galaxy S8. In it, we can see someone testing the phone by rapidly typing and entering random letters from the keyboard. Is it a touchscreen test? Who knows. But it’s obvious the phone responds well and is lag-free. The video also seems to confirm every single leak we’ve seen thus far (and there has been plenty).

• When is Galaxy Unpacked 2017 and can you watch it online?

Earlier this week, for instance, we saw the colours Samsung is expected to offer, as well as retail packaging for the lager S8 Plus model. There was even a leak that showed the default screen resolution. See Pocket-lint’s round-up for more leaks on the upcoming Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus. Honestly, there isn’t much we don’t know about them, as they’ve been fully revealed by reports and rumours.

This video doesn’t reveal any surprises about the design, either. Once again, we see minimal bezels and no physical home button. But we’ll know all the official details and specs soon. Samsung is slated to confirm everything at its Galaxy Unpacked event on 29 March.

When Samsung formally announces the phones later this month, we will bring you the news as it happens.

Yaass! Facebook is finally testing GIFs in comments (but not for posts)

Facebook lets you send GIFs in Messenger, but there’s no native way to use one in a comment on Facebook itself.

But that might soon change. Facebook confirmed to TechCrunch it will soon begin testing a GIF button that lets users post GIFs in comments. The button will pull from GIF repositories such as Giphy. In a statement, Facebook said: “Everyone loves a good GIF and we know that people want to be able to use them in comments. So we’re about to start testing the ability to add GIFs to comments.”

• What is Facebook Live, how does it work, and which devices support it?

It added: “We’ll share more when we can, but for now we repeat that this is just a test.” Since it’s a test, Facebook is only giving a small number of users access to its GIF comment button, but if Facebook likes what it sees, it could roll out to everyone. So, how will it work? Pretty much exactly like the existing GIF button in Facebook Messenger, which lets you browse trending GIFs and search for specific GIFs.

Unfortunately, you still won’t be able to share GIFs as news feed posts. We imagine that’ll one day arrive, however, since GIFs are a fact of life at this point. In fact, we have no idea why Facebook is so against them. Maybe it thinks it’ll bog down the news feed experience? TechCrunch said Facebook already built support for GIFs years ago but has delayed rolling it out for “fear of disrupting the feed aesthetic”.

That doesn’t make too much sense when you consider the number of auto-playing videos hogging up your new feed. We’ll make sure to update you when we know more about whether GIF comments are coming to everyone on Facebook.

• 17 Facebook tips and tricks you probably never heard about

Tesla Model 3 ‘release candidate’ drives off the lot

As Tesla continues its march towards producing a mass-market electric vehicle, CEO Elon Musk gave us a brief glimpse at the latest prototype. This Vine-length clip showed the first drive of a “release candidate” Model 3. Autoblog explains that unless there’s some unforeseen problem, it’s unlikely there will be any major styling or content revisions from this before the car goes into production, but engineers can still test and tweak things like brake calibration.

Musk didn’t stop there, however, also tweeting that a performance version of the Model 3 with dual motors and all-wheel-drive is likely to arrive next year, around the same time as right hand-drive models for the UK. Despite the Model 3’s lighter weight, it will also pack a smaller 75kWh battery, which means even the performance model will still trail the Model S in acceleration. That would leave the Model S as the EV speed king until the next-gen Roadster launches in a few years, which is the same window given for Tesla’s mass-market SUV, the Model Y.

If you’ve already jumped on the pre-order list for a Model 3, Musk says you will be able to wait and get first access to the dual-motor performance “D” versions when they’re available.

First drive of a release candidate version of Model 3 pic.twitter.com/zcs6j1YRa4

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2017

Source: Elon Musk (Twitter)

Gear Up: Unitek charging and productivity accessories

Do you live in a house with multiple smartphone users? Or, maybe you own a handful of devices that need charged via USB. It’s not uncommon to have a tablet, smartwatch, digital camera, Fire TV remote, phone, Kindle, etc. It isn’t hard to find yourself with more than a few things fighting for the plus and outlets. Ever considered a charging station or dock?

Unitek has a couple of options to choose from which could be of value to those of you who need to plug a variety of devices in on a regular basis. Moreover, if you’ve got one place that everyone in the house goes to for charging, these are something you might want to purchase. All of the products listed below come with a two-year warranty.

