Dell Latitude 15 3530 review

Dell’s Latitude series is the answer for Lenovo’s (and previously IBM’s ) ThinkPad devices. In this case, we have the Latitude 15 3530. It is a brand new machine, which sits in the more affordable spectrum of the business notebook branch.

For another year running, the keyword is “compromise”. We don’t expect to see stellar build quality, but there is no reason to think that Dell would cheap out on the user experience.

Here, we get to choose from a pool of Alder Lake U-series processors. They have a 15W TDP, which would make the pretty efficient. It will be interesting to compare this laptop to the ThinkPad E15 Gen 4 of Lenovo.

By the way, we have to say, that the Latitude 15 3530 – a laptop built in 2022, still offers a 768p TN display option. No person in their right mind should choose this panel for himself or his subordinates.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-latitude-15-3530/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Dell Latitude 15 3530 - Specs

  • BOE 000TN-NE156FH (BOE0A89)
  • Color accuracy  4.2  3.6
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 1000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 32GB
  • OS
  • Windows 11 Pro, Windows 11 Home
  • Battery
  • 54Wh, 4-cell, 41Wh, 3-cell
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate
  • Dimensions
  • 361 x 240.95 x 18.06 mm (14.21" x 9.49" x 0.71")
  • Weight
  • 1.79 kg (3.9 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 2.0
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Sleep and Charge
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), DisplayPort, Sleep and Charge
  • HDMI
  • 1.4b
  • Card reader
  • microSD (SD/SDHC/SDXC)
  • Ethernet LAN
  • 10, 100, 1000 Mbit/s
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.2
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HD / FHD / IR
  • Backlit keyboard
  • optional
  • Microphone
  • Dual Array Microphones
  • Speakers
  • 2x 2W Stereo Speakers
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot
  • Wedge Lock

What’s in the box?

Inside this laptop’s packaging, we found some paperwork, as well as a 65W USB Type-C power adapter.


Design and construction

Made entirely out of plastic, the Latitude 15 3530 justifies its rather low price tag. It features a profile of 18.1mm and weighs 1.79 kg – pretty thin and light in our opinion.

On the other hand, the body panel is really flexy, when you twist it. In addition, the rough surface is not very pleasant to the touch, and the machine looks really easily scratchable.

Unsurprisingly, the lid can’t be opened with a single hand. It’s good to see that the bottom and the side bezels are pretty thin. The top one, on the other hand, is a bit thicker, and it houses the Web camera. The base option here is an HD unit, while the more premium choice is a Full HD shooter with an IR face recognition scanner. Privacy shutter is present on both options.

Moving to the base, we see a keyboard that comes with a NumberPad, and an optional backlight. Its key travel is average, but the feedback is clicky, making the typing experience rather comfortable.

You still get tiny “Up” and “Down” Arrow keys, which is not ideal. On the other side, the Power button doubles as an optional fingerprint reader. The touchpad feels surprisingly accurate and responsive, considering the 60Hz refresh rate of the display. It has a size of 115 by 80 mm, and its clicking mechanism works fine for about half of the unit’s surface.

Looking at the bottom panel, we see the speaker cutouts, as well as the long ventilation grill. The hot air is then exhausted through a vent in between the base and the lid.

Ports

On the left side, there is a power adapter, an HDMI 1.4b connector, followed by a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, and a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port with DisplayPort and Power Delivery functions. Switch sides to find a security lock slot, a LAN port, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, a USB Type-A 2.0 port, an Audio jack, a MicroSD card slot, and an optional SIM card tray.


Disassembly, upgrade options, and maintenance

There are 9 captive Phillips-head screws, you need to undo, to access this notebook’s internals. Then, pry the bottom panel with a plastic tool, and remove it from the device.

Inside, we see a 54Wh battery pack. It lasts for 12 hours of Web browsing, or 9 hours of video playback. To remove it, unplug the connector from the motherboard, and undo all four Phillips-head screws keeping it attached to the chassis.

