Dell Vostro 5480 (14 5000) review – a stylish thin-and-light business companion

Vostro 14 5000 Series Non-Touch NotebookDell Vostro is a laptop series primarily targeted at small business users and is known for having a lower price than Dell’s main business-oriented Latitude notebooks, while still offering great build quality and good specs. One of the new laptops from the series – the Vostro 5480, which was previously only available in select Asian markets is now available across Europe and we got one right away for a review. It is a 14-inch notebook from the thin-and-light category, the device features brushed aluminum lid and palm rest with a choice between silver or red color, a great dual-fan cooling system and offers an optional fingerprint scanner for added security.

Specs-wise the notebook comes with a choice between Intel Core i3-4005U, i5-5200U, or i7-5500U, 4/8GB RAM, up to 1TB HDD or 128GB SSD, an integrated Intel HD Graphics or discrete NVIDIA GeForce 830M GPU and an optional touchscreen display. At the time of writing the review the starting price of the notebook on the European market is around 550-600 EUR.

You can check the current price of Dell Vostro 5480 here: http://amzn.to/2hRFhjY

Contents


Retail package

The notebook comes in a standard package with a few manuals and a charger.

dell-vostro-5480-charger

Design and construction

Dell have not changed the design of Vostro 5480 over last year’s 5470 a lot. The notebook comes with a thin body, measuring at 18.3mm (0.72″), same as last year’s model and it is also pretty lightweight at 1.53kg (3.4 lbs). The shell of the body is made of part aluminum, part plastic and it feels sturdy enough, given the price of the device.


dell-vostro-5480-front


As usual, starting off with the lid – it is made of aluminum with brushed metal look, but smooth finish, which adds a slight premium feel, but unfortunately gets smudges and fingerprints fairly easy. There are two color choices for the lid – silver (our unit) or metallic red. We have the usual glossy Dell logo in the center and also microphone holes located on the top left side. On the other side of the lid we have the 14.0-inch matte screen with a webcam and a microphone on top. The hinges can rotate the lid up to 135-degree angle and are strong enough to hold it firmly in place, but not too stiff, so you can easily open it with one hand.


dell-vostro-5480-side1

dell-vostro-5480-side2

dell-vostro-5480-side4

dell-vostro-5480-side3

Going around the sides of the device we have an SD card reader, two USB 3.0 ports, DC charger port and a Kensington lock slot to the left. The right side holds a 3.5mm combo audio jack, collapsible Ethernet port, always-on USB 3.0, and HDMI. The front of the device is clean, while the back side is entirely reserved for the dual-fan cooling system with an intake grill between the two exhausts. The bottom of the device is a whole plastic piece with additional venting holes for a cooling pad, subwoofer grill, located to the left and speaker holes on the front left and right edges.


dell-vostro-5480-back-open

dell-vostro-5480-open-side2

dell-vostro-5480-open-side

dell-vostro-5480-face1

Opening the lid we find the same brushed aluminum on the palm rest as on the lid, with soft touch plastic around the keyboard. Speaking of which, it has evenly spaced island-style keys with an average key travel. Unfortunately we found it to be a bit stiff for our liking, but still it offers a decent typing experience. The trackpad is pretty big and takes nearly the entire height of the palm rest. It is comfortable, has decent sensitivity and the buttons are easy to click. To the right of the trackpad we also have a fingerprint sensor for added security.

dell-vostro-5480-keyboard

Dell Vostro 5480 is an elegant thin-and-light solution for small business or home office users. It has a great aluminum lid and feels sturdy enough for an affordable mid-ranger. You have plenty ports at your disposal and the dual-fan system should keep the device cool even under really heavy workload. The keyboard and trackpad offer decent experience, with some room for improvement, but good enough for the price range of the device.

