17 Jun
Blog

Microsoft Surface Book 3 13 Review: Portable and Powerful

Microsoft Surface Book 3 13 review

Microsoft Surface Book 3 (13-inch) review: a portable powerhouse

"The Surface Book 3 13-inch does an excellent job of supporting its unique design."

  • Great job

  • Good battery life

  • Excellent input options

  • Sharp, high-contrast display

The Surface Book 3 is said to be the performance-oriented laptop from Microsoft. This can sometimes be a problem for the 15-inch model, which has to compete with powerhouses like the Dell XPS 15 and the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch. These laptops use powerful eight-core Intel Core i9 processors that promise excellent performance.

However, a powerful 13-inch laptop is rarer. This smaller Surface Book 3 has the chance to shine here. My test configuration consisted of a 10th generation Intel Core i7 CPU, a discrete Nvidia GTX 1650 Ti graphics card and a whopping 32 GB of RAM.

The price of $ 2,500 is undoubtedly high, but based on the specs alone, this could be the most powerful 13-inch laptop ever made.

design

The surface book 3 is a contradiction. On the one hand, it remains the most futuristic laptop on the market today, despite a design that is identical to the Surface Book 2 released in late 2017. Pressing a button and tearing off the display is as satisfactory as ever – no other 2-in-1 is pretty cool.

The build quality is excellent and competes with the MacBook line for elegance and solidity. There is no creaking, bending or groaning of the laptop, no matter how you handle it, in the lid, in the keyboard deck or in the case bottom. The Surface line is generally well made, and the Surface Book 3 offers perhaps the most impressive build quality of all.

At the same time, the Surface Book 3 feels a bit old. The bezels are relatively large, and the same goes for the bulky case. While other laptops are squeezed into tiny frames thanks to tiny bezels, the Surface Book 3 feels like a relapse when the machines were thick and chunky.

Using it on the tray table of a commercial aircraft is not easy.

As a 13-inch laptop, it competes with the incredibly slim HP Specter x360 13 and the Dell XPS 13, both of which are significantly smaller (for example, more than 1.5 inches less deep). The Surface Book 3 is 0.59 inches thick at its thinnest point at the front, which seems to be thin enough, but then it flares up to a massive 0.91 inches at the back due to the rounded pivot hinge. The Specter x360 13 is 0.67 inches and the XPS 13 is 0.58 inches, and both feel a bit thinner. The Surface Book 3 also weighs 3.62 pounds compared to the HP at 2.88 pounds and the Dell at 2.65 pounds.

You won't find it easy to use the Surface Book 3, for example, on the tray table of a commercial aircraft, especially given the fact that the display is more recessed than most other models. Like the thickness, this is due to the pivot hinge, which balances the heavier display than usual. You can flip the display easily enough and use it in media mode, but the same goes for other 2-in-1 devices. And smaller laptops like the Specter x360 13 and the XPS 13 fit well in the same limited spaces.

An advantage of the design of the Surface Book 3 is that the keyboard base stays cool thanks to the heat-generating components in the display, unless you press the discrete GPU.

As a tablet, however, the Surface Book 3 is very comfortable and has only one major disadvantage. First of all, it's thin and light, surprisingly for its 13.5-inch size. Thanks to the 3: 2 aspect ratio, which is closer to a sheet of paper, and the excellent support for the active Surface Pen from Microsoft, it is ideal for coloring. It could be an older design, but it remains pretty functional.

The only problem with using the Surface Book 3 as a tablet is that, unlike the Surface Pro 7, there is no stand and it is therefore not easy to use it to watch media, for example. The best way to bend Netflix is ​​to flip the tablet around the pivot hinge and use the keyboard base to support things. It's not an easy solution, but it works well.

Connectivity is another area where Microsoft has not fully adopted modern computing. The Surface Book 3 has two USB-A 3.1 ports, an SD card reader, a USB-C 3.1 port and the Microsoft Surface Connect port, which enables quick charging and connection to the company's new Surface Dock 2. These ports are all on the keyboard dock, while the tablet has a Surface Connect port for charging.