Memory-wise, there are two SODIMM slots, which fit DDR4 RAM, working at 3200 MHz. According to the manufacturer, the maximum available capacity is 32GB in dual-channel mode. As for the storage, there is one M.2 PCIe x4 slot with support for Gen 4 SSDs.

The cooling comprises two heat pipes, a fan, and a heat spreader for the VRMs.


Display quality

Dell Latitude 15 3530 in our configuration is equipped with a 60HzcFull HD IPS panel with a model number BOE 000TN-NE156FH (BOE0A89). Its diagonal is 15.6″ (39.62 cm), and the resolution is 1920 х 1080 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 142 ppi, and a pitch of 0.18 х 0.18 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at distance equal to or greater than 60cm (24″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).

The viewing angles are excellent. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

The measured maximum brightness of 310 nits in the middle of the screen and 294 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 11%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 6650K – slightly colder, but almost matching the sRGB standard of 6500K.

In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. In other words, the leakage of light from the light source.

Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work. The contrast ratio is good – 1220:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Dell Latitude 15 3530’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 53% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results in factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Dell Latitude 15 3530 with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 27 ms.

After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.


PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

Dell Latitude 15 3530’s display doesn’t use PWM to adjust its brightness levels at any point. This makes it comfortable for use during long work periods, without harming your eyes in this aspect.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Gloss level measurement

Glossy-coated displays are sometimes inconvenient in high ambient light conditions. We show the level of reflection on the screen for the respective laptop when the display is turned off and the measurement angle is 60° (in this case, the result is 64.2 GU).


Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Dell Latitude 15 3530 configurations with 15.6″ FHD IPS BOE 000TN-NE156FH (BOE0A89).

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

Dell Latitude 15 3530’s speakers produce a sound of decent quality and pretty good maximum volume. Its low, mid, and high tones are clear of deviations.


Drivers

All drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/latitude-15-3530-laptop/drivers

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with the Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. Our unit’s 54Wh battery pack lasts for 11 hours and 57 minutes of Web browsing, or 9 hours and 3 minutes of video playback on a single charge.


CPU options

This device can be configured with the Core i3-1215U, Core i5-1235U, Core i5-1245U, or Core i7-1255U.


GPU options

Graphics-wise, you are limited to the integrated solution. It is the Iris Xe Graphics, which acts as an Intel UHD Graphics if your memory runs in single-channel mode.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS59 fps50 fps26 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS69 fps43 fps24 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average P-core frequency; Average E-core frequency; CPU temp.; Package Power

Intel Core i5-1235U (15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Dell Latitude 15 35302.97 GHz @ 2.60 GHz @ 87°C @ 34W2.64 GHz @ 2.43 GHz @ 88°C @ 30W2.37 GHz @ 2.29 GHz @ 80°C @ 25W
HP 470 G91.43 GHz @ 1.39 GHz @ 54°C @ 15W1.43 GHz @ 1.39 GHz @ 57°C @ 15W1.44 GHz @ 1.39 GHz @ 64°C @ 15W
HP EliteBook 640 G93.27 GHz @ 2.77 GHz @ 90°C @ 45W2.53 GHz @ 2.32 GHz @ 90°C @ 30W2.32 GHz @ 2.17 GHz @ 74°C @ 24W
HP EliteBook 840 G93.09 GHz @ 2.75 GHz @ 83°C @ 46W2.73 GHz @ 2.46 GHz @ 89°C @ 37W1.58 GHz @ 1.67 GHz @ 61°C @ 17W
Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 43.28 GHz @ 2.77 GHz @ 84°C @ 44W3.18 GHz @ 2.77 GHz @ 90°C @ 44W2.49 GHz @ 2.28 GHz @ 77°C @ 28W
HP Pavilion Plus 14 (14-eh0000)2.85 GHz @ 2.43 GHz @ 77°C @ 39W2.34 GHz @ 2.10 GHz @ 75°C @ 29W1.84 GHz @ 1.79 GHz @ 65°C @ 20W
Lenovo IdeaPad 5 (15″, 2022)3.60 GHz @ 3.08 GHz @ 73°C @ 55W3.44 GHz @ 2.95 GHz @ 88°C @ 51W2.80 GHz @ 2.49 GHz @ 69°C @ 35W
Lenovo ThinkPad L14 Gen 33.20 GHz @ 2.77 GHz @ 83°C @ 44W3.10 GHz @ 2.71 GHz @ 94°C @ 43W1.89 GHz @ 1.95 GHz @ 72°C @ 20W
Acer Aspire Vero (AV14-51)3.63 GHz @ 2.87 GHz @ 84°C @ 55W2.73 GHz @ 2.36 GHz @ 81°C @ 33W2.49 GHz @ 2.23 GHz @ 79°C @ 28W
MSI Modern 14 (C12M)3.17 GHz @ 2.69 GHz @ 77°C @ 45W3.10 GHz @ 2.61 GHz @ 81°C @ 45W2.69 GHz @ 2.45 GHz @ 78°C @ 35W
Dell Latitude 15 55303.57 GHz @ 3.02 GHz @ 94°C @ 52W2.03 GHz @ 2.09 GHz @ 76°C @ 21W2.24 GHz @ 2.19 GHz @ 64°C @ 23W