Disassembly and upgrade options

The notebook is easy to disassemble, you have to unscrew 11 Torx screws and open the whole bottom piece. Inside we have a 2.5″ HDD compartment, single DDR3L RAM slot for up to 8GB memory, the Wi-Fi card, the 51.2Wh battery and dual-fan cooling system. If you are planning on removing or upgrading any components, remember to disconnect the battery first. You can read more about the upgrade options in our dedicated article: http://laptopmedia.com/highlights/inside-dell-vostro-5480-disassembly-internal-photos-and-upgrade-options/


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Display and sound

Dell Vostro 5480’s display has an HD TN panel with matte finish, model B140XTN. The diagonal is 14 inches (35.56 cm) and the resolution – 1366 x 768. The aspect ratio is 16:9, the screen has a pixel density of 112 pixels per inch, with a pixel pitch of 0.2269 x 0.2269 mm. The screen can be considered “Retina”, when viewed from a distance greater than 79 cm, which is more than normal reading distance.

Micr-Dell Vostro 5480

Dell Vostro 5480 has uncomfortable viewing angles.

The maximum brightness we were able to measure before profiling is 253 cd/m2 with a maximum deviation of 7%. The average color temperature, measured on a white screen is 8150K – colder (but not critically) than the optimal 6500K light. There is an increased deviation in the upper left corner.

100 brightness Dell Vostro 5480

Color reproduction (CIE)

To put things into perspective, we would like to give you a little introduction into the sRGB and Adobe RGB color gamuts. The CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram represents the spectrum of colors visible to the human eye, thus giving you a better perception of color gamut coverage and color accuracy. Inside the black triangle you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB), used by millions of people in HDTV and on the Web. As for Adobe RGB, it is used to work with professional cameras and monitors when preparing print. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone, and so reproducing them accurately is key in a quality display.

The yellow triangle shows the color gamut coverage of Dell Vostro 5480. It has 54% of sRGB and 41% of Adobe RGB gamut, which is not enough for a saturated image.

ColorGamut_Dell Vostro 5480

The images below shows practically the same thing but with recorded measurements. On the left – before profiling, with factory settings, and on the right – after profiling. The colored circles represent reference colors (sRGB/rec.709 Standard Color Gamut Reference Colors) and the whites show the colors actually reproduced . The primary and secondary colors are shown with 100% and 50% saturation respectively inside the sRGB gamut.


Pre_MeasuredColors_Dell Vostro 5480

Post_MeasuredColors_Dell Vostro 5480

We calibrated the screen with 140 cd/m2 brightness and 6500K color temperature.

52 brightness dell vostro 5480

For calibration purposes we use X-Rite i1Display Pro.

We tested the colors before and after recording the profile in Windows. Due to the insufficient sRGB coverage some of the colors with 100% saturation (red and purple) are replaced with the closest possible, resulting in a somewhat pale image.


Pre_Grayscale_Dell Vostro 5480

Post_Grayscale_Dell Vostro 5480


Pre_RGB_Dell Vostro 5480

Post_RGB_Dell Vostro 5480

The display’s white level distribution is close to the optimal after profiling.


Pre_GammaGraph_Dell Vostro 5480

Post_GammaGraph_Dell Vostro 5480

We tested the display with 24 color samples, including commonly used colors and ones the eye easily recognizes – dark and light human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange and so on. Most of them are in the middle of the color gamut, and after profiling their accuracy is high enough – average DeltaE2000 = 2.04

Result-Dell Vostro 5480

REPORT-Dell Vostro 5480

Pulse-width modulation (PWM), Screen flickering

Vostro 5480’s display emits light without PWM for all brightness levels. This should offer long hours of work without excessive strain on the eyesight and brain. We give an excellent mark on this aspect of the display.

PWM-Dell Vostro 5480 (14 5000

Gaming capabilities (Response time)

The image below is mostly useful for gamers. It illustrates the response time of the pixels in modes from “Black” to “White”, plus “White” to “Black” for levels from 10% to 90% and back.

We measured Fall Time + Rise Time = 11.2 ms. The panel is fast enough for action-packed games.

