In today’s blog, I will be reviewing the Dell Precision 3520 Mobile Workstation. This device is a business laptop, an enterprise level laptop from the Dell Latitude’s. The model I have is configured to have an Intel Core i7 6th Generation clocked in at 2.7GHz, an NVIDIA Quadro M620 Discrete Graphics Card, and 16 gigs of DDR4 memory. The particular configurated laptop I have does not come with the extra LTE card, fingerprint reader, and NFC touchpoint. The laptop has a multitude of ports, including a USB-C/Thunderbolt port, power port, three USB-A ports, a full size SD card reader, an HDMI video output port, a legacy VGA output port, and a headphone jack. The keyboard has an expanded number pad to the right of the laptop which is mainly used for typing in numbers into specific applications quickly, an approximate 14′” inch screen (non-touch), and a backlit keyboard. The computer does perform well in most applications, this ranges from casual internet browsing to watching videos and some lightweight gaming. I haven’t experienced any issues so far except for the degraded battery which I plan on replacing in the future. Would I recommend this to someone else? Yes, I would. Alternatives to the Precision 3520 Mobile Workstation would be the Latitude E7470 and Latitude 7480 from the entry-level business laptops. The successor to the Precision 3520 would be the Precision 3530, but with minimal upgrades.
Month: September 2023
My Dell Latitude has finally given up.
A few days ago, I had spilled a bit of lemonade on my laptop. I quickly wiped it off with a cloth. Fast forward to today, I noticed the key is now sticking, this means I need to disassemble the laptop to extract the keyboard and clean it. After putting it back together, I noticed the keyboard was misaligned as it seems like it sank by 2 milometers which is a lot. This makes typing on the laptop a hellhole and I cannot stand it, so I tore it back down and re-screwed it in. That did not fix the issue, and I used the wrong screws causing it to partially puncture the wrist pads of the laptop. The puncture isn’t too noticeable, but it is visible. Now, I need to order a new battery for the Latitude as if I unplug the charger the damn thing shuts off. Not only that, because of these repairs I had to do and the fact I had to sometimes force shut the laptop down, this has caused Windows to enter a never-ending boot loop (it turns on, reboots, gives and error, shuts off, and repeats). I’ve also noticed that the CPU does get excessively hot, and when I opened it’s heat sink I found the thermal paste to be solid and that means it wouldn’t be too effective. Keep in mind this laptop is five years old, made in 2017. From the first purchase of this laptop, the system was snappy and it boots up quickly. The laptop still boots up quickly, but it isn’t as fast as before and is beginning to show degraded performance. Hopefully, my data is still on the drive and I should still be able to access it. I plan on trying to recover Windows soon, but for now I am temporarily using ChromeOS which is missing all the programs I use daily. For now, ordering replacement parts for the laptop just doesn’t seem worth it thanks to the sunken keyboard, cosmetic punctures, and degraded performance. If I do have to get a replacement laptop, it would be the Dell Precision 3520 or a similar model, however it wouldn’t be compatible with the docking station I currently own. If I do upgrade to another machine, I will most likely sell the docking station or even the laptop itself altogether.