Not everyone has the same needs when it comes to computer hardware. Some are powerusers who won't go anywhere near a laptop that doesn't have at the very least a Core i5 couples with 8GB of RAM whilst others are more casual users who value portability and a budget price above everything else. It's for this set of users that Dell has come up with the perfect notebook under the name Dell Inspiron i3162-0003BLU.
This new notebook weighs very little, comes with the latest generation Celeron processor and works mainly in the cloud thanks to its 32GB of eMMC onboard storage. Today we seek to explore everything there is to know about this particularly affordable notebook as we set out to review the Dell Inspiron i3162-0003BLU.
An attractive and lightweight design
One of the first things you'll notice about the Inspiron i3162-0003BLU is it's electric blue design. This gives the laptop a rather juvenile style that sets it apart from other affordable notebooks which still keep in line with the more "sober design" most laptops feature. Once you grab it you'll also notice it's quite light, weighing just 2.8 pounds.
That lightweight design is due not only to the 11 inch for factor but also to the fact that it doesn't carry a mechanical hard drive but an eMMC module instead. The display in itself is not touch sensitive and boosts a standard HD resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels on top of an anti-glare LED display.
Finally, the keyboard is not backlit, a feature that's very hard to come by within this price range, yet it's comfortable enough for your regular typing sessions. Being an 11.6 inch laptop there's no dedicated numeric pad but that's hardly a surprise.
Performance in line with a cloudbook
Once we dig a little deeper into our review of the Dell Inspiron i3162-0003BLU we come across the processor, a dual core Intel Celeron N3060 processor that works at a base speed of 1.6GHz and can reach a maximum frequency of 2.48 GHz thanks to the turboboost feature. It's not a "fancy processor" in the sense that it's designed mostly for basic computing tasks.
Couple the CPU with a single 4GB DDR3L module of RAM running at 1600MHz and a storage unit of 32GB of eMMC to round up the key specs. It's worth noting that storage is not of the SSD variety, we mention this because SSD storage is considerably faster than eMMC storage. This particular kind of storage is still faster than your conventional hard drive yet slower than your standard SSD storage unit available on more expensive models
Overall, you should expect performance on this model to be in line with what we've come to expect from cloudbooks. In this regard, this laptop is well suited to be a travel laptop or even a main laptop as long as your computing needs aren't very demanding.
Stuff like surfing the web, watching movies, chatting with friends and editing spreadsheets should be just fine but anything that goes beyond that would require more load time and therefore would result in a more frustrating experience.
No, this is not a gaming laptop
Onboard the i3162-0003BLU you'll find an integrated Intel HD graphics card which is good for stuff like watching movies and and youtube videos but it's hardly ideal for more complex graphical tasks such as picture editing on photoshop or even editing home videos with some degree of complexity.
Battery life and connectivity options
Battery life of the Inspiron i3162-0003BLU isn't something that Dell has addressed directly so we're gonna go ahead and asume that it's along the lines of the 3-4 hours taking into account the hardware in place and the fact that it's a relatively low consuming device.
As to the connectivity aspect of this review, we're quite pleased to find that it features a WiFi ac antenna, which is much better than the WiFi b/g/n antenna most low cost laptops come with. This means that through a compatible router you'll manage up to three times a faster download speed than if you had your standard b/g/n antenna.
There's also support for Bluetooth as well as a couple of USB ports (one USB 3.0) , a microSD card reader (with which you could expand base storage) and even an HDMI output port, as well as your typical audio jack. There's also the ever present webcam as well as MaxxAudio Pro technology and the always accesible Cortana thanks to Windows 10.
Let's wrap this up...
Upon closing our review of the Dell Inspiron i3162-0003BLU I believe it's pretty clear that we're looking at a laptop designed for basic computing tasks. Stuff like browsing the web, checking and answering emails as well as watching movies and listening to music should be fine but this laptop is under no circumstance to be considered a powerhouse capable of handling anything you throw at it.
As a budget notebook it's got a solid price that might help its popularity and if you're just a casual computer user than this laptop should be enough to keep you satisfied. However, if you're a demanding user who spends several hours a day on his laptop doing multiple different tasks then we most certainly would not recommend it and we'd encourage you to look at other more suitable models.