ResponceTime-Dell Vostro 5480

Conclusion

The display of Dell Vostro 5480 is suitable for gaming, web browsing, videos and business applications, excluding professional work with colors.

If we assume a distance of 58cm (~23in) between the human eye and the notebook monitor, then normal (20/20) vision would require a pixel density of at least 150ppi in order to interpret an image as perfectly detailed.

LaptopResultsResult
difference
PricePrice
difference
Dell Vostro 5480 (14 5000) 14.0-inch, AUO B140XTN, 1366 x 768 pixels111.94
Lenovo ThinkPad E550 15.6-inch, AUO B156XTN04.1, 1366 x 768 pixels100.45-10.26%
Dell Vostro 3558 (15 3000) 15.6-inch, Dell, 1366 x 768 pixels100.45-10.26%

Higher panel brightness is of key importance for visual comfort when working outside or in a brightly lit room.

LaptopResultsResult
difference
PricePrice
difference
Dell Vostro 5480 (14 5000) 14.0-inch, AUO B140XTN, 1366 x 768 pixels253
Lenovo ThinkPad E550 15.6-inch, AUO B156XTN04.1, 1366 x 768 pixels262+3.56%
Dell Vostro 3558 (15 3000) 15.6-inch, Dell, 1366 x 768 pixels235-7.11%

Delta E is a CIE measurement unit of color difference. Higher values indicate that the display produces less accurate colors. (lower results are desirable).

LaptopResultsResult
difference
PricePrice
difference
Dell Vostro 5480 (14 5000) 14.0-inch, AUO B140XTN, 1366 x 768 pixels2.04
Lenovo ThinkPad E550 15.6-inch, AUO B156XTN04.1, 1366 x 768 pixels9.0+341.18%
Dell Vostro 3558 (15 3000) 15.6-inch, Dell, 1366 x 768 pixels1.60-21.57%

The sRGB color gamut, introduced as a standard for the Web, shows the percentage of colors used on the Web that can be displayed on the screen of the device being tested (higher values are better).

LaptopResultsResult
difference
PricePrice
difference
Dell Vostro 5480 (14 5000) 14.0-inch, AUO B140XTN, 1366 x 768 pixels54
Lenovo ThinkPad E550 15.6-inch, AUO B156XTN04.1, 1366 x 768 pixels56+3.7%
Dell Vostro 3558 (15 3000) 15.6-inch, Dell, 1366 x 768 pixels57+5.56%

Sound

Dell Vostro 5380 has a mediocre sound quality for the whole spectrum from low to high tones. At times there is a noticeable metallic sound and distortions. The sound volume is high and good enough for the type of the notebook.

Specs sheet


laptop-latitude-14-rugged-pdp-love-01

CPUIntel Core i3-4005U (3M Cache, 1.70GHz)
RAM4GB DDR3L (1 x 4096MB), 1600MHz
GPUNVIDIA GeForce 830M 2GB DDR3L
HDD/SSD500GB SSHD, 5400rpm
Display14.0″ HD 1366 x 768, TN, matte
Optical Drive
ConnectivityEthernet 10/100/1000 Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0
Other features
  • 3x USB 3.0, one with Power Share
  • built-in 720p HD webcam
  • built-in microphone
  • 2.1 Wave MaxxAudio speakers
  • 3.5mm combo headphone/microphone audio jack
  • HDMI
  • RJ-45 Ethernet port
  • SD, SDHC, SDXC card reader
  • Kensington lock slot
  • Optional fingerprint scanner
Battery3 -cell, Lithium Ion, 51.2Wh
Thickness18.3mm (0.72″)
Weight1.53kg (3.4 lbs)


Dell Vostro 5480 configurations

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Software

For testing purposes we use a clean installation of Windows 8.1. If your computer did not come with a pre-installed OS or want to make a clean install you can download the necessary drivers at Dell’s official support website: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/vostro-14-5480-laptop/drivers

Battery

Vostro 5480 comes with a 3-cell 51.2Wh battery and with the help of the energy efficient CPU and RAM we got some really great results from this notebook. The device can get you through about a standard 8-hour work day on a single charge and while the results are a bit far from the promised by Dell 10.5 hours, it is still an impressive result. All tests are performed under the same conditions – power saver on, Wi-Fi turned on and connected, Bluetooth off, and screen brightness set to 120 cd/m2.

