Dell Vostro 14 5410 review – great potential

It is good that manufacturers figured out they can use more powerful hardware for their office devices. With that said, the Vostro 14 5410 is a bit more than an office laptop. It has the looks, the build, and the power to take you a long way.

For instance, Dell has chosen to use Tiger Lake-H35 CPUs instead of the Tiger Lake-U series. This provides a higher short-term boost and sustained frequencies. Of course, this all depends on the cooling system of the laptop, which we are going to be evaluating later in the review.

To be honest, the Vostro series gave us one of the more impressive notebooks this year – the Vostro 15 7510. It has a ton of performance and looks outstanding. We really hope that its less expensive cousin will justify the success. Let’s see together.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-vostro-14-5410-i7/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Dell Vostro 14 5410 (i7) - Specs

  • BOE BOE0948
  • Color accuracy  7.6  4.1
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 2000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 32GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Pro, No OS, Windows 11 Pro, Windows 10 Home
  • Battery
  • 54Wh, 4-cell, 41Wh, 3-cell
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate, Aluminum
  • Dimensions
  • 321.27 x 212.80 x 17.02 ~ 17.99 mm (12.65" x 8.38" x 0.67")
  • Weight
  • 1.40 kg (3.1 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 2x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • Thunderbolt 4, Power Delivery (PD)
  • HDMI
  • 1.4
  • Card reader
  • MicroSD
  • Ethernet LAN
  • 10, 100, 1000 Mbit/s
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.1
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Microphone
  • Dual Array Microphone
  • Speakers
  • 2x 2W, Stereo Speakers
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot
  • Wedge Lock Slot

What’s in the box?

This laptop’s packaging is pretty standard. Inside, you will find the mandatory paperwork, as well as a 65W power adapter.


Design and construction

Interestingly, both the base and the lid of this notebook are made out of aluminum. What surprised us more is that the lid is actually more resistant to flex than the base, with the latter producing some cracks and squeaks when twisted. In terms of size, the laptop has a profile of 17-18mm and weighs 1.40-1.44 kg. This is pretty thin and light in our view.

It is good to see that the lid opens with one hand. There, we see thin top and side bezels with the bottom one being a bit thicker. The HD Web camera sports a privacy shutter above it, which is neat. While we’re here, it’s worth noting that the device features a base-lifting mechanism. It activates just before you hit 90° opening angle, which is both comfortable and useful.

Moving to the base, we see the backlit keyboard. There, you see the power button, which doubles as a fingerprint reader. Additionally, the laptop has large keycaps, somewhat clicky feedback, and a rather short key travel. The last is not ideal, as it steals some of the comfort when typing.

Below it, we naturally find the touchpad. It is smooth and offers super-accurate tracking. It is one of the good units on the market.

Now, turn the laptop upside down, and you will see the speaker cutouts as well as the ventilation grill. For better or for worse, the hot air escapes through the back, where it meets the bottom part of the display.

Ports

On the left side, there is a power plug, an HDMI 1.4 connector, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, and a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2×2) port (Thunderbolt 4 on the Core i7 versions). And on the right, you get a lock slot, an audio jack, a LAN port, another USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, as well as a MicroSD card slot.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

To take this laptop apart, you need to undo 7 Phillips-head screws. Two of them are captive, and help you with the prying process. After you are done, lift the bottom panel from the chassis.

Inside, we see a 54Wh battery pack. Dell also sells the notebook with a 41Wh unit. Nevertheless, our device managed more than 12 hours of Web browsing or nearly 11 hours of video playback. To take the battery out of the device, you first need to unplug the battery connector. Then, undo all 5 Phillips-head screws, holding it in place.

Here, we see two SODIMM slots, which work in dual-channel mode. According to Dell, the maximum supported memory is 32GB in total. As for the storage, there is one M.2 PCIe x4 slot.

Cooling-wise, there are two heat pipes, connected to a medium-sized heat sink. The fan here is also of medium size.


Display quality

Dell Vostro 14 5410 is equipped with a Full HD display, model number BOE BOE0948. Its diagonal is 14″ (35.56 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 157 ppi, their pitch – 0.161 x 0.161 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 56 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

Its viewing angles are excellent. We have provided images at 45 degrees to evaluate quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

The maximum measured brightness is 358 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6440K (average) – slightly warmer than the 6500K optimum for sRGB.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective.
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 (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is good – 1300:1.

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 on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. 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 Vostro 14 5410’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 97% 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 at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Dell Vostro 14 5410 with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display can reproduce 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 = 18 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.


Health impact – PWM / Blue Light

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.

The light coming from Dell Vostro 14 5410’s display does not flicker at any brightness level, which makes it comfortable for long periods of use.

