Dell Inspiron 2 in 1 Touch Screen Review

At a glance

Expert'southward Rating

Pros

• Sturdy construction and keyboard
• Peachy operation for the price
• Loud, punchy speakers

Cons

• Brandish doesn't become very brilliant
• Stiff, poorly-built touchpad
• Middling microphone quality

Our Verdict

Dell'south convertible Inspiron has loftier-cease laptop features for roughly $1,000, simply with a few notable downsides.

Price When Reviewed

$849 base price (AMD CPU) | $one,000 as reviewed

All-time Prices Today

$849

The Dell Inspiron fourteen 2-in-ane occupies an unusual spot in the company's laptop lineup.

While Dell tends to reserve the Inspiron line for its cheapest and clunkiest consumer-form computers, the Inspiron fourteen 2-in-one borrows a handful of elements from higher-end laptops, including a metal lid, a fingerprint reader, surprisingly groovy speakers, and a sharp touchscreen that flips around into tablet mode. Still, further inspection reveals where the compromises lie.

The display is on the dim side, the chassis is part-plastic, the trackpad has a chintzy click machinery, and the laptop is heavier than high-end computers with like specs. Simply, if you lot can snag the Inspiron xiv ii-in-1 for less than its $ane,049 listing price, those trade-offs may be worthwhile.

Tech specs

Our detail Dell Inspiron 14 two-in-one review unit of measurement costs $1,049 from Dell but has frequently been on sale for $800 and information technology includes the post-obit specs:

• AMD Ryzen 7 5700U CPU
• 14-inch, 1920 10 1080 IPS touchscreen
• 16 GB DD4-3200 RAM
• 512 GB Chiliad.2 PCIe NVMe solid state storage
• 720p webcam
• Fingerprint reader
• Left side: HDMI 1.4b, USB-A 3.i Gen 1, USB-C 3.2 Gen one
• Right side: Headphone jack, USB-A 3.ane Gen 1, MicroSD card slot
• Weight: iii.43 lbs. (Ability brick adds 0.58 lbs.)
• Dimensions: 12.66 x eight.32 x 0.71 inches

The Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-one has both a USB-A port and a MicroSD carte du jour slot.

Jared Newman / IDG

Meanwhile, an $849 pick (or $600 on saleas of this writing) leaves you with a Ryzen five 5500U processor, 256 GB of storage, and 8GB of RAM. Unfortunately, you lot tin't mix and match tech specs, so your just option if you want more storage or RAM is to purchase the higher-cease model for $200 more. (Dell likewise offers other configurations with Intel processors, which we're not reviewing hither.)

Port selection is solid with both HDMI and MicroSD ports and ii USB-A ports, but be aware that the HDMI 1.4b spec only supports 4K at xxx Hz, and so y'all'll be limited to 1080p on external monitors or TVs if want smooth 60 frames per second video. Too, the laptop's charger occupies the sole USB-C port, leaving no room for USB-C accessories.

Design and display

The Inspiron 14 2-in-1 comes in a single color scheme called "Mist Blue," simply it'due south a subtle hue that just covers the aluminum lid and information technology's barely distinguishable from the greyness matte plastic chassis underneath. Despite the use of plastic, this is a sturdy auto. You'll hear nary a crepitate when grabbing the laptop by its corners and the keyboard barely flexes at all nether pressure level.

A drop hinge gives the Inspiron 14 2-in-ane a raised surface on which to blazon.

Jared Newman / IDG

The 1080p touchscreen has a glossy finish with edge-to-edge glass that helps reinforce the laptop'southward premium look. The bottom of the screen drops down below the keyboard section in clamshell fashion, providing a raised surface for typing. The screen tin besides flip around 360-degrees into tablet style and has stylus support, though no pen is included in the box.

Still, with a meridian effulgence of 250 nits, this is a screen whose brightness you'll desire to go along cranked up all the way in well-lit environments and you'll likely wish it could go a flake brighter. I too noticed a slight fading in effulgence around the upper border of the screen—the marking of a mediocre display.

As the proper name suggests, the Inspiron 14 2-in-1 tin fold around into a tablet—or prop itself up in tent mode.