The Latitude 15 3530 offers good performance. Not only in short but also in long loads, which makes it pretty useful for some heavy data crunching.

Comfort during full load

In addition to that, the laptop remains pretty quiet under load, while the warmest point on the keyboard is in the middle, measuring 41°C.


Verdict

You shouldn’t be surprised by the disadvantages of the Latitude 15 3530. Its plastic body panels have a rough finish, which does not feel great to the touch. Also, the base is pretty bendy.

On the other hand, the battery life is pretty much unchanged from last year – 12 hours of Web browsing, or 9 hours of video playback on a single charge. We have to say that our unit is equipped with the larger 54Wh battery pack. There is also an option that features a 41Wh unit, which will inevitably offer shorter screen-on times.

However, the smaller battery has the benefit of providing space for a 2.5-inch SATA drive, which is taken by the 54Wh package on our unit. This is combined with an M.2 PCIe x4 slot for Gen 3 and Gen 4 SSDs. As for the memory, you get two SODIMM slots, which fit up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM in total.

Dell Latitude 15 3530’s IPS panel has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, and a good contrast ratio. Its backlight doesn’t flicker, which makes it comfortable for long periods of use. However, the 53% sRGB color coverage results in a not-very-vibrant image.

It’s worth mentioning that the device can be found in configurations with a touchscreen 1080p IPS display, as well as a 768p TN panel, which is to be avoided at any cost.

By choosing a device that is less expensive, you have to deal with the lack of a Thunderbolt 4 connector. On the bright side, the Type-C port here supports 10Gbps transfer speeds, DisplayPort output, and Power Delivery functionality.

In addition, you get an HDMI 1.4b connector, and three USB Type-A ports, one of which is the slower 2.0. A MicroSD card is also present, while you get an option for LTE connectivity via a SIM card slot.

To top out the good impression left by this notebook, there is an optional IR face recognition scanner, that comes with a Full HD Web camera and a privacy shutter. The default HD shooter is not too bad either.

Windows Hello is completed by the also optional fingerprint reader, which is embedded in the power button. We are glad to say that the Dell Optimizer app is now fixed, and you can get the most out of your device by using the “Ultra Performance” preset.

This, combined with the added benefit of the 12th Gen Intel processors, results in a very capable business notebook. One that deserves an upgrade over the last-generation Latitude 15 3520. You can also check the Lenovo ThinkPad E15 Gen 4 if you need something to compare the Latitude 15 3530 with.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-latitude-15-3530/

Pros

  • Great upgradeability
  • Good battery life
  • MicroSD card slot and a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) with DisplayPort and Power Delivery
  • Optional fingerprint reader and IR face recognition
  • No PWM (BOE 000TN-NE156FH (BOE0A89))
  • Quiet under extreme load
  • Optional LTE support


Cons

  • Not a very rigid structure
  • Covers only half of the colors in the sRGB gamut (BOE 000TN-NE156FH (BOE0A89))
  • No Thunderbolt 4 connector

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