Thunderbolt 3 is missing, which limits the number and performance of the connected devices. This also means that the Surface Book 3 cannot connect to external GPUs. According to internal reports, Thunderbolt 3 poses a security risk. For this reason, it has been excluded from Surface devices.

performance

Yes, the Surface Book 3 is big for a 13-inch laptop. There is a reason, however: most of the computer components, including the CPU and most of the electronics, are on the display. The discrete GPU (on the Core i7 models) and a number of battery capacities are located on the keyboard base. That's why the laptop is so thick overall and the tablet area is so bulky compared to a simple display.

During my tests, the Surface Book 3 was very fast in my test configuration with a 10th generation Intel Core i7-1065G7 and 32 GB RAM (unusual for 13-inch laptops). It has passed our benchmarks and performed better than many of its 13-inch competitors. In Geekbench 5, for example, the HP Specter x360 13 was surpassed and adapted to the Dell XPS 13. It was even faster than our test configuration of the Surface Book 3 15 with less memory.

The Surface Book 3 is a leading provider of 13-inch laptops.

In our real handbrake test, in which a 420 MB video was encoded as H.265, the Surface Book 3 was completed in one second over 3 minutes, which in turn corresponds almost exactly to the very fast Dell XPS 13 and the Specter x360 13 um surpasses almost a minute.

This makes the Surface Book 3 a leading provider of 13-inch laptops. The MacBook Pro is the only 13-inch laptop that outperforms the CPU thanks to its custom 25-watt processor.

When you use the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q graphics, you have a laptop that becomes even more competitive for any creative application that the GPU can use. This isn't the fastest GPU, but it's a lot faster than the built-in Intel graphics that almost every 13-inch laptop relies on. The only other outlier is the Razer Blade Stealth 13, which uses the GTX 1650 Ti. This laptop doesn't have the unique design of the Surface Book, which doesn't force the GPU and CPU to share the same space.

Play

You may want to put the GTX 1650 Max-Q through its paces and use the Surface Book 3 13 as a gaming laptop for beginners. And for the most part, you can do that – as long as you alleviate your expectations. I guided the laptop through our gaming tests and was a little underwhelmed. The laptop isn't quite as fast as some other laptops with similar GPUs, although most of them are larger 15-inch laptops.

For example, the Surface Book 3 was far behind the previous Dell XPS 15 with the GTX 1650 and even further behind the latest XPS 15 with the GTX 1650 Ti in all of our benchmarks. This includes the synthetic 3DMark suite, in which the older XPS 15 more than 10% faster and the newer model was almost 20% faster. Civilization VI was a game in which the Surface Book 3 was a little more competitive, probably thanks to the strong CPU performance, at 68 frames per second (FPS) in 1080p and medium graphics compared to the older XPS 15 with 56 FPS and the newer 114 FPS model. In Assassins Creed: Odyssey, however, the Surface Book 3 only managed 25 FPS in 1080p and high settings, compared to the older XPS 15 with 42 FPS and the newer model with 47 FPS. The trend continued in Battlefield V: The Surface Book 3 reached 41 FPS compared to 54 FPS with the older XPS and 60 FPS with the newer model.

The Surface Book 3 couldn't reach 60 FPS in Fortnite, a lighter game that serves as a benchmark for starter games. The older XPS 15 achieved 67 FPS and the newer model reached 74 FPS. If you reject graphic details, you can get playable frame rates of 1080p with the Surface Book 3. This is great for a 13-inch laptop. Just don't expect it to replace a real gaming laptop anytime soon.

Of course, the discrete graphics are not standard. The base model starts at $ 1,600 and you'll have to pay $ 500 more to get this extra graphics performance. The larger 15-inch version offers the option for the more powerful GTX 1660 Ti.

display

The Surface Book 3 has an IPS display in a productivity-friendly 3: 2 aspect ratio and a high resolution of 3,000 x 2,000. It's not quite 4K, but both text and image details are sharp. As with all Surface devices, all configurations of the Surface Book 3 contain the same high-resolution display.

According to my colorimeter, the display has its advantages and disadvantages. First of all, it is bright with 422 nits and has an excellent contrast of 1,420: 1 (we like displays with 1000: 1 or higher). That is the good thing. However, the color gamut is not particularly large at 94% sRGB and 73% AdobeRGB, and at 2.10 they are not the most accurate (1.0 or less is considered excellent). You get better displays on 13-inch laptops like the OLED display of the HP Specter x360 13 and the excellent 4K display of the Dell XPS 13. Both offer wider and more accurate colors, as well as equivalent or better brightness and contrast.

