Shortly after I bought an off-lease Dell Latitude 9410, I opened it up to verify everything met expectations. After finding no deal-breakers, I buttoned it back up and I've been using it for a few weeks. I'm happy with my purchase, here are some notes:

Intel Core i7

The Core i7 processor in my 9410 gives me snappy and responsive performance when I want it, then throttle itself down for low power consumption when I don't. This means I get useful battery life on par with power-frugal Intel Atom machines, yet never feel sluggish during demanding times like I would with an Atom-based machine. My typical usage pattern results in 4-6 hours of runtime even with just 80% charge (more on that below) which ranks favorably among my past Intel-powered laptops. However, it falls short of my Apple MacBook Air with M1 Apple silicon. Both machines deliver snappy performance, but the M1 never gets as hot and runs far longer on battery.

The power and heat situation is a tradeoff against benefits of having an Intel CPU. All my developer tools are available here. I can run Docker containers without worrying about whether I need to find an ARM64 build. And pretty much every random USB peripheral will have Windows drivers. The biggest stumble so far is dual-booting Windows/Ubuntu: Dell configured this machine with Intel RST, and Ubuntu chose not to play well with RST. There are several possible solutions to this problem. I just haven't been motivated enough to implement any of them yet.

Tablet/Laptop Convertible

Another thing my MacBook Air can't do is fold its screen around and turn into a tablet. This was a deliberate design decision by Apple, who chose to keep MacBooks differentiated from iPads. After living with a Windows convertible for a few weeks I've decided I'm a fan. I've used Windows convertibles before but they've all been budget machines with limited hardware that hampered my user experience. This was my first full-power convertible and it means I can finally enjoy the benefits of a transformer and not trip over tradeoffs at every turn.

It's nice to be able to switch back and forth. This is most useful when I'm reading documentation for software tools. I can switch to laptop mode to type a few commands for a quick hands-on exercise, then return to tablet mode and continue reading. With this positive experience I am much more receptive to such machines in the future, but I'm still not willing to pay the large price premium usually associated with such capability. Buying off-lease secondhand machines is likely to remain my pattern.

Power And Charging

Like my M1 MacBook Air, the 9410 charges via a USB Type-C connector instead of a proprietary power plug. However, this doesn't necessarily mean I can use any USB-C power source. When up and running it demands 60 Watts. (USB power meter says 20V @ 3A.) This is even more demanding than the M1 MacBook Air, which is happy with 45W. If I plug in a less powerful USB-C supply, the MacBook will alert me that battery is still draining though at a slower rate. In contrast, this Dell would refuse to accept any power at all.

Fortunately, there are two charging systems on every laptop: there's an operating system driver when the laptop is on, either running or in low-power sleep mode. Then there's a completely separate firmware-based mechanism when the laptop is off, either in hibernation or completely shut down. Dell's firmware-based charging system is willing to accepting power from sources that can't deliver 60W. So if the bundled 60W power adapter fails or if I lose it, I still have alternatives.

And finally: like my Dell Inspiron 7577, there is a BIOS setting for me to restrict battery charging percentage. I set mine to stop charging at 80%. That still deliver enough battery runtime for most of my usage sessions, and avoiding charging to 100% should improve battery longevity. I can always change that setting back to 100% if I ever need extra runtime.

Whether iPad?

I justified this purchase as an alternative to upgrading my soon-to-be-obsolete 6th gen iPad and for my usage it was a success. At the moment I can imagine only two reasons why I might still want an iPad. The first is weight. Three pounds is light for a laptop but that's triple the weight of an iPad. In practice, this hasn't been a huge problem as I don't like holding things up by hand for long periods of time, whether one pound or three. The second differentiator is the Apple app store, but at the moment I don't need any iPad app exclusives. Maybe something else would arise as motivation for spending several hundred dollars? Until I encounter such motivation, I expect to be well-served by this Dell Latitude 9410.