Hands on with Dell's 5G-enabled Latitude 9510, which packs 30 hours of battery life

At CES this week, Dell introduced the Latitude 9510 and Latitude 9510 2-in-1. Their two claims to fame are that they get 30 hours of battery life, and they support sub-6 5G. I got to check out this PC at CES, and as you can probably guess, I couldn't test out either of those things. After all, I don't have 30 hours to test out the battery life, and 5G isn't available yet in the PC space. That won't arrive until this summer for carrier reasons.

I did get to have a look at the 15-inch laptop, and it's quite nice. Dell's never had a Latitude 9000 series before, and the whole idea was to make a business laptop that fits into the ultra-premium space. It's Dell's version of HP's EliteBook 1000, or Lenovo's ThinkPad X1.

One of the key features is the InfinityEdge display, similar to what you'd see on a Dell XPS consumer laptop. That means that it has narrow bezels on all sides, but the good news is that there's still a webcam on top of the screen. Back when XPS laptops used to have it under the display, Latitude always kept a larger bezel on top to keep the webcam there, with the idea that business users need their webcam more. That's not changing. Moreover, it keeps the IR camera for facial recognition.

It has Dell's ExpressSign-in, a feature that has extra sensors to tell when you walk away from your PC to lock it, and tell when you return to wake it up. So your PC can wake up and sign you in without you ever touching it.

As I mentioned, there are two models, a clamshell and a convertible. What's cool is that both of these PCs are exactly the same with the exception of the hinge. You're not making any compromises at all by going with the convertible. Naturally, the convertible is a bit more expensive though.

The only physical difference between the two is that the clamshell has a matte hinge.

The front-facing speakers use Waves MaxxAudio Audio, so you not only get a premium visual experience, but you get a premium audio experience.

Dell says that this is the smallest and lightest 15-inch business PC, packing a 15.0-inch screen into the chassis of a 14-inch device. It weighs in at just 3.2 pounds, and naturally, to reach that weight and to have 30 hours of battery life, it includes U-series processors and integrated graphics. Specifically, the U-series processors are Comet Lake.

The Dell Latitude 9510 looks pretty interesting, and it should be one of the more fun laptops to check out this year. It will be available on March 26 starting at $1,799.