Since Dell stopped being a publicly traded company and went back to being a private company there's been a lot of changes, primarily it has re-ignited its focus towards consumer laptops instead of just enterprise laptops. Proof of that is the company's latest lineup, one of which stands out under the name Dell Inspiron i7359-1145SLV.
This new hybrid laptop has made a name for itself thanks to its low cut price, Skylake generation Core i3 processor, quality build and - of course- its dual function that allows it to function as a fully fledged tablet. Today we go deep as we uncover the ins and outs in this review of the Dell Inspiron i7359-1145SLV.
Pros: 6th generation Core i3 CPU, 4 GB of upgradable RAM, touchscreen, high build quality, 500 GB of storage, good "bang for your buck".
Cons: No DVD tray, integrated graphics chip not aimed at gamers or graphic designers.
Dell Inspiron i7359-1145SLV Thorough review with Pros and Cons
Quality build
Dell has completely spoiled us when it comes to quality builds. In fact, next to Apple, it's surely the company that pays the most attention to detail when designing its new laptops and the i7359-1145SLV is no exception.
With an aluminium body and a 13.3 inch display, Dell's new flagship comes in with a very low 3.7 pounds and a very slimming 0.75 inches. Despite housing a normal hard drive we were pretty surprised to see just how thin and light this convertible truly is, being just slightly heavier than the 13 inch MacBook Air.
In regards to the display, it's an LED IPS HD display with a 1366 by 768 pixel resolution and the capacity to support up to 10 fingers within its touchscreen feature.
Another major advantage to this model is that it sports a backlit keyboard, a rare commodity amongst convertibles which often give priority to other features and disregard one that many users consider to be very useful such as this one.
Is it packing heat?
While many convertibles have "succumbed" to using Core M processor, this one has actually decided to stick it out with a more efficient Intel Core i3-6100U CPU. This particular model flaunts a 2.3 GHz base frequency, two operating cores and 3 MB of Intel's smart cache on top of a 64 bit architecture.
Geek terms aside, this is a pretty good processor for everyday tasks. Stuff like web browsing, video editing, netflix streaming and other common tasks will be a breeze for this laptop whilst more demanding tasks to the tune of coding on complex IDE's or launching virtual machines will work well as long as you don't expect maximum speed and performance in these particular areas.
The RAM on the Dell Inspiron i7359-1145SLV is a single 4 GB DDR3 module working at 1600 MHz. However, there's very good news in this front because if you're a power-user who needs to run several programs at a time you can upgrade the default RAM to 8 GB, giving you plenty of "wiggle room" to do some serious multitasking.
Can I play games on this thing or not?
As expected, this laptop comes with an Intel HD 520 graphics chip and therefore is not very well suited for anything beyond casual gaming. Complex titles won't fare very well here so we wouldn't really recommend you buy this laptop with that in mind.
500 GB of storage and a heck of a battery life
While many conventional laptops are moving towards removing all mechanical parts and betting their future on (a very limited) SSD storage versus standard hard drives, there's still no beating the storage capacity that a traditional hard drive can bring to the table, especially when budget is a concern. To that point, we've got a 500 GB hard drive operating at 5400 rpm, that should be plenty of space for you to store all your media library and then some.
Battery life is something that a lot of manufacturers still struggle with and lately it seems that to have great battery life you either have to fork over the big bucks and go to the high-end or you have to sacrifice specs and go to the entry-level models. However, Dell has managed to strike the perfect balance in that regard with a 3 cell lithium battery that offers up to 8 hours of battery life in the Dell Inspiron i7359-1145SLV. Not too shabby if you ask us.
What can I plug into this laptop?
Convertibles like the Dell Inspiron i7359-1145SLV in review aren't necessarily known to be "port-friendly". However, this model isn't too bad when it comes down to connectivity, featuring two USB ports (1 USB 3.0 and 1 2.0), an ethernet port and even an HDMI output. There's also an SD card reader as well as the infamous Bluetooth and WiFi support.
Anything else worth knowing?
In an effort to round up this review we should also point out that the i7359-1145SLV comes with Maxx Audio speakers, Windows 10 in its 64 bit variant and there's no DVD reader, something increasingly common amongst mainstream laptops as well as convertibles.
Summing it up; Do the pros outweigh the cons?
As we wrap up this review of the Dell Inspiron i7359-1145SLV it's not hard to see why this has become an instant best seller amongst people looking to buy a quality convertible laptop. It has an excellent processor, upgradable RAM and superb battery life. It weighs very little and doubles as a tablet when you flip the screen over giving you a world of options when it comes down to creativity.
Overall, this is an excellent laptop for a wide array of users and wether you're actually looking to buy a convertible or not, this is an excellent option that will deliver the best of both worlds. An excellent choice at an even better price.