96W/2.4A 10-Port USB Charging Station with Quick Charge 3.0

Why you’ll want it: Charge up to ten devices at one time, including two of them using Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0. Move the dividers around to fit your needs; space them out for wider items like backup batteries or put them closer together for that skinny tablet. It’s the perfect office companion for those of you who have keyboards and mice that need the occasional charge on top of the various phones and headphones. About $70

36W/2.4A Detachable 4 Port USB Charging Station Dock

Why you’ll want it: An excellent option for the nightstand, it lets you plug in your phone, tablet, and two other products at once. Although it charges four things at once, the dock has room for six devices so feel free to put other tech in there, too. The cord is long enough to tuck behind the bed or dresser; provides up to 5V 7.2A and one power port up to 2.4A. About $28

Aluminum Type C 3-Port Data Hub with SD/Micro SD/TF Card Reader

Why you’ll want it: If you own a Chromebook or laptop with a USB Type-C port, this unit adds a number of ports and functionality to it. Give your device three extra USB 3.0 ports on one side and adds a card reader that supports a variety of formats on the other: SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC, RS-MMC, Micro SD, and Mini SD. Aluminum build ensures it will stand up to moderate abuse; it looks great next to any hardware. About $20

Portable USB 3.0 4-Port Ultra Slim Data hub

Why you’ll want it: Inexpensive but flexible, this portable unit converts one USB port into four. Moreover, there’s an extra microUSB output that can be used to power your phone or tablet. Backward compatible with USB 2.0 / 1.1, the USB 3.0 ports deliver charging and fast data transfer speeds. The built-in clasp keeps the cord from flopping around while the small footprint allows for portability. About $10

Editor Note: These items were provided to AndroidGuys for promotional consideration. Morever, they were offered to us at no cost and with no expectation of review or coverage. 

Stormtrooper tower: Asus unveils a gaming desktop under the Strix brand

Why it matters to you

PC gamers wanting a new desktop rig now have several options under the Republic of Gamers’ Strix brand.

The Republic of Gamers division at Asus is expanding its family of Strix-branded products once again. The company currently offers laptops, motherboards, graphics cards, and wireless headsets in is Strix portfolio and recently added a monitor, microphone, and gaming mouse. Now, Asus is cramming a powerful gaming desktop into that list in the form of the ROG Strix GD30 packing seventh-generation Intel Core processors and Nvidia GeForce graphics.

Let’s get to the meat of the hardware first:

Operating system:
Windows 10
Processor:
Intel Core i5-7400
Intel Core i7-7700
Graphics:
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 2GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 8GB
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 8GB
Memory:
Up to 32GB DDR4
Storage:
Up to 3TB 7,200 RPM SATA 3 HDD
Up to 512GB SATA 3 SSD
Up to 512GB PCIe M.2 SSD
Up to 512GB SATA 3 M.2 SSD
Optical storage:
DVD-ROM drive
DVD-RW drive
Audio:
Sonic Studio III HD 7.1 Channel sound
Connectivity:
Wireless AC
Bluetooth 4.1
Ports (front):
2x USB 2.0
2x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A
1x Microphone jack
1x Headphone jack
1x 6-in-1 SD card reader
Ports (back):
2x USB 2.0
4x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A
1x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C
1x Ethernet
1x 7.1 channel audio
Up to 2x HDMI (depends on GPU)
1x DVI port
Up to 2x DisplayPort (depends on GPU)
Dimensions:
9.055 x 21.65 x 21.25 inches
Weight:
37.47 pounds

As the specs show, this is no small form factor machine you can easily lug across town. It’s a gaming beast living up to the ROG Strix name that sits like a beautiful, futuristic tower on a desktop or flat surface next to the living room’s HDTV. The two Storm Trooper-style front panels are removable as well, enabling owners to rearrange these panels to create six different visual styles. There is also a matching white LED strip stretching horizontally between the upper and lower panels to indicate that the PC is running.

“Transparent side panels that show off the tech inside are now ubiquitous, but the GD30 adds an iron screen with a honeycomb design,” the company said in a blog post. “While the result looks great aesthetically, it also serves a functional purpose by reducing EMI (electromagnetic interference). The results from the ASUS EMI testing lab show that the system’s Radiated Spurious Emissions are lower than not only international safety standards but also internal ASUS regulations, which are among the strictest in the industry.”

Other notable features packed into the new Strix desktop include support for more than 8 million colors and multiple lighting effects on the motherboard, enough space for liquid cooling and a dual-fan radiator, large front and bottom air intakes for superb out-of-the-box cooling, a 120mm red LED-lit export fan on the back, and more. The included Aegis III software keeps tabs on the temperature and performance while giving users complete control over the PC’s cool Aura RGB lighting and fan speeds.