Jared Newman / IDG

Trackpad and keyboard

Dell put a pretty nice keyboard into the Inspiron 14 2-in-1. While the keys keep a low contour and don't offering a huge amount of travel, they depress with a satisfying bump and I detected none of the squishiness or wobbliness you find on cheaper keyboards. They also barely give off any racket and back up two levels of backlighting.

Dell equipped this laptop with a spacious keyboard and trackpad, but the quondam is ameliorate than the latter.

Jared Newman / IDG

The trackpad is more of an issue, particularly for users who prefer to click down instead of tapping. The click machinery starts to become pretty potent about halfway upwards the trackpad and it wobbles only slightly under your finger earlier you click down the whole way. While the touchpad surface is fairly smooth, it still has a bit more friction than what you lot'd find in higher-end laptops.

Webcam, security, audio

Like most Windows laptops, the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-i'due south 720p webcam is aught special. It'southward passable for videoconferencing in well-lit rooms, but it shoots grainy video in lower lighting conditions. Microphone quality isn't great either, resulting in sparse-sounding vocals.

The camera does include a privacy shutter, which is another dainty touch typically constitute on higher-cease laptops. While it lacks face recognition back up, there is a fingerprint reader built into the power button on the keyboard.

A slim switch higher up the webcam lets you cover it up—no tape necessary.

Jared Newman / IDG

Speaker quality is also a pleasant surprise, as the Inspiron 14 two-in-1 produces some of the loudest and punchiest audio you'll find on a Windows laptop. Although the audio does misconstrue a scrap at maximum volume, you'll never strain to hear what's happening while watching videos or tuning into conference calls.

Performance

For a laptop with an AMD Ryzen 7 5700U processor on board, the Dell Inspiron fourteen 2-in-1'southward performance is only almost what you'd expect. It tears through multi-threaded tasks such as video encoding and information technology feels sufficiently zippy for web browsing and document editing. The laptop too remained comfortably cool and quiet while juggling multiple apps, browser tabs, and downloads.

The Inspiron 14 2-in-1'southward productivity prowess was on display in Futuremark's PCMark x test, which simulates a gamut of part work, web browsing, and artistic tasks. It edged out several other 2-in-1 laptops we've tested lately, including the similarly-priced HP Envy x360 15 with the same processor.

Jared Newman / IDG

HP's laptop did retake the lead in our Handbrake test, which involves encoding a big video file, only both laptops maintain a commanding lead over comparable 2-in-1s with Intel processors. More cores are most always meliorate for this test and Intel's quad-core i7-1165G7 CPU is no match for the eight cores in AMD's Ryzen 7 5700U.

Jared Newman / IDG

Similarly, the Inspiron 14 ii-in-one's multi-threaded performance excelled in the quick performance stress test of Cinebench, but note that Intel-powered laptops have an edge in single-threaded performance, which covers most basic productivity tasks. The difference isn't something you'd necessarily detect, but it is there.

Jared Newman / IDG

As for battery life, the Inspiron 14 two-in-1 has a 54,000 Whr battery, which puts it in the middle of the road for thin-and-light laptops. That'due south conspicuously reflected in our battery rundown examination, which loops a video in offline mode at a consistent effulgence level. Dell'southward laptop lasted for 11 hours and 17 minutes, which is neither bad nor great. Outside of examination conditions, you may be able to clasp a full workday out of this laptop, only you lot'll likely desire to pack the charger but in instance.

Jared Newman / IDG

Meanwhile, AMD's integrated Radeon graphics notwithstanding aren't made for serious gaming, simply I was able to eke out a session of Fortnite at medium graphics settings and 50% display scaling. And, of grade, less enervating games like the 2d platformer Axiom Verge two worked just fine. All the same, I've had better gaming experiences with the Iris Xe graphics in Intel Core i7-powered laptops and our 3DMark Time Spy test shows that these laptops tend to fare amend in gaming benchmarks too.

Jared Newman / IDG

Overall, this Dell Inspiron fourteen 2-in-ane offers a lot to like, especially at its oft-discounted price of $800. It's a sturdy laptop with strong functioning, a convertible touchscreen, loud speakers, and a convenient fingerprint reader. Just the trade-offs you lot'll brand in pursuit of that lower cost—most notably the dim display and strong trackpad—might just go along you from outright loving it.

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Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/553501/dell-inspiron-14-2-in-1-review-nice-features-on-a-budget.html

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