A powerful commercial alternative to Surface Pro

The Dell Latitude 7320 Detachable is a well-designed Windows tablet with a keyboard cover and stylus, as well as a large number of security and manageability options.

Tablet computers running Windows 10, such as the new Dell Latitude 7320 Detachable, are mainly for business users who prioritize portability and interact with PCs mainly through touch screens. The Latitude 7320 (starting at $1,559; tested at $2,219) has IT-friendly features and an included keyboard cover, allowing you to use it as a traditional laptop. But the similar Microsoft Surface Pro 7 for Business has a slightly higher price and is still our editor's choice among detachable 2-in-1 products.

In addition to Surface Pro and Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable, the arrival of Latitude 7320 Detachable provides a third option for companies deploying Windows tablets. All of these models can be used alone (as standalone tablets) or with a keyboard cover that snaps into place magnetically-bundled with Dell and Lenovo, this is an additional cost option for the Microsoft slate. The main physical difference between these three options and the Apple iPad Pro (except the operating system) is that Windows tablets include a stand integrated in the back cover, which makes them easier to support for viewing on a table or airplane tray. 

Microsoft, Lenovo and Dell tablets are also equipped with Intel’s latest 11th-generation processors, making them as powerful as traditional business ultraportable laptops. Our Latitude 7320 detachable test unit is equipped with a quad-core Core i7-1180G7 with Intel vPro management technology, 16GB memory and 256GB NVMe solid state drive. The basic model is equipped with Core i3 CPU, 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD; we recommend staying away from that anemic configuration.

Latitude is equipped with a 13-inch display with an aspect ratio of approximately 3:2. We like to see this screen format on a tablet, because it is more square than the usual 16:9 laptop ratio and is more suitable for viewing web pages and full-screen applications.​​​​ The Dell monitor has a resolution of 1,920 x 1,280 pixels, which matches the resolution of the ThinkPad X12 Detachable, but the device’s screen is slightly smaller at 12.3 inches (measured diagonally). Surface Pro 7 is also equipped with a 12.3-inch display, but with a higher resolution of 2,736 x 1,824 pixels. 

Generally speaking, high-resolution screens are more important on touch-enabled tablets than on laptops. The increased pixel density not only makes the text look clearer, but also helps when you use the digital stylus for precise drawing work. Therefore, neither Dell nor Lenovo can match the excellent resolution of the Surface Pro 7, which is disappointing. 

Since most business users need a keyboard at least some of the time, it is good to see that Dell includes a keyboard in the box instead of selling it separately. The backlit keyboard of the Latitude 7320 Detachable includes a small touchpad, which can track well and is very sturdy due to the thin shell. It can be magnetically snapped to the bottom edge of the tablet, and it even includes a built-in charging slot for the included digital stylus. I found this pen comfortable and accurate to take notes quickly, and I appreciate that it only takes about five minutes to fully charge the built-in battery. 

One unsurprising disadvantage of including all these extra features is the higher pricing. Latitudes are generally more expensive than Dell's consumer systems and competitors from other vendors, and 7320 Detachable is no exception. The $2,219 asking price of our test configuration is significantly higher than the $1,499.99 of the Surface Pro 7 package we tested. For the increased cost, you can get a larger screen and a three-year warranty. Pricing varies based on your relationship with Dell-for example, large orders from regular customers may result in various confidential discounts that exceed the list price. 

Latitude 7320 Detachable is only available in gray version, but this should be suitable for most business environments. The brushed aluminum tablet itself is light gray, while the tough fabric of the keyboard cover is a much darker tone. Without the cover, the tablet measures 0.33 x 11.4 x 8.2 inches (HWD) and weighs 1.7 pounds. It is almost the same size as Microsoft and Lenovo tablets, which is an impressive feat considering the smaller screens of these tablets. To give you an idea of ​​the weight and size difference between a detachable tablet and a convertible 2-in-1 business laptop, the 13.3-inch Dell Latitude 7320 2-in-1 manger measures 0.67 x 12.1 x 8 inches and weighs 3.1 pounds. Of course In return for the extra weight and thickness, you will get a more powerful keyboard. The Latitude 7320 Detachable’s keys are very sturdy and comfortable, but they cannot overcome the significant bending inherent in the thin keyboard cover. 

Convertible laptops can also provide you with more connectivity. As it is, the Latitude 7320 Detachable has only three connectors: two USB-C ports and a 3.5 mm audio jack. Conveniently, both USB ports support Thunderbolt 4 speed, which means that when you use your tablet with a monitor and peripherals on your desktop, you can easily turn your tablet into a full-featured Thunderbolt dock Office workstation. 

But compared with traditional notebook computers, the camera function of Dell Tablet PC is much superior. What you get is not one but two cameras, a world-facing lens mounted on the back and a webcam facing you. The quality of the video produced by the rear camera is quite noisy, which is common for webcams, but the front camera is a bit clearer and also has an infrared sensor that allows you to log in to Windows using facial recognition. Latitude 7320 Detachable also has a proximity sensor that can automatically wake it from sleep when it detects your presence and activates the infrared sensor to recognize your face. Finally, this tablet is also equipped with a beautiful rear fingerprint reader, which is missing from the Surface Pro 7. It is perfectly located in the upper right corner, allowing you to slide your index finger while holding the device with one hand. Of course, some IT departments do not support Windows Hello face recognition or fingerprint login, so Latitude 7320 Detachable is also compatible with wireless smart cards.

