Review on Dell Inspiron 17 3793 Review: 10th Gen Intel Core i5, 17.3" FHD, 8GB DDR4, 1TB HDD & DVD Drive by Robert Grind

This is a beautiful laptop with a design that resembles the XPS in many ways. Physically, this block is assembled the same way but without all the aluminum. It offers the same ultra-clean looks and professional XPS design, but without the glare. It doesn't offer stability, however, as it uses a composite material that's fairly common in the industry. This means that the body of the laptop has some curves, but it appears that the monitor is reinforced with aluminum. The top of the laptop is also prone to scuffs and scratches. It has more flexibility than the XPS, but it's a fairly stable monitor, even more so than the main body. It has better bottom ventilation than the Dell XPS 9300, but it doesn't really take advantage of that extra ventilation. I'll take care of that later. However, when the monitor is open, it has legs at the bottom that elevate the laptop. This will increase airflow at the bottom of the device. In addition, when open, heat is conducted upwards and away from the air intake. This is indeed a bottleneck as there is only a small gap when the monitor is open. The machine makes noise while the fans cool due to many factors that go into cooling this laptop. As for the screen on this one. It's good enough to be average at best. Brightness is low, colors are good but muddy, and I don't even think this screen can hit 100% sRGB. If anything, it seems very budget-friendly and I feel that detracts from what this laptop offers. In terms of performance it's still a great screen, not the eye fatigue I noticed and responsive enough that fast scrolling was the only time I saw stuttering. The computer is very responsive thanks to the identical I7-106G7 processor. Found one in my XPS device. It's also just as responsive. I was surprised that this computer doesn't have Thunderbolt, especially since the processor supports it. I even checked if it has hidden support. Inside, this device features an I7-106G7 processor, expandable 8GB of RAM, an Nvidia MX330 and a 512GB SKHynix BC511 NVME SSD. These components form the core of this computer and deliver the performance you are most likely to experience. However, I would suggest upgrading to 16GB of DDR4 SODIMM memory, which would require another 8GB memory stick. This does not bottleneck the computer as the processor in this device is very good and can handle more than the 8GB of RAM on offer. You can upgrade or replace NVME storage. There is additional NVME space as well as an adjustable bracket for NVME main storage. The NVME card is short, very similar to the Kioxia (ex Toshiba) cards I've seen recently, so the bracket needs to be moved to accommodate the longer NVME card. an update to the Iris Plus G7 graphics built into the I7-106G7 processor, but it's an improvement nonetheless, allowing you to boost the detail by at least a notch in some games you can play. With the MX 330, a special memory is soldered onto the circuit board. However, the computer has an amazing touchpad. Smooth operation, crisp clicks and a very similar if not the same feel as the XPS. The keyboard, on the other hand, feels a bit cheap due to the soft keys and the small stability issues that come with them. The keyboard is rather average, but I prefer the comfortable touch feel. The keyboard is a fairly average membrane keyboard. It offers a number pad and I love it. To tap the keyboard again, many of the keys are tiny and take longer to click into place than I'm used to. The camera on this laptop is good. I am very happy with this, good color reproduction, but some noise in the recording. The microphone is also suitable for standard video conferences and the like, in such cases it is sufficient. On the other hand, the sound could be better. It's mediocre and messy. It's got enough space that it could be used for a good setup, but this is a computer that's clearly built for performance, so I doubt they'll match the speakers they have in their XPS models, which sound fantastic. It has a headphone jack and this allows for good sound. However, when I opened the device, I found both good and bad things. First, the computer has expandable memory and NVME. Processor and GPU are soldered, which is to be expected. I see there is dedicated storage for the MX330 as well. Everything is good so far. However, the cooling suffers here. The GPU and CPU are cooled with a good heat pipe, however the surface area to be cooled is very small with the array they have provided for this device. This can be seen later in testing when I see thermal throttling in synthetic tests. So don't expect to get the most out of this system with the included cooling solution. What worries me, however, is how hot and consistently hot this system gets. This can and will reduce the lifespan of the device, but by how much is hard to say. However, the motherboard of this computer is well designed. Some parts for I/O and power supply can be replaced in case of failure, the mainboard only has HDMI, USB-C and USB-3 ports. In terms of performance, this is a competent processor but lacks GPU experience . The 3D Mark Firestike test originally scored 2693 with a Physics score of 5781. The Physics score is primarily CPU-bound, meaning the CPU carries most of the point. Thermal throttling was detected in the processor in this test. However, the GPU was not thermally throttled. Timespy showed a score of 1096, a GPU score of 992, and a CPU score of 2730, which is similar to my AMD Ryzen 1500x processor score that my desktop computer uses. This means it's not the type of computer you use for AAA gaming, but it goes well with Roblox, which my kid will be playing on. I changed the thermal paste while I was inside. It was a competent computer thermal setup, but the thermal plates that come into contact with the GPU and CPU respectively were dirty, with quite a bit of machine dirt. I cleaned them with 90% isopropyl alcohol and reassembled them with MX4. With this combination, I saw a 14% increase in performance in synthetic benchmarks. Firestrike received an improved score of 2945 and a physical score of 8877. However, thermal throttling was still observed. The computer often runs at around 74°C in standby mode and the fan spins up quite loudly at this temperature. The GPU uses the same heat pipe and reflects this temperature. Replacing the thermal paste showed an improvement, but it was negligible when idling. The surface of the heatsink quite strongly requires the constant operation of the fan. There's another area for heat dissipation, but only if you use it. I think the second zone is for the Dell Inspiron 15 5701 which uses a GTX 1650. But if they offered a slightly longer heat pipe and a different set of fins there, even if passive, that would solve that thermal management issue. better for performance than gaming, and the results show. However, I got this for schoolwork and Roblox and it will fill those needs. Don't be fooled if you see the NVIDIA sticker on it, that doesn't mean it's really good for gaming, but it can play a lot of games with lower requirements. If you want more gaming power, they offer the Dell Inspiron 15 1701 with GTX 1650. I love that they copied some of the very good aspects of the Dell XPS that I love and put them in this machine. However, I don't like their thermal solution and their keyboard could be a bit better. The touchpad is great and all the ports it has on my XPS are good. All in all, I think Dell got it right, but I can't get the heat dissipation issue out of my head. 4 stars because I know he will do a great job.