Cons: 2 USB ports.
Some people don't need a laptop with the latest technology to edit 4K videos and play high resolution games. Some people just need a good laptop, with good specs and a strong build to allow them to comfortably surf the web, edit documents, skype with friends a stream movies. It's for these people that Dell has launched it's new Windows 10 notebook under the name Dell Inspiron i3541-1001BLK, a very affordable laptop designed for everyday users.
The Dell Inspiron i3541-1001BLK doesn't excel in any particular area beyond a strong battery life and a tight price point but today we've taken it upon ourselves to delve deep into this laptop to offer you a full review of the Dell Inspiron i3541-1001BLK.
Display and Design
At a first glance, it's quite clear that the Dell Inspiron i3541-1001BLK doesn't intend to impress us with a spectacular design. On the contrary, this notebook enjoys a rather discreet style that make it ideal for both students and workers who don't want to draw too much attention to themselves.
Modest design aside, the new notebook does have a quality build, something that we've come to expect of Dell products and something that sets it apart from its competitors.
The keyboard integrated onto this laptop is quite comfortable because of its chiclet design and it's clear that this laptop was designed for those who need a comfortable experience when writing during long periods of time.
Regarding the screen, we've got a standard 15.6 inch LED widescreen with a 1366 x 768 resolution. It's worth noting that this laptop comes with TrueLife HD technology which offers an overall better quality experience when watching movies or viewing pictures on the display.
The weight of the Inspiron i3541-1001BLK is a bit on the "plus side" of things but that's understandable if you consider its long lasting battery. Specifically, this notebook weighs in at 7.5 pounds and has 3 inches of thickness. Not the most portable of laptops, i'll give you that, but still a very ergonomic machine for day to day use.
Processor, RAM and Graphics
Proceeding with the most technical side of things. The Dell Inspiron i3541-1001BLK arrives at our laps with an AMD A6-6310 processor, this would be the rough equivalent of a 4th generation Core i3 CPU, so all in all, even though it's a low consumption CPU it's still above the Celeron line of processors.
In terms of specs, this A6-6310 sports 4 cores and runs at a speed of 1.8 GHz, reaching a Turbo Speed of 2.4 GHz when we use the overclocking feature. This means it's good for basic tasks like the ones cited above but we wouldn't expect this processor to run very demanding software and not show the consequences.
As far as system memory is concerned, the i3541-1001BLK comes with a 4 GB DDR3L module. However, it should be noted that you can expand the memory in another 4 GB to reach the 8 GB of RAM. If you're a heavy multitasker then you should definitely consider upgrading though if I were you I'd see where i'm at with 4 GB and then make the call, especially considering the fact that you can upgrade it later quite easily.
Finally, on the graphics department, we've got a standard AMD RadeonTM4 R4 graphics chip. This is an integrated graphics chip and though it's not meant for gaming but rather for regular use, you should know that you can play GTA V on it without any problems.
Battery Life and Storage
One of the i3541-1001BLK's biggest strong suits is its battery life. Specifically, though Dell doesn't let us know exactly the number of cells integrated onto this battery, we do know that this laptop stands to give us over 6 hours of use under normal circumstances, which to be fair is a pretty good battery life considering the price point on this machine.
In terms of storage, no surprise here and we'll find a basic 500 GB hard drive that operates at your standard 5400 rpm. If you're the kind of person that enjoys having all their movies, games and pictures on them then we would definitely persuade you to buy a 1 TB laptop, especially when most of them don't cost much more than $100 more and you also get a big upgrade on most specs.
More Stuff you should know
Finally we're reaching the end of our Dell Inspiron i3541-1001BLK review and it's time to dot the "i"s and wrap things up. On that spirit we should mention that the new laptop comes with 2 USB ports ( 1 USB 3.0), HDMI port, bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, high speed WiFi, ethernet port, DVD reader, and of course an SD card reader.
The laptop also features an HD webcam for your late night skype calls and comes pre-installed with Windows 10 on it's 64 bit version.
So; is it worth it?
Saying that a laptop is worth the purchase depends greatly on who is doing the buying, therefore there is no definitive answer to this question. That said, after conducting our in depth review of the Dell Inspiron i3541-1001BLK if you're looking for a laptop to do some light gaming, browse the internet, skype with friends and watch movies but you don't want to spend a lot of money in the process (check the price here) then this is a very good choice.On the other hand, if you're a poweruser who spends his/her day glued to the screen and gives priority to speed and specs then you should probably expand your budget a bit more and look elsewhere as you're likely to be disappointed.
Personally this is a laptop that i'd recommend for students (young and older), home users and work users who don't need a whole lot of horse power for what they need to do (a.k.a edit documents).