Dell Inspiron 17 7773 review – a successor to the Inspiron 17 7779 with a brand new hardware… and price

After the Inspiron 17 7779 review, we still can’t think of a reason why would anyone opt for a 17-inch convertible but obviously there’s a market for that as well. Probably the combination of a big working space and flexibility appeals to a number of users. Luckily, the 17 7773 remains a well-executed 17-inch convertible with just a few drawbacks that are usually inherent to the big screen models anyway.

Still, in terms of design, the Inspiron 7773 is almost identical to the 7779 – all-aluminum body, pretty much the same I/O, comfortable keyboard, useful touchpad and 360-degree rotatable hinge with glossy touchscreen. Also, the Inspiron 7773 doesn’t improve on weight and dimensions – the case is practically the same. The only thing changed here is the hardware and the price. Both have been significantly bumped up – now starting at $899, the machine comes equipped with the latest 8th Generation Intel CPU (Core i5-8250U) and NVIDIA GeForce MX150 with 2GB GDDR5 memory and can go up to Core i7-8550U. All models come with Full HD IPS panels so there’s no problem here but we would like to see if the battery life is still good and are there any significant changes in the image quality and cooling system because last time, the latter wasn’t very impressive. Continue reading to find out more.

You can check prices and configurations: Compra desde Amazon.es (#CommissionsEarned)

Contents


Retail package

The notebook comes in a standard box with the usual user manuals, AC adapter and power cord.


Design and construction

As we already stated, there are no apparent changes in the design – the anodized aluminum makes an appearance on the top and interior. There are some chamfered edges around the lid and the touchpad making it look more aesthetically pleasing. The thickness remains at 22.6 mm while the approximate weight is around 2.94 kg, which is pretty hefty, especially for a convertible.

As before, the anodized aluminum plate doesn’t impress with extraordinary sturdiness as it sinks under small amounts of pressure and you can easily hear that “vacuum” sound. It did, however, hold up pretty well to our twisting attempts and fortunately, none of these issues actually cause ripples to appear on the LCD screen. Speaking of which, the big upper bezel and lower chin make an impression and add more to the overall size. The hinges still feel a bit overly tightened and due to the heavy nature of the display, the wobbling effect is pretty pronounced when using the touchscreen in laptop mode. The bottom still uses an aluminum sheet with small grills for the loudspeakers and the cooling fans.

The sides, unfortunately, don’t offer a better I/O selection than a normal 15-inch or even 14-inch laptop. The left side has only the HDMI, USB-C 3.1 (Gen 1) with DisplayPort support, 3.5 mm audio jack and a standard USB 3.0 connector. The right side comes only with one USB 2.0 port (3.0 would have been much better) and the SD card reader. Towards the front, you can easily feel the slightly protruding power button and volume rocker for easier operation in tablet or presentation mode.

The interior surprises with brushed aluminum instead of anodized one and more importantly, has a comfortable keyboard, touchpad and the plate withstands big amounts of pressure. Although, the previous Inspiron 7779 didn’t impress us with a good keyboard and it seems like things have changed a little this time around. Now the keys have more pronounced clicky feedback, they are well-spaced and have a reasonably long travel. Speed typing is a pleasure. The touchpad also feels pretty nice – it’s responsive, accurate and has fairly light mouse clicks but the surface is roughened which isn’t optimal for gliding.

Since there are no major changes in the design and overall build, our main complaints stand – it’s a bit hefty for a convertible, the screen wobble when using the touch panel is pronounced and the selection of I/O is pretty limited for a 17-inch device. And with the small exception of the bouncy back panel of the lid, the rest of the build is spot on.

Disassembly, maintenance and upgrade options

Even though there are no dedicated service covers, the bottom plate comes off easily and provides access to all of the internals without much of hassle. Just remove all the screws on the bottom and gently pry it up.

Storage upgrades – 2.5-inch HDD/SSD, M.2 SSD

The storage options are the usual ones – M.2 SSD slot + 2.5-inch SSD/HDD slot. Our unint in particular, however, had only a standard 2.5-inch SATA SSD while the M.2 PCIe NVMe-enabled SSD slot remains available for an upgrade.

SlotUnitUpgrade price
2.5-inch HDD/SSD slot512GB SanDisk X400 SATA SSDCompra desde Amazon.es (#CommissionsEarned)
M.2 SSD 2280 slot 1FreeCompra desde Amazon.es (#CommissionsEarned)

RAM

As usual, the motherboard holds two RAM slots each supporting up to 16GB of DDR4-2400 memory. The unit we reviewed had just one chip – 16GB DDR4-2400 from Micron.

