Dell Inspiron 5558 (15 5000) first impressions – mid-range multimedia laptop

One more of Dell’s refreshed Inspiron series notebook has made its way to us – the Dell Inspiron 5558 (15 5000). It can be considered a successor of the 5548 as it is from the same 15 5000 series and features similar design with some small improvements.

Design

The lid of the device we have features black glossy plastic that is a huge fingerprint magnet, but other configurations of the Inspiron 5558 feature lids with a matte finish and color options that include black, gray, silver, and white.

The bottom and the inside of the notebook feature black matte plastic. The device has a full chicklet style keyboard with a numpad that is comfortable to type on, and there is also a big trackpad about double the surface of the previous generation.

Hardware

The Dell Inspiron 5558 comes with variety of internals to choose from – for CPU you have a choice between Intel Core i3-4005U, Core i3-5005U, Core i5-5200U, or Core i7-5500U, and Intel HD Graphics or NVIDIA GeForce 920M 4GB DDR3 GPU. There are two memory slots available for up to 16GB DDR3 RAM and storage options include 500GB to 2TB HDD. The 15.6-inch display has four panel options – 1366 x 768 touch or non-touch and Full HD 1920 x 1080 touch or non-touch variants.

For ports we have 2 x USB 2.0 and 1 x USB 3.o which is a bit disappointing, HDMI, RJ-45 Ethernet port, 4-in-1 card reader, and a combo headphone jack. Connectivity options include 10/100 Ethernet, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, and Bluetooth 4.0. The battery is removable. In our case it is a 4-cell 40Wh that has to power a discrete GeForce 920M GPU and a 15.6″ LED backlit FullHD screen, which in our opinion is a bad decision.

 How it looks on the inside

Opening the service cover is really easy, there are just two screws that hold it. Removing it reveals a single 2.5″ HDD slot with 2TB 5400rpm HDD (for testing purposes we are using a 120GB Samsung SSD 840), Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160 module, two RAM chip slots, and the BIOS/UEFI battery. In our configuration we have 2 x 8GB RAM modules inside. Unfortunately, there is no additional M.2 SATA SSD slot.

Specs sheet

CPU	Intel Core i3-4005U Intel Core i3-5005U Intel Core i5-5200U Intel Core i7-5500U
RAM	4/8/16GB DDR3, 1600MHz
GPU	Intel HD Graphics 4400 Intel HD Graphics 5500 NVIDIA GeForce 920M 4GB DDR3
HDD/SSD	500GB – 2TB
Display	15.6″ LED backlit, 1366×768 or 1920×1080, touch or non-touch
Optical Drive	DVD optical drive
Connectivity	Ethernet 10/100 Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0
Other features	2x USB 2.0 1x USB 3.0 built-in 720p HD webcam built-in microphone 3.5mm combo headphone/microphone audio jack HDMI RJ-45 Ethernet port SD, SDHC, SDXC card reader Kensington lock slot
Battery	4-cell, 40Wh
Thickness	23.35mm (0.92″) non-touch, 23.6mm(0.93″) touch
Weight	2.00kg (4.41lb) non-touch, 2.22kg (4.90lb) touch

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