The display of the Surface Book 3 is a real pleasure. The aspect ratio gives you more vertical space for a more expansive work area. Although this results in some letterboxing when watching videos, the images are sharp and bright.

However, audio is not that impressive. There are two front-facing speakers on the display that offer enough volume to watch YouTube videos occasionally. However, the bass is missing and you should have a pair of headphones at hand if you want high quality sound.

Battery life

One of the most famous claims of the Surface Book 2 was its battery life, as it is one of the longest-lasting 13-inch laptops ever. The Surface Book 3 takes a step back and offers a strong, but not quite class-leading longevity – this is another area in which the competition has overtaken and surpassed Microsoft's offer.

The Surface Book 3 took 5 hours in our demanding Basemark web benchmark test. This is a good result and surpasses the 15-inch Surface Book 3 and the Dell XPS 13 with a full HD display. In our web browser test, the Surface Book 3 managed almost 10 hours, a good but not great score that the XPS 13 beat by 100 minutes. In our video loop test, the Surface Book 3 lasted just over 13.5 hours, which was almost an hour less than the XPS 13. Of course, given the XPS 13's Full HD display, this is not a completely fair test. Compared to the HP Specter x360 13 with OLED display, the Surface Book 3 lasted for hours while surfing the Internet and watching videos. Note that the Surface Book 2 took 20.6 hours to go through our test video and 15.5 hours to surf the web.

However, most of the battery capacity is in the keyboard base. If you remove the display and use it as a tablet, the battery life will be significantly reduced. In this mode, the Surface Book 3 lasted just under 1.5 hours in the Basemark test, less than 2.5 hours when surfing the Internet and only 3.5 hours when playing our test video. This is disappointing, especially when compared to other tablets that last for hours, like the Surface Pro 7.

Keyboard and touchpad

The Surface Book 3 has always had one of the best keyboards. It has a lot of travel with a snappy feel that ensures a precise and comfortable typing experience. It's also pretty quiet, which is a plus for work without bothering anyone around you. I like the Magic keyboard better on the latest MacBooks, but the Surface Book 3 comes close to my second favorite, the Specter x360 13 keyboard.

The touchpad also works well. It is based on Microsoft Precision touchpad drivers and offers a smooth and consistent Windows 10 multi-touch experience. It's as good a touchpad as a Windows laptop, although it's smaller than it could be on the keyboard deck. However, the size did not hold me back.

The display is of course touch sensitive and reacts just as well as all surface displays. It supports Microsoft's superb Surface Pen, which offers tilt, 4,096 pressure sensitivity levels and one of the best Windows color experiences. As already mentioned, the display has an aspect ratio of 3: 2, which makes it look much more like a normal 8.5 x 11-sheet paper. It's just unfortunate that the $ 100 surface pen isn't included in such an expensive laptop.

Finally, the Surface Book 3 supports password-free Windows 10 Hello login via an infrared camera and face recognition. It's fast, reliable, and better than a fingerprint reader on the keyboard deck because it only works in tablet mode.

Our opinion

The Microsoft Surface Book 3 is a unique 13-inch laptop. It's a bit bigger than its competition, but it offsets this with a strong performance that you will find in few other machines of similar size. Compared to the Surface Book 2, the latest model is simply a faster iteration of a proven design.

It is also very expensive as my test configuration is $ 2,500. The unique design makes it difficult to compare it to other laptops, but it's only worth the cost if you're convinced of the usefulness of the tablet elements.

Are there alternatives?

You can choose from the other Surface devices if you're just excited about the brand. The Surface Pro 7 and X give you better tablet experiences, and the Surface Laptop 3 is a more traditional clamshell offering. However, none of them offer the same level of performance.

The only 13-inch laptop with similar graphics performance is the Razer Blade Stealth. The stealth is a little cheaper, and you can purchase the GTX 1650 Ti model with options for a 144Hz refresh rate display or a 4K touchscreen.

How long it will take?

The Surface Book 3 is built like a tank and uses current components (except for the lack of Thunderbolt 3). You get years of productive service. When you shop in a local Microsoft store, you also get the 60-day money back guarantee and the year of in-store technical support. This is a real plus. However, the 1 year warranty is standard and less impressive.

Should you buy it

Yes. The 2-in-1 design and powerful graphics make it a unique laptop.

