Dell Inspiron 15 5000 gaming review

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Our Verdict

The Dell Inspiron 15 5000 Gaming Laptop offers solid gaming performance and overall performance, but makes too many compromises to be worth it.

For

Good graphics and good overall performance

Attractive yet subtle design

Fast file transfers

Versus

Lower battery life

Dim, dull and inaccurate display

Weak speakers

Stiff, shallow keyboard

I wonder what the Inspiron 15 5000 Gaming laptop might have been like if Dell hadn't made so many compromises. For $849, it's an attractive budget gaming laptop with good overall and graphics performance, thanks to its Intel Core i5 processor and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPU. But thanks to an overall poor display, uncomfortable keyboard, and less of two hours of battery life, it's a technological Icarus that tries to be an epic bargain, but falls to the bottom of the bin.

Design

If it weren't for the shock of red in the middle of the soft-touch rubberized black lid, you could easily mistake the Inspiron 15 5000 Gaming for a business laptop - or at least a consumer system. The textured lid is cool to the touch and surprisingly resistant to fingerprints. And while I could dig a discrete gaming system, I wish this one came in Hibiscus Red like the

Inspiron 15 7000

, which turns heads.

The interior of the Inspiron 15 offers more black-and-red goodness, starting with the soft-touch palm rest with the red-edged trackpad. The full-size keyboard and number pad sit in the middle and reside in their own recessed deck. The power button is just above in the right corner below the black and red speaker grille.

No USB Type-C or Thunderbolt 3 ports, the system is not very scalable. It can however meet all your current generation needs with a USB 3.0 port, HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, a 2-in-1 card reader and a Kensington lock slot on the right. You'll find another pair of USB 3.0 ports on the left with jacks for headphones and the power cord.

At 5.4 pounds, the 15.1 x 10.4 x 1-inch Inspiron 15 weighs as much as the

Acer Aspire VX 15

(15.3 x 10.5 x 1.1 inches), but is just a little thinner. the

Asus ROG Strix GL553VD

(15.1 x 10, 1.2 inches) is only slightly heavier at 5.6 pounds. The Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming (15.2 x 10.8 x inches, 5.8 pounds) is also a bit larger.

Display

In all budget gaming laptop configurations, you'll find some sort of compromise. For the Inspiron 15, it comes as a dim, listless, and inaccurate display.

When I watched the Girl's Trip trailer on the 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 panel, I was shocked at how brilliant the colors looked. Queen Latifah's red mane took on a brownish color and the blues and yellows of Tiffany Haddish's dress looked two shades. The screen, however, was sharp enough to see the slats of a nearby window as well as the white stitching of Jada Pinkett Smith's off-the-shoulder top.

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This panel isn't the brightest pencil in the box, as evidenced by the 69.1% measured by our colorimeter. This means the screen is well below our minimum threshold of 100% as well as the overall average of 94%. That's slightly better than the VX 15's 65% and the Inspiron 15 7000's 67%, but well below the Strix's 122%.

The Inspiron 15 also lacks color accuracy. It scored 4 on the Delta-E test (0 is ideal), which is better than the VX 15's 6.8, but not the Strix (1.6) or the category average (2.2) . The Inspiron 15 7000 was even less accurate 912)

To add insult to injury, the Inspiron 15's display isn't very bright. I had to crank the brightness settings all the way up to get a passable viewing experience. It averaged 219 nits, which is weaker than the VX 15 (247 nits), Strix (269 nits), Inspiron 15 7000 (253 nits), and the average (276 nits).

Audio

Keyboard and touchpad

The Inspiron 15's island-style keyboard looks better than it feels. The 1.4 millimeters (1.5 to 2 mm is optimal) of key travel and 70 grams (55 to grams is typical) of actuation force would be fine for many keyboards, but those keys felt shallow and sticky. I also noticed some flex in the center of the keyboard as I typed. When I took the 10FastFingers typing test, my words per minute rate dropped to 58 words per minute, missing my usual average of 65 words per minute.

