Introduction
In the last few years towards developing laptops are thinner devices with longer battery life. A beautiful development of course, but often this is accompanied by loss of power (CPU and graphics power) and loss of connectivity. I was looking for a laptop that and thinner and lighter than a 15 "laptop from 2-3 years ago, and good performance and connectivity. When I took the Dell Inspiron 15z I thought exactly to have found this. Whether this is so in practice, is further discussed in this review.
Price is of course also important to keep in mind when preparing a product reviews in mind. This model I on 28/07/2013 for € 584 (+ 10% VIP discount offer) to buy. Specs The laptop has the following specifications: - Processor: 3rd generation Intel Core i5-3337U (up to 2.7GHz, 3MB cache) , - Display: 15.6 "(39.6 cm) LED touch display with Gorilla Glass, resolution 1.366x768 pixels; - RAM: 6144MB (1x 2048 + 1x 4096) 1600MHz DDR3, - HDD: 500GB 5400RPM; - SSD: 32GB mSATA SSD; - Optical drive: Slimline 8x DVD-RW; - Wireless: Intel Centrino Wireless-N 22330, 2x2 802.11 b / g / n + Bluetooth 4.0; - Keyboard: International Qwerty Chicklet backlit multi-touch touchpad, - SIM card holder, - 38-in -1 card reader - 1 megapixel webcam with dual digital array microphones; - 2 Skullcandy speakers with Waves MaxxAudio 4 processing - 44kWh battery Dimensions and Weight Height 20.7 mm - 21.0 mm Width 347 mm Depth 240 mm Weight: 2.16 KG For this particular configuration , this Dell Inspiron 15z is officially an Ultrabook. This means that it meets the standards of the Intel thin & light category sets. It is important to note that it is touch and go. The laptop is in fact 21mm at its thickest point, which is the maximum thickness for laptops 14 "or larger. The weight is 2.16 kg, which is about a pound less than the "normal" laptops that I have experienced in recent years . It's still not as light as a 11 "Macbook, but that's comparing apples to oranges. If you look like an evolution of the 'normal' laptop, this is a good progress. Especially when you consider that the screen is covered with Gorilla Glass, which is also not weightless. Unboxing What does Dell for this laptop? - The laptop itself; - A 65W adapter 1m with European plug. On the block is a green light to indicate whether it is working or not: - A Dell Driver & Utilities DVD; - A quick start guide, -. safety and regulatory information The top of the laptop is finished in brushed aluminum, personally I think this give a high end look. Here you can see the 'thickness' of the laptop, as well as two USB 3 ports, the slimline DVD player and 38-in-1 card reader. Does not stop it? order to differentiate between USB 2 and USB 3 ports distinction, USB 3 ports are usually blue. Dell, however, has chosen to make. USB ports Black Since all of the USB ports 3 USB type you can not err, and aesthetically, I think it's a good choice. The front side of the laptop when it is opened. Dell has a sticker on the screen made to indicate that it is a touch screen. The large touch pad is on the chicklet keyboard and the abundance of stickers. The touch pad supports multi-touch gestures and, although in practice I do not use it. The touch pad is nice and large and smooth, but also has a slightly rough texture. The mouse buttons are not integrated into the touch pad but placed below. By clicking and dragging on the touch pad is unfortunately often happens to me that I spoke to a feature of Windows 8, namely to switch to the previous application. To combat this, you can do change the touch pad settings with the installed software, but other touchpads (ICM Windows 8) I have no problems with this. This could have been. Thus better set by the hardware manufacturer Keyboard The Inspiron 15z comes standard with a backlit keyboard, which makes typing in the dark area has a lot of added value. The backlit has 3 positions:. Bright, dim or off As mentioned, the keyboard is a chicklet keyboard, which means that there is some space between the keys is left. Personally I find this very pleasant and it helps prevent typos. The keys have a light touch, but you find that you have clearly struck a key or not. A very practical addition is the 'Fn' key. Pressing the Fn key, the F-keys have a second function. This is similar to the shift key + numbers on the keypad. Example, you can easily change the brightness of your monitor screen, the brightness of the keyboard backlight, volume, etc. etc. It is also possible to set the functionality F and Fn functions are reversed. In Bios If you use the F-keys, then use the second standard functionality. Connectivity Left: Combined hoofdtelefoon-/micofoonaansluiting (3.5mm), two USB3 ports, HDMI 