Dell is announcing a new workstation laptop today that it claims is the world's smallest, thinnest and most powerful. The new Precision 5470 is a 14-inch notebook that will start at 3.26 pounds and pack up to an Nvidia RTX A1000 GPU.
The Precision won't use workstation-class processors, however, instead using the 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" H-series processors, which are plenty powerful but more often thought of as high-end productivity or gaming chips. The laptop will start with a Core i5-12500H with support for vPro and allow the notebook to meet Intel's Evo standards. CPU options go up to a 14-core i9-12900H.
Memory options will range from 8GB LPDDR5-5200MHz up through 64GB, while storage will start at 256GB and go up to 4TB of PCIe NVMe Gen 4 x4 SSD storage. There are also options for up to 1TB with a self-encrypting drive.
Dell says it engineered a new cooling system specifically to fit these components in a 14-inch chassis. It includes a "bonded hinge" meant to increase the amount of exhausted heat as well as "Dual Opposite Outlet" fans.
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The 14-inch display uses an "Infinity Edge" design with a thin bezels, plus it’s a 16:10 aspect ratio, similar to what you see on the Dell XPS lineup. You'll be able to get it at 1920 x 1200 with anti-glare, or with a touchscreen at a 2560 x 1600 resolution.
The 720p webcam is an IR camera that works with Windows Hello. A fingerprint reader, located on the power button, is optional, as is a SmartCard reader for enterprise customers.
From images of the new laptop, it looks like Dell took a ton of design cues from the XPS (and previous Precisions, which shared similar looks), including a carbon fiber palm rest, chiclet keyboard and a spacious glass touchpad. The laptop measures 12.22 x 8.27 x 0.74 inches, making it slightly smaller than an XPS 15 (13.57 x 9.06 x 0.71 inches) with the exception of this thickest point. This design, however, is tested to military standards against shocks and drops.
Also like recent XPS notebooks, the Precision has gone all Thunderbolt, with four Thunderbolt 4 ports, a headphone jack, microSD card reader and lock slot.
14-inch notebooks have been in vogue lately. We've seen numerous gaming laptops opt for that size, including Dell's own Alienware x14, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 and the Razer Blade 14. It's also been more popular in the productivity space, like in Apple's new 14-inch MacBook Pro. HP has also explored the 14-inch workstation with the ZBook Firefly.
Beyond the Precision 5470, Dell is also bumping up the 15 and 17-inch Precision 5570 and 5770, which it says are its thinnest and smallest in those sizes, and a revamped the Precision 3000 series featuring Intel's 12th Gen Core chips.
The new Precisions will all be available in April, but pricing has not been announced.