Editor's recommendations




02 May
Blog

Xbox One X Review 2020: The Most Powerful Console Around

Xbox One X test controller in front

"The hideous Xbox One X is the best way to play console games."

  • Improves performance for all games

  • Xbox One X Enhanced games look and run great

  • 4K UHD Blu-Ray player

  • Sleek design

  • Very easy to use

  • 4K recording options are limited

  • The timeliness of the Xbox One Enhanced Patches is unclear

  • Performance improvements can be unpredictable in non-expanded games

When Microsoft introduced Xbox One X, an updated version of Xbox One at an intimidating price of $ 500, the company claimed the new hardware was "the most powerful console ever made". Years later, with the console in hand, we can confirm that the Xbox One X is delivering on that promise. Well, at least until the Xbox Series X comes out later this year. However, performance does not always lead to improvements. Both loyal Xbox fans and potential PS4 owners want to know if the new Xbox really improves new and old games.

Short answer? It does.

Every game we played, regardless of whether it received an "Xbox One X Enhanced" patch or not, has seen a noticeable increase in performance over Xbox One and Xbox One S. This happens regardless of your setup – although the gain is most noticeable if you have a 4K HDR10 TV.

Even though games look better and run better, the differences aren't so big that you can't live without them. Like its PlayStation counterpart, the PS4 Pro, it is aimed at players who simply cannot tolerate a second best experience. Still, the Xbox One X is the best console for most multi-platform games until the next generation.

In the black box

The Xbox One X is a further development of the Xbox One design. It is, as Microsoft has often said, 40 percent smaller than the original Xbox One. It's about the size of the Xbox One S, though a little denser at 8.4 pounds. However, don't be fooled by the number "40 percent smaller". The PlayStation 4 Pro from Sony is about the same size and the PS4 Slim is even smaller.

We prefer the matte black finish of the Xbox One X over the white Xbox One S, which tends to show more wear over time. We also prefer the placement of the fans. The sides of the device are covered with small, subtle air holes, unlike the One S, which had numerous large fan holes over half of its case. This should make it easier to stack Xbox One X with other devices without restricting airflow.

Xbox One X verification controller on the system
Xbox One X test complete
Xbox One X verification ports
Xbox One X test logo "aria-descriptionby =" gallery-3-1267965

  • 4th
    The Xbox One X is the most power-hungry console of this generation.

Les Shu / Digital trends

However, you won't buy the Xbox One X because it looks like this. As previously reported, the Xbox One X has the most impressive console hardware to date. It has an 8 core 2.3 GHz x86 CPU, a custom AMD GPU that can produce 6 teraflops, and 12 GB DDR5 RAM. Even compared to the PS4 Pro, that's a lot of graphics processing power. The Pro, which is far more powerful than the standard PS4, has a GPU that calculates 4.2 TFLOPS and “only” 8 GB RAM.

The only disappointing hardware in the Xbox One X is the terabyte hard drive. Twice the storage space of the standard Xbox One model is an improvement, but it's still not enough to find storage space for anyone who frequently buys games online. Even if you only download the Xbox Live Gold games that the publisher provides every month, most players will fill this hard drive in no time. Even worse, 4K assets and uncompressed audio files can increase the file size of games. We recently saw several games slightly exceed the 100 GB mark. So it's fair to say that some big games take up this space pretty quickly.

Still a solid home theater device

The One X maintains all connections of the Xbox One S and for players who prefer to buy games in the store, it has a 4K UHD Blu-Ray player. The console has HDMI input and output if you want to filter your TV service via Xbox and want to switch channels with Cortana instead of your remote control. This function works just like the One S – and we still prefer a remote control. You will also find three USB 3.0 ports – two in the back and one in the front – which can be useful if you want to use the console's recently added mouse and keyboard support or if you want to connect an external hard drive to store more games. Finally, there are IR-Out and S / PDIF connections for advanced surround sound setups and of course a good, old-fashioned Ethernet connection.

Every game runs at least a little bit better on an Xbox One X.

Many of the above features don't directly contribute to games, but can be useful for your home theater setup. We liked how the Xbox One S can simultaneously serve as a 4K UHD Blu-Ray player, game console and TV streaming box. The Xbox One X can do the same. 4K Blu-Ray and HDMI pass-through are features you won't find on any PS4.