Web browsing

In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.

As we already said – we are pretty impressed with the results. You can browse the Internet for nearly a whole working day or 452 minutes (7 hours 32 minutes).

Video playback

For every test like this, we use the same video in HD.

Vostro 14 5000 Series Non-Touch Notebook

Again we got a nice big and round result in this test – 500 minutes or 8 hours and 20 minutes.

Gaming

For accurate simulation, we used the Metro Last Light benchmark running on a loop with graphic settings set to minimum.

Vostro 14 5000 Series Non-Touch Notebook

As usual gaming drains the battery fairly quickly – the result we got is 107 minutes (1 hour 47 minutes).

Charging

The charger included in the retail box is Dell 65W-AC Adapter, model HA65NS5-00. Input is 100-240V, 50-60Hz, 1.7A and output – 19.5V, 3.34A.

The notebook charged from 0 to 100% in 164 minutes (2 hours 44 minutes).

CPU

Intel_Core_i3_logoIntel Core i3-4005U is a low-voltage, integrated (soldered onto the motherboard), low mid-range processor announced in Q3 of 2013. It is part of the “Haswell” generation and operates at a base frequency of 1.7GHz. Unlike its “bigger brethren” of the Core i5 and Core i7 families, i3-4005U does not sport the TurboBoost functionality, prohibiting it from overclocking its cores during periods of higher loads.

The chip is equipped with 128KB of first level cache, 512KB of second level cache, and 3MB of third level cache. The Core i3-4005U has been developed using a 22nm process, allowing for the integration of the Intel HD Graphics 4400 controller. It operates at a base frequency of 200MHz, while Turbo Boost can increase that to 950MHz. Power consumption of the whole system on a chip is 15 watts, with a maximum operating temperature of 100C.

Intel Core i3-4005U supports HyperThreading (additional virtual core for every physical one), PCI Express 2.0, up to 16GB of  LP/DDR3L 1333/1600 memory, AVX2.0 and the SSE4 instruction set.

You can browse through our top CPUs ranking: http://laptopmedia.com/top-laptop-cpu-ranking/

Here you will find other useful information and every notebook we’ve tested with this processor: http://laptopmedia.com/processor/intel-core-i3-4005u/

Fritz

Fritz is a chess benchmark which tests the computing capabilities of the CPU with various chess moves. The Intel Core i3-4005U managed to get 3.401 million moves per second. For comparison, one of the most powerful PCs, Deep(er) Blue, was able to squeeze out 200 million moves per second. In 1997 Deep(er) Blue even beat the famous Garry Kasparov with 3.5 to 2.5.

GPU

GeForce-830m-3qtrNVIDIA GeForce 830M, is a lower-mid-range graphics chip, announced in Q1 of 2014. It is part of the Maxwell generation and relies on a GM108 core, constructed through a 28nm process. It consists of two shader blocks, known as SMM, and each of those has 128 smaller shader cores, also known as CUDA, for a total of 256 CUDA cores. The package also includes 16 texture cores and 8 raster cores.

All of them operate at 1082MHz, but NVIDIA’s GPU Boost 2.0 can increase that frequency based on the laptop’s cooling capacity.

The chip also has a 64bit bus and DDR3 memory. NVIDIA GeForce 820M supports DirectX 11.2, Pixel Shader 5.0, Optimus, SLI, PhysX, OpenCL 1.1, OpenGL 4.4, DirectCompute and CUDA. Memory bandwidth goes up to 14.4GB/sec. Maximum resolution (WxH) is 4096×2160.

