When I learned I will need to replace my iPad in the near future, I saw an opportunity to give the Windows laptop/tablet convertible concept another try. My earlier encounters were marred by bloatware, or weighed too much for a practical tablet. A secondhand Acer Aspire Switch 10 worked admirably well but it was still heavily constrained by its modest hardware. I had been curious to see what the form factor is capable of in a modern sleek lightweight powerhouse. Getting one means paying a lot of money to buy new, which I was unwilling to do. But now that I can buy a heavily discounted off-lease unit from https://dellrefurbished.com, I'm going to give that a try.

I started keeping an eye on the "Tablets and 2-in-1 Laptops" section of the site. Batches of various machines came and went. Low end offerings are built around humble Intel Atom processors. They go up through high end machines with Intel Core i7 CPUs. I would pull up Dell's specifications for various model numbers and eventually started focusing on a high-end model that came through with some regularity: Dell Latitude 9410. When new, these cost in the ballpark of two thousand dollars, and frequently end up in the hands of senior corporate executives as much a status symbol as productivity tool. Now they are listed for around $700, which is a decent price for its capabilities. But if I can get one with a 50% discount code, that would bring it down to $350. Over 80% discount from original MSRP and exactly the cost of a new 10th generation Apple iPad.

Latitude 9410s that come through dellrefurbished are pretty well equipped. Usually a CPU from Intel's Core i7 line, and usually with 16GB of memory and 256GB or 512GB SSDs for storage. The touchscreen has 1920x1080 Full HD resolution, mounted on a double-jointed hinge that allow the user to fold the screen all the way around for a tablet-like form factor. All this in a package that weighs in the ballpark of 3 pounds. As is typical of Dell machines, there is a service manual available showing its internals. I was mildly disappointed to see its memory chips are soldered to the board and could not be upgraded, but at least SSD storage uses standard M.2 NVMe form factors. Units with cellular data (WWAN) modems are constrained to short M.2 2230 SSD. Units without WWAN have room to use M.2 2280 SSD which are more common.

Contemporary reviews say the Latitude 9410 is a very capable machine in a great form factor but came at a very high price. Well, dellrefurbished discount code can solve that last part, but why would they need to discount so heavily to move inventory? My conjecture is that, while this is a great Windows laptop/tablet, it doesn't exist in a vacuum. The Latitude 9410 was launched in 2020, and what else launched around the same time? Apple's M1 that caught Intel flat-footed. Apple Silicon launch had all the buzz in tech press, soundly beating equivalent Intel chips in power efficiency. Either more processing power at the same level of electrical power consumption, or far lower electrical power consumption at the same level of computation power. Apple laptops with the M1 chip have battery life that puts Intel-based machines to shame. Four to six hours of battery runtime isn't bad for an Intel CPU laptop, comparing well to those that came before. But they look pretty sad next to all-day (or even multi-day) use people get out of Apple Silicon laptop battery. This and many other advantages of Apple's 2020 laptops meant the Latitude 9410 had stiff competition both as useful tool and as status symbol.

Now in 2024, people who want to spend a few hundred dollars on a few-years-old used laptop might be more inclined to look at old Apple Silicon machines instead of an Intel-based Latitude 9410. If so, that would explain why Dell Financial Services has to discount them heavily to find buyers. Whether my conjecture is correct or not, the fact is I can now get a great deal on what used to be Dell's top-of-the-line Windows laptop/tablet convertible. Especially if I'm willing to accept some cosmetic flaws.