Top 5 reasons to BUY or NOT to buy the Dell Vostro 15 5501

The Dell Vostro 15 5501 is described as a laptop oriented towards the small business. While Tiger Lake laptops have already hit the market, this laptop comes with the older Ice Lake CPUs which still offer enough performance for your daily office tasks. Furthermore, it has a TPM 2.0 chip, which ensures a secure platform, to which you can safely entrust your secrets. With laptop stock running short, due to the worldwide lockdowns, these slightly older models are still getting quite a bit of attention.

Today we are presenting you with LaptopMedia’s top 5 picks about the Dell Vostro 15 5501.

Dell Vostro 15 5501: Full Specs / In-depth Review


4 reasons to BUY the Dell Vostro 15 5501

1. The Upgradeability

It’s always great to see laptops offering good upgradability, and this Dell makes no exception. It has two SODIMM RAM slots, which support up to 32GB of DDR4 memory running at 3200MHz. The storage is also available for expansion, thanks to two M.2 PCIe x4 drives.

In order to get to the slots, you have to remove the 9 Phillips-head screws and pop the bottom panel with a pry tool (preferably a plastic one so you don’t scratch it). The SODIMM slots are hidden behind a shroud, which you can see in the photo. We will leave our teardown video, in case you want a thorough explanation.


2. The I/O

The laptop has a very generous I/O which consists of an HDMI connector, and two USB 3.2 Gen.1 ports (one Type-A and one Type-C) on the left side, and an RJ-45 connector, one more USB Type-A 3.2 Gen.1 port, along with a 3.5mm audio jack and a MicroSD card reader on the right side.


3. The Display

The display on the Dell Vostro 15 5501 has a diagonal of 15.6-inches, a Full HD resolution, and an IPS panel. Furthermore, it has comfortable viewing angles and a good contrast ratio of 1250:1. The color coverage sits at 53% of the sRGB color gamut, which is on the low-end, but this is not a device for creators, so it passes. What is more important, is the lack of PWM, which goes a long way in making the laptop suitable for prolonged working sessions.

The color accuracy got a bit better when we applied our Gaming and web design profile but still didn’t match the standard. You can see the results of our color accuracy test with both the factory settings (left) and with our Gaming and web design profile applied (right).


Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Dell Vostro 15 5501 configurations with 15.6″ Innolux N156HCA-EAA (CMN15E5) (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS.

*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.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


4. Battery life

In terms of battery, the laptop comes with two choices, either a 4-cell 53Wh unit or a 3-cell 40Wh unit, which we had at our disposal. It lasted for 8 hours and 26 minutes of web browsing and 7 hours and 11 minutes of video playback. While the battery isn’t the best that we have seen, it’s not bad at all, and with a plug during your lunch break, it will last a whole day of work and then some.


1 reason NOT to buy the Dell Vostro 15 5501

1. The Build quality

While the device has great looks with its matte finish on the aluminum lid, the base is 100% plastic. Because of this, the structural integrity of the laptop is compromised. While it doesn’t flex severely, the material takes the shape that you wish it to, which is a red flag. If you carry your laptop carefully, it will be fine, but be wary not to throw your backpack around when the laptop is in it, or what comes out of your bag might not look like a laptop at all.


All Dell Vostro 15 5501 configurations:

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