Pros: 11 hour battery life, light and portable design, doubles as a tablet, Windows 10, new Intel Pentium N3700 chip, incredibly low price.
Cons: Not a desktop replacement.
While it may be true that a couple of years ago two-in-one laptops where a very expensive luxury, today that is no longer the case. Nowadays it's possible to buy a laptop that doubles as a tablet from a reputable manufacturer at a very reasonable price. Such is the case of the model we're going to discuss today, the very attractive Dell Inspiron i3000-10099SLV.
Dell's newest two in one is already a big hit thanks to its low cut price, mid range specs and stellar design for those who want power on the go but don't wanna give up on the commodities that a laptop design affords them. Without spoiling all the details, we'd like to invite you guys to read all about it as we delve into our Dell Inspiron i3000-10099SLV review.
Is this a hit or a miss with consumers? Find out here!
Dell Inspiron i3000-10099SLV Review of an entry level two in one
Display and design
For quite obvious reasons, one of this notebooks flagship features is it's design and as such we can see that Dell has gone above and beyond when crafting this particular model. The Dell Inspiron i3000-10099SLV comes with an 11.6 inch screen with an HD resolution and an LED-backlit touch display. We've seen touchscreen laptops of the 15 inch variety but the truth is that for a two-in-one product you really need to go below that screen size if you want it to be a truly portable device.
Another major factor when designing a device such as this is that it must be light and that's exactly what Dell did by creating a notebook that weighs just 3.3 pounds and is just 0.8 inches thick. Obviously it's not as light as the latest MacBook but it falls in line with the weight of a 13 inch MacBook Air so if you've ever held one of these beauties in your hand you'll know that this laptop is quite light.
As is often the case with smaller than average laptops, this model does not include a numeric pad, therefore allowing the traditional chiclet keyboard to "breathe" by giving an adequate amount of space between keys and promoting good ergonomics.
That's all good but how does it perform on a daily basis?
Placing the design aside a key question many people have is regarding performance. We're not going to lie to you over here, this is by all means an entry level laptop and it has the internals to prove it. At its heart the Inspiron i3000-10099SLV drives an Intel Pentium N3700 processor, the latest entry level model launched by the company.
The specifics of this CPU are that it works with two cores at a standard speed of 1.6 GHz and can go up to 2.4 GHz when pressed with more demanding tasks. It has 2 MB of L2 type cache and it's built on a 64 bit architecture.
So what does this mean? Basically we're telling you that this CPU is aimed at basic computing. Productivity suites likes Office will work well, as will surfing the web, watching movies and chatting with friends over Skype. All these tasks are a no-brainer for this CPU, for more power intensive tasks however you will run short and need to trust another laptop or desktop to do the heavy lifting like video editing, gaming, graphic design and so forth.
As for the RAM, Dell placed a 4 GB DDR3L SDRAM that clocks in at 1600 MHz. It's important to note that RAM may not be upgraded and honestly with the processor at hand we wouldn't really recommend it. This laptop is a good option for simple multitasking like running a couple of programs in the background while you keep hogging tabs on your browser but more than that would simply be asking too much.
So gaming is out of the question?
As we previously stated on this review of the Dell Inspiron i3000-10099SLV, gaming is a no-go. This two-in-one comes with an Intel HD graphics chip which is as basic as it can get in the graphics department. Stuff like angry birds and games from the Windows 10 app store might fare well but more complex software in the lines of Assasin's creed and so forth are pretty much a non-starter.
What's the battery life like? How about storage; SSD or HDD?
As expected, Dell really wanted to make battery life a priority in the i3000-10099SLV, otherwise it wouldn't have gone through so much effort to make it a lightweight laptop. That said, this specific model comes with a 3 cell battery that according to the company will provide us with a good 11 hours of battery life. Very, very impressive and more than most of us will actually need.
In terms of storage Dell had to make a tough call; it could place a modest SSD units (think 32 GB) or it could give us ample storage via a Hard Drive. The company chose the latter and frankly we preffer it, there's way too many small laptops with 32-64 GB options and with the system taking over 20 GB that renders the storage pretty much useless in most cases. Specifically this notebook comes with a 500 GB hard drive working at your typical 5400 rpm.
Miscellaneous Stuff you should probably know
Aside from the basics we've already exposed, there's also some extra stuff worth knowing like the fact that it features a couple of USB 3.0 ports, an SD card reader, Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity a Webcam as well as a good old fashioned WiFi ac antenna.
This is also a very nice feature considering that nowadays most entry to mid level laptops only come with the standard b/g/n support but the new Inspiron 2 in 1 supports a few extra bands that make all the difference if you've got a compatible router (otherwise you'll be able to log on to the internet but you won't notice the speed bump).
The OS in charge is Windows 10 in this case and we've got Maxx Audio speakers technology to improve upon the audio quality.
Closing Statements
It's not an easy task to build a quality entry level laptop, much less so a good 2 in 1 option at a low price point. However, throughout our review of the Dell Inspiron i3000-10099SLV we've noticed that Dell has done just that.
As a laptop that also doubles as a tablet this is an excellent choice. If you're looking for a machine to do some work on the go and value battery life as well as a healthy portability, this laptop is an excellent call.
On the flip side, if you're looking for a desktop replacement to do the heavy lifting then this model will inevitably fall short since the CPU as well as the RAM and graphics card won't hold up for power intensive tasks. That said, if you're a student on a budget don't think twice and if you just want a laptop on the go to watch movies and get some work done you'll be very pleased with this model. Either way, you can look up it's price here.