SlotUnitUpgrade price
Slot 116GB Micron DDR4-2400Compra desde Amazon.es (#CommissionsEarned)
Slot 2FreeCompra desde Amazon.es (#CommissionsEarned)

Other components

The Wi-Fi card is placed near the cooling fan (with the bottom of the machine facing upwards) and it’s Intel 3165NGW.

The battery is located under the wrist rest area and provides a decent 56Wh charge.

Cooling system

The cooling design hasn’t been changed from the previous version and still uses two small heatpipes and a single cooling fan. Interestingly, though, the fan radiator is a bit far from the back grill for dispersing the heat but according to our stress tests, it isn’t that big of an issue.


Display quality

Last year’s model used an AUO panel but this time around, the Inspiron 7773 relies on the CHI MEI CMN1738 (XWCYC-173HCE) panel again with Full HD (1920×1080) resolution, 127 ppi density and 0.1995 x 0.1995 mm pixel pitch. It can be considered as “Retina” when viewed from at least 69 cm.

Viewing angles are excellent.

We’ve recorded a maximum brightness of 32 cd/m2 in the center and 301 cd/m2 as average across the surface with 14% maximum deviation. The correlated color temperature appears to be almost perfect – 6540K. Keep in mind that the optimal color temperature is 6500K. As we go along the grayscale, the color temperature aligns perfectly with the optimal one – 6500K. You can see how these values change in the image below for 140 cd/m2 (48% brightness).

The relative dE2000 (color deviation) shouldn’t be more than 4.0 if you are planning on using the screen for color-sensitive work. The contrast ratio is excellent a well – 1450:1 (1300:1 after calibration).

Color reproduction

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction of 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. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the 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 sRGB color gamut coverage is 92% so most of the HDTV and web-based colors can be reproduced making the screen ideal for multimedia.

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.

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really 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

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

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 28 ms.


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.

Unfortunately, the display uses aggressive PWM for regulating screen brightness (1 kHz) for all brighntess levels except the maximum one. So we suggest using our Health-Guard profile or just keep the brightness slider at 100% all the time.

Blue light emissions

Installing of 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.

You can see the levels of emitted blue light on the spectral power distribution (SPD) graph.

Conclusion

It appears that Dell has used a high-quality IPS panel with little to no drawbacks. It checks all the boxes for a good multimedia experience – high maximum brightness, high contrast, wide sRGB coverage and fairly accurate color reproduction out of the box. However, if you need the best possible experience, our Design and Gaming profile should lower the dE2000 significantly.

The one and the only issue we can’t overlook is the aggressive PWM from 0 to 99% brightness. This should be taken into consideration especially by users with sensitive eyes.

Buy our display profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package is meant for Dell Inspiron 7773 configurations with 17.3″ CHI MEI CMN1738 (XWCYC-173HCE) (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS screen and the laptop can be found at Amazon: Compra desde Amazon.es (#CommissionsEarned)

*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.

Además de recibir perfiles eficientes y respetuosos con la salud, al comprar los productos de LaptopMedia también apoyas el desarrollo de nuestros laboratorios, donde probamos los dispositivos para elaborar las reseñas más objetivas posibles.

Trabajo de oficina

El perfil Trabajo de Oficina debería ser utilizado sobre todo por usuarios que pasan la mayor parte del tiempo mirando trozos de texto, tablas o simplemente navegando. Este perfil pretende ofrecer una mayor nitidez y claridad manteniendo una curva de gamma plana (2,20), una temperatura de color nativa y colores perceptualmente precisos.

Diseño y juego

Este perfil está dirigido a los diseñadores que trabajan con los colores de forma profesional, y también para juegos y películas. Design and Gaming lleva a los paneles de visualización a sus límites, haciéndolos tan precisos como sea posible en el estándar sRGB IEC61966-2-1 para Web y HDTV, en el punto blanco D65.

Salud-Guardia

Salud-Guardia elimina la perjudicial Modulación de Ancho de Pulso (PWM) y reduce la luz azul negativa que afecta a nuestros ojos y a nuestro cuerpo. Al estar adaptado a cada panel, consigue mantener los colores perceptivamente precisos. Salud-Guardia simula el papel, por lo que la presión sobre los ojos se reduce considerablemente.

Consigue los 3 perfiles con un 33% de descuento


Sound

The loudspeakers provide clean reproduction of the low, mid and high frequencies without any noticeable distortions.


