Alongside HP and Acer, Dell's really stepped up its game when it comes to two in one laptops, also known as convertibles. This kind of laptop features a foldable touchscreen display which allows the user to take home the best of both worlds by getting both a big sized tablet and a compact little laptop. Now it's time to take a look at one of Dell's most promising new convertibles under the name Dell Inspiron 13 i5368-7643GRY.
This particular convertible is available at a very competitive price and packs an impressive 256GB SSD storage unit, a 6th generation Core i5 CPU and the latest standard DDR4 RAM. Without further delay, let's see what it's all about as we review the Dell Inspiron 13 i5368-7643GRY.
A profesional design and an impressive display
One of this laptops nicest features is its design. When you look at it you just know you're looking at a powerhouse laptop that's up for everything. The quality build also helps with that as Dell made an extra effort to provide a more "premium" build than what's typically available within this price range.
The display sets this laptop apart, not just because it's a touchscreen panel that allows you to fold the laptop onto "tablet mode" but because it also comes with a top notch Full HD resolution on a 13.3 inch diagonal LED-Backlit display with truelife technology and a 16:9 widescreen ratio. All of this being a fancy way of saying it's a great laptop to watch movies and edit pictures by ditching the antiquated 1366 by 768 pixel standard display.
Being on the higher end of the scale also afford this model certain additional luxuries in terms of finishing such as a backlit keyboard, a precise and ample trackpad as well a very lightweight design of just 3.3 pounds which makes it immensely portable when compared to its typical 15 inch counterparts.
An excellent combo of CPU, RAM and Storage
While most laptops still maintain the standard hard drive as the fall back choice when it comes to storage, many people know by now that the SSD option delivers a much snappier performance as well as a more durable machine that has better battery life by having less moving parts within itself. That said, we're happy to announce that the Dell Inspiron 13 i5368-7643GRY in review does, in effect, pack a pretty great 256 GB SSD storage unit.
What does this mean? Well, for one thing it means you won't have to pick between storage speed or storage capacity since you'll get a decently sized storage with an impressive speed right off the bat. It also means that apps will open faster, the system will boot up within seconds and powering down will just take a few instants if you've had a relatively light session.
Moving onto the processor, we've got an Intel Core i5-6200U CPU that works over two cores at a base frequency of 2.3GHz and reaching a maximum turboboost speed of 2.8GHz. This is an excellent overall processor, ideal for both consumers and professionals alike since it strikes the best balance between performance and energy efficiency.
On this CPU you can comfortably browse the web, watch videos, launch virtual machines, work on different coding environments and do a hell of a lot more.
Finally, to get a fully formed idea of the performance of the Dell Inspiron 13 i5368-7643GRY you really have to look at the RAM which in this case is an interesting 8GB DDR4 SDRAM module working at 2133MHz.
This is great for a couple of reasons: for one thing you have enough RAM to work on intensive multitasking and, on the other hand, there's also the fact that it's the latest generation of RAM, one which will work faster and more efficiently than the previous generation DDR3 RAM that most laptops pack.
Truth is you might not even notice the difference in RAM on your usage but it's always better to have and not need than to need and not have.
Gaming on low settings and a decent battery life
Convertibles aren't really known as lean and mean gaming machines. That said, the Dell Inspiron 13 i5368-7643GRY packs an interesting Intel HD 520 Graphics chip which is an integrated graphics controller that actually delivers some pretty solid numbers.
All in all, if you're gaming at low settings on games such as Fifa 17, Tintanfall 2 and Battlefield 1 you'll be able to play with a smooth frame rate above the 24 fps. Sure enough these aren't the numbers that make a fully fledged gaming laptop but casual gamers should be able to get by without much trouble.
Also, being a pretty decent integrated graphics chip means you'll be able to edit videos and images with relative ease and the SSD storage coupled with the latest RAM will significantly improve your rendering times.
As for battery life, Dell hasn't actually stated the battery life of this laptop. That said, after thoroughly looking upon this issue and considering we're dealing with a machine that packs a 3 cell battery you could expect with this combination of hardware and software anywhere between 4 to 5 hours of maximum battery life. Personally, If Dell hasn't stated an official number I wouldn't bet on anything beyond that.
Connectivity and more stuff you should know...
Connectivity on this convertible is pretty standard and quite honestly pretty uninspired. In that regard, we've got two USB 3.0 port, a single USB 2.0 port, SD card reader, HDMI port and an audio jack. As for wireless connectivity, you've got your typical Bluetooth 4.0 support as well as the latest generation WiFi ac standard which is an improvement over your standard b/g/n support present within many mid range models.
Sure enough there's no ethernet port nor a VGA port, but that's standard within convertibles. There's also an HD webcam and MaxxAudio speakers.
Closing statements...
Our review of the Dell Inspiron 13 i5368-7643GRY has made it pretty clear that times have changed quite a bit lately on the laptop segment. It used to be that only the most expensive laptops would pack features such as ample SSD drives and DDR4 RAM coupled with a Full HD display. Now it seems as though these features are available even without spending a fortune.
Overall, this is a great laptop, we really liked it. The biggest drawback we can find is the fact that it doesn't have a huge battery life. Other than that it's pretty great. You've got a 6th generation CPU, latest generation RAM, 256GB of storage and a Full HD touchscreen display. All in all, if you're determined to get a Dell convertible then this is your best bet at an affordable price.
Otherwise, if you're open to switching to Acer then we'd recommend the Acer Swift 3 SF314-51-52W2 which comes with the same basic features but switches out the touchscreen for a standard Full HD display and gives you a 14 inch diagonal, 10 hours of battery life and a fingerprint reader. It's not a convertible but if you're open to the possibility it definitely packs a bigger punch in terms of hardware.
However, if you're set on getting a convertible then this is certainly one of the best options you can go for.