DELL Refurbished Latitude E7250 Core I5 5th Gen 8GB RAM 256GB SSD-Black

As befits a business Ultrabook that costs more than 1400 Euros (~$1600), Dell uses high-quality materials for the chassis: A tri-metal case made of magnesium and aluminum and, in the case of our review configuration with a touchscreen, a carbon fiber lid, create a sophisticated appearance. In addition, the lid and the palm rest have a soft-touch surface, so they are quite grippy and pleasant to touch. The touchscreen on the front is protected by Gorilla Glass 3.

Dell claims that the Ultrabooks from the 7000-series can withstand the strict tests according to MIL-STD-810G standards. However, this norm of the US Army consists of numerous tests starting with acceleration and shootings up to acidic environments, and since the manufacturers can decide which tests to run, we cannot really say what the Ultrabooks can withstand.

The case is definitely very sturdy and well built, the palm rest can be slightly pushed in under pressure, but it is limited and not unpleasant if you rest your hands there for a whole business day. You can only see picture distortions when you twist the screen significantly; however, pressure from the back is not a problem for the panel.

Connectivity

Not a lot has changed compared to the predecessor Latitude 12 E7240 in terms of connectivity: The sides look very similar to the predecessor, but the hardware WLAN switch on the left side has been omitted. A SmartCard reader with NFC support which was previously available at an additional cost, is already included in our review unit

As a real business device, Dell's Ultrabook obviously has a docking port, but the same applies to the other manufacturers except for Asus. Small drawback: The Latitude 12 E5250 does not have a VGA port, but you get a mini-DisplayPort as well as an HDMI port. The latter is not available among the comparison devices.

Communication

Are you worried that you get a small Ultrabook without an Ethernet port? This is not a problem, at least in the business segment: All comparison devices including the Latitude 12 E7250 are equipped with fast Gigabit LAN. You also get WLAN with support for all current standards up to the very fast 802.11ac as well as Bluetooth 4.0.

The WLAN reception is very good: At a distance of 10 meters (~33 ft) to the router and through three walls, we still had the full signal, and web pages opened quickly. Another three meters (~10 ft) and another wall, resulted in 4/5 bars and the performance was still very good.

A WWAN module is optionally available as well, so you can access the Internet on the road.