Overview

Does a $850 notebook with a 1050 Ti sound too good to be true?

The Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming series has been part of the increasingly interesting sub-$1000 gaming notebook market since it’s introduction in 2015. We took a look at last year’s offering and were very impressed with the performance it had to offer, but slightly disappointed in the build quality.

Dell is back this year with an all-new industrial design for the Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming along with updated graphics in form of the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti.  Can a $850 gaming notebook possibly live up to expectations? Let’s take a closer look.

After three generations of the Dell Inspiron 15 Gaming product, it’s evident that Dell takes this market segment seriously. Alienware seems to have lost a bit of the hearts and minds of gamers in the high-end segment, but Dell has carved out a nice corner of the gaming market.

Dell Inspiron 15 7567 Gaming  (configuration as reviewed)
Processor Intel Core i5-7300HQ (Kaby Lake)
Graphics NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1050 Ti (4GB)
Memory 8GB DDR4-2400 (One DIMM)
Screen 15.6-in 1920x1080 
Storage

256GB SanDisk X400 SATA M.2 

Available 2.5" drive slot

Camera 720p / Dual Digital Array Microphone
Wireless Intel 3165 802.11ac + BT 4.2 (Dual Band, 1x1)
Connections Ethernet
HDMI 2.0
3x USB 3.0
SD
Audio combo jack
Battery 74 Wh
Dimensions 384.9mm x 274.73mm x 25.44mm (15.15" x 10.82" x 1")
5.76 lbs. (2620 g)
OS Windows 10 Home
Price $849 - Dell.com

Let's just get this out of the way: for the $850 price tag of the model that we were sent by Dell for review, this is an amazing collection of hardware. Traditionally laptops under $1000 have an obvious compromise, but it's difficult to find one here. Dedicated graphics, flash Storage, 1080p screen, and a large battery all are features that I look for in notebooks. Needless to say, my expectations for the Inspiron 15 Gaming are quite high.

Even from a quick glance, anyone who was familiar with last year's iteration of the Inspiron 15 Gaming can see that the industrial design has been revitalized. 

Available in black or red, the chassis sports an all-new triangle inspired design detail on the front edge of the notebook. While it looks like this may be an air intake, the only functional aspect of this design is a clever hiding of the status indicator LED into one of the triangle sections.

The keyboard and mouse portion of the Inspiron 15 7000 seem largely unchanged from last year's model. I had no complaints with the chiclet-style keyboard on the previous iteration, and this keyboard is no different. The typing experience is what we have come to expect from traditional scissor switches and is no problem after spending a short time with the notebook.

The trackpad seems to be a bit improved from last year's design and now provides a more satisfying, tactile click. Palm rejection does leave a bit to be desired but is par for the course with most modern trackpads I've used on PCs.

The thing that excites me the most about the revamped design on the Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming is the new hinge. Gone are the small hinges on either side of the screen that felt weak, and they have been replaced with a subsantial, solid single hinge in the middle of the notebook. This feels much less likely to break than the previous iteration, and helps stabilize the notebook from screen wobble.

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