The console also supports advanced surround sound options like Dolby Atmos. Atmos, which reflects sound from walls and ceilings to simulate the effect of sound movements, can be spectacular, but an Atmos surround sound system is extremely expensive. There are headphones, including gaming headsets, that simulate the experience, but they are rare.

Like the Xbox One S, the One X does not have a dedicated Kinect port. Players upgrading from an original Xbox One will still be able to use it, but you'll need to purchase a Kinect USB port. It's a small but noticeable inconvenience to upgrade Xbox One players. Microsoft has already stopped producing the Kinect, so the lack of a port is not surprising.

Xbox One improved, but some games more than others

What does all the power do to make your video games better?

The important things first; The games that show the most improvements are the ones where developers spend extra time and are optimized for the hardware. These games, which Microsoft calls Xbox One Enhanced, show the maximum potential of the console. First and foremost, this means that you are working with 4K resolution in the high dynamic range without affecting the frame rate of the game. All Xbox One Enhanced Games we played showed great visual fidelity improvements and a smoother frame rate. At a time when it feels like bugs and performance issues are pulling games down, it's good to see games run better than before.

Xbox One X checks bothLes Shu / Digital trends

Les Shu / Digital trends

Microsoft has announced over 100 current and upcoming games that have or will have Xbox One X Enhanced Patches. While we have a handy list of enhanced games that are already available, you can use Microsoft to filter your game list to display only your Xbox One X Enhanced games. It may not help you decide what to play, but it's a nice touch, especially for new owners who want to put the console through its paces.

While playing Gears of War 4, one of the few games that we had access to and that received an Xbox One Enhanced patch before launching the console, we found that the game looked much sharper on the One X, even in the Compared to Xbox One S 4K upscaling. We found that non-essential details in the area, including brick walls and trees, retained their sharpness even when we weren't around. The face of JD Fenix, which usually has tremendous detail in cutscenes and is viewed from close up, retained its definition in combat sequences where the game's camera was further away.

The new console's increased fidelity can change the way you experience games in unexpected ways.

Super Lucky’s Tale, an Xbox One console-exclusive adaptation of the 3D platform by Oculus Rift, which is launched next to the One X, does not offer a high level of detail, but simply runs sharply with an incredibly high and uniform frame rate. It runs the way all games should run with no problems, stuttering or quirks. To be fair, it simply means that the game is well done. It's not like there have been significant issues with other Xbox One models – rather, the One X maximizes the game's colorful cartoon aesthetic.

The new console's increased fidelity can change the way you experience games in unexpected ways. In a section of Gears 4, we looked up at the moonlit sky and found that not only was the moon brighter and more detailed than on the Xbox One S, but we could also see streaks of light and energy around it. The Gears of War franchise takes place on a fictional, earth-like planet called Sera. When we first played the game, we ignored this fact – but with the increased fidelity of the Xbox One X, the game felt more like a fully realized world.

X will give it to you

Every game runs at least a little bit better on an Xbox One X. Even games that weren't optimized for Xbox One X and ran on a non-UHD monitor at 1080p ran a little better on the One X than on the One S. I think that's obvious, but it's anything but Of course. Even with the general "boost" mode added months after launch, the PS4 Pro's benefit is largely limited to platform-optimized games, and these benefits are often most noticeable only on a 4K screen. The Xbox One X does what most players expect from a more powerful device. This power is automatically used to make games run better.

Xbox One X Review Controller HandLes Shu / Digital trends

Les Shu / Digital trends

However, there is a catch. The way a game's performance improves, especially when playing on a 1080p television, varies from title to title. For example, DOOM showed slightly improved graphics and almost imperceptibly shorter loading times. But even on a monitor without HDR, the colors and lighting in Destiny 2 became brighter and the details on my ship were more clearly highlighted. Destiny 2 also showed a smoother frame rate on a 4K TV compared to the Xbox One S 4K upscaled graphics. Most games we tried showed one or two of the following – sharper graphics, improved frame rate, or slightly improved Loading time.

Would you rather buy the console with the best games or the console that great games can do their best with?

Simplicity is both a blessing and a curse. If you have a 4K HDR10 TV with a refresh rate of 60 Hz, the console automatically detects and adjusts your settings. At the system level, however, there are no options to customize or optimize how the console uses its additional performance. Especially for non-4K players, the option to choose between improving fidelity, smoothing a frame rate or minimizing loading times would be an advantage.