However, the keyboard is not so bad. Its red backlight is bright enough to easily read the keys in a dark environment. The keyboard is also spill-resistant, meaning it can handle an accidental soda spill without consequence.

The 4 x 3.1 inch touchpad allows me to perform multi-touch gestures such as three fingers. tap, pinch-zoom and two-finger scroll with ease. The bottom corners of the touchpad provide dynamic feedback with a slight click.

Games and graphics

Equipped with a

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPU

with 4GB of video memory, the Inspiron 15 won't deliver the face-melting frame rates that its better-specced siblings can. But it can still put on a hell of a show - provided you keep the settings on medium.

During the budget version of our Rise of the Tomb Raider benchmark (raised to 1080p with SMAA anti-aliasing), the Inspiron 15 hit 43 fps, which matches the VX 15 (GTX 1050 GPU) and beats the 40 fps average . The Strix and its GTX 1050 GPU lagged somewhat with 38 fps.

When we ran the normal Tomb Raider test (high at 1080p), the Inspiron 15 managed to hold its own and score 36 fps, beating the Strix (18 fps), VX 15 (16 fps) and mainstream average (34 fps).

We also managed to run the Metro: Last Light test, where it hit 25fps, which was better than the VX 15 (14fps) and Strix (13fps). However, it was still below our 30fps gameplay threshold, as well as the Inspiron 15 7000 (29fps) and 34fps average.

When you're not saving the galaxy or exploring long-forgotten tombs, the Inspiron 15's integrated Intel HD Graphics 630 GPU takes over for video or any lighter activity.

Performance

The Inspiron 15's 2.5GHz Intel Core i5-7300HQ processor with 8GB of RAM makes it a deceptively powerful multitasker. The laptop showed no signs of lag when switching between tabs or scrolling despite having 18 tabs open in Google Chrome, some of which were running Tweetdeck, Slack, and Twitch.

On Geekbench 4, the synthetic test of overall performance, the inspiron 15 notched 10,392, beating the VX 15, which also has a Core i5-7300HQ processor. However, that wasn't enough to overcome the Strix's 2.8GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ, which scored 12,253 or the overall average of 11,333. The Core i5-7300HQ-powered Inspiron 15 7000 has got a similar score of 10,363.

In the OpenOffice Spreadsheet Macro test, another benchmark, the Inspiron 15 matched 20,000 names and addresses in 3 minutes and 44 seconds, which is faster than the 3:55 average. The VX 15, Strix, and Inspiron 15 7000 were faster at 3:39, 3:31, and 3:37.

The Inspiron 15's 256GB SSD is fast enough for a budget gaming system. It duplicated 4.97 GB of media files in 44 seconds for a transfer rate of 115.7 megabytes per second. It didn't beat the 200.3 Mbps average, but exceeded the 94.2 Mbps, 103 Mbps, and 106 Mbps put up by the Strix (1TB 7200 rpm hard drive), the VX 15 256GB SSD and the Inspiron 15 7000.

Battery life

How time flies when you're having fun - at least it does on the Inspiron 15. The laptop lasted just an hour and 53 minutes on our battery test, which involves surfing the Web streaming over Wi-Fi.

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While we wouldn't expect the gaming systems to be long-distance runners, this time is well below the overall 6:59 average. The Strix held out for 3:41 and the VX 15 was there for 7:08, but the Inspiron 15 7000 outlasted them all with an epic 11:14.

Heat

During one of my games of Rise of the Tomb Raider, I spent 15 minutes trying to fight my way through a battalion of religious fanatics at an old Russian base. When the battle was over, I checked the temperature of the laptop in several places. The touchpad measured 84 degrees Fahrenheit while the center of the system hit 92 degrees. The laptop's undercarriage reached 104 degrees, which is above our comfort threshold of 95 degrees.

After letting the system cool, we streamed 15 minutes of HD video. The touchpad and space between the G and H keys felt nice and cool at 73 and 91 degrees. However, the bottom of the system measured 100 degrees.

webcam

Different camera, same results. The Inspiron 15's built-in 720p webcam delivers the same blurry detail I've seen on many other systems. Depending on where you look in my test photo, you can see flecks of red, blue, and green pixels trying to come together to make a reasonable facsimile of my mustard yellow and brown sweater. The camera had a better time with my purple locs although it washed out my mahogany complexion.

