Dell Latitude 14" 7400 Black 2018

The Dell Latitude 7400 is a refurbished 14-inch business laptop that's cheap, light, and well-connected, but held back by an aging CPU and a mediocre display. At around USD 253 it's a solid budget pick for basic office work and web browsing. Just don't expect it to handle gaming or heavy multitasking.

Let's be straight about the CPU. The i5-8365U scores in the 9th percentile in our database, which means it's slower than 91% of laptop processors we've tested. That's rough. But context matters. This is a 15W ultrabook chip designed for efficiency, not raw power. For Word docs, web browsing, and Slack, you won't notice much lag. For video editing or heavy multitasking, you absolutely will. The integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620 is also nothing special, landing in the 36th percentile. Gaming is basically off the table, with a gaming score of 11.9 out of 100. Don't buy this expecting to play anything beyond Solitaire or maybe some very old indie titles.

The 512GB NVMe SSD is solid, sitting right around the middle of the pack at the 52nd percentile. Boot times and app launches feel snappy. The 16GB of DDR4 RAM is the real saving grace here. It's only at the 37th percentile compared to newer machines with 32GB or 64GB, but for a budget refurb it's plenty. You can keep a dozen browser tabs open without the system grinding to a halt. The port selection is where this thing shines, hitting the 95th percentile. Thunderbolt 3, dual USB-C, dual USB-A, HDMI, and a full-size Ethernet jack. That's better connectivity than most new laptops at twice the price.

Compared to the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, the Latitude 7400 holds its own on build quality and port selection, but the ThinkPad's newer CPU options leave the Dell in the dust on raw performance. The ThinkPad is also lighter and has a better keyboard, though you'll pay significantly more for one. Against the Apple MacBook Pro with a Core i7, there's no contest on speed. The MacBook's processor is dramatically faster, and the display is in a different league. But the MacBook costs several times more, even used. The HP OmniBook X Flip and ASUS Vivobook TP3407SA are newer 2-in-1 options with better screens and faster chips, but again, they're not in the same price bracket. The Samsung Galaxy Book4 is probably the closest modern alternative. It's faster and has a better display, but you'll pay more and lose the Ethernet port and some of the business-grade durability. If you're comparing the Latitude 7400 to any of these, the question is whether you value saving money over having a faster machine. For basic office work, the Dell is fine. For anything more demanding, the newer options are worth the extra cash.

At USD 253 to USD 329, the Latitude 7400 is cheap. The spread across the three US listings is USD 76, so it's worth shopping around. The lowest price we see is USD 253, and at that number this is a genuinely tempting budget laptop. You're getting a business-grade chassis, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a touchscreen for less than a Chromebook with decent specs. But the value proposition gets shakier as you climb toward USD 329. At that point you're within striking distance of newer budget laptops with much faster processors. The CAD 375 listing in Canada is also reasonable, but again, the aging CPU is the trade-off. If you need a cheap, portable machine for basic work and don't care about gaming or heavy apps, this is a solid deal at the low end of the price range.

The Dell Latitude 7400 is a business-focused 14-inch laptop that's been around the block, but refurbished units are popping up at prices that make it interesting again. We're talking USD 253 to USD 329 depending on the listing, which puts it firmly in budget territory for a machine that originally sold as a premium corporate workhorse. It's a 2-in-1 with a touchscreen, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB NVMe SSD, so on paper it looks like a lot of laptop for not much money.

Is the Dell Latitude 7400 good for everyday work? For spreadsheets, email, video calls, and general office stuff, yes. The Intel Core i5-8365U is a 4-core chip from 2019, and it sits near the bottom of our CPU rankings at the 9th percentile. That's not a typo. But for the kind of light productivity most people actually do, it still gets the job done. The 16GB of RAM helps a lot here, keeping Chrome tabs and Office apps from choking.

What you're really buying is portability and build quality. At 1.35kg it's easy to carry, and the port selection is genuinely excellent for a thin laptop. Thunderbolt, two USB-C, two USB-A, HDMI, and even Ethernet. That's rare these days. The 14-inch 1080p touchscreen is fine for office work, though the 60Hz panel won't wow anyone.

Skip the Latitude 7400 if you do any gaming, video editing, or heavy multitasking. The CPU is simply too old and slow for that kind of work. If you need a machine for creative software, look at something with a newer processor like the Samsung Galaxy Book4 or a used MacBook Pro. Also skip it if display quality matters to you. The 60Hz 1080p panel is fine for documents but underwhelming for media consumption. And if you're nervous about buying refurbished, the below-average reliability scores might push you toward a new budget laptop instead. For the same money as the higher-priced listings, you can sometimes find newer machines with better screens and faster chips, though you'll likely sacrifice the excellent port selection and business-grade build quality.

Should you buy the Dell Latitude 7400? If you need a cheap, portable laptop for email, web browsing, and office apps, and you can find one at the USD 253 end of the price range, yes. It's a well-built machine with great ports, a decent amount of RAM, and a fast SSD. The touchscreen 2-in-1 design is a nice bonus. But you have to go in with realistic expectations. The CPU is old and slow. The screen is mediocre. Gaming is a non-starter. And since these are refurbished units, reliability is a bit of a gamble. Our data shows reliability scores in the 33rd percentile, which is below average. That's not a dealbreaker at this price, but it's worth knowing.

For students, the 49.9 out of 100 score tells the story. It'll handle note-taking and research, but anything involving creative software or even light gaming will frustrate you. For business users, the 45.8 score is similarly middling. It works as a secondary machine or a cheap fleet laptop, but it's not a primary workhorse in 2025. The compact score of 64.6 is the highlight, and that's really what this laptop is about. Small, light, and easy to carry.