Since the PS4 Pro launched in 2016, some games have added additional options like this. None of the over 10 games we played on the console showed such options, although not all of them had received "Xbox One X Enhanced" patches that would likely add these features.

4K video recordings are possible and not easy to share

With Xbox One X, you can not only play games, but also take screenshots and record 30-second video clips in 4K. Although it's a nice touch, the functionality feels extremely limited. Video clips recorded in 4K will appear at a lower resolution when you publish them to Xbox Live. You can set your screenshots and videos to be recorded directly on an external hard drive. However, the hard drive must be NTFS formatted. This means that you cannot save your clips and videos on the same external hard drive that you would save additional Xbox One games on.

In other words, recording gameplay in 4K is primarily a feature for tech-savvy owners who are willing to take the extra steps required to bring their high-definition gameplay online.

Our opinion

Xbox One X is the best console for playing popular multi-platform games. Though the $ 500 price tag is hard to accept, the hardware is impressive enough to feel like it is money well spent, and it's regularly on sale for much, much less than that today, as the Xbox Series X is coming soon.

However, when we look at the players who are most likely to buy it – players who already have a game console – it becomes more difficult to sell. There are no exclusive Xbox One X games, and the console's greatest strength is an expensive peripheral: a 4K TV.

While we can absolutely recommend the Xbox One X at the hardware level over the $ 400 PS4 Pro, the PlayStation 4 platform offers a much larger number of exclusive games, including some of our favorite games of the year. In contrast, Microsoft software release from first-party vendors appears to have decreased in recent years.

Ultimately, the Xbox One X offers an interesting fold for serious gamers. Would you rather buy the console with the best games or the console that great games can do their best with? It's a decision console players have never had to make.

Is there a better alternative?

Not right now because we're still waiting for Xbox Series X and PS5 to be released. If all things are the same, Xbox One X offers the best technical experience of all game consoles. If you're ready to invest in a high-end gaming PC, this has its advantages, but it's also more complicated.

How long it will take?

The original Xbox One remains relevant even after the Xbox One X is introduced. The Xbox Series X will be released later this year. Fortunately, almost all games are expected to be compatible with the Xbox Series X at least in the first year the new generation comes out. However, it is getting faster and faster when the Xbox One X is not worth it, how backwards compatible the upcoming consoles are.

Should you buy it

Yes, if you don't have a console in this generation. The Xbox One X is regularly on sale. The price is easily justified by incredible performance, a wide range of functions and a huge library. However, the Xbox Series X will be available later this year and will be compatible with most if not all Xbox One games. So better wait for it or for the PS5.

This article was last updated on April 27, 2020 by Cody Perez, a Digital Trends employee.

Editor's recommendations




24 Mar
Blog

Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Review: Powerful, Affordable, Expandable

Dell Inspiron 15 7000 2020 review

"The Inspiron 15 7000 is nothing special, but its expandability makes this midrange laptop something special."

  • Practical expandability

  • Solid productivity performance

  • Good keyboard and touchpad

  • Attractive price

  • The color accuracy of the screen is deactivated

  • Uses older graphics card

Laptops are nowhere near as upgradeable as they used to be. Whether it's battery, storage, or storage, you stick with everything you buy.

There are some rare exceptions to this trend. One of them is the latest Inspiron 15 7000 model from Dell. This Inspiron is not soldered on, but has easily accessible RAM slots and additional connections for a second PCIe M.2 SSD and even a 2.5-inch drive.

It starts at just $ 800, although the 7591 we tested was a bit more powerful. This special configuration for $ 1,050 includes a Core i7-9750H, the GTX 1050, 8 GB RAM, a PCIe SSD with 512 GB and a full HD non-touch display (1,920 x 1,080). That's a very attractive price for a 15-inch laptop with so much performance.

Is the upgradeability of this laptop different from the crowded field of excellent 15 inch laptops?

Upgradeable internals

The Inspiron 15 7000 is a "midrange" laptop, but that doesn't mean it isn't built well. The model I checked is made from stamped aluminum. This is a nice improvement over the 7590, which uses a magnesium alloy. This means that the 7591 is solidly built for a laptop of this price, without the lid, the keyboard deck or the housing bending or bending significantly.

