Hands-on the refreshed Dell Inspiron 15 7000 series

It looks like we are Dell-themed for the last couple of days, but since Dell is releasing so many interesting notebooks, can you blame us? This time we’ve got the new Dell Inspiron 15 7548 notebook, which is packing some serious horsepower in the well-known thin aluminum chassis.

Design

The design isn’t changed, since the new Inspiron 15 7548 brings more of a hardware upgrade than anything else. We have the anodized all aluminum body which resembles the new XPS 13, but lacks the matte finish in the interior.


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The top of the lid is metallic only with Dell’s logo in the center. On the other side of the lid can be found the 15-6-inch 4K display with relatively thin bezels on the sides along with the webcam and built-in microphone. The surface is glass since it’s a touch panel, but there is no word from Dell, whether they used Gorilla Glass protection or something else.


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The sides of the laptop are thin and a bit curved, while the ports are placed near the back of the machine, since the front end is slimmed down. The inside of the notebook is also in anodized metallic aluminum and it feels good to touch, but the keyboard seems a bit awkwardly sized. For a 15.6-inch notebook, we expect a full keyboard with the usual numeric block on the right, but it seems that Dell doesn’t share our point of view. There is a lot of unused space on each side of the keyboard and it does look a bit awkward.


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Nevertheless, the overall design is great and the build quality is good. It has slim edges with 19.9 mm thin profile and a weight of 2.11 kg. But since this is not the full review of the product, you will have to wait for our final impression of the notebook’s design.

Hardware

The new Inspiron 15 7548 is equipped with one of the first Broadwell chips from Intel – Core i7-5500U with 4MB cache, 2.4GHz base frequency and Turbo Boost up to 3.0GHz. We also have 16GB (2x 8192MB) of RAM on board and AMD Radeon R7 M270 (4GB DDR3) discrete GPU. Also, it’s a pleasant surprise to see that Dell is offering an upgrade with 256GB SSD, because a lot of users complain about poor performance with the 5400rpm 1TB HDD. However, the model which we are going to review is the one with 1TB HDD.

The display is the one to steal the show, though. It has IPS LCD panel with a resolution of 3840 x 2140 (4K) pixels with touch capabilities and there’s also a budge version featuring a FHD panel. It will be interesting to see how will the battery perform with those extra pixels.

How it looks on the inside

In the photos below, you can see the internals with the 1TB HDD manufactured by Toshiba. Also, there are two cooling fans – one for the CPU and one for the GPU. They are placed apart, so that they won’t share heat, so expect good temperature management.

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It’s important to note that the battery in the official Dell website is listed as 58Whr, but as you can see, when we opened the chassis the battery is 56Whr. Also, Dell sees the battery as removable, but since it’s stored inside the chassis and need some screws to be removed. You will also need some kind of a plastic tool to detach the bottom cover and it may not be for everyone, so we can’t categorize it as “user removable”

Technical specifications


Inspiron_7548

ProcessorIntel Core i7-5500U (2-core, 2.40 – 3.00 Ghz, 3MB cache)
RAM16GB (2x 8192MB) – DDR3, 1600Mhz
Graphics cardAMD Radeon R7 M270 (4GB, DDR3)
HDD/SSD1TB HDD (5400 rpm) / 256GB SSD
Display15.6-inch (39.62 cm.) – 1920×1080 (FHD), IPS touch panel / 15.6-inch (39.62 cm.) – 3840×2160 (4К UHD), IPS touch panel
Optical drive
ConnectivityWi-Fi 802.11a/c 2×2, Bluetooth 4.0
Other features
  • 2x USB 3.0
  • 1x USB 2.0
  • built-in webcam
  • built-in microphone
  • 3.5 mm jack for headset
  • HDMI v1.4a
  • card reader
  • keyboard LED backlight
Battery56 Whr, 4-Cell Battery (integrated)
Thickness 0.78” (19.9mm)
Weight2.11 kg

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Damien
Damien
9 years ago

Hi, do you plan on doing a review anytime soon? There are no reviews or graphics card tests available for this laptop. The GPU is a custom one build made for Dell.

glimmeringcandle
9 years ago

for a non-gamer what do you recommend the 1920×1080 (FHD) or the 3840×2160 (4К UHD)?

chak
chak
9 years ago

Is it equipped with a CD / DVD Reader ? thank’s

Bhumil Pathak
Bhumil Pathak
9 years ago

when you going to review this

ioer
ioer
9 years ago

How is it different from the inspiron15 7547 (last years model)?