1.4a port, Ethernet port, Kensington lock, vent and input the charger. Right: 38-in-1 card reader, two USB 3 ports, slimline DVD-RW drive. Front: status lights (left to right: power status, HDD, WIFI, touch pad) Rear: Nothing At the bottom of the laptop are the two Skullcandy speakers. Maybe I'm spoiled by the JBL speakers in the Dell 15 but these Skullcandy speakers, I do not think that's fantastic. The sound is quite shrill. A Youtube video can of course, but if you want to enjoy music you better connect headphones. Processor The Intel Core i5-3337U is an Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) dual core processor Ivy Bridge generation in Q1 2013 entered the market. The processor has two cores running at 1.8 MHz. Thanks to Hyperthreading processor can handle up to four threads simultaneously. Also, the processor with Turbo Boost 2.0 with a maximum turbo speed of 2.7 GHz. The processor is manufactured using the 22nm process. CPU AES encryption. Also supports the maximum TDP of this processor is 17W and thus focus on small laptops and Ultrabooks. iGPU The iGPU is the Intel HD Graphics 4000. This has 16 EUs, basic frequency is 350MHZ and the maximum graphics dynamic frequency is 1.1 GHz. A nice touch is that Intel Wireless Display is supported. The laptop does not have a dedicated graphics card. The graphics are so supplied only by the iGPU. For watching movies, browsing, etc. etc. However, this should be good enough. Incidentally falls at Dell have to do with a graphics card in this case. Configuration Bouwkwaliteit I'm very positive about the build quality. An important point for laptops is the hinge and are very sturdy. If you pick a corner of the screen to pop open the laptop housing tidy rigid. There are no spots on the laptop that you can press noticeable. Display To begin with the negative: the resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels is not to mention very high. The maximum brightness is not very bright to say, but for indoor use, this is good enough. The viewing angles are unfortunately not very good. Do not get me wrong: I'm not used to better laptops, but today there are far better screens available. If you are an 'average' laptop screen used this certainly will not be worse, but in terms of representation unfortunately I can not name anything bovengemiddelds. That said, is not much more to be expected in this price range. Fortunately I can still something positive to say about the screen. It is in fact a 10-point capacitive touch screen, and that's very cool! I'm used to with my mobile, but this laptop still gives a different user experience. The screen is nice and responsive. The combination of Windows 8 still ensures that the display is a special part of the laptop. Heat and noise in daily use it in a positive way, I noticed that the laptop / barely gets hot and therefore is very quiet. The laptop has no graphics (which are usually called heads) but still! On battery, you notice that the CPU is passively cooled until the temperature permits, and that to me is really worth a compliment! Hard Drives As mentioned earlier, the laptop has a 500GB 5400RPM HDD. In addition there is a 32GB mSATA SSD. Dell hard drives arranged in a RAID 0 configuration. Despite being two different physical disks, they are digitized as one hard drive. After some more digging I found out that the 22GB SSD with Intel Rapid Storage volume is used as a cache. Intel Rapid Storage recognizes the most commonly used applications and data, and stores it on the SSD. This should ensure that the limited space on the SSD optimally utilized to accelerate, while the remaining data can be placed. Quiet on the slower HDD system I have experience with a laptop with a larger SSD itself with the full OS and all programs are on the SSD. On the small mSATA SSD does not fit all, of course, but in practice I notice any performance difference. Dell seems to have this resolved so handy Unfortunately I can badly measured by the configuration of the performance of the SSD, so benchmark / statistical basis I can not give. Achievements In assessing the performance, I think it's important to look at the type of use. This laptop is designed for web browsing, downloading, movie watching, etc. There will be no games. Played on the main elements that affect the performance of the processor and the mSATA SSD. This combination makes the system very fast start: 18 seconds to get to the Modern UI screen of Windows 8 (although there are probably some programs in the background loading, but the system is ready for use). Also programs start just as soon as I am of systems that are faster on paper accustomed. In everyday use, the laptop is definitely