This is important for a laptop that you want to open. The option to expand is not just a function for hobbyists. You can save money by updating it yourself, and you can even extend the lifespan – as long as you're ready to dig a little.

Turn the laptop over and you will find standard Phillips screws (no hex screws that require special tools). Remove them (the back three can easily be detached and left in the case), and you can gently break the cover off and reveal the inside.

You can save money by updating it yourself, and you can even extend its lifespan.

There you will find two RAM slots, a second M.2 PCIe slot for an SSD and a 2.5-inch bay for a third drive. If you have installed a single RAM stick, you will be running in single-channel memory mode. This has a significant impact on performance. Connect a second customized module and switch to two-channel mode to significantly accelerate storage performance.

If you add a second M.2 SSD, you can configure RAID 0 (striping) or RAID 1 (mirroring) for either better performance and more storage space, or redundancy and more reliability. Finally, you can add a third 2.5-inch drive for additional storage.

As mentioned earlier, this is an unusual level of access and upgradeability for an Ultrabook. You'll need to switch to an expensive premium laptop like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 to find a laptop that can add a second SSD with RAID support. With some other laptops like the Dell XPS 15, you can replace RAM and (single) SSD. However, the Inspiron is the only notebook in its class that allows you to add up to two additional drives.

Surprisingly, although the Inspiron 15 7000 is uniquely expandable, it's not overly large or heavy. It's 4.12 pounds, which is lighter than the 4.5 pounds of the XPS 15, but heavier than the 3.76 pounds of the ThinkPad. At 0.78 inches thick, the Inspiron is a bit thicker than some of the premium models, but not much. You don't have to lug around a bulky laptop to improve upgradeability.

The connectivity, which also affects how well you can equip a laptop, is very good. You get three USB-A ports, a USB-C port with Thunderbolt 3 support, a full-size HDMI 2.0 port and a microSD card reader. Connect it to a Thunderbolt 3 dock and you can connect to multiple 4K displays and a variety of other peripherals. However, wireless connectivity was a step back since only Wi-Fi 5 was used instead of the newer Wi-Fi 6 standard for Bluetooth 5.0.

performance

I ran our usual performance benchmarks before adding a second 8 GB RAM module and the performance was disappointing as expected.

Before adding the additional RAM, for example, the Inspiron achieved 1,071 in Geekbench 5 in single-core mode and 3,864 in multi-core mode. After adding the RAM, these numbers were shifted to 1,124 and 4,695. Compare that to the Lenovo Yoga C940 15 with the same CPU and the same two-channel RAM at 1,106 and 5,117.

The upgrade had less impact on our more realistic tests. In Handbrake I encoded a 420 MB video in H.265 to test the content creation performance. Before the upgrade, the Inspiron took a full 3 minutes to complete the test. After that it took two minutes and 50 seconds. The Lenovo C940 lasted 2 minutes and 17 seconds.

By adding the second RAM module and switching to two-channel mode, Geekbench performance was increased by 12% and the laptop was updated with the competition. The increase in the handbrake test was only around 6%. The memory I bought was from Crucial, a single stick with 8 GB of DDR4-2666 MHz RAM that only cost about $ 30. This is one of the more cost-effective performance improvements I've seen for some time.

I didn't notice any difference in the SSD performance compared to the RAM upgrade. The Western Digital PCIe offered an average performance that is lower than the much faster SSDs in the XPS 15 and ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 in the Lenovo Yoga C940 equipped with Intel Optane.

However, if you add a second SSD and configure RAID 0, storage speeds will increase significantly. This is another performance boost that is quite unusual for ultrabooks and that only Lenovo matches.

Design and display

Upgradability is good, but the Inspiron still needs to work well as a laptop. The good news is that it is a solid offering in many ways.

The keyboard is comfortable, with plenty of travel and a snappy mechanism. It doesn't quite match the keyboard level of expensive laptops like the XPS 15 and HP Specter x360 15 or the Magic Keyboard of the new MacBook Pro 16, but is good enough for fast typing.

The touchpad is also above average and offers plenty of space for a Windows 10 touchpad (but not like the massive version on the MacBook) and support for Microsoft Precision touchpad drivers. Windows 10 multi-touch gestures work fine and it's a pleasure to use them.

