Fully rugged refers to substantially more protection against the elements. That's reflected in the cost of this tougher class of laptops. Whereas the semi-rugged Latitude 5430 Rugged starts at around US$1,700, the fully rugged Latitude 7330 Rugged Extreme commands a starting price of around $4,100, more than twice as much.

At RuggedPCReview.com we have reviewed and tested both machines in great detail. Both are very well made, and both are great performers. In fact, they are so alike in connectivity and power that some might question the need to spend so much more for the 7330 Rugged Extreme. And for those who need machines for light duty in business, on the road and in the field, the semi-rugged 5430 may well be durable enough and a good way to save a good bunch of money.

That, however, changes when you know that the machines will — not may, will — encounter harsh and hazardous conditions and usage scenarios.

	Dell Latitude	7424 Rugged Extreme	7330 Rugged Extreme
	Introduced	2018	2021
	Ruggedness	Fully rugged	Fully rugged
	Standard display	14.0", 1920 x 1080 (157 ppi)	13.3", 1920 x 1080 (166 ppi)
	Touch	Capacitive	Capacitive
	Dimensions	13.95 x 10.0 x 2.0 inches	12.75 x 8.66 x 1.43 inches
	Discrete graphics	AMD Radeon 540/RX540	No
	Weight	From 7.60 pounds	From 5.11 pounds
	Processors	Intel 8th gen Core	Intel 11th gen Core
	Battery	1 or 2 x 51.0Wh Li-Ion	1 or 2 x 53.5Wh Li-Ion
	Memory	Max 32GB DDR4 3200MHz in 2 slots	Max 32GB LPDDR4 4266MHz soldered
	Max storage	2TB PCIe SSD	2TB PCIe SSD
	Media bay	Yes	No
	Windows Hello	Yes	Yes
	USB Type-C	Yes	Yes
	Thunderbolt 4	No	Yes
	Sealing	IP65	IP65
	Transit drop	72/60/48 inch	72/60/48 inch
	Op. temp range	-20° to 145°F	-20° to 145°F
	Intrinsic safety	Inquire	C1D2 Hazardous Location

When they will encounter rain and storms and dust and muck. When they will get dropped and bopped around. When they must be able to endure extreme shock, vibration, temperatures, humidity and whatever else can quickly kill insufficiently protected electronics. In other words, when failure in the field simply isn't an option. When that is the case, paying extra for a machine designed, engineered and manufactured for just that kind of abuse is actually a bargain.

The table to the right shows a comparison between the Latitude 7424 Rugged Extreme introduced in 2018 and the new Latitude 7330 Rugged Extreme launched late 2021. You can see that the 7330 is not a direct replacement or successor to the 7424. The 7424 weighed much more than the 7330 — starting at 7.6 pounds versus just 5.1 pounds — and the 7330 is a much handier machine with a full 43% less volume than the 7424. That's because the 7424 was built to accommodate more expansion than the 7330, including optical drives, additional storage drives, additional card readers and so on. It's a bit like the difference between Getac's svelte B360 and the thicker and more expandable and configurable B360 PRO.

From a tech standpoint, the 7330 is a much more up-to-date machine that's three to five Intel Core processor generations ahead of the older 7424. And it can be equipped with up to two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports. For those who need Thunderbolt 4's speed and capabilities that's huge.

It's always good to know how things came about and where a rugged machine's DNA comes from, so let's quickly recap Dell's history and experience in ruggedized laptops.

Around 2007 Dell realized there was a small but growing market for tougher versions of standard notebooks. For several years Dell was offering ATG semi-rugged and XFR fully rugged notebooks where ATG stood for "All Terrain Grade" and XFR for Xtreme Fully Rugged. The XFR models were originally made for Dell by a company called Augmentix, which later became part of Dell.

In early 2014, Dell replaced the XFR with the Latitude 12 Rugged Extreme convertible and the Latitude 14 Rugged Extreme laptop, and the ATG line was replaced by the Latitude 14 Rugged. That marked the start of Dell offering semi-rugged "Latitude Rugged" and fully-rugged "Latitude Rugged Extreme" laptops (and tablets). While that nomenclature is clear enough, it's perhaps not as catchy as the competition's "Toughbook" or "Durabook" and the like. Then again, Dell has much invested in its very popular Latitude brand, so adding "Rugged" or Rugged Extreme" to that hallowed brand name does make sense.

But let's take a closer look at the Dell Latitude 7330 Rugged Extreme. Below you can see the top and all four sides of the machine:

Ports and connectivity are all around the housing, excluding the front which is where the optional sturdy, well-designed fixed-mount carry handle goes. To guard against physical damage, dust and liquids, all ports are located behind very cleverly designed protective doors with spring-loaded levers and locking sliders, very similar to what the predecessor 14 Rugged Extreme and 7424 Rugged Extreme had.

