Is the new Dell Inspiron 15 5000 series too good to be true?
If someone in a pub offered you a Core i7 laptop at a knock down price, you’d probably wonder where they got it, wouldn’t you? When the new Dell Inspiron 15 5000 series arrived at my door I had a similar feeling, because not many PC manufacturers are packaging an Intel Core i7 CPU, 8GB of DRR3 and a 1TB hard drive in a portable package for less than £500.
Actually, if you’re willing to drop your expectations to a Core i5 this machine can be less than £450 – and that includes Windows 8.1 and a 15” screen.
As I’m professionally employed to look gift horses squarely in the mouth, once I had this system booted I started to hunt out the numerous catches that I was confident it contained. There are some, but I’m still rather perplexed by the scope of what you get with this system for the minimal outlay.
Firstly, let me address some of those slight oversells, so they won’t shock anyone. First up: the Core i7-4510U processor. While it hums along at 2GHz (3.1GHz Turbo) and supports hyperthreading, it is only a dual core CPU. That makes the hyperthreading critical, because without it, the machine wouldn’t be able to handle four simultaneous threads. You could get a Core i5 processor with a higher base clock and get better performance, though.
The HD 4400 video on that chip also isn’t amazing, but wonderfully Dell did add an AMD Radeon HD R7 M265 with 2GB DDR3 to make gaming on this system less of a slideshow. That might be a middle-order mobile GPU with limited bandwidth, but it’s better than the integrated option. Using the native screen resolution (1366 x 768) you can run World Of Tanks, for example, in medium settings and not globally ‘low’.
Of all the hardware in this I’d say the best bit is the screen, which was very crisp and acceptably saturated. You need to get the right viewing angle set, because it is sensitive to vertical viewing angles, but I found it easy on the eye.
If the screen's the best bit, then without doubt the keyboard is the low point. While it’s large and even offers a numeric pad area, there is almost no travel on the keys at all – and when the very limited motion ends it does so with an indistinct squish rather than any sort of click. This makes typing at higher speeds practically impossible.
Part of the issue here is that is isn’t very well supported by the chassis, which has all the rigidity of an old party balloon. The amount of flexing in this system is disturbing, and that hints that it wasn’t made to take much, if any abuse.
On plus side, though, it has a couple of USB 3.0 ports, HDMI out, Gigabit LAN, AC class wi-fi, Bluetooth, a 720p Webcam, an SD Card slot and the battery is actually replaceable internally.
It all comes down to what you expect for your money, and what compromises you’ll accept. This system reminds us that getting a 'real' Core i7 deal for less than £500 is probably unrealistic, though what it does include seems reasonable value for money. Mark Pickavance
A cheap Core i7 laptop that is built to a price.