Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 review: great features on a budget

Price during the exam

Base price of $ 849 (AMD processor) | $ 1,000 as reviewed

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The Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 occupies an unusual place in the company’s laptop lineup.

While Dell tends to reserve the Inspiron line for its cheapest, bulkier consumer PCs, the Inspiron 14 2-in-1 borrows a handful of things from high-end laptops, including a plastic cover. metal, a fingerprint reader, surprisingly awesome speakers, and a sharp touchscreen that switches to tablet mode. However, a closer inspection reveals where the trade-offs lie.

The screen is on the dark side, the chassis is partly plastic, the trackpad has a chintzy click mechanism, and the laptop is heavier than high-end computers with similar specs. But, if you can snag the Inspiron 14 2-in-1 for less than its list price of $ 1,049, those compromises may be worth it.

Technical specifications

Our Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 review unit costs $ 1,049 from Dell, but has often been on sale for $ 800 and includes the following specs:

• AMD Ryzen 7 5700U processor
• 14 inch, 1920 x 1080 IPS touchscreen
• 16 GB of RAM DD4-3200
• 512 GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD storage
• 720p webcam
• fingerprint reader
• Left side: HDMI 1.4b, USB-A 3.1 Gen 1, USB-C 3.2 Gen 1
• Right side: Headphone jack, USB-A 3.1 Gen 1, MicroSD card slot
• Weight: 3.43 pounds. (Power brick adds 0.58 lbs.)
• Dimensions: 12.66 x 8.32 x 0.71 inches

Jared Newman / IDG

Meanwhile, an option of $ 849 (or $ 600 on sale at the time of this writing) leaves you with a Ryzen 5 5500U processor, 256GB of storage, and 8GB of RAM. Unfortunately, you can’t mix and match the tech specs, so your only option if you want more storage or RAM is to buy the top-of-the-line model for $ 200 more. (Dell also offers other configurations with Intel processors, which we’re not looking at here.)

Port selection is solid with HDMI and MicroSD ports and two USB-A ports, but be aware that the HDMI 1.4b specification only supports 4K at 30Hz, so you’ll be limited to 1080p on monitors or TVs. external if you want a good 60fps video. In addition, the laptop charger takes up the only USB-C port, leaving no room for USB-C accessories.

Design and display

The Inspiron 14 2-in-1 comes in a single color called ‘Mist Blue’, but it’s a subtle shade that only covers the aluminum cover and barely stands out against the matte gray plastic frame below. . Despite the use of plastic, it is a sturdy machine. You won’t hear a cracking sound when you grip the laptop by the corners, and the keyboard barely flexes under pressure.

Jared Newman / IDG

The 1080p touchscreen has a glossy finish with edge-to-edge glass that helps enhance the premium look of the laptop. The bottom of the screen drops below the clamshell keyboard section, providing a raised surface for typing. The screen can also flip 360 degrees in tablet mode and supports stylus, although no stylus is included in the box.

Still, with a maximum brightness of 250 nits, this is a screen that you’ll want to keep at peak brightness in well-lit environments and you’ll probably want it to get a bit brighter. I also noticed a slight drop in brightness around the top edge of the screen, the mark of a poor display.

Jared Newman / IDG

Touchpad and keyboard

Dell put a nice keyboard in the Inspiron 14 2-in-1. While the keys keep a low profile and don’t offer a large amount of travel, they dig in with a satisfying bump and I haven’t detected any of the squishiness or wobbliness you find on cheaper keyboards. They also barely emit noise and support two levels of backlighting.

Jared Newman / IDG

The trackpad is more of a problem, especially for users who prefer to click down instead of pressing. The click mechanism starts to get pretty stiff about halfway up the trackpad and it wobbles slightly under your finger before it clicks all the way. While the touchpad surface is quite smooth, it still has a bit more friction than you would find in high-end laptops.

Webcam, security, audio

Like most Windows laptops, the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1’s 720p webcam is nothing special. It’s passable for video conferencing in well-lit rooms, but it records grainy video in lower lighting conditions. The quality of the microphone is not great either, resulting in fine vocals.

The camera includes a privacy shutter, which is another nice touch typically found on high-end laptops. Although it does not support facial recognition, there is a fingerprint reader built into the keyboard’s power button.

Jared Newman / IDG

The quality of the speakers is also a pleasant surprise, as the Inspiron 14 2-in-1 produces one of the loudest, punchiest sounds you’ll find on a Windows laptop. Although the sound distorts a bit at maximum volume, you’ll never strain to hear what’s going on when watching videos or connecting to conference calls.

Performance

For a laptop with an AMD Ryzen 7 5700U processor on board, the performance of the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 is roughly what you would expect. It rips through multithreaded tasks like video encoding and feels zippered enough for web browsing and document editing. The laptop also stayed comfortably cool and quiet while juggling multiple apps, browser tabs, and downloads.

The productivity prowess of the Inspiron 14 2-in-1 was exhibited in Futuremark’s PCMark 10 test, which simulates a range of office jobs, web browsing, and creative tasks. It edged out several other 2-in-1 laptops we’ve tested recently, including the similarly priced HP Envy x360 15 with the same processor.

Jared Newman / IDG

HP’s laptop regained the lead in our Handbrake test, which involves encoding a large video file, but both laptops maintain a significant lead over comparable 2-in-1s with Intel processors. More cores are almost always better for this test, and Intel’s i7-1165G7 quad-core processor is no match for the eight-core AMD Ryzen 7 5700U.

Jared Newman / IDG

Likewise, the Inspiron 14 2-in-1’s multi-threaded performance excelled in Cinebench’s quick performance test, but note that notebooks equipped with Intel have an advantage in single-threaded performance, which covers most basic productivity tasks. The difference isn’t something you would necessarily notice, but it is there.

Jared Newman / IDG

When it comes to battery life, the Inspiron 14 2-in-1 has a 54,000 Wh battery, which puts it in the middle of the road for thin and light laptops. This is clearly reflected in our battery drain test, which loops an offline video at a constant brightness level. Dell’s laptop lasted 11 hours and 17 minutes, which is neither bad nor great. Outside of test conditions, you might be able to squeeze a full day’s work out of this laptop, but you’ll probably want to pack the charger just in case.

Jared Newman / IDG

Meanwhile, AMD’s integrated Radeon graphics still aren’t made for serious gaming, but I was able to get through a session of Fortnite with medium graphics settings and 50% display scaling. And, of course, less demanding games like the 2D platform game Axiom Verge 2 worked very well. Still, I have had better gaming experiences with Iris Xe graphics in laptops with an Intel Core i7 processor and our 3DMark Time Spy test shows that these laptops also tend to perform better in performance tests. performance.

Jared Newman / IDG

Overall, this Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 offers a lot to like, especially at its oft-discounted price of $ 800. It’s a rugged laptop with high performance, a convertible touchscreen, speakers, and a handy fingerprint reader. But the compromises you’ll make to get that lower price tag, including the dark screen and stiff trackpad, might keep you from liking it outright.