Next is the ad. At 15.6 inches, Full HD is a little less sharp than I prefer. For me, 1440p or 4K is a very preferred resolution for these larger panels. The screen that Dell chose for the Inspiron doesn't bother you in everyday use. At 323 nits it is pretty bright, although the contrast only reaches 820: 1. That is below the 1000: 1 threshold that we like to see.

The color gamut was average at 74% of AdobeRGB and 98% of sRGB, but color accuracy was unsatisfactory at 4.52 (1.0 and below is considered excellent). You shouldn't rely on this laptop to make precise photo edits.

The Lenovo Yoga C940's panel was similar, with better contrast and color accuracy, but slightly less impressive color accuracy. If you want a fine-tuned swatch, you'll need to upgrade to a laptop like the Dell XPS 15 and Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme.

After all, battery life also plays a role. Here you make a real compromise for the additional storage option. If you choose the 2.5-inch drive bay, you're limited to a 56-watt-hour battery – like in my test device. If you give up this slot, you can use a 97-watt-hour battery, similar to the XPS 15.

This had a negative impact on the battery life. For example, the Inspiron fell behind the Lenovo Yoga C940 by about 6 hours in our web browser test and by just under an hour in our video loop test. However, the Inspiron did surprisingly well in our demanding Basemark web benchmark test with 4 hours and 40 minutes, well over an hour longer than yoga.

Game performance

My test device was equipped with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 instead of the GTX 1650, which is an optional upgrade. The GTX 1050 was only very popular a year or two ago and offers a passable experience when playing casual games and modern titles with lower resolutions and graphic details.

I ran our usual set of gaming benchmarks and the Inspiron was run in accordance with other laptops running the GTX 1050. Fortnite displayed 52 frames per second (FPS) with 1080p and high graphic details, and Epic 41 FPS. In the meantime, the Inspiron managed 77 FPS in Civilization VI at 1080p and medium details and 40 FPS at Ultra.

This is not a dedicated gaming laptop. So be ready to reduce the resolution and graphic details.

In a heavier game like Assassin's Creed Odyssey, the Inspiron achieved 32 FPS at 1080p and High Detail and dropped to unplayable 17 FPS at Ultra High Detail. Overall, these results are on average 10-15 FPS lower than those of laptops equipped with the newer GTX 1650, including the Dell XPS 15 and Asus ZenBook 15 UX534. If you want to play more on this laptop, you want to upgrade to this faster card.

The Inspirion 15 7591 is suitable for casual games and even comes out in modern titles. However, this is not a dedicated gaming laptop. So be ready to reduce the resolution and graphical details to get the best experience possible.

Our opinion

The Inspiron 15 7000 is a unique upgradeable ultrabook. The ability to add two storage drives is more than almost any other laptop I've tested. Do-it-yourselfers will love it from a conceptual level, but it's a throwback to a time when laptops can last more than a few years.

Unfortunately, the configurations from Dell are confusing. The 7591 I tested only came with a single RAM module, and the older GTX 1050 is a bottleneck when gaming. You can opt for the 7590 with its GTX 1650, but you can only add one additional drive.

Whether you choose the $ 800 base model or something with discrete graphics, the Inspiron 15 7000 is a balanced mid-tier laptop.

Are there alternatives?

Yes, there are several 15-inch alternatives, although there aren't many in this price range. The HP Envy 15 is outdated, as is the ZenBook 15 from Asus. The 15-inch Surface Laptop 3 uses weaker quad-core processors, as does the LG Gram 15.

The XPS 15 from Dell offers a more stable case, faster performance options and a better screen. With the same specs, it's around $ 300 more expensive, although the XPS can be configured much higher. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 almost corresponds to the expandability of the Inspiron and can also be a little faster, but is twice as expensive.

If you want to consider a 2-in-1 device, the Lenovo Yoga C940 15 is a good option. It's a bit faster to play than the Inspiron and around $ 500 more expensive. The expandability of Dell is also not possible.

How long it will take?

The Inspiron 15 7000 is well built and should last as long as you need it. With the ability to easily open the case and update components, you can add more RAM and memory as needed. That means the Inspiron lasts a little longer than your average laptop.

The 1-year warranty is industry standard and, as always, is disappointing.

Should you buy it

Yes. It's a solid laptop for the price, and the expandability features are a plus.

Editor's recommendations




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