fast enough for the type of use. Also full HD movies are no problem: as a test, I have no problem with a movie playing the following specifications: h264 (High) / 1920 x 1080 / fr: 23.976 / size 7.91 GB. I also played some benchmarks, but I not really comparable devices in the home to compare performance. So it's a bit of comparing apples to oranges. My favorites are the 45W quad-core i7-2630QM quad 100W and A8-5600K, while the i5-3337U is only 17W. In the multi-core benchmark, the i5-3337 at the bottom of the test. Nevertheless, I think it's a worthy achievement when you consider that it's only a dual core processor of 17W. Look how the performance is compared with the 100W A8-5600K! The 45W quad-core i7 is a clear winner. 's single core benchmark shows that the i5-3337U in the nick of the 100W quad-core A8-5600K beats. Here too, the i7 (45W) to see what he can do. The graphical results are also interesting. The GeForce GT525M is a midrange graphics card of a laptop from 2011 and performs roughly one and a half times as well as the integrated HD4000 the i5-3337. Battery life I have not been extensively tested, but I estimate that the laptop in normal use about 4 hours possibilities on one battery charge. I find this an acceptable score. Others From Dell laptops that I am used to pick up fairly well apart to adjust it. some parts Think of the HDD or RAM. Unfortunately, the technical service Dell could tell me that the mSATA SSD may be (without losing your warranty). Not replace Here is the English Owners find where a detailed explanation is about replacing / removing components. Manual Dell order To get an impression on Youtube a time lapse video of the disassembly of the Inspiron 15z. Conclusion The Dell Inspiron 15z is a good evolution of a 'normal' laptop 2-3 years ago. The laptop is thinner, thanks to the SSD starts everything lightning fast, it has a touch screen (!) And standard keyboard illumination. For € 584 is enormous 'bang-for-buck'! long as you do not play games or special programs (such as 3D drawing programs) running I can not recommend this laptop wholeheartedly. And if you want, you still choose a more expensive version with an i7 quad-core and single GPU? Edit 05-08-2013: Added conclusion, additional explanation keyboard and touch pad. 07-08-2013 Edit features status lights worked , adding Fn key
In the last few years towards developing laptops are thinner devices with longer battery life. A beautiful development of course, but often this is accompanied by loss of power (CPU and graphics power) and loss of connectivity. I was looking for a laptop that and thinner and lighter than a 15 "laptop from 2-3 years ago, and good performance and connectivity. When I took the Dell Inspiron 15z I thought exactly to have found this. Whether this is so in practice, is further discussed in this review.
Price is of course also important to keep in mind when preparing a product reviews in mind. This model I on 28/07/2013 for € 584 (+ 10% VIP discount offer) to buy. Specs The laptop has the following specifications: - Processor: 3rd generation Intel Core i5-3337U (up to 2.7GHz, 3MB cache) , - Display: 15.6 "(39.6 cm) LED touch display with Gorilla Glass, resolution 1.366x768 pixels; - RAM: 6144MB (1x 2048 + 1x 4096) 1600MHz DDR3, - HDD: 500GB 5400RPM; - SSD: 32GB mSATA SSD; - Optical drive: Slimline 8x DVD-RW; - Wireless: Intel Centrino Wireless-N 22330, 2x2 802.11 b / g / n + Bluetooth 4.0; - Keyboard: International Qwerty Chicklet backlit multi-touch touchpad, - SIM card holder, - 38-in -1 card reader - 1 megapixel webcam with dual digital array microphones; - 2 Skullcandy speakers with Waves MaxxAudio 4 processing - 44kWh battery Dimensions and Weight Height 20.7 mm - 21.0 mm Width 347 mm Depth 240 mm Weight: 2.16 KG For this particular configuration , this Dell Inspiron 15z is officially an Ultrabook. This means that it meets the standards of the Intel thin & light category sets. It is important to note that it is touch and go. The laptop is in fact 21mm at its thickest point, which is the maximum thickness for laptops 14 "or larger. The weight is 2.16 kg, which is about a pound less than the "normal" laptops that I have experienced in recent years . It's still not as light as a 11 "Macbook, but that's comparing apples to oranges. If you look like an evolution of the 'normal' laptop, this is a good progress. Especially when you consider that the screen is covered with Gorilla Glass, which is also not weightless. Unboxing What does Dell for this laptop? - The laptop itself; - A 65W adapter 1m with European plug. On the block is a green light to indicate whether it is working or not: - A Dell Driver & Utilities DVD; - A quick