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.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Dell Vostro 14 5410 configurations with 14.0″ BOE BOE0948 (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS panel.

*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 Vostro 14 5410’s speakers produce a sound of good quality but rather low maximum volume. Thankfully, 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/vostro-14-5410-laptop/drivers

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with 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 lasted us for 12 hours and a half of Web browsing, or 10 hours and 42 minutes of video playback.

In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.

For every test like this, we use the same video in HD.


CPU options

This notebook can be found with the Core i5-11300H, Core i7-11370H, or Core i7-11390H.


GPU options

In terms of graphics, you either get the integrated Iris Xe Graphics G7, or you can pair it with the dedicated NVIDIA GeForce MX450 with 2GB of GDDR5 memory.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS118 fps91 fps40 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS112 fps74 fps46 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 core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i7-11390H (35W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Dell Vostro 14 54102.65 GHz @ 91°C @ 26W2.43 GHz @ 91°C @ 22W2.34 GHz @ 91°C @ 21W
HP Envy 14 (14-eb1000)3.42 GHz @ 73°C @ 50W3.35 GHz @ 84°C @ 50W3.54 GHz @ 83°C @ 45W

How to put this… the Vostro 14 5410 can’t hold a candle to the Envy 14 (14-eb1000) when it comes to either cooling or performance.

Comfort during full load

Interestingly, that was not the only issue. Although the fan was never too loud, we could hear a very mild and consistent rumbling noise coming out of it. It sounds like your neighbor’s weekly Sunday routine at 6 AM.


Verdict

At the beginning of this review, we praised the manufacturers who had the guts to put more powerful processors inside their business devices. Unfortunately, Dell was definitely not right to do so in this case. Regardless of whether it’s the cooling solution, the power delivery, or any other factor, it is unacceptable to have this level of performance (or lack thereof). For instance, a little while back, we had the ASUS ZenBook 14X OLED UX5401 in our office, and it was equipped with a Tiger Lake-U processor. However, the device was able to push its Core i7-1165G7 to unseen levels with the CPU sustaining a 40W power limit for long periods of time.

Then, we had the HP Envy 14, which coincidentally had the same processor as the Vostro 14 5410. And it was absolutely killing it. Yes, both of the examples we gave are more expensive, but having a good cooling doesn’t really play that big of a role in the cost.

On the bright side, we are happy with the upgrade options this laptop provides. There are two SODIMM slots for memory expansion and one M.2 PCIe x4 slot for storage. And on the outside, you are treated to a LAN port, a MicroSD card reader, and a Thunderbolt 4 connector, besides the more casual stuff. It’s worth noting, though, that in order to get the Thunderbolt connector, you need to buy the Core i7 option.

Dell Vostro 14 5410’s IPS panel has a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, and a good contrast ratio. Thankfully, it doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment. Its high color coverage (97% of sRGB) results in a vivid picture, but unfortunately – the color accuracy is off.

Continuing the pro-con trade-off, let’s mention the battery life. This laptop lasted us for 12 hours and a half of Web browsing, or nearly 11 hours of video playback. Once again, you should keep in mind that this was with the larger 54Wh battery pack. There is also a 41Wh option, which will definitely show shorter screen-on times.

Lastly, there is the feature list, which includes a camera privacy shutter, and a fingerprint reader embedded onto the power button. So if you are getting this laptop for office purposes, we think that it will deliver. However, don’t be fooled by the “more powerful” processor it comes with since it is nothing more than an unfulfilled potential.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-vostro-14-5410-i7/

Pros

  • Thunderbolt 4 (on Core i7 models), MicroSD card slot, and a well-populated I/O
  • Two RAM SODIMM slots, and PCIe x4 support for storage
  • Thin and light body
  • PWM-free display (BOE BOE0948)
  • Covers 97% of sRGB (BOE BOE0948)
  • Good battery life


Cons

  • Performance not matching the expectations
  • Color accuracy is off (BOE BOE0948)
  • Not the best cooling

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Silvia Rolfe
Silvia Rolfe
11 months ago

Hello, first of all thanks for the review, but after analyzing it I was left with mixed feelings. I just found it here in Argentina, exactly the same but with an i5 11320H at a very good price, and I love it but I’m concerned about the heating issue. And I wanted to know if you would recommend me the Dell Vostro 5410 i5 11320H or Lenovo IdeaPad 3i Gen 6 i5 1135g7 (this one: https://laptopmedia.com/es/review/lenovo-ideapad-3i-gen-6-15/). The Lenvo it’s a bit flimsy (and cheaper) but seems to handle temperatures better. The laptop i will use it for office work, possibly… Read more »

Last edited 11 months ago by Silvia Rolfe