You can browse through our top GPUs ranking: http://laptopmedia.com/top-laptop-graphics-ranking/

Here you will find other useful information and every notebook we’ve tested with this GPU: http://laptopmedia.com/video-card/nvidia-geforce-830m-2gb-ddr3/

Gaming performance

tomb-raider-2013-wallpaper1

Tomb Raider (768p, Low)Tomb Raider (768p, Medium)Tomb Raider (768p, Max)
83 fps31 fps14 fps

f1-2014

F1 2014 (768p, Low)F1 2014 (768p, Medium)F1 2014 (768p, Max)
72 fps57 fps41 fps

thief_4_wallpaper_by_christian2506-d5x4ppb1

Thief (768p, Low)Thief (768p, Medium)Thief (768p, Max)
26 fps21 fps13 fps

gta-5-cover

GTA 5 (768p, Low)GTA 5 (768p, Medium)GTA 5 (768p, Max)
13 fps4 fps2 fps

Temperatures

Before we begin with this section we would like to note that the following tests do not represent real-life situations. It is extremely difficult to reach 100% CPU and GPU load under normal usage for such an extended period of time as in our stress tests, but we run them to see how the machine handles higher temperatures, and check the overall stability of the system in the long run. First we put the CPU under 100% load for an hour. Under normal usage the CPU maintained a temperature of around 42-45°C. During the 100% CPU stress test the temperatures rose to 51-55°C with no noticeable noise from the fan of the fans. There was no throttling for the entire test. You can see the results in the graphic below, the blue line is CPU load, and the orange – the measured temperatures.

vostro-5480-temp-cpu

After an hour we added GPU stress test along the CPU torture. The temperatures rose slightly with about 4°C to 56-59°C throughout the second hour of the test. This time there was slight noise from the fans, but nothing too distracting, but again no processor throttling. The GPU temperature under normal load was about 41°C and rose to 57-59°C during the test.

vostro-5480-temp-cpu-gpu

In our third part of the test we measure the temperature on the surface of the notebook to see if the notebook is comfortable to use after prolonged high load. The results were again very good – the palm rest and keyboard felt cold to the touch with just slightly warmer top center part, just over where the CPU and GPU are located. Overall the dual-fan cooling system of Vostro 5480 offers amazing performance and keeps the device cool even under long hours of intense computational work.

vostro-5480-temperatures-bottom

Verdict

Dell Vostro 5480 turned out to be a surprisingly great device. It features good and clean design and an overall sturdy build. It comes with a pretty thin body, but don’t worry about overheating, because the dual-fan cooling system manages to keep the device pretty cool even under very big workload. The specs of the device are good, it should handle most office tasks with ease and the low power consuming components manage to squeeze some extra time away from the charger. The battery offered over 8 hours of video viewing and nearly as much life for browsing the web, overall it should be able to get you through a whole working day on a single charge, which is a great accomplishment.

The screen offers decent colors for most business-oriented applications, web browsing or video viewing, but it is not enough for professional work. The notebook is advertised with a great 2.1 sound system, which we hoped would end Vostro’s notoriously bad quality speakers, but unfortunately it still fails to deliver good and clear sound. The keyboard offers decent typing experience and the trackpad is responsive. If you are looking for a new working machine that will be carried around a lot, this might be it – Vostro 5480 is thin and light enough to easily carry it around, offers great battery life, so you won’t have to think about where to plug it in and the two fans keep it cool enough for the notebook to be comfortably sitting on your lap even if you push the internals really hard.

You can check the current price of Dell Vostro 5480 here: http://amzn.to/2hRFhjY

Pros

  • Stylish design with thin and light chassis
  • Great battery life
  • Impressive heat management
  • No PWM light emitted from the screen


Cons

  • Mediocre sound quality

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Dean
Dean
8 years ago

Hi,
what about the WIfi, is it good?
The vostro 5470 had terrible network card..

Thank you!