As far as wired connectivity goes, the 7330 Rugged Extreme offers a lot.

• An optional I/O bay with USB 3.0 port (OR Native serial OR Fischer USB 3.0)
• An RJ45 gigabit LAN jack
• A Kensington lock slot
• A DB9 RS232 serial port (OR DisPlayPort OR DB15 VGA)
• A standard HDMI port to connect a monitor

• A Thunderbolt 4/USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port with PowerDelivery 3.0
• A USB 3.2 Gen 1 port with PowerShare
• A USB 3.2 Gen 1 port
• A 3.5mm combo headphone & microphone jack

• An optional Smart Card reader
• An optional stylus slot
• A SDXC card slot
• A Nano SIM card slot
• An optional Thunderbolt 4/USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port with PowerDelivery 3.0

A look inside the Dell 7330 Rugged Extreme

And that housing is not just a box with a few circuit boards mounted inside. And it's also not just a reinforced version of the civilian Latitude laptops Dell is selling by the millions. No, it's obvious that the company went all out here to design this machine as an tough, rugged, integral whole. Both the front and the back half of the case are designed and shaped to separately accommodate every part of the overall computer. Every wire has wire guides, every module is securely mounted in its place, every ribbon cable is individually designed to fit just perfectly. What needs to be shielded is shielded with just the right material. What needs to be cooled, same. There are dozens of small 2D barcodes that encode the purpose, identity and origin of every component. Wherever Dell's designers and engineers saw an opportunity to make something even more functionality, even stronger, they did it. That includes meticulous attention to thermal design, maximum rigidity, and also small weight saving here and there by removing material. The degree of detail is almost overwhelming.

When we first saw pictures and specs of these two new machines, it looked as if Dell had created two versions of the same basic platform, one semi-rugged and one fully-rugged. It almost looked as if the 7330 was a beefed up 5430 with larger bumpers, lockable port covers and slightly thicker case. That's not so. Yes, the concept is the same and even a lot of parts are the same, but the 7330 is way more than just a 5430 with some ruggedness bolt-ons. There is not a single square inch in the 7330 that's the same as in the 5430. The 5430 is engineered to meet semi-rugged specs. The 7330 is crafted to be fully rugged.

Just like in the semi-rugged Latitude 5430, great attention to detail is everywhere. But since the 7330 is a fully rugged machine, it's truly designed like a fortress. All rugged laptops have protective covers over I/O ports to keep them from getting damaged and to keep dust and water from getting inside the computer. But there's a big difference in how that's done for semi-ruggeds and fully rugged machines. Like the semi-rugged 5430, the 7330 has individual protective covers for almost every port. But the protective covers here are thicker, stronger, more precise and they don't only protect the ports from physical damage, they also seal them against liquids. And they are lockable, and fully integrated into the design of the case. To use the analogy of the three little pigs children's book, consumer laptops are made of straw, semi-ruggeds of sticks, but fully rugged are made of bricks.

The thermal design is equally impressive. It looks very similar to that of the 5430, actually using the same exact fan and also a couple of copper heat pipes. The big difference is that the 7330 is a sealed unit and the 5430 isn't. The front and the back of the 5530 fit neatly together, but there isn't a seal between the halves, and liquid can enter through the fan intake into the interior of the 5430. The 7330 is a sealed unit. There's a groove with a black silicone seal around the entire perimeter of the backside of the 7330 housing. That seal presses against the front part of the case, sealing the gap. No liquid can get in. But what about the fan intake? That's taken care of by placing the fan inside its own compartment that is sealed against the interior with the electronics. No liquids can get in. The fan itself can handle liquids.

The images above were taken while the 7330 was running performance benchmarks with our FLIR ONE Pro thermal camera that visually depicts surface temperature.

One of the biggest changes in laptops over the past years is the switch from rotating hard disks to solid state disks (SSDs). When SSDs first became viable, their cost was high and manufacturers only offered them as expensive options with less storage capacity than hard disks.

The image to the right shows the 7330's PCIe NVMe storage module. The space saved by dropping the old 2-1/2 inch mass storage bays in these kinds of laptops in favor of smaller and much faster PCIe NVMe storage is substantial. And it's also much easier to quickly remove these storage modules, which has become a security requirement by many agencies and organzations.

