The Inspiron Series from Dell carries with it the history of being the affordable Ultrabook right from its launch in the early 2000s with the Inspiron 2100. All the laptops in the Inspiron series are no-nonsense, futuristic models on a budget and with the trend shifting to 2-in-1s, the Dell Inspiron 13 5000 series is the entry-level devices that Dell has to offer. With the price range beginning from USD 499.99 staging up to USD 729.99, the Dell Inspiron 13 5000 Series 5379 laptops does not have what it takes to be a flagship or a premium model, but it definitely does packs in the punch for doing a fair bit of heavy lifting of the daily office chores.
Table of Contents
Form Factor
The 13.3-inch 2-in-1 laptop sports a metallic look, which is actually very sturdy plastic, and all variants sport what Dell calls Era Grey in color. With the weight of around 1.62 Kg for a full HD version, the laptop is the bit on the heavier side in comparison to the available ultrabooks. However, the bulkier form factor is actually offset by the pricing and features. The screen lid is a little stiff but maintains functionality, and stiffness even with prolonged rough usage.
The left side of the device houses the HDMI port, 2 First Generation USB 3.1, a volume rocker, a power button and a combo jack for headphone and microphone apart from the charging port, and right side features a USB 2.0 port and an SD Card Reader. Remarkably there is no RJ45 jack or any Type C ports for Thunderbolt compatibility, also there are no optical drives in the device. The laptop also divorces legacy support for VGA or DVI devices.
The Screen has quite a bit of bezel and the screen brightness of the 13.3-inch screen is also not great. Though it has a good color contrast, but visibility wise, it is very difficult to use outdoors under harsh sunlight. The island keyboard is backlit, but the feel of the keys are way sub-par in comparison to the other ultrabooks, topping the issue up, the wide trackpad of the laptop requires quite a bit of pressure and there are possible sensitivity issues.
Dell advises the camera to be a 720p HD one, but the picture quality captured indoors is quite grainy, and the facial unlock feature also acts up frequently, which may lock a user out, owing to a grainy input. The speakers of the laptop are faced down on the bottom of the device and create an issue with the loudness of the device.
Processor
The Dell Inspiron 13 5000 Series 5379 laptops come in four variants, with varying cost. One of the cost differentiators is the processor, while the USD 499.99 variant provides an Intel 4415U Pentium Processor, the USD 579.99 model provides a 7th Generation Core i3-7100U and the USD 729.99 version provides an 8th Generation Core i5-8250U processor.
The entry-level processor in the USD 499.99 variant is best suited for regular office job while the latter is more conducive to official heavy lifting
RAM
Both the USD 499.99 and USD 579.99 variants provide 4GB DDR4 RAM with an empty RAM slot and expansion support to 16GB on a 2400 MHz DIMM, however the upper variant packs in an 8GB DDR4 RAM and an expansion possibility of up to 32 GB, on a 2400 MHz DIMM.
Hard Disk Drive
There is a differentiation in pricing with regards to the Hard Disk Drive of the device. While the lower versions (USD 499.99 & USD 579.99) pack in a 1 TB 5400 rpm HDD, the higher end variant (priced at USD 729.99) has an option to choose between a 1 TB 5400 rpm Hard Disk Drive or a 256 GB Solid State Drive. However, beneath the hood, the SSD is connected to a normal SATA port, to the motherboard, which in general impacts its capabilities for high-speed Data Transfer.
GPU
The laptop does not provide a dedicated GPU for the devices. All the variants use the Integrated Intel Graphics memory but however, the quality of the GPU varies with the variants. The entry-level variant features an Intel HD graphics 610 series, with a shared memory, while the middle-level variant packs in an Intel 620 chipset with shared memory. The top-level variant features a dedicated Intel UHD GPU Chipset. Performance wise, the GPU can handle light Graphic Resource hungry apps like a charm, with a limited Graphic and photo manipulation ability, but definitely, gaming or high definition graphics resource-intensive applications are definitely out of forte for the device.
Battery life
All the devices pack a 42WHr battery with a decent backup of around 7 hours. However, it is pertinent to note that the battery is integrated to the motherboard and non-detachable and that fast charging is not supported in this device.
The Product at a Glance
| Processor | Intel 4415U Pentium, Intel Core i3-7100U OR Intel Core i5-8250U |
| RAM | 4GB or 8GB 2400MHz DDR4
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| Display | 13.3-inch FHD IPS |
| Wireless | 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1 |
| Battery | 3-Cell 42WHr Integrated |
| Operating System | 64-bit Windows 10 Home |
Final Verdict
With a lot of deal breakers in the plate, the positive thing about this device is the nifty price tag and the no-nonsense form factor that this device offers. It may not be classy and may not pack all the firepower that one expects from an ultrabook, but then it does the job of normal office heavy lifting like a charm and offers more features and stability than any sub under $800 Ultrabooks. See price on Dell Official website.
