Dell Inspiron 14 5491 2-in-1 review – only a minor refresh with a great build quality

Here comes the latest 14-inch Inspiron convertible. Its full name is Dell Inspiron 14 5491 2-in-1 – something that takes as long to pronounce as it is for a Target worker to wake up from its mid-isle nap. Nevertheless, this is a device that bears no significant changes to its predecessor on the outside.

However, the most notable one is the hardware and more precisely – the CPU choice. Instead of the Whiskey Lake that Dell was fast to introduce more than a year ago, now we see a Comet Lake processor. Of course, you have a choice of sticking with the lowest-budget Core i3-10110U that has two cores and four threads or go for twice the core/thread count with either the Core i5-10210U or the Core i7-10510U.

Let’s not forget to mention the 1080p 14-inch IPS touchscreen panel that you get with it. After all, the notebook is a 2-in-1 and it has some extra capabilities. It is also worth noting that this year, the retail packaging we got came with a dedicated Pen inside the box – how sweet.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-inspiron-14-5491-2-in-1/

Contents

Specs Sheet

What’s in the box?

Apart from the included optional Pen, there are the paper manuals and guides, as well as the laptop itself and a 45W power brick (or a 65W if you get the GeForce MX230 version).

Design and construction

Standing at 19mm and siting at 1.67kg, the Inspiron 14 5491 2-in-1 isn’t exactly the lightest convertible on the market. In fact, we feel that, like last year, it is a little too heavy for a 14-inch 2-in-1. On the bright side, the mostly aluminum chassis provides excellent support and feels sturdy both on the base and on the lid.

Sadly, the lid requires the use of two hands to open and the hinges are way too stiff at basically any point. On the bright side, there is little to no flex on the lid even when you give it a hard time. Also, let’s not forget that this device has a fairly large footprint for its screen size.

Next – the base. It is home to the unsatisfactory keyboard this thing has. Its keystrokes are way shorter than our likings and moreover, the feedback feels a little mushy. While the keycap size is actually not too small, and the spacing between the keys is decent, we just can’t say that it is very comfortable to use, especially for people who write articles and stuff (aghm).

Additionally, the touchpad feels a little slow – something that in our view, is mainly down to its rough surface that features not very good gliding properties.

Then, fliping the laptop upside down, you can see the ventilation grill, as well as the two speaker cut-outs. Hot air, as with the previous model, is exhausted from the back of the machine – unimpeded by the lid or anything.

Ports

On the left side, you will see the power plug, followed by a USB Type-C 3.1 (Gen. 1) with PowerDelivery enabled, an HDMI 1.4b port, two USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1) ports and an Audio Jack. On the right, there is a single USB Type-A 2.0 port and an SD card reader.

Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

This device requires the removal of the entire back panel in order to access its internals. Thankfully, this is made easy by putting only 9 Phillips head-screws. As soon as you unscrew them, pry the plate with a plastic tool, and you will now be able to lift the panel up.

Cooling-wise there is nothing too exciting. Only a single heat pipe and a fan doing the heavy lifting.

In terms of upgradability, now we see something impressive – there are two RAM DIMMs that support up to 32GB of DDR4 memory. Additionally, there is a 2.5″ SATA drive slot and an M.2 PCIe x4 slot for storage.

As far as the battery goes, Dell has included only a 42Wh battery pack.

Display quality

Dell Inspiron 14 5491 2-in-1 has a Full HD IPS display, model number Chi Mei N140HAC-EAC (CNM14D4). Its diagonal is 14″ (35.56 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 157 ppi, their pitch – 0.161 x 0.161 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 56 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

Its viewing angles are excellent. We have provided images at 45 degrees to evaluate quality.

The maximum measured brightness is 234 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 202 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 14%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6460K (average) – slightly warmer than the 6500K optimum for sRGB. The average color temperature through the grey scale before profiling is 6330K.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 66% Brightness (White level = 142 cd/m2, Black level = 0.11 cd/m2).
Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is very good – 1300:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is an essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Dell Inspiron 14 5491 2-in-1’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers just 54% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Dell Inspiron 14 5491 2-in-1 with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display can reproduce dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 29 ms

Health impact – PWM / Blue Light

PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

Dell Inspiron 14 5491 2-in-1’s display is using PWM to adjust the brightness up to 55 nits. After that its flicker-free. Moreover, the PWM it uses has a very high frequency, making the display comfortable for long hours of work and safe for your eyes in this aspect.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Conclusions

Dell Inspiron 14 5491 2-in-1’s display has an IPS touchscreen panel with a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, and good contrast ratio. Thankfully, it doesn’t use aggressive PWM to adjust its brightness levels, but on the downside, the color coverage is very moderate – 54% of sRGB.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Dell Inspiron 14 5491 2-in-1 configurations with 14.0″ Chi Mei N140HCA-EAC (CMN14D4) (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS panel.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

Sound

Dell Inspiron 14 5491 2-in-1’s speakers produce a loud and clear sound. Its low, mid and high tones are clear of deviations.

