Dell Latitude 3390 2-in-1 Review

Do you need a bare-bones 2-in-1 that's relatively inexpensive? Perfect, because that's all the Dell Latitude 3390 2-in-1 has to offer. With our configuration, you forgo power with a 7th Gen Intel Core i3 processor, but you get a decent solid-state drive and a good amount of RAM for $908, which is relatively affordable. However, it's an overly simple 2-in-1 that will struggle to provide anything more than basic needs, especially because it lasts less than 7 hours and offers no pen support for artists and graphic designers out there. The design is simple but clean and features a smooth touchpad. If you're interested in Netflixing on the go, though, forget about it; your eyes won't be able to function due to the glare. The Latitude 3390 is only good for the price, and even that's kind of high.

Design

The Dell Latitude 3390 2-in-1 has a typical black design, with the silver Dell logo embedded in the center of the plastic chassis. It's a neat square that's met with smooth curves at the top and bottom. The 2-in-1's curved display is awkwardly embedded into the square design of the chassis, and below the touchpad, the chassis curves gracefully and leads to a somewhat dull status LED. The laptop is firm enough to bend fluidly when placed in tablet mode on a surface.

Compared with its competitors, the Latitude 3390 is fairly large, at 3.5 pounds and 12.8 x 8.9 x 0.8~0.9 inches. Both the HP EliteBook x360 G2 (2.8 pounds, 12.5 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches) and the Lenovo ThinkPad X380 Yoga (3.0 pounds, 12.3 x 8.8 x 0.7 inches) are lighter and slimmer.

Ports

Despite its relatively small size, the Latitude 3390 has a decent number of ports. The left side of the 2-in-1 features a power input, one USB Type-C port (power delivery and DisplayPort support), an HDMI 1.4 port, one USB 3.1 Gen 1 port and a headphone jack.

The ports on the right include a Noble Wedge Lock slot, one USB 2.0 port and an SD 3.0 memory card reader. For convenience in tablet mode, there are two buttons on the right side for power and volume control.

Security and Durability

Unlike the HP EliteBook x360 G2 and the Lenovo ThinkPad X360 Yoga, the Latitude 3390 2-in-1 is not MIL-STD-810G certified. This means it probably won't stand up against the rigors of extreme humidity, extreme temperatures, vibration and high altitude.

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All configurations of the 3390 include the IR camera to access Windows Hello, while more expensive configs are outfitted with Intel's vPro for remote management.

Display

The Latitude 3390's 13.3-inch display is devoid of color. The 2-in-1 reproduced 73 percent of the sRGB color gamut, falling below the 114-percent category average. However, the HP EliteBook x360 G2 and the Lenovo ThinkPad X380 Yoga also fell short, covering only 109 percent and 113 percent, respectively.

When starting Lost in Space, I felt completely detached from the Robinsons' intense struggle. Their white-and-orange ship, accented with white and red lights, was dull and insignificant as it hovered over the unknown planet. Even when the flaming debris began crashing all around them, the vivid heat that viewers are supposed to experience when watching felt cold and distant.

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At 233 nits of brightness, the Latitude 3390 was much dimmer than the average (305 nits) and the Lenovo X360 Yoga (308 nits). The HP EliteBook x360 G2 was slightly brighter (239 nits) than the Latitude.

But the most disappointing aspect of the display was the terrible glare. Despite having what's touted as an "Embedded Touch Anti-Glare" screen, the 2-in-1's lack of brightness resulted in noticeable glare. It kicked me out of any semblance of immersion, condemning any lit space as an unwatchable environment. The screen glares in any position and begins darkening at a 25-degree angle.

Keyboard, Touchpad and Tablet Mode

The Latitude 3390's keyboard has several weaknesses: It's plain; the keys are, frustratingly, not where your fingers expect them to be; and the backlighting offers only two settings, as opposed to a slider. I produced roughly 56 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which is slightly lower than my 60-wpm average. The keys have 1.2 millimeters of travel and require 65 grams of actuation force, narrowly under the averages of 1.4 millimeters and 70 grams.

The tablet-mode keyboard is responsive for the most part and offers five keyboard settings. But unlike the Lenovo X360 Yoga and the HP EliteBook x360 G2, it has no pen support. With the basic keyboard, I managed to type just 27 words per minute.

The 4.1 x 2.5-inch touchpad is a pleasant surprise, with its smooth texture, firm clicks and neat little blue line dividing the left and right click buttons. It also reliably recognizes Windows gestures.

Audio

The speakers in the Latitude 3390 2-in-1 could be louder, but they still produce enough sound to fill a decent-size conference room. To take a small trip back to the 2000s, I listened to Linkin Park's "In The End," and while the sound didn't feel immersive, it was relatively accurate. I caught everything from Chester's lovely high pitches to the blissful rhythm of the keyboard that comforted my nostalgic ears. The audio may have lacked bass, but the sound was fine overall.

