For Dell, the Inspiron lineup of laptops has long been their bread and butter. Over the years, the Inspiron name has established itself as a capable workhorse for college students and professionals, slotting in between the business-focussed Vostro and Latitude lineups, the high-end XPS devices and the powerhouse Alienware gaming lineup.
Lately, as conventional laptops have been hit by the influx of powerful phones, ultrabooks, 2-in-1s and their like, Dell has realised that their products need to wear many hats to cater to the multifaceted user of the modern age. So they took the good old Inspiron, spliced in some Alienware gaming DNA, and the result is the Inspiron Gaming lineup.
Divided into the 5000 and 7000 series, the Inspiron Gaming lineup aims to be everyday productivity device by day, and gaming beast by night, and in the case of the top-end Inspiron 7567 we tested, Dell seems to have hit the sweet spot.
At first sight, the laptop looks like any other, except for the all matte finish and the red Dell logo. The chin of the device also gets a red-accented honeycomb like design, while the the dual-fan exhaust at the rear continues the red theme, with a sporty cover over the vents. The hinge section gets a gunmetal finish, and an overall wedge-like shape breaks up the mass of the laptop nicely. The keyboard is pushed up a little to offer a massive area to rest the hands for long gaming sessions, and the trackpad is large, and gets the job done. The WASD keys on the keyboard are highlighted, and like the trackpad, key travel and overall quality is acceptable. For serious gaming, we’d recommend investing in a dedicated keyboard and mouse setup that can handle more abuse. The keyboard does come with a red backlight, which has two brightness levels. Visually, the Inspiron is understated enough to use in public without screaming out its gaming credentials, but has enough design cues to hint at something sinister under the hood.
Powering the 7000 series is a seventh-generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor, backed up by 16GB DDR4 RAM. To keep things moving along quickly, the laptop comes with a 256GB solid state drive and a 1TB hard drive for regular storage (there is also a variant with 8GB RAM and no SSD). The laptop comes with a 15.6-inch Full HD anti-glare display. The matte coating of the display helps a lot in brightly backlit environments, though purists who prefer glossy screens for optimal video watching may be disappointed. The screen is not the most vibrant either.
Most gamers are likely to consider this a fair tradeoff, and focus their attention on the bright Geforce GTX sticker on the laptop, indicating the presence of Nvidia’s Geforce GTX 1050Ti under the hood. The card comes with an ample 4GB GDDR5 video memory, rounding off a pretty capable hardware setup. Dell has not skimped on ports either, packing in three USB ports, an SD card reader, ethernet jack, 3.5mm headphone input, and an HDMI port. The addition of a USB-C port would have been welcome however.
All this hardware means the Inspiron 7000 Gaming is no lightweight, in both metaphorical and literal senses. Tipping the scales at over two-and-a-half kilos, this laptop is heavy for an everyday carry, though far lighter than machines with dedicated gaming credentials. Considering all it offers, this is still an acceptable tradeoff for most gamers.
With this kind of hardware, the Inspiron makes a light breakfast out of everyday productivity tasks, and that i7 can handle even more demanding work like video editing on the go. But does it bring the goods while gaming?
We fired up Steam, got some of our favourite titles, and took it for a spin. The Inspiron blasted through the usual suspects like Rise Of The Tomb Raider and Witcher 3 with settings turned up high, so we gave it more to do by trying the notoriously Video RAM hungry Batman: Arkham Knight. With everything turned up, and all the Nvidia-specific effects like dynamic paper, shadows, light and rain enabled, the VRAM meter in the game’s UI almost filled up the card’s 4GB limit, but stayed within acceptable range. While playing the game, the frame rate remained fluid, averaging around 40 frames per second even as we fought our way through baddies, and indulged in some high-speed Batmobile chases. Even at full tilt, the laptop remained relatively silent, and temperatures were well in check, with some mild warming of the upper half of the keyboard being the only indication of the load. Quit gaming, and the fans spool down to near noiseless levels quickly.
In other news, the speaker system is comprised of two speakers and a downward firing subwoofer, and the webcam has a maximum resolution of 720p. Like many other aspects of the laptop’s hardware, Dell has cut corners where it could afford to, and maximised the bits that contribute toward the ‘Gaming’ label. The six-cell battery that comes as standard does a reasonable job under light to medium load in everyday settings, getting us through an average workday, but gaming is a plug-in affair, obviously.
The laptop commands a price of ₹1,12,990 (₹91,390 if you are willing to shed half the RAM and the SSD), which puts it in stiff competition with Lenovo’s Legion and HP’s Omen line of gaming-oriented laptops, both of which offer similar specs. The Inspiron 5000 Gaming series is a more affordable alternative for most, starting at ₹72,990.
All things considered, if Dell’s general reliability and legacy of solid products has you locked on the Inspiron, its a decision hard to fault. Sure, the screen isn’t the best in the business and the general hardware doesn’t ooze premium, but the internals are more than up to scratch to handle the biggest titles of the year in 1080p, and that’s what counts.
