Review: Dell’s Latitude 9510 2-in-1 Puts AI To Work For You

The CRN Test Center found the convertible notebook to offer strong battery life and several useful AI-powered features.

The AI revolution is coming for your PC.

At the CRN Test Center, we’ve been trying out Dell’s Latitude 9510 2-in-1. Along with being a workhorse--our unit was configured with a speedy six-core Intel Core i7 processor from the chipmaker’s 10th generation--it’s also a PC with some intelligence of its own.

[Related: The 10 Coolest Tablets And 2-in-1 Laptops Of 2020 (So Far)]

The Latitude 9510 2-in-1 has a starting price of $1,899. The review unit I tested—configured with the Core i7 chip, 16 GB of RAM, 512 GB of storage and a six-cell battery—is priced at $2,937.

What follows are our picks for the five best features on the Dell Latitude 9510 2-in-1.

No. 1: The display. It’s 15 inches, it’s convertible, and it looks terrific (even though its resolution is pretty average these days at FHD / 1,920 x 1,080).

Also, the brightness goes up to 400 nits on this model--which we think is a big improvement over last year’s Latitude 7400 2-in-1, which maxed out at 300 nits.

Notably, the bezels around the display are very small on the Latitude 9510 2-in-1. The top-of-the-line Latitudes are getting more and more like the XPS series every year, and that’s a good thing.

No. 2: Portability. Thanks to those small bezels, this is very compact for a 15-inch laptop. When compared with the size of Microsoft’s 15-inch Surface Book 2, the Latitude 9510 2-in-1 is significantly smaller all-around. The notebook also only weighs 3.3 pounds.

No. 3: Battery life. With the “best battery life” setting in Windows 10 and the display set to full brightness, we got 12 hours of usage--which is simply one of the best results we’ve ever gotten for a laptop.

No. 4: AI features. Intelligent Audio is a handy piece of software that lets you configure your mic and speakers for the type of room you’re in. During a videoconference, you can fine tune for a quiet room, a noisy office or multiple voices, for instance.

Meanwhile, the ExpressCharge feature uses AI to learn how you use your PC and adjust policies to improve the battery life--likely contributing to the strong battery life results we got in our tryout.

No. 5: Express Sign-In. This might be our favorite Dell Latitude feature. Express Sign-In improves security by locking the notebook when you walk away. The software then senses your proximity when you return and automatically logs you in with Windows Hello facial recognition.

It may seem like a small thing, but it’s actually a big time saver when you add up all the times you do this during the day.