Dell Latitude E7250 Intel Core i5 2.1GHz 8GB 128GB SSD 12.5″

Dell Latitude E7240 Display

The 12.5-inch 1920 x 1080p touch display on the E7250 offers bright images but somewhat muted colors. In our tests, the screen reproduced just 69 percent of the sRGB color gamut — less than the category average of 76 percent.

Audio

If you’re thinking of rocking out between meetings, use a Bluetooth speaker. The Latitude E7250’s speakers make music sound downright hollow. You’ll certainly be able to hear the E7250, as it managed 98 decibels on our volume test, beating other business Ultrabooks like the Folio 1020 (85 dB). The category average is 73 dB, so you’re definitely getting louder sound with the E7250 — it’s just not high-quality sound.

Heat

After the computer streamed 15 minutes of HD video, the bottom of the machine measured 96 degrees, while a section on the back left side hit 100 degrees — 5 degrees higher than what we consider comfortable. The touchpad (76 degrees) and the space on the keyboard between the G and H keys (88 degrees) were much cooler. The PC was never too hot to use in my lap while writing and streaming episodes of The Daily Show in the background, but it was certainly warm enough to notice.

Ports and Webcam

For a notebook that bills itself as an enterprise Ultrabook, the Latitude E7250 has just about every port you would expect. It boasts three USB 3.0 ports (one on the right side and two on the rear), one of which features PowerShare for charging when the notebook is asleep. There’s an HDMI port on the back. It also has an SD card reader, a smart card reader, a Mini DisplayPort, a DC-in port and room for an Ethernet cable.

The PC’s 1920 x 1080p FHD webcam isn’t very impressive, though. Photos and videos were plagued by noise, and the white balance was slightly off; only the brightest whites escaped the camera’s marginal yellow tint.

Performance

With a 5th-gen Intel i5-4300U CPU, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB  SSD, the E7250 won’t have any trouble handling your word processing, a few spreadsheets and lots of open tabs in your Web browser.

Graphics

With integrated Intel HD 5500 graphics, this machine works well for Web browsing and video, but don’t expect great performance with games.

Battery Life

The E7250 lasted 3 hours and 18 minutes on the Laptop Mag Battery Test (Web surfing over Wi-Fi at 100 nits), which is impressive for a device with a touch screen