The Asus ROG Strix GD30 is presumably available now in multiple configurations for unspecified prices. The system’s press release says to, “Please contact your local ASUS representative for further information.”

Dell Latitude E5470 review

Research Center:
Dell Latitude E5470

The Dell Latitude has been a business mainstay for years. It’s built a reputation for understated reliability, to the point that the sleek black laptop is now ubiquitous. At this point, it’s as much an office fixture as a coffee machine.

But if it’s that common, how can the new Latitude E5470 stand out in a crowded market? At first, it’s hard to tell. With specifications including a 6th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, a 500GB HDD, and a price tag of $1,241, the Latitude doesn’t look like much. You won’t find any groundbreaking new features here, but it does have a few tricks up its tasteful, well-pressed sleeves.

Business class

The Latitude E5470 isn’t going to win any industrial design awards, but it has a certain quiet elegance. Black, rectangular, laptop-shaped, at first glance there’s not much to talk about. But that’s the key to the Latitude’s design. It’s quiet, understated, and as classy as an everyday button-down and slacks.

More: Lenovo’s Yoga 720 packs gaming-grade graphics into a 2-in-1

On the back, the Dell logo is the only glossy accent in a tasteful sea of matte black. The trackpad is similarly matte, black, and just a bit sparkly. There’s enough design language here, in the black-on-black scheme and port placement, to suggest that even the most unassuming accents were well considered and placed with care.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Even minor details serve a purpose. Where the display meets the body, Dell opted to fortify the Latitude’s durability by using metal to mount the hinge to the chassis. It’s an attractive design element, but it also makes sure the display remains firmly affixed to the body. There’s very minimal flex here. This is a notebook built for the rigors of everyday use.

Throw away those dongles

The Latitude’s business pedigree informs every aspect of its design — including the layout and sheer number of ports. Normally, this is the part where we’d list every available connection, and given recent trends, lament the lack of one or more ports.

The Latitude is a different story entirely. This is a notebook with every port you could possibly need, and they’re placed right where you need them.

The Latitude E5470 isn’t going to win any industrial design awards, but it has a certain quiet elegance.

Starting with the back-side of the notebook, where most manufacturers stick a few exhaust vents and call it a day, the Dell Latitude E5470 features the following: one USB port, an Ethernet port, the AC adapter port, an HDMI port, and a microSD slot. Oh, and just in case that wasn’t enough, there’s also an old-school VGA port back there.

On the left side, the Latitude features a large exhaust vent, a USB port, and a smart card slot. The right-side features yet another USB port, an SD card slot, a headphone jack, and a Kensington lock.

In other words, the Latitude has more ports on its back-side than some laptops have on their entire chassis. With this notebook, you won’t need any dongles, splitters, or adapters. It’s a welcome change, given recent trends toward eliminating variety, and requiring users to rely on external adapters to plug in their devices.

A tale of two trackpads

Business laptops aren’t just defined by their ports, their design, or their software. There’s one other feature a notebook really needs to be taken seriously as a business laptop: a TrackPoint nub in the center of the keyboard. The Dell Latitude has one, as it should.

More: Vkansee’s under-glass fingerprint sensors to debut in laptops before smartphones

When you’re doing data entry for several hours at a time, a TrackPoint-style pointer can be a life saver. No need to take your hands off the keyboard, just make your adjustments with the nub, and keep going.

It’s not exactly a headline feature, but it works well. It’s accurate enough for small adjustments to the position of your cursor, but not quite sensitive enough to replace the track pad in most cases. Just below the space bar, you’ll find a left, right, and middle button to accompany the TrackPoint-style pointer.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

The actual trackpad is a bit small by current standards, but it gets the job done. It’s fast and accurate no matter how high or low you adjust the sensitivity. If you buy this laptop, though, you should do yourself a favor and get acquainted with the TrackPoint.

The Latitude’s keyboard features surprisingly deep key travel for a notebook, and the keys are solid and springy without feeling mushy when you’re typing for long periods. Underneath, you’ll find a stock-standard white LED backlight, which shines through the key caps and around the keys. It’s not exactly Razer Chroma lighting, but it gets the job done. It’s easy enough to find the right function keys when typing in the dark.