start guide, -. safety and regulatory information The top of the laptop is finished in brushed aluminum, personally I think this give a high end look. Here you can see the 'thickness' of the laptop, as well as two USB 3 ports, the slimline DVD player and 38-in-1 card reader. Does not stop it? order to differentiate between USB 2 and USB 3 ports distinction, USB 3 ports are usually blue. Dell, however, has chosen to make. USB ports Black Since all of the USB ports 3 USB type you can not err, and aesthetically, I think it's a good choice. The front side of the laptop when it is opened. Dell has a sticker on the screen made to indicate that it is a touch screen. The large touch pad is on the chicklet keyboard and the abundance of stickers. The touch pad supports multi-touch gestures and, although in practice I do not use it. The touch pad is nice and large and smooth, but also has a slightly rough texture. The mouse buttons are not integrated into the touch pad but placed below. By clicking and dragging on the touch pad is unfortunately often happens to me that I spoke to a feature of Windows 8, namely to switch to the previous application. To combat this, you can do change the touch pad settings with the installed software, but other touchpads (ICM Windows 8) I have no problems with this. This could have been. Thus better set by the hardware manufacturer Keyboard The Inspiron 15z comes standard with a backlit keyboard, which makes typing in the dark area has a lot of added value. The backlit has 3 positions:. Bright, dim or off As mentioned, the keyboard is a chicklet keyboard, which means that there is some space between the keys is left. Personally I find this very pleasant and it helps prevent typos. The keys have a light touch, but you find that you have clearly struck a key or not. A very practical addition is the 'Fn' key. Pressing the Fn key, the F-keys have a second function. This is similar to the shift key + numbers on the keypad. Example, you can easily change the brightness of your monitor screen, the brightness of the keyboard backlight, volume, etc. etc. It is also possible to set the functionality F and Fn functions are reversed. In Bios If you use the F-keys, then use the second standard functionality. Connectivity Left: Combined hoofdtelefoon-/micofoonaansluiting (3.5mm), two USB3 ports, HDMI 1.4a port, Ethernet port, Kensington lock, vent and input the charger. Right: 38-in-1 card reader, two USB 3 ports, slimline DVD-RW drive. Front: status lights (left to right: power status, HDD, WIFI, touch pad) Rear: Nothing At the bottom of the laptop are the two Skullcandy speakers. Maybe I'm spoiled by the JBL speakers in the Dell 15 but these Skullcandy speakers, I do not think that's fantastic. The sound is quite shrill. A Youtube video can of course, but if you want to enjoy music you better connect headphones. Processor The Intel Core i5-3337U is an Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) dual core processor Ivy Bridge generation in Q1 2013 entered the market. The processor has two cores running at 1.8 MHz. Thanks to Hyperthreading processor can handle up to four threads simultaneously. Also, the processor with Turbo Boost 2.0 with a maximum turbo speed of 2.7 GHz. The processor is manufactured using the 22nm process. CPU AES encryption. Also supports the maximum TDP of this processor is 17W and thus focus on small laptops and Ultrabooks. iGPU The iGPU is the Intel HD Graphics 4000. This has 16 EUs, basic frequency is 350MHZ and the maximum graphics dynamic frequency is 1.1 GHz. A nice touch is that Intel Wireless Display is supported. The laptop does not have a dedicated graphics card. The graphics are so supplied only by the iGPU. For watching movies, browsing, etc. etc. However, this should be good enough. Incidentally falls at Dell have to do with a graphics card in this case. Configuration Bouwkwaliteit I'm very positive about the build quality. An important point for laptops is the hinge and are very sturdy. If you pick a corner of the screen to pop open the laptop housing tidy rigid. There are no spots on the laptop that you can press noticeable. Display To begin with the negative: the resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels is not to mention very high. The maximum brightness is not very bright to say, but for indoor use, this is good enough. The viewing angles are unfortunately not very good. Do not get me wrong: I'm not used to better laptops, but today there are far better screens available. If you are an 'average' laptop screen used this certainly will not be worse, but in terms of representation unfortunately I can not name anything bovengemiddelds. That said, is not much