Specs sheet

The current specs sheet is for this particular model and configurations may differ depending on your region

Dell Inspiron 7773 tabla de especificaciones técnicas

Acer
Not available
Mostrar
17.3”, Full HD (1920 x 1080), IPS
HDD/SSD
2TB HDD
Ranura M.2
M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD (2280) slot Ver foto
RAM
16GB
Dimensiones
412 x 277 x 22.6 mm (16.22" x 10.91" x 0.89")
Peso
3.00 kg (6.6 lbs)
Material del cuerpo
Aluminum (All-aluminum chassis)
Puertos y conectividad
  • 1x USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-A 2.0
  • HDMI
  • VGA
  • DVI
  • Lector de tarjetas SD
  • Ethernet LAN
  • Wi-Fi 802.11ac
  • Bluetooth 4.2
  • Conector de audio headphone/microphone
Features
  • Cámara web
  • Teclado retroiluminado
  • Micrófono
  • Altavoces
  • Unidad óptica
  • Ranura de bloqueo de seguridad

Software

We used the pre-installed Windows 10 Pro for the writing of this review but if you wish to perform a clean install of the OS, we suggest downloading all of the latest drivers from Dell’s official support page.

Battery

The battery capacity hasn’t increased but the battery runtimes have been improved considerably over the last generation. This is mainly due to the new Intel 8th Generation processors that appear to be well-optimized in terms of energy consumption. In fact, the 56Wh battery charge pushes the Inspiron 7773 way up the rankings and it’s safe to say that it’s one of the most impressive 17-inch laptops in this regard.

All tests were performed with the usual settings – Wi-Fi turned on, screen brightness set to 120 cd/m2 and Windows battery saving feature turned on.

Web browsing

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

Impressive web browsing runtime – 667 minutes (11 hours and 7 minutes).

Video playback

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

Similar video playback score – 513 minutes (8 hours and 33 minutes).

Gaming

We recently started using F1 2017’s built-in benchmark on loop in order to simulate real-life gaming.

Of course, the laptop isn’t made for gaming away from the power source but it can still run for more than four hours during heavy workload – 278 minutes (4 hours and 38 minutes).

CPU – Intel Core i7-8550U

The Intel Core i7-8550U is part of the new 8th Generation Kaby Lake Refresh and it’s a direct successor to the Intel Core i7-7500U from the Kaby Lake generation and the Intel Core i7-6500U from the 6th Skylake generation. With the latest alteration to the ULV (ultra-low voltage) processors, Intel doubles the core count from 2 to 4 and retaining the so-called Hyper-Threading technology, keeping the same 14nm manufacturing process and feature the same 15W TDP.

However, due to the core count change, the base frequency of the Core i7-8550U is lowered to only 1.8 GHz while Turbo Boost frequencies remain pretty high – somewhere between 3.7 – 4.0 GHz. This ensures considerably higher multi-core and single-core performance during short workloads before going back to more bearable frequencies considering the 15W TDP but most of the other specs and features remain the same.

The chip also incorporates a newer Intel Gen 9.5 integrated graphics called Intel UHD Graphics 620. The support for Google’s VP9 codec and H.265/HEVC Main 10 is still the most notable feature of the iGPU. Intel claims that the new UHD 620 chips improve the overall power consumption compared to the previous one.

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-i7-8550u/

Fritz

Fritz is a chess benchmark that tests the computing capabilities of the CPU with various chess moves. The Intel Core i7-8550U managed to get 10.128 million moves per second. For comparison, one of the most powerful computers, 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 – NVIDIA GeForce MX150 (2GB GDDR5)

The GeForce MX150 is an entry-level mobile card that is part of the latest NVIDIA Pascal lineup of GPUs, based on the GP108 chip paired with 2GB of GDDR5 memory via 64-bit interface. The GPU is the successor of GeForce 940MX and it was announced in Q2 of 2017.

The GeForce MX150 operates at a relatively high base frequency of 1469 MHz, while the Boost frequencies can go up to 1532 MHz. The GPU incorporates 384 shader units (CUDA cores) while the memory is clocked at 6008MHz (effective). These specs ensure a significant performance boost over the previous generation of Maxwell GPUs. The TDP of the GPU is lower than the last generation GTX 950M and even the GTX 1050 – 25W compared to 40W for the two models above. Performance-wise, the GeForce MX150 should be similar to the desktop GeForce GT 1030.

Along with all the power consumption and performance improvements, the GPU now supports essential features like Multi-Projection, VR Ready, G-SYNC, Vulkan and Multi-Monitor.

Check the prices of all notebooks equipped with NVIDIA GeForce MX150: Compra desde Amazon.es (#CommissionsEarned)


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 768p, Low (Check settings)HD 768p, Medium (Check settings)HD 768p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS129 fps102 fps73 fps

GTA-V-benchmarks

Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5)HD, Low (Check settings)HD, Medium (Check settings)HD, Very High (Check settings)
Average FPS103 fps43 fps21 fps

Temperatures

The stress tests that we perform don’t represent real-life use because even the most demanding games don’t require 100% CPU and GPU load for such long periods of time but these torture tests remain as the most effective way to assess the overall stability of the cooling system in the long run.

