Dell Inspiron 15 5000
A SOLID ALL-ROUNDER LET DOWN BY ITS KEYBOARD AND SCREEN.
DELL’S INSPIRON LINE of laptops has been everywhere in the past, so it really was about time that it got refreshed with more recent, superior Intel hardware. This updated laptop remains an attractive computer, too, with a brushed metal finish across the lid.
Immediately, this finish and attractive Dell logo make a strong first impression, and the aesthetic spreads to the sides and base, where more metal is layered over the Dell’s plastic skeleton to add a bit of sheen.
Build quality is very consistent, too. The wrist-rest barely budges, the screen feels sturdy, and the underside has a little give – but all the components inside are well protected. We wouldn’t really have a problem with slinging the Dell Inspiron 15 inside a backpack and expecting it to survive our travels. You’ll only need to use a protective sleeve if you’re concerned about aesthetic damage.
This isn’t a particularly expensive notebook, though, so don’t expect metal draped over every surface. The underside of the base is only covered in metal on areas where it’ll be visible, and the keyboard, wrist-rest and screen bezel are all finished with underwhelming matte black plastic.
The port situation is pretty standard here, too, with a trio of USB connections, a HDMI output and Gigabit Ethernet alongside an SD card reader. Interior access is decent: the base panel lifts away after just two screws have been removed, and the memory, hard drive, battery, processor and wireless card are all easily reachable. That’s great news for anyone that wants to be able to repair or upgrade their own laptop.
ERGONOMICS
The Scrabble-tile keyboard has a number pad, which is a boon for productivity, and its layout is mostly fine – we’re not thrilled to see a single-height Return key, but that’s our only quibble. It’s a decent jumping off point, but the keys themselves aren’t great for serious typing. The base isn’t firm enough, and the keys don’t have enough travel – a combination of issues that can make the keyboard feel unsatisfying, without the movement and conviction of better, more expensive laptops. It’s perfect for browsing, instant messaging and the occasional email, but that’s really it.
The trackpad is initially too sensitive, which can be fixed in the Control Panel, and it’s fine elsewhere – the surface is smooth and responsive, and the buttons are light and consistent.
ONE OF THE DELL’S MOST IMPRESSIVE COMPONENTS IS THE CORE I7-5500U, WHICH IS A NEW CHIP FROM INTEL’S LATEST RANGE OF PROCESSORS: BROADWELL. THIS NEW ARCHITECTURE SERVES UP PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS, BUT IT ALSO PLACES HUGE EMPHASIS ON BETTER EFFICIENCY AND BATTERY LIFE.
PERFORMANCE
One of the Dell’s most impressive components is the Core i7-5500U, which is a new chip from Intel’s latest range of processors: Broadwell. This new architecture serves up performance improvements, but it also places huge emphasis on better efficiency and battery life.
It’s the same chip as the Asus Transformer laptop, and it’s a couple of steps ahead of the Lenovo, which had a weaker Broadwell part that’s a couple of hundred Megahertz slower.
The Dell performed well in our processor benchmarks. Its PCMark 8 Home result of 3,658 beat both rivals – the Lenovo ThinkPad X250 scored 2,238 points and the Asus Transformer Book Flip TP300LA managed 2,521. In Cinebench’s CPU test the Dell topped out at 245 points – only three points behind the Lenovo but unable to match the Asus machine’s 300 point score.
The Inspiron has an AMD Radeon R7 M265 graphics core, which gives it a leg-up on rivals that rely on Intel’s integrated graphics. It’s a mid-range chip with 384 stream processors, and it returned a score of 1,211 in 3DMark’s tough Fire Strike test – hundreds of points better than either competitor.
It’s able to outpace both rivals in games, but the Dell fell behind the competition in battery life tests. With its screen at 50% brightness and PCMark 8’s Home test running it lasted for 3 hours and 21 minutes before running out of juice – twelve minutes fewer than the Lenovo, but more than an hour behind the Asus. The situation didn’t improve much when we dimmed the screen to 25% brightness, with that result only increasing by less than an hour.
You’ll certainly notice this machine when its components are pushed; with its processor and graphics chip running demanding benchmarks the internal fans churned out a reasonable amount of noise. If that noise is going to prove irritating then headphones are a good idea – especially because the fans in our review machine churned inconsistently even after we’d stopped benchmarking.
Despite that qualm there’s no denying the well-balanced nature of the Inspiron’s specification. The Core i7 processor has the grunt for demanding work software, and the Radeon graphics core is capable of playing games at middling quality settings.
DISPLAY
The screen, though, is a disappointment. Its 1,366 x 768 resolution matches the Asus but falls behind the Lenovo’s full HD panel, and it proves restrictive: it’s not possible to watch 1080p movies on this panel, and working with multiple windows is difficult.
The display probably won’t win any awards, either. It’s 189cd/m2 brightness level is great for the office, but won’t do so well outside. And, it’s black level of 0.73cd/m2 is just disappointing – it means black tones just aren’t deep enough. The resulting contrast ratio of 250:1 fails to impress and fails to produce enough tone variation to make pictures, films and games look their best – bright white shades and dark blacks that should show slight differences just blend together.
VERDICT
The Dell Inspiron 15 5000 is a good allaround laptop for web browsing, light work and casual gaming, with reasonable aesthetics and build quality alongside decent components. Other systems offer better prospects for most specialist tasks, though, so only opt for this laptop if you need a jack-of-all-trades device.