more to be expected in this price range. Fortunately I can still something positive to say about the screen. It is in fact a 10-point capacitive touch screen, and that's very cool! I'm used to with my mobile, but this laptop still gives a different user experience. The screen is nice and responsive. The combination of Windows 8 still ensures that the display is a special part of the laptop. Heat and noise in daily use it in a positive way, I noticed that the laptop / barely gets hot and therefore is very quiet. The laptop has no graphics (which are usually called heads) but still! On battery, you notice that the CPU is passively cooled until the temperature permits, and that to me is really worth a compliment! Hard Drives As mentioned earlier, the laptop has a 500GB 5400RPM HDD. In addition there is a 32GB mSATA SSD. Dell hard drives arranged in a RAID 0 configuration. Despite being two different physical disks, they are digitized as one hard drive. After some more digging I found out that the 22GB SSD with Intel Rapid Storage volume is used as a cache. Intel Rapid Storage recognizes the most commonly used applications and data, and stores it on the SSD. This should ensure that the limited space on the SSD optimally utilized to accelerate, while the remaining data can be placed. Quiet on the slower HDD system I have experience with a laptop with a larger SSD itself with the full OS and all programs are on the SSD. On the small mSATA SSD does not fit all, of course, but in practice I notice any performance difference. Dell seems to have this resolved so handy Unfortunately I can badly measured by the configuration of the performance of the SSD, so benchmark / statistical basis I can not give. Achievements In assessing the performance, I think it's important to look at the type of use. This laptop is designed for web browsing, downloading, movie watching, etc. There will be no games. Played on the main elements that affect the performance of the processor and the mSATA SSD. This combination makes the system very fast start: 18 seconds to get to the Modern UI screen of Windows 8 (although there are probably some programs in the background loading, but the system is ready for use). Also programs start just as soon as I am of systems that are faster on paper accustomed. In everyday use, the laptop is definitely fast enough for the type of use. Also full HD movies are no problem: as a test, I have no problem with a movie playing the following specifications: h264 (High) / 1920 x 1080 / fr: 23.976 / size 7.91 GB. I also played some benchmarks, but I not really comparable devices in the home to compare performance. So it's a bit of comparing apples to oranges. My favorites are the 45W quad-core i7-2630QM quad 100W and A8-5600K, while the i5-3337U is only 17W. In the multi-core benchmark, the i5-3337 at the bottom of the test. Nevertheless, I think it's a worthy achievement when you consider that it's only a dual core processor of 17W. Look how the performance is compared with the 100W A8-5600K! The 45W quad-core i7 is a clear winner. 's single core benchmark shows that the i5-3337U in the nick of the 100W quad-core A8-5600K beats. Here too, the i7 (45W) to see what he can do. The graphical results are also interesting. The GeForce GT525M is a midrange graphics card of a laptop from 2011 and performs roughly one and a half times as well as the integrated HD4000 the i5-3337. Battery life I have not been extensively tested, but I estimate that the laptop in normal use about 4 hours possibilities on one battery charge. I find this an acceptable score. Others From Dell laptops that I am used to pick up fairly well apart to adjust it. some parts Think of the HDD or RAM. Unfortunately, the technical service Dell could tell me that the mSATA SSD may be (without losing your warranty). Not replace Here is the English Owners find where a detailed explanation is about replacing / removing components. Manual Dell order To get an impression on Youtube a time lapse video of the disassembly of the Inspiron 15z. Conclusion The Dell Inspiron 15z is a good evolution of a 'normal' laptop 2-3 years ago. The laptop is thinner, thanks to the SSD starts everything lightning fast, it has a touch screen (!) And standard keyboard illumination. For € 584 is enormous 'bang-for-buck'! long as you do not play games or special programs (such as 3D drawing programs) running I can not recommend this laptop wholeheartedly. And if you want, you still choose a more expensive version with an i7 quad-core and single GPU? Edit 05-08-2013: Added conclusion, additional explanation keyboard and touch pad. 07-08-2013 Edit features status lights worked , adding Fn key
Post a Comment