Drivers

All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook can be downloaded from here: https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/inspiron-14-5491-2-in-1-laptop/drivers

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. There is a 42Wh unit on this notebook.

Despite the tiny battery, we were able to get around 9 hours of Web browsing and up to 7 hours and a half of video playback.

CPU options

This device comes equipped with one of the following – Intel Core i3-10110U (2c/4t), Intel Core i5-10210U (4c/8t), Intel Core i7-10510U (4c/8t).

GPU options

In addition to the integrated Intel UHD Graphics, you have the choice to purchase the device with an NVIDIA GeForce MX230 with 2GB of GDDR5 memory.

Gaming tests

All tests were done on the integrated Intel UHD Graphics.

CS:GO	HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)	HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)	HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS	33 fps	20 fps	– fps

DOTA 2	HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)	HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)	HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS	54 fps	27 fps	– fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i5-10210U (15W TDP)	0:02 – 0:10 sec	0:15 – 0:30 sec	10:00 – 15:00 min
Dell Inspiron 14 5491 2-in-1	3.45 GHz (B+116%) @ 94°C	2.33 GHz (B+46%) @ 86°C	2.00 GHz (B+25%) @ 74°C
ASUS ZenBook Duo UX481	3.26 GHz (B+104%) @ 94°C	2.77 GHz (B+73%) @ 98°C	2.06 GHz (B+29%) @ 71°C
Lenovo Yoga C640 (13)	2.87 GHz (B+79%) @ 73°C	2.89 GHz (B+81%) @ 85°C	2.23 GHz (B+39%) @ 87°C
Dell Vostro 5590	3.50 GHz (B+119%) @ 94°C	2.68 GHz (B+68%) @ 97°C	2.36 GHz (B+48%) @ 79°C
Lenovo Yoga C740 (14)	3.09 GHz (B+93%) @ 96°C	2.66 GHz (B+66%) @ 97°C	1.96 GHz (B+23%) @ 71°C

In addition to the lower frequency, this laptop’s processor is working at compared to some competitors, there is little to almost no noise coming out of its fan during full synthetic load.

Comfort during full load

While the near 43C on the keyboard is on the warm side, we have to say that it is strongly possible that you never burn your device with such a load for 15 minutes. Plus, the more important thing is that the palm-rest area remains cool, despite the stress test.

Verdict

If we have to be honest with you, the Inspiron 14 5491 2-in-1 isn’t that different from its predecessor. Not only that it is not different, but in fact, it feels like exactly the same piece of hardware, despite the newer processors.

This means that the convertible features the same goodies, like superb upgradability (including 32GB RAM via two SODIMM slots, an M.2 PCIe x4 drive support and not on the last place – a 2.5″ SATA drive slot). Additionally, you are going to get a very decent battery life, despite the tiny 42Wh battery pack.

On the downside, there are the input options, that are just not there. The keyboard has shallow and mushy feedback, while the touchpad has poor gliding. However, our biggest setback would be the weight – 1.67kg. Certainly, compared to the Inspiron 14 5482 2-in-1, it has shaved a gram or two, but in the grand scheme of things, 1.67kg is just too much for a 14-inch convertible that has too stiff of hinges.

Dell Inspiron 14 5491 2-in-1’s display has an IPS touchscreen panel (Chi Mei N140HAC-EAC (CNM14D4)) with a Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, and good contrast ratio. Thankfully, it doesn’t use aggressive PWM to adjust its brightness levels, but on the downside, the color coverage is very moderate – 54% of sRGB.

Also, let’s not forget the ultra-fast fingerprint reader that remains from last year. At the end of the day, this laptop is not bad, but Dell could have surely made more effort towards the execution of the model. Instead of giving all of their financial and physical efforts towards the top-end, they could have tried to take a peek at the low-mid range of their devices.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-inspiron-14-5491-2-in-1/