What customers are getting here is island-style keyboard perfection. That starts with a "full-scale" layout of the all important alpha keys. The distance from the center of the letter Q on the upper lefthand and the center of the letter P on the upper righthand of the alphabet key layout is exactly 6.75 inches. That's crucial for touch typists because muscle memory expects each key to be in its right place, and even small deviations can throw typing speed and accuracy off. Even hunt & peckers benefit from that. The keys are a tiny bit concave for optimal touch. Key travel is nice and short and provides perfect tactile feedback.

Letters and symbols are white on black and centered on the keys. Font and size are elegant and just the right size. As is usually the case, the F1 through F12 keys also offer shifted functions that include volume, brightness, and other common tasks.

The 7330 has a 4 x 2 inch capacitive touchpad with separate left and right mousclick tabs below it. The pad area is very slightly recessed so that fingers easily sense the perimeter of the pad. The pad surface has a little bit too much stiction for our taste. "Stiction" is defined as "the friction that tends to prevent stationary surfaces from being set in motion." The stationary surface here is the finger, and it takes a bit of force to overcome friction and get the finger moving, rather than just glide away.

Our review unit had the optional internal-sealed RGB backlight keyboard. The backlight is toggled on and off through one of the function key. Tapping that function key toggles the backlight through three intensities. The very comprehensive Dell Rugged Control Center lets you set the keyboard backlight to red, green, blue, white or one of two custom colors. You can also set the default brightness of the keyboard backlight and how long the keyboard should remain backlit when plugged in and when on battery.

As of this writing (mid March 2022), of the fully rugged laptop competition, the Durabook Z14I and an OEM fully rugged from Emdoor, the EM-X33, are at the 11th generation of Intel Core processors while the Getac B360 and DT Research LT300 line are at the 10th generation. Since we're comparing the Dell 7330 to other conventional laptops with integrated, attached keyboards, we're not including detached systems such as the Panasonic Toughbook 33 (which is at the 10th generation).

While Dell is late to the 11th gen party, there really haven't been drastic changes in the last few generations of Intel's Core processors. It's difficult to make gates (really transistors) smaller and smaller, and Intel has spent much time fine-tuning and optimizing their chips over the past few years. There have been milestones such as making mobile quad-core chips available in the "Coffee Lake" 8th generation. And now we're seeing another in the "Tiger Lake" 11th generation used in all the major semi-rugged laptops (we'll get into the why that is).

As is, below is a list of the processor options available for the Dell 5430 (to view the full Intel spec table for these three CPUs, see here):

2022 Dell Latitude 5430 Rugged: Available Intel Core processor options

Available CPUs	Intel Core i7	Intel Core i5	Intel Core i5
Model	1185G7	1145G7	1135G7
Cores/Threads	4/8	4/8	4/8
Base Clock Speed	1.20 GHz	1.10 GHz	0.90 GHz
Turbo Speed	4.80 GHz	4.40 GHz	4.20 GHz
TDP-up	28 watts, 3.00GHz	28 watts, 2.60GHz	28 watts, 2.40GHz
TDP-down	12 watts, 1.20GHz	12 watts, 1.10GHz	12 watts, 0.90GHz
Smart Cache	12MB	8MB	8MB
Integrated graphics	Iris Xe	Iris Xe	Iris Xe
Graphics max speed	1.35 GHz	1.30 GHz	1.30 GHz
Graphics Execution Units	96	80	80
Relative CPU cost	1.53	1.10	1.10
Intel Stable Image Platform Program	Yes	Yes	No
Intel TSX-NI	Yes	Yes	No
Intel Trusted Execution	Yes	Yes	No
Intel vPro	Yes	Yes	No

The top processor option for the Dell Latitude 5430 Rugged is the Intel Core i7-1185G7 (installed in our review unit). This high-end chip offers the highest maximum turbo frequency as well as the highest frequencies at the 28 watt and 12 watt TDP-Up and TDP-down settings. Dell skips the i7-1165G7 that most of the competition offers, and so next in line are two Core i5 chips that have only 8MB instead of 12MB SmartCache, fewer graphics execution units, as well as small clock frequency and included Intel technology differences. Dell also foregoes offering a low-end i3 chip. We don't miss that as those only come with just two cores instead of four, and also without Intel's more powerful Iris Xe graphics.

What may make a difference in certain applications is the availability of four special Intel technologies (vPro, TME, SIPP, and Trusted Execution) included in the i7-1185G7 and i5-1145G7, but not in the low-end i5-1135G7. Here's what that means:

• The extra security and manageability capabilities of vPro, especially, are required in many enterprise deployments.

• TME (Total Memory Encryption) ensures that all memory accessed from the CPU is encrypted, including customer credentials, encryption keys, and other IP or personal information on the external memory bus.