Dean
Dean
8 years ago
Reply to  Dean

And another question,
in your opnion, what’s better – vostro 5480 or yoga 3 (14″)?
(The touch screen and the 360 are nice but not big advantage for me..)

tom
tom
8 years ago
Reply to  Dean

I have Yoga 3 14′. It’s better computer but it has FullHD screen. It makes a lot of problems for software (hires mode). It’s better to use HD or QHD screen when your software doesn’t work properly in hires mode. I want to buy this vostro because of HD screen and sell my yoga 3 14′. Windows 8 doens’t support well multi monitors when one of them works in hires mode.

Ali
8 years ago
Reply to  Dean

Hello
dean i have vostro 5480 and her wifi until now i found it good 🙂

Rajib
Rajib
8 years ago
Reply to  Ali

Hello Ali, Does the vostro 5480 have any wifi related issue ? I want to buy this machine, Thanks in Advance.

Dean
Dean
8 years ago
Reply to  Dean

Thank you both

Lucian
Lucian
8 years ago

Firstly, thank you for the awesome review! Secondly, could you please elaborate on the noise coming from the fans please? Do you find the laptop to be overall quiet or loud, do the fans stay off in idle, things like that.

Malena Sandim (@malenasandim)
Reply to  Lucian

I own one (but an i7 with 8gb of ram) and it’s quite noisy when you’re gaming. Nothing that actually makes me uncomfortable (I usually use headphones), but it’s there. It helps a little when I use it with a cooling pad.

For normal use, I haven’t noticed any loud noises, though.

Rajib
Rajib
8 years ago

What about its wifi performance? I want to buy this laptop, would you please tell if there is any wifi problem exists in Vostro 5480.

Lucian
Lucian
8 years ago
Reply to  Rajib

This is a very poor laptop, considering my needs at least, so poor that I decided to return it actually. To begin with, the screen doesn’t look very good, it feels somewhat pixelated and cheap. The wi-fi (in Ubuntu at least, I did not install windows) was dreadful, it barely had 2 lines of reception (out of 4) while the router was 4 metres away. It is also somewhat loud, as the fan goes from silent to noisy quite fast during moderate load, there is no intermediate mode. I would recommend against buying it, unless you can find it somewhere… Read more »

kev
kev
8 years ago

Hello!
Could you tell me the battery life for the i7 version? and is the wifi card replacable
very interested, Thanks

Prawit
Prawit
8 years ago

็Hi, may i ask, what is exactly panel model on 5480, i mean B140XTN03.7 or B140XTN03.7, can you specific the panel model for me. it possible to replace a FHD display for 5480. Thanks

Tomal
Tomal
8 years ago

I have just bought one and found that the cooling fan is a bit noisy just for normal work.

windanetto
windanetto
8 years ago

Hallo…i wanna ask please teach me how to turn on/off bluetooth in vostro 5480 (core i5) with OS Windows 8.1

Fernando
Fernando
8 years ago

I dont like the 5480, i have a 5470 and the nvidia gt740 is better than the gt830 and have a slot m2 next to the wifi slot to put a extra ssd, as you can see on the left of the 5480 has a empty space

Global Nomad couple
8 years ago

What are the warranty conditions for that? Does it have the Inspiron keyboard (FDKH0)? Looks like the models they sell in Europe are very different from those sold in Asia: http://www.2globalnomads.info/2016/03/Dell-Vostro-14-5459-Laptop-Review.html

shiba kc
6 years ago

Hi, Thank you so much for your valuable information.
actually, i am going to buy vostro 14 5000 i7 processor and using for graphic design and video editing. is it suitable this for my work requirement? please advice.

thank you so much.

Csaba
Csaba
6 years ago

Dear Boris Dzhuvinov & Kroum Nikolov,

could you please share us the calibrated icc profile for the Dell Vostro 5480?
I have this laptop but it has a very disturbing default color profile.

If you still have the icc file, please share. 🙂

Best Regards from Hungary
Csaba

chiara
chiara
3 years ago

Hi,I do have a Dell Vostro 5380 but I still don’t know whether I can enlarge the hard disk/ ram capacity or not;
Has anyone done so? thank you
Chiara