Dell Inspiron 13 7000
A beautifully designed convertible, but sadly the quality isn’t consistently impressive
SCORE PRICE £999 (£1,199 inc VAT) from dell.co.uk
The Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-1 brings a few of the features found in Dell’s premium XPS line down to the mainstream Inspiron. It’s another of Dell’s 2-in-1 convertibles, but with a thin-bezel design that delivers a 13.3in IPS touchscreen in a smaller chassis than you would usually expect: it has a desktop footprint of just 309 x 215mm and a weight of 1.45kg.
The brushed aluminium casing, with its gunmetal tone, looks nearly as expensive as the XPS 13, while the flexible hinge means you can use it as a super-sized tablet or in a tent configuration when you don’t need the keyboard to hand. The Inspiron will work with an optional £40 Dell stylus, but oddly it’s not offered when you buy the laptop.
The feature list is impressive, too. There’s a camera and infrared sensor for face recognition through Windows Hello, and it’s one of the most accurate setups we’ve seen, signing us in with no hassle, every time. Connectivity is good, with USB-C, two USB 3.1 ports and HDMI and audio sockets. It’s a shame you have to charge using a proprietary connector, though, not USB-C as on the XPS 13.
Our review sample came packing a Core i7-8550U with 16GB of RAM, so it’s no surprise that performance is top-notch. Even if you’re looking to edit high-resolution photos or 4K video, you’ll find this Inspiron has power to spare. It only falls back when it comes to 3D performance – even at low resolutions and detail levels, the Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-1 can’t run, for example, Rise of the Tomb Raider at anything more than a crawl.
It’s in the screen, sound and general ergonomics, though, that the Inspiron really drops behind its 13in sibling. The keyboard isn’t bad and has a fast, lightweight feel, but there’s also something sloppy about the action as you type. The sound is weak at low volumes and too brash with the sound turned up. It’s surprisingly powerful and includes some effective spatial processing for a faux-surround effect, but also a thin, unpleasant tone. The screen is pretty decent, with a lot of contrast, but sRGB coverage is so-so and other laptops have visible more punch. At this price, the Dell Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-1 doesn’t have what it takes to lead the pack.