Other wireless connections include Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.1, and optional cellular modems that can be used with AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint SIM cards. Mobile broadband is limited to 4G LTE speeds; it does not support 5G. 

The audio quality of the Latitude 7320 Detachable speakers is very powerful for tablets. The sound comes from the two slits on the left and right edges. I found that in the entire large living room with the volume set to maximum, the people on the other end of the video conference were easily heard. There is even a little bass response when watching a movie, even though the treble sounds very small. 

The thickness of the Latitude 7320 Detachable is only half that of the Latitude 7320 2-in-1 Convertible, and the internal space for cooling its computing components is much smaller. This is a challenge that all tablets face, and this is the key reason why you can’t see the top graphics and CPU features in it. Dell said it has invested a lot of effort to maximize the heat dissipation of this tablet, but uses liquid crystal polymer fan blades to improve efficiency and dual opposed exhaust fans. Nevertheless, the performance of the Core i7 in our review unit is almost not better than the Core i5 processor that powers the ThinkPad X12 Detachable and Surface Pro 7. 

In our performance tests, the difference between the three detachable parts is usually very small. Before we look at the benchmark results, you can check the basic specifications of the competitors in the table below. I completed the test set with two additional alternatives, the convertible version of the Latitude 7320 and the revolutionary Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold foldable screen tablet.

Learn how we test laptops

Our PCMark 10 benchmark simulates various productivity and content creation workflows to measure system performance for typical office tasks. Any score higher than 4,000 points represents excellent productivity. Except for the slower ThinkPad X1 Fold, the Latitude 7320 Detachable is hundreds of points away from the competition. In the PCMark 8 storage subtest, the competitors are even closer, which does not require much of today's swift SSD.

Next is Maxon's CPU-crunching Cinebench R15 test, which is fully threaded to utilize all available processor cores and threads. Cinebench emphasizes the CPU rather than the GPU to render complex images. The result is a proprietary score that indicates whether the PC is suitable for processor-intensive workloads.

Here, although the performance of ThinkPad X12 Detachable and Surface Pro 7 is actually slightly better than Latitude 7320 Detachable, even though they use Core i5 CPU. However, the difference in the real world is not obvious. 

We have seen similar results in the Handbrake video editing experiment. This is another difficult thread training, highly dependent on the CPU, and can scale well with cores and threads. In it, we placed a stopwatch on the test system because they transcoded a standard 12-minute 4K video clip (the open source Blender demo movie "Tears of Steel") into a 1080p MP4 file. This is a timed test, the lower the result, the better.

We also run custom Adobe Photoshop image editing benchmarks. Using the early 2018 version of Photoshop Creative Cloud, we applied a series of 10 complex filters and effects to standard JPEG test images, timed each operation and added the total. As with the handbrake, the shorter the time here, the better. The Photoshop test emphasizes the CPU, storage subsystem, and RAM, but it can also use most GPUs to speed up the process of applying filters, so systems with powerful graphics chips or cards may be improved. Similarly, except for ThinkPad X1 Fold, all systems are completed in a few seconds. 

Although you can play basic browser-based games such as Candy Crush on Latitude 7320 Detachable, neither it nor any other Windows tablet is likely to be suitable for more intense 3D games. Dell’s performance in our 3DMark and Superposition game simulations is roughly equivalent to that of Surface Pro 7, which uses the same Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics.

Like cooling hardware, the thin casing of a tablet computer also limits the size of its battery. In the case of Latitude 7320 Detachable, it is a 40 watt-hour battery, but it can still last more than 12 hours in our unplugged video playback test. This is an impressive result, even if it is a few hours shorter than the Surface Pro. 

Overall, Dell Latitude 7320 Detachable has some advantages over Surface Pro 7 and its other major competitors, ThinkPad X12 Detachable. Larger screens, fingerprint readers, and keyboards with built-in stylus holders add to the appeal of Latitude, even if they are really expensive.

But in terms of computing performance and battery life, Surface Pro 7 does not have any obvious disadvantages. On the contrary, its Core i5 surpassed Latitude's Core i7 in some tests, and it can last longer when it is far away from a power outlet. Therefore, for most employees in the market, the Microsoft tablet is a better choice for ultra-light, pen-friendly Windows machines, and it retains our Editors’ Choice Award as the best commercial Windows detachable device.

The Dell Latitude 7320 Detachable is a well-designed Windows tablet with a keyboard cover and stylus, as well as a large number of security and manageability options.

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As a hardware analyst, Tom tests and reviews laptops, peripherals, etc. in the PC Lab in New York City. He previously worked as a PCMag news reporter in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, covering consumer technology beats, where he drove several self-driving cars and witnessed the rise and fall of many startups. Prior to this, he worked at PCMag’s sister site Computer Shopper, where he occasionally soaked waterproof hard drives in a water glass. In his spare time, he writes on various topics, such as the tropical rainforest of Borneo, the Middle East Airlines, and the role of big data in the presidential election. Tom graduated from Middlebury College and also has a master's degree in journalism and French studies from New York University. Follow him on Twitter @branttom.

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