• SIPP (Stable Image Platform Program) allows deployment of standardized, stable image PC platforms for at least 15 months, and

• Trusted Execution technology provides security capabilities such as measured launch and protected execution, and may thus also be an enterprise requirement.

To see what kind of performance the new Dell 7330 Rugged Extreme delivers, we ran our standard benchmark suites, Passmark Software's PerformanceTest 6.1 and 9.0 that include dozens of tests covering CPU, 2D graphics, 3D graphics, memory, and disk and then computes scores for each category and an overall PassMark scores. We also ran our old standby, CrystalMark, that provides valuable clues as to overall single core performance. We're also showing results of three other major benchmark suites that we've added to our testing program: PC Mark 10, GeekBench 5 and one of the most often used 3DMark graphics benchmarks, Time Spy.

To provide an idea where the 7330 Rugged Extreme stands in terms of overall performance, the below table also includes results of the older 7424 Rugged Extreme that we tested in 2018, as well as those of the fully rugged direct competition.

Bottomline here is that between the advanced power savings technologies built into Intel's 11th gen processors, Microsoft's various power conservation modes in Windows 11, and Dell's engineering and thermal management, we're power draws way lower than in the past and almost unprecedented battery life

Bright and very good 13.3-inch display

The Dell 7330 Rugged Extreme's 13.3-inch display is more than large enough to allow working without squinting. Default resolution is 1920 x 1080 pixel. We're glad Full HD 1920 x 1080 is the default for both the 5430 and the 7330 now. For many years, most semi- and fully rugged laptops came with lower resolution 1366 x 768 displays and full HD wasn't even available for many of them. We're glad those days are over. The display offers 166 pixel per inch, not "retina" territory but sharp and clear enough.

Touch isn't really needed with a laptop, but with Windows 10 and now Windows it's increasingly useful and a good thing to have. The Dell 7330 comes standard with capacitive multi-touch, as we'd expect from a high-end machine.

The Dell 7330 display's 16:9 aspect ratio gives the laptop a contemporary look; the older squarish-looking 4:3 aspect ratio displays that used to be prevalent in rugged notebooks are pretty much gone now. One thing that's interesting is that the 7330 has a 13.3-inch screen whereas its predecessors as well as the semi-rugged 5430 all have/had 14-inch screens. The rationale for this we can think of is that with the compact form factor and footprint of the new 7330, there might not have been enough of a bezel to adequately protect a larger 14-inch panel from damage.

Display size, of course, isn't everything. Fully rugged notebooks like the Dell 7330 will likely be used outdoors a lot, or be mounted in vehicles. That means lots of contrast and often direct sunlight. Standard transmissive LCD displays tend to wash out in daylight, and that's why good sunlight-readability has become a selling point with rugged notebooks. The currently most popular way of making a notebook screen readable outdoors combines various optical treatments to control internal reflection with a strong backlight.

A few words about screen brightness here: A standard notebook backlight is in the 200 nits luminance range (1 nit = 1 candela per square meter) range. Some manufacturers up the brightness in their business products, usually into the 300-400 nits range. Industrial monitors used outdoors generally have 400 to 500 nits. High end rugged notebooks offer anywhere from 500 to over 1,000 nits, with premium products such as this Dell 7330 offering as much as 1,400 nits. What this means is that the 1,400 nits backlight of the Dell 7330 display is MUCH brighter than any consumer notebook. We examined the new 7330's screen in our lab with our own luminance testing equipment and proprietary test charts. Our equipment measured 1350 nits.

Super-bright backlights, of course, affect battery life. Some of Dell's competitors have dedicated "sunlight readable" buttons to toggle super-brightness on and off. The Dell 7330 doesn't have such a button. So when working with the 7330 in bright daylight, users should keep an eye on brightness setting. It can make a big differen ce in battery life.

The 7330 display is what we'd describe as a "semi-gloss" screen. Matte displays are best for eliminating distracting reflections, but they tend to make displays look milky. Full gloss displays, which are pretty much the standard in consumer and business laptops these days, pop nicely indoors but they are very prone to strong reflections outdoors. Semi-gloss screens still have some reflections but they are far more muted than those of most consumer laptops and tablets.

Unlike some displays that seem fingerprint magnets, the 7330 display is remarkably immune to collecting those pesky smudges and fingerprints that quickly cover almost all glossy displays.

Viewing angles are important. Both horizontal and vertical viewing angles of the Dell 7330 screen are very good, without any color shifts even when viewed at extreme angles.

