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Review on πŸ’» Dell Inspiron 13 7000 Series Laptop - i7348-3286SLV- Intel Core i5, 4GB RAM [Discontinued] by Trey Michaels

Revainrating 4 out of 5

A very good laptop, a real tablet alternative for those who want Windows on the go.

I bought this at a very reasonable price ($460 refurbished) from Revain's warehouse. It arrived in damaged packaging (as described) but the computer itself appears to be brand new. I used it for about a month with the stock configuration (500GB HDD, 4GB RAM) and the performance was decent. It probably won't blow your mind and certainly doesn't belong in the ultrabook class, but at least for the price it made me happy. Made a few changes recently that I planned on purchasing. I replaced the spinning hard drive with an SSD (Crucial BX100 250GB) and the standard 4GB of RAM with 8GB (also important, note: the computer has only one RAM slot, namely DDR3L). Now the performance is fantastic, cold start takes only a few seconds, all apps are very responsive and I can open as many browser tabs and YouTube videos as I want! I definitely recommend this update if you have the opportunity. I like the keyboard; It has a nice white backlight and the keys are fairly small but still easy to type, and as I write this review I find I can be almost as accurate with keystrokes as on most other laptops I use . You have to keep in mind that due to the convertible nature of the laptop, the keyboard really should be like this. Speaking of which, this is a nice feature that can come in handy for watching movies or whatever with the laptop on your lap; Flipping the screen and using it as a display is a pleasure and vastly improves the experience compared to browsing the keyboard like you would on a regular laptop. Additionally, the hinges feel strong and durable, keeping the screen in a stable position. The notebook is relatively quiet. I've found that the fan is completely off most of the time and therefore runs silently, but when multitasking there's a humming noise that makes it louder than an ultrabook or tablet without being intrusive or overwhelming. Despite the (currently) rather low resolution of the IPS touch display, it is very pleasant. Viewing angles are good, as expected, and pixel density is good for the small screen size. So as long as you're not too close, you probably won't be too bothered by jagged edges. The touchscreen is as responsive as most tablets I've tried (including the recent Nvidia Shield tablet) and the screen feels comfortable like a tablet screen. In general, the laptop is very pleasant, well built, looks good, works quickly. and is cool, light and very portable, has some nifty unique features and is upgradable if you can find a good deal and are willing to invest a little more time improving Dell's solid foundation.

Pros
  • Windows 8.1
Cons
  • Sad Hardware