We started off with 100% CPU load for about an hour. The Core i7-8550U utilized the full performance of all four cores for a brief moment but then gradually settled at around 2.1 – 2.3 GHz.

Turning on the GPU stress test didn’t cause the CPU to throttle – it just settled down to its base operating frequency – 1.8 – 1.9 GHz. However, the GPU wasn’t able to show its full potential and was massively throttling during the whole test at 468 MHz. This shows that the current cooling design isn’t enough to handle even this quite undemanding hardware. Probably the short and small heatpipes contribute to the issue the most.

Temperatures on the surface, however, remained low even during this extremely heavy workload.


Verdict

As a standard 17.3-inch laptop, the Inspiron 7773 is one of the best all-rounders out there with excellent build quality, good input devices and capable hardware. The high-quality IPS display is another big plus you should consider because it’s a multimedia-centric laptop after all. Unfortunately, you will have to deal with the aggressive PWM along the way and luckily, our Health-Guard profile should take care of that.

But besides the elegant looks and the flashy screen, the Inspiron 7773 has some apparent issues that are mostly related to its form factor. Firstly, there probably aren’t nearly enough users that will get this laptop just because it’s a 17-inch 2-in-1 convertible and even if they do, the hefty and rather big chassis makes it awkward to hold in tablet mode. Don’t get us wrong, though, the Inspiron 7773 appears to be a great 17.3-inch laptop but it’s not one of the most practical 2-in-1s we’ve seen so far. In addition, the rather limited I/O selection is a big bummer since this is a big machine after all.

And secondly, the cooling system can’t seem to support the rather undemanding hardware during heavy workloads. Most probably, you won’t be using it for a gaming-centric daily driver but you should consider the GPU throttling issue we’ve experienced during our stress test.

And to our big surprise, the Inspiron 7773 comes in strong with amazing battery life. Rarely can you expect such long runtimes from a 17.3-inch laptop and yet, the Inspiron 7773 surprises in this aspect as well. So if you are really into the 17.3-inch form factor but battery life isn’t the thing you’d want to sacrifice, this strange 2-in-1 is an ideal choice.

Given its marketed purpose, the Inspiron 7773 falls into a category of its own and it’s really hard to recommend any other 17-inch convertibles as direct rivals. Still, if you are not invested in the 2-in-1 form factor, the significantly less expensive but still capable Acer Aspire 5 (A517-51G) is a good way to start. And for just about the same price, you can get a decent gaming laptop with GTX 1050 Ti or even GTX 1060 on board. Only, of course, if you are looking for a more powerful alternative.

You can check prices and configurations: Compra desde Amazon.es (#CommissionsEarned)

Pros

  • Good build quality
  • Good input devices
  • High-quality IPS display – wide sRGB coverage, high contrast, bright
  • Long battery life


Cons

  • Limited I/O for a 17-inch device
  • Not the most practical 2-in-1 – hefty and big chassis, wobbly screen
  • Pricey
  • The screen uses aggressive PWM from 0 to 99% (our Health-Guard profile fixes that)

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Mastard
Mastard
6 años hace

Hello How a Display profile can prevent PWM ???

John
John
6 años hace

Hello, I have a question about the battery. When I bought the computer, under minimum load the battery lasted only about 2 hours. I contacted Dell, they sent me a link to download and install. After that I had around 6 hours with normal load (No gaming). This lasted about 2 months. Had a different problem with computer and had to reinstall Windows. The issue of 2 hour battery came back. Now Dell tells me that is normal and I won’t get any more. I now have just about everything turned off, screen at 20%, nothing plugged into laptop and… Read more »

Butch
Butch
6 años hace

John, what was that link Dell sent you for the rest of us in case we experience your issue?

John
John
6 años hace

Butch, I wish I could give you the link then I wouldn’t be having the problem now. I downloaded it to my computer and then when I was forced to reinstall Windows, it was erased. Dell keeps telling me the link has been discontinued and wouldn’t have offered what I want. All I know is that in December when I asked them about the 2 hour battery life, they sent a link which I downloaded and installed. I wish I had paid attention to what it did because the next time I unplugged the power cord, the battery lasted 6… Read more »

uitastudios
6 años hace

Fan is now kicking in all the time, very light surfing gets it going! So annoying! Updated BIOS, no dust and vents not blocked, any suggestions?

Ge Hill
Ge Hill
4 meses hace

thanks for review. I have 3 of the Inspiron 7k models specifically for the 17″ tablet mode on my pianos in different homes. People generally are not real bright and will sit at their pianos with sheet readers on lil tiny tablets and be squinting allot with the eyes and still not get it lol. They are still popular in resale used market for again, people with enough sense to see their value. Yep, like you said; small market.