Unobtrusive, versatile, and reasonably priced, the Dell Inspiron i5567-5473GRY is an appealing desktop-replacement laptop for work and school. It offers a stunning 1080p touch display –which so far sets it apart from the competition–, a premium-feeling chassis, and a useful array of ports.
It isn’t the most powerful laptop in the room, though, but incorporating premium features such as a full-HD resolution touch screen and a seventh-generation Intel Core i7 processor are a sure win-win for anyone out to save a couple of bucks. On the whole, the combination works well, but on a feature-by-feature basis and performance, they aren’t enough to dethrone similarly configured top picks.
Design and Features
The Inspiron 15 is sturdy and well built, at 0.91 by 15.35 by 10.2 inches (HWD) and 5.1pounds, it isn’t the most portable laptop around, especially with ultrabooks around that weight a couple of grams. It has the appearance and feel of a more expensive system, wrapped entirely in silver, which is fair than the standard business black. The keyboard is nicely backlit, though it isn’t the finest aspect in this laptop. The typing experience is great, though professional writers and editors will not fail t notice that key travel is a bit shallow.
Under the lid is a 15.5-inch display with a 1,920-by-1080 (Full HD) resolution, with a glossy, somewhat reflective coating. The 1080p resolution touch panel delivers a sharp, highly detailed picture, as well as bright, well-saturated colors. Viewing angles are typical for most cheap TN panels; and, you’ll experience some offset colors when you view the screen from any 60-degree off the center. The keyboard deck holds a full-size, chiclet style keyboard with a number pad on the right and a large clickpad on the bottom.
Connectivity isn’t bad, even with noticeable caveats. On the left side are two USB 3.0 ports, HDMI and RJ 45 Ethernet port alongside the headset jack, while the right has a USB 2.0 port and an SD card slot. No fancy USB Type-C port, or miniDisplayPort on this model.
For storage, the unit includes a 1TB hard drive (5400rpm) which is quite unfair, since it’s now becoming standard to have snappy solid-state drives (SSDs) in this category. In case you need to upgrade, you’ll have to swap the mechanical HDD with a 2.5 SSD. The laptop also features dual-band 802.11ac wireless and Bluetooth 4.2 and a DVD/CD drive for your older movies and files.
Performance
Powered by an Intel Core i7-7500u processor and Intel HD 620 graphics card, the Inspiron 5473GRY will deliver on most mid-complex tasks thrown its way. This 3.5Ghz processor is among the late 2016 releases by Intel as art of its seventh-generation processor codenamed “Kaby Lake”, which are taking over from the previous gen., Sky Lake processors.
To that, add 8GB DDR4 system memory (upgradable to 16GB) and you have a beefy system that will last a few years before it begins to feel slow. Also, the fact that you can upgrade the memory may help later as websites and programs continue to add background functions that tax performance.
Without a discrete graphics card, gaming is compromised though you can still play less-demanding games with little eye candy. For instance, you get around 30FPS on GTA 5 in low settings. Battery life is fairly standard for a 1080p laptop of this size. It lasted for 5 hours, 17 minutes, on our rundown test, which isn’t short in itself, but it doesn’t stack up so well against the competition.
Conclusion
The best qualities of the Dell Inspiron i5567-5473GRY are its seventh-generation processor, touch screen panel and backlit keyboard, which make it appear premium and high-end. Particularly, the touch screen is a bright point, even at 1080p, and side from a few quibbles with the slow hard drive, this is a sturdy machine.
Performance is solid, but doesn’t stand out, and battery life isn’t great. For a little more money, the Acer Aspire 15 gives you lots more, in terms of performance improvement, much better battery, and a lighter design.
Dell USB 3.0 Ultra HD/4K Triple Display Docking Station (D3100), Black
$155.99 in stock
41 used from $65.65