Thunderbolt 4 done right

Almost every new laptop or tablet has a USB-C port these days. Unlike the original USB Type A port where the plug would only go in one way, the smaller USB-C ports work no matter which way you plug it in. Not every USB-C port, however, is the same — it depends on what version and generation of the USB standard it supports.

To make matters more confusing yet, a USB-C port may also be a Thunderbolt 4 port. Thunderbolt started as a joint effort between Intel and Apple, combining the PCI Express and DisplayPort signals. The latest version, Thunderbolt 4, uses the USB-C connector, supports charging upstream and downstream, USB 4 with very fast data transfer (up to 40 Gbit/s), as well as dual 4K displays. And the Dell Latitude 7330 Rugged Extreme has one — or, optionally, two — of those Thunderbolt 4 ports with USB-C connectors.

We gave the Dell Latitude 7330 Rugged Extreme's USB-C Thunderbolt 4 port a workout and here's what we could do:

• Drive a 2nd screen via USB-C to DisplayPort cable
• Drive a 2nd screen via USB-C to HDMI cable
• Do very fast file transfers (we used the Anker cable as well as an Accell USB4 40Gbps cable)
• Drive and power an external DVD reader
• Use a USB key or card reader via USB-A to USB-C adapter
• Drive a mice and/or keyboard
• Charge a phone or tablet

Intel emphasizes that Thunderbolt 4 offers tablet and laptop users a true "one wire" solution. Here's the way that's envisioned: bring your laptop to the office and plug it into an external Thunderbolt 4 dock. That dock will then charge the laptop upstream and your phone(s) downstream, and also support a mouse, keyboard, USB keys, DVD drives, one or two external screens and whatever else you'd like to plug in. For all that, just one cable is needed, that between the tablet and the Thunderbolt 4 dock. No need to even use the laptop's power brick.

We put that to the test by connecting the 7330 to an Anker PowerExpand 5-in-1 Thunderbolt 4 Mini Dock, a handy 5 x 3 x 0.75 inch box with three powered USB Type-C downstream ports, a 10Gbit/s USB Type-A port, and an upstream port to connect to the computer that delivers 40 gbit/s data transfer, dual display support, and up to 85 watt charging power.

We tried the Anker dock with the 7330 and here's what we could do:

• Drive TWO extra screens via USB Type-C or HDMI cables
• Plug in USB docks
• Plug in USB keys
• Power and use an external DVD reader
• Connect mice and keyboards either through dock Type-A or Type-C ports
• Charges phones and tablets
• Upstream-charge the laptop

As far as upstream charging goes, the 7330 recognized our Anker 5-in-1 Thunderbolt 4 dock, which can provide up to 85 watts of charging power, as a power supply. The dock started charging the 7330 at a charge rate of up to about 20 watts.

We then connected the 7330 to our larger Anker Thunderbolt 4 12-in-1 dock that can supply 90 watts of upstream charging power. The 7330 recognized it as a power source and began charging at up to about 25 watts. With both Anker docks, the Windows power popup showed remaining charging time until full.

We also tried Thunderbolt upstream charging with a 30 watt Apple MacBook Air USB-C power supply. That one was also acknowledged, albeit with a "slow charger" message. The 7330 charged at a six watt rate, about a quarter of the rate with which it charges with its own power brick or one of our Thunderbolt 4 docks.

The Dell even worked with a 20 watt iPhone USB charger, though a pop-up suggested the 7330 really preferred to have 27 watt charging or better. Still, it's good to know that if you find yourself in the field somewhere you may be able to charge this Dell laptop with just about any USB charger.

A couple of comments: Note that the Dell 7330 does not have a conventional power jack. Charging is via powered USB-C port. And also note that the power negotiation between Thunderbolt 4/USB-C charging takes a bit of time. In our testing, the power negotiation between the 7330 and whatever power supply we used took about 30 seconds.

We consider the upstream charging capability of Thunderbolt 4 a valuable feature because, theoretically, it allows charging a laptop with pretty much any USB charger. As is, there may be limitations, and customers interested in upstream charging should always make sure their chargers or docks are supported. As is, the Dell 7730 worked better with a variety of chargers than most

Semi-rugged vs fully rugged Dell Latitude

Oh, and there is another era where the 7330 outshines the 5430. It looks like Dell assumed that the fully rugged machine will spend a higher percentage of its time out there in the field doing demanding work, whereas the semi-rugged machine may see more office duty. Why do we think that? Because whereas when plugged-in, the two machines run neck-on-neck in all of our benchmarks, but when on battery, the 7330 wins every single battle.

Security

Docking and vehicle mounting

Precision Mounting Technologies (above right) likewise offers a docking station that works with the Dell 5530 and 7330.

Ruggedness