Software and warranty

For a gaming laptop, the Inspiron 15 doesn't offer much in the way of gaming software outside of Nvidia GeForce Experience. However, the suite offers a number of gamer-centric apps, including battery boost and game optimization.

There are plenty of Dell-branded software aimed at keeping the system running smoothly, including Power Management Lite for adjusting power settings, SupportAssist for running system diagnostics, and Update for getting the latest drivers.

The laptop also has a bunch of Windows 10 bloatware such as Sling, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, and Candy Crush Soda Saga. There are a few useful add-ons like Dropbox which gives you 20GB of free space for a year and a non-free one-year McAfee LiveSafe subscription.

The Dell Inspiron 15 Gaming Laptop comes with a one-year postal warranty. See how Dell fared in our

Showdown Support Techniques

and

Dell Inspiron Gaming Laptop Giveaway. https://t.co/b51QRnGysS

— The Top Lists Sat Jul 07 06:31:20 +0000 2018

Best and worst brands

reports

.

Setups

The Inspiron 15 I reviewed is $799 and has a 2.5GHz Intel Core i5-7300HQ processor with 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPU with 4GB of VRAM, and an Intel GPU HD Graphics 630. The $799 base model replaces the SSD with a 1TB 5400 rpm hard drive, which is slower but has a lot more usable storage, which is handy for gaming.

The $1149 model has a 2.8GHz frequency. Intel Core i7-7700HQ, 16GB RAM, 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPU with 4GB VRAM and Intel HD Graphics 630 GPU.

Summary

I never have high hopes for budget gaming laptops. But I must say that I am disappointed with the Dell Inspiron 15 5000 Gaming laptop. For $799, Dell gives you a laptop with a lovely, yet unassuming design, paired with respectable components that deliver fast transfer rates and solid performance for productivity and gaming. But the lackluster and inaccurate display, inferior speakers, uncomfortable keyboard, and less than 2 hours of battery life make this laptop one to avoid.

If you've got your heart set on a cheap Dell gaming laptop, go for it.

Inspiron 15 7000

. It also has a questionable display, but for $799 it has a better keyboard, more attractive design, and lasts much longer on a charge. It even comes in two colors. But if your budget can handle the increase, I highly recommend the Asus ROG GL553VD at $1017.

, which offers better display and better performance–it even has a customizable RGB keyboard.< /p>

As for the Inspiron 15 5000 Gaming laptop, Dell is going to have to take this one back to the lab and reassess where it's making its compromises.

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Dell Inspiron 15 5000 Gaming Specs

Bluetooth p>

Bluetooth 4.2

Brand

Dell

CPU

Intel Core i5-7300HQ 2.5GHz Processor

Card slots

Card reader 2-1

Company Website

dell.com

Display size p>

15.6

Graphic card

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPU / Intel HD Graphics 630 GPU

hard drive size

256 GB

hard drive speed

n / A

Hard drive type

SSD

Highest resolution available

1920x1080

Native resolution

1920x1080

Op operating system

Windows 10 Home

Optical drive

No

Optical drive speed

n/a< /p>

Ports (excluding USB)

Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 1.4, headphones, Kensington lock, USB 3.0

RAM

8 GB

Upgradable RAM up to

16 GB

Cut

15.1 x 10.4 x 1 inches

Touchpad size

USB Ports

3

Video memory

4GB

Warranty/Support

One year postal service

Weight

5.4 pounds

Wireless

802.11ac

Wi-Fi model

Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3165

Less

Sherri L.Smith

Sherri L. Smith has been posting product reviews for Laptopmag.com since 2011. In that time, she's reviewed more than her share of laptops, tablets, smartphones, and everything in between. A resident gamer and audio junkie, Sherri was previously an editor for Black Web 2.0 and a contributor to BET.Com and Popgadget.