A Look at the Dell Inspiron 15 7000

Despite its "midrange" label, the Inspiron 15 7000 is a well-made laptop. The variant I examined stands out from the 7590 because it uses stamped aluminum rather than magnesium alloy. There is no sway in the lid, keyboard deck, or chassis of the 7591, which is unexpected given the low price.

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Standard Phillips screws can be found on the bottom of the laptop (no hex screws requiring special tools). Once the protective covering has been carefully snapped off, the inner workings can be seen (the back three can be loosened and left in the chassis).

Performance

I did our regular performance tests before installing a second 8GB RAM module, and the results were poor. You can see Inspiron's performance by looking at its Geekbench 5 single-core and multi-core scores: 1,071 and 3,864, respectively. This was before I added more memory. After the RAM was inserted, those numbers jumped to 1,124 and 4,695. The Lenovo Yoga C940 15 with the same processor and dual-channel RAM achieves 1,106 and 5,117, respectively.

Our more realistic tests saw less of an impact from the adjustment. I encoded a 420 MB video using Handbrake to test its H.265 encoding settings. After the upgrade, the Inspiron finished the test in 2 minutes and 50 seconds, which took 3 minutes previously. In 2 minutes and 17 seconds, the Lenovo C940 finished the job.

The laptop's performance was increased by 12% after a second RAM module was installed, and the dual-channel mode was activated to catch up to its competitors. An average of about 6% was seen in the Handbrake test's boost category. I spent only about $30 on a single stick of 8GB DDR4-2666MHz RAM by Crucial. When it comes to increasing efficiency, that's one of the least expensive methods I've heard of recently.

There was no noticeable difference in SSD performance after I upgraded the RAM. Even though it was faster than the Western Digital PCIe in the XPS 15 and the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2, the Western Digital PCIe in the Lenovo Yoga C940 only managed average performance.

Design and Presentation

Thanks to its upgradeability, Inspiron may be used for more than just being a laptop. Thankfully, it's a serviceable item overall. With plenty of key travel and a quick mechanism, typing is a pleasure. The keyboard is fine for fast typing, but it can't hold a candle to the XPS 15 and HP Spectre x360 15 or the Magic Keyboard on the new MacBook Pro 16.

The touchpad is also above-average, with plenty of room for a Windows 10 interface (though not as much as the large version on the MacBook) and compatibility with Microsoft Precision touchpad drivers. Windows 10's touch gestures work reliably and are enjoyable to use.

After that, we'll have the presentation. The resolution of Full HD on a 15.6-inch screen isn't as sharp as I'd like. For screens of this size, I recommend either 1440p or 4K resolution. However, the screen on a Dell Inspiron won't be a problem in most circumstances. Even though the 323 nits of brightness are plenty, the 820:1 contrast ratio is slightly less than ideal. Compared to the optimal ratio of 1,000 to one, that is far lower.

Similarly, the display on the Lenovo Yoga C940 was comparable, except it had somewhat better contrast and color accuracy and was less remarkable overall. Higher-end laptops, including the Dell XPS 15 and the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme, include more precise color-adjustment screens.

Playing Ability in the Game

The GTX 1650 is available as an upgrade, but the review device I was sent only came with the GTX 1050. The GTX 1050 was popular a year or two ago because it could run lower-resolution and lower-detail versions of both older and newer games.

We put the Inspiron through our usual battery of gaming benchmarks, and its results were on par with those of competing laptops equipped with a GeForce GTX 1050. In 1080p with maximum settings, I got 52 frames per second in Fortnite but only 41 in Epic.

When running Assassin's Creed Odyssey at 1080p and High resolution, the Inspiron managed 32 frames per second but dropped to an unplayable 17 fps per second when running at Ultra High detail. Compared to current laptops with a GTX 1650, such as the Dell XPS 15 and the Asus ZenBook 15 UX534, these scores are typically lower by 10-15 FPS. If you plan on doing a lot of gaming on this laptop, you should upgrade to a more powerful card.