Bright and colorful

The Latitude E5470 doesn’t need to have a great display, and it could get by with just a decent or mediocre screen. After all, it’s destined for a life of spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, and the occasional in-flight movie — nothing that would require a lush and colorful screen.

Nevertheless, the Latitude has a surprisingly capable display. The IPS panel has excellent viewing angles, and a contrast ratio that beats out one of Dell’s own gaming systems, the Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming. That laptop suffers very poor quality display with a contrast ratio of 140:1, while the Latitude — a business laptop — features a sharp display capable of hitting 830:1 contrast at max brightness.

Taking a look at the closest competition, the Lenovo Thinkpad X260, and the Dell XPS 13, the Latitude manages to hold its own. The Thinkpad, another business notebook, pushes past the XPS and Latitude when it comes to contrast, delivering deeper darks and brighter highlights, but the Latitude pulls ahead of both in raw color accuracy.

The Latitude’s expansive storage size is appreciated, but it comes at too high a cost.

The Latitude’s display is not only bright and colorful, but the colors are remarkably accurate. With an average color error of 1.69, the Latitude delivers color accuracy good enough for a bit of photo editing on-the-go, if not quite good enough to replace a dedicated, professional monitor.

Moving on to display gamut, the Latitude can reproduce 73 percent of the demanding AdobeRGB spectrum, while the Thinkpad only manages 53 percent. That’s a big difference, and it shows in everyday use. The XPS pulls ahead of both the Latitude and Thinkpad, however, with a display capable of reproducing 76 percent of the AdobeRGB spectrum.

Laptop displays are almost always a mixed bag, but that’s not the case here. With the Latitude, you get solid scores across the board, despite a few dips here and there, most notably in display gamut. Still, it’s a very capable display, and it would be just as at home on a gaming notebook as it is on a business notebook.

Quick, but not the quickest

The Dell Latitude 5470 features a dual core Intel Core i5-6300U processor, clocked at 2.4GHz, and it does well in most use-cases. Single and multi-core performance are both mid-range, and that’s appropriate for a 6th-generation Skylake dual core processor, but let’s look at the competition.

More: Motorola’s crazy concept Moto Mods include a photo printer, and more

The XPS 13 with its 7th-generation Intel Core i7 processor is the clear winner here, but the Latitude keeps up admirably. Both the Latitude and the Thinkpad featured last-gen Intel Core i5 processors when we reviewed them, and they perform well within acceptable margins. The 6th-generation Intel Core i5 is a solid CPU and won’t slow you down during daily computing tasks.

Looking at the Geekbench scores and Handbrake benchmarks, you can see how the Latitude sits comfortably between the Thinkpad and XPS 13. It’s not the fastest notebook, but a solid, reliable CPU keeps it within striking distance of the top-end XPS 13. The only time we really noticed the Latitude struggling to keep up was when we pushed multi-tasking well beyond reasonable extremes — dozens of browser tabs, opening several applications all at once.

During daily use, the Latitude kept up beautifully but did chug a little when launching more than one app at a time. That’s likely the result of its hard disk.

Large and lumbering

The Latitude has ample space, with a 500GB hard disk, but the speed leaves much to be desired. It’s just not fast enough, and looking at the competition, both of which feature mid-range SSDs, you can see how the Latitude could feel sluggish performing hard disk sensitive tasks.

There’s just no comparison. The XPS features a quick SSD which performs about ten times faster than the Latitude’s large-but-slow hard disk. Even the Thinkpad pulls ahead here, delivering acceptable if not lightning-quick results.

Unfortunately for the Latitude, these speed discrepancies are felt in everyday use. Boot times are surprisingly long, and read/write speeds make moving files around a huge pain. The Latitude’s expansive storage size is appreciated, but it comes at too high a cost.

Not playing around, at all

It should come as little surprise that the Latitude isn’t exactly meant for gaming. Without a discrete GPU, it struggled during the least demanding of our benchmarks. The Thinkpad and XPS 13 also feature onboard Intel HD graphics, and neither one does particularly well in the 3DMark benchmarks.

You’re not going to get passable gaming performance out of the Latitude in anything but the least demanding games. We managed to run Hearthstone well enough, but there was noticeable frame-loss when big effects were triggered.

It’s not a surprise given the Latitude’s pedigree as a business laptop, but it’s something to keep in mind if you need something to keep you entertained on long flights.