Performance

With its dual-core 2.7-GHz Intel i3-7130U processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD, the Latitude 3390 2-in-1 offers decent performance for the price, although it's a turtle compared with average premium laptops.However, I barely noticed any slowdown during my time with it, even while playing Candy Crush Soda Saga with 20 tabs open in the background, half of which were on 1080p YouTube videos.

The Latitude 3390 scored an incredibly low 6,148 on the Geekbench 4 overall performance test, which is just over half the 10,289 average. The HP EliteBook x360 G2 (2.8-GHz Intel Core i7-7600U) scored slightly higher with 8,873, and the Lenovo ThinkPad X360 Yoga (Intel Core i5-8250U) just beat the average with 10,828.

The Latitude's 256GB SSD duplicated 4.97GB of data in 30 seconds, performing at 169 megabytes per second, which is much slower than the 284-MBps average. Both of its competitors crushed the average, with EliteBook x360 running at 299 MBps and the ThinkPad X360 Yoga dominating with 636 MBps. However, both of those machines feature a beefier 512GB SSD.

The Latitude took a sluggish 2 minutes and 34 seconds to match 65,000 names to addresses on our Excel test. That's nearly a minute longer than the 1:40 average. Meanwhile, the ThinkPad X360 Yoga finished in a swift 1:27.

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With its Intel HD Graphics 620, the Latitude managed to run Dirt 3 at a playable 41 frames per second. However, that frame rate dwindles compared with the 68-fps average, so don't expect to run games like Overwatch smoothly; I netted 20 to 45 fps, with lag, on low settings. (We consider anything over 30 fps to be playable.)

Battery Life

The Latitude won't last through a typical workday. On our battery test, which consists of continuous web surfing at 150 nits of brightness, the 2-in-1 endured for 6 hours and 34 minutes. For comparison, the Lenovo ThinkPad X360 Yoga lasted 8:09, which is close to the 8:28 premium-laptop average.

Webcam

The 720p HD camera on the Latitude 3390 produces somewhat grainy images, but it's not bad for everyday use. It managed to capture a photo of me and the city buildings outside the office window without displaying any fading.

It does have trouble with lighting, however, as my complexion was still much darker than in real life, and the blue sky was blown out. The camera seems to favor blue light, and yet the images still manage to be somewhat dark, even when it's focused on me.

Heat

Although the Latitude 3390's fans aren't noticeably loud, the heat can get a little too hot. After we streamed a full-HD 15-minute video, the bottom of the laptop reached 98 degrees Fahrenheit, which is hotter than our 95-degree comfort threshold. The center of the laptop (91 degrees) and the touchpad (83 degrees) were also hotter than their averages of 87 and 81 degrees, respectively.

Software and Warranty

The Latitude 3390 comes with some helpful Dell software, as well as your typical bloatware. Dell Command is a convenient app for updating your computer, and SupportAssist allows you to optimize your system or perform a hardware checkup. Dell also has its own Wi-Fi Connectivity Configuration tool, which is a simpler interface for the Network and Sharing Center. All Dell Digital Delivery does is ensure that your Dell associated apps are up-to-date.

Additionally, Dell has a convenient prompt once you plug in a headset that lets you choose which output or input you'd like to use. The typical Windows 10 bloatware consists of apps like Candy Crush Soda Saga, Disney Magic Kingdoms and March of Empires: War of Lords.

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The Latitude comes with a one-year limited warranty, which is upgradable to five years. See how Dell performed on our Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Brands ranking.

Configurations

The Latitude 3390 I tested is $908 and is configured with a 2.7-GHz i3-7130U CPU, 8GB of RAM and an M.2 256GB SATA SSD. The cheapest option ($599) is fitted with an Intel Pentium 4415U, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB 7200 RPM HDD, and the capped-out version ($1,349) features an Intel i5-8350U, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD.

Bottom Line

The Latitude 3390 offers nothing special to warrant its $908 price tag, aside from the 2-in-1 capabilities. It trailed the competition during our tests, and it isn't MIL-SPEC tested for durability while traveling. And its poor display and weak keyboard make it that much more uncomfortable to use.

The Dell Latitude 3390 2-in-1 simply doesn't cut it as a premium 2-in-1. If you need a 2-in-1 just for its size and touch-screen display, the Latitude should suffice considering its price. However, I recommend you fork over a few hundred dollars and get the Lenovo ThinkPad X380 Yoga for $1,223.10. The X380 Yoga bumps you up to an Intel Core i5-8250U and provides a solid display and a rechargeable stylus.

Credit: Shaun Lucas/Tom's Guide

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