Dell Latitude E5470 Compared To

Dell Inspiron 15 7000 (2017)

Lenovo ThinkPad P50s 20FL000NUS

Lenovo Yoga 910

Microsoft Surface Book with…

Asus Zenbook 3 UX390UA

Lenovo ThinkPad X260

Dell Precision 15 3510

Lenovo Ideapad 710S

HP Spectre

Acer Aspire S 13 S5-371-52JR

Dell Latitude 12

LG Gram 15 Z960

Samsung Notebook 9 Pro…

Asus Zenbook UX501VW-DS71T

Lenovo IdeaPad V460

Compact carry-on

This laptop was designed for a life on the road and it shows. It’s small and light, fits comfortably in a shoulder bag, and weighing in at just 3.88 pounds, it won’t bog you down on a daily commute.

It features a 62 watt-hour built-in battery, which is not hot-swappable or easily user replaceable, so be sure to pack the included charger if you’re going on the road. The Latitude’s battery life is good enough to get through most of a workday of mixed use, about six and a half hours anecdotally speaking.

When it comes to formal benchmarks, the battery life falls a bit short of its nearest competitors. On the Peacekeeper battery test the Latitude managed just over four and a half hours, while the Thinkpad, which features hot-swappable batteries, managed about four hours and fifty minutes, with the XPS 13 lasting about six minutes longer.

That’s good, but not groundbreaking. The Latitude managed between five and six hours of battery life on our other two tests — a video loop and a browser macro loop. These tests really push battery life to the limit, so in everyday use the Latitude would absolutely be able to get you through most of a workday on a single charge.

With a small, sleek form-factor and modest battery life, the Latitude is a very portable machine for business travelers or anyone who needs to spend most of their workday without being tethered to a desk.

Slim and light

The included software never pushed past the realm of necessary utilities, and that’s appreciated. There were a few Dell-branded applications included, but they’re not overbearing and beyond asking you to register once or twice, they never get in the way. You won’t have to clean house when you get this notebook, scouring every corner for clinging bits of bloatware.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

In fact, the only out-of-the-box bloatware present on the Latitude was included with Windows 10. There were a few Windows Store apps we didn’t really need, and more than a handful of Microsoft trial apps that deserved a swift and just removal.

Warranty information

The Dell Latitude E5470 includes a standard one-year warranty against manufacturer defects, including a year of hardware service, with in-home and on-site service after remote diagnosis. Essentially, the Latitude is covered if anything goes wrong in the first year, but you’re on your own after that.

Our Take

The Dell Latitude E5470 is a capable business notebook with a high-quality display, and rock-solid build quality. Compared to some of Dell’s other offerings, it stands on its own as a reliable mid-range performer, and has a few features you’re only likely to find on a dedicated business laptop.

Smart card support, a variety of cleverly placed ports, and robust battery life make a good case for the Latitude, but there’s a problem: the price. Retailing for $1,241, the Latitude is in competition with Dell’s top-end offerings from the XPS lineup, and Lenovo’s business notebook offerings.

Is there a better alternative?

Unfortunately for the Latitude there are better alternatives in the same price range, including offerings from Dell. The XPS lineup continues to impress, and you can get in on the 13-inch line starting at $800, or the 15-inch line starting at $900.

The DT Accessory Pack

Microsoft 3500 wireless mobile mouse

$30

Verifi P2000 fingerprint reader

$60

Dell E-Port Plus port replicator

$100

You can also spec either one just beyond the Latitude, and come in at about the same price with a handful of premium features, including one of the most attractive chassis on the market today, and the latest 7th-generation Intel Core processors.

How long will it last?

Despite having a mostly plastic body, the Latitude E5470 is built like a small, plastic tank. The body doesn’t flex, or give in any troubling way, and it would absolutely survive several years of being hauled in and out of a messenger bag, facing the rigors of daily use.

The hardware is another story. The Latitude is quick enough today, and might keep up for about a year, but it will very quickly start to show its age. With a dual-core 6th-generation Intel Core processor, it’s good at single tasking and small-scale multi-tasking, but not quite quick enough to keep up if you have too many applications running at once.

The hard disk will probably have you pulling your hair out before the end of 2017. It’s just not fast enough for anything other than long-term and infrequent storage. You’re much better off investing in an SSD of half the size.

Should you buy it?

For most users, the answer will be no. But if you need a laptop with a smart card slot — as some business users will — and if you can’t live without a TrackPoint-style pointer, then the Latitude isn’t a bad choice. Just make sure you get it when it’s on sale, or make sure your company picks up the tab.