Dell Inspiron 14 7415 Review: Nice features on a budget

Dell Inspiron 14 7415 Review – This Inspiron has high-end laptop aspirations, but with a few downsides. by jared newman

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“A versatile laptoptablet that performs well and lasts the day when out and about”

Laptop-tablets are the most versatile of portable computers. They have a hinge that lets you flip the screen all the way back, until the rear of the screen rests against the base of the keyboard. This lets you use them in several different ways: a standard laptop and keyboard; a tablet with the keyboard tucked behind, or standing on a table like a tent for watching videos (as pictured below).

The Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 is available in a range of specifications. The version we’ve tested here costs £ and has an AMD Ryzen 7 5700U processor, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. If you downgrade the processor to a 5500U and opt for 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, the price drops. Alternatively, you could upgrade the SSD within the specification we’ve tested to 1TB and the price rises. All models come with a 14in screen with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels and Windows 10 Home, but they’re ready to upgrade to Windows 11.

In our benchmark tests, it scored 5,323. This is impressive, coming very close to the Huawei MateBook 14s (5,337), which also has a 14in screen but costs a few hundred pounds more. However, the Inspiron 14 2-in-1 didn’t perform as well as the MateBook 14s in gaming tests, so we wouldn’t recommend it to serious gamers.

It does have a decent battery life, however, lasting just over 11-and-a-half hours in our video-playback tests. This should be enough to get you through a day of work away from the mains.

The 14in screen is somewhat disappointing. While it has decent colour accuracy, and videos look fine, its brightness levels could be higher. We measured a maximum brightness of 200cd/m2, which is merely adequate. Working outside on a sunny day, the screen was just about visible in shadow, but you couldn’t make much out in direct sunlight. That’s disappointing, especially for a 2-in-1 device that’s designed to be carried around and used anywhere.

At the top of the screen is a 720p webcam with a sliding shutter – just slide the small plastic switch to cover the lens. This is all housed within the bezel surrounding the screen, so it isn’t going to break off. It’s a nice touch when you want to keep things private.

No stylus is included, but the touch screen is compatible with the Dell Active Pen PN350M, which can be magnetically attached to the top lip of the lid.

The case feels well made, and the hinge that lets the screen rotate into tablet mode feels robust. The keyboard isn’t great, however, with a flat, mushy feel and more flex than we’d like. The touchpad, however, is large and responsive, with a pleasant mechanical click when you press down.

PERFORMANCE

For a laptop with an AMD Ryzen 7 5700U processor on board, the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1’s performance is just about what you’d expect. It tears through multi-threaded tasks such as video encoding and it feels sufficiently zippy for web browsing and document editing. The laptop also remained comfortably cool and quiet while juggling multiple apps, browser tabs, and downloads.

The Inspiron 14 2-in-1 ‘s productivity prowess was on display in Futuremark’s PCMark 10 test, which simulates a gamut of office work, web browsing, and creative tasks. It edged out several other 2-in-1 laptops we’ve tested lately, including the similarly priced HP Envy x360 15 with the same processor.

HP’s laptop did retake the lead in our Handbrake test, which involves encoding a large video file, but both laptops maintain a commanding lead over comparable 2-in-1s with Intel processors. More cores are almost always better for this test and Intel’s quad-core i7-1165G7 CPU is no match for the eight cores in AMD’s Ryzen 7 5700U.

Similarly, the Inspiron 14 2-in-1’s multi­threaded performance excelled in the quick performance stress test of Cinebench, but note that Intel-powered laptops have an edge in single-threaded performance, which covers most basic productivity tasks. The difference isn’t something you’d necessarily notice, but it is there.

As for battery life, the Inspiron 14 2-in-1 has a 54,000 Whr battery, which puts it in the middle of the road for thin-and-light laptops. That’s clearly reflected in our battery rundown test, which loops a video in offline mode at a consistent brightness level. Dell’s laptop lasted for 11 hours and 17 minutes, which is neither bad nor great. Outside of test conditions, you may be able to squeeze a full workday out of this laptop, but you’ll likely want to pack the charger just in case.

There’s a lot to like about the Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1.

Meanwhile, AMD’s integrated Radeon graphics still aren’t made for serious gaming, but I was able to eke out a session of Fortnite at medium graphics settings and 50% display scaling. And, of course, less demanding games like the 2D platformer Axiom Verge 2 worked just fine. Still, I’ve had better gaming experiences with the Iris Xe graphics in Intel Core i7-powered laptops and our 3DMark Time Spy test shows that these laptops tend to fare better in gaming benchmarks as well.

Overall, this Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 offers a lot to like, especially at its oft- discounted price of $. It’s a sturdy laptop with strong performance, a convertible touchscreen, loud speakers, and a convenient fingerprint reader. But the trade­offs you’ll make in pursuit of that lower price—most notably the dim display and stiff trackpad—might just keep you from outright loving it.

Verdict

Dell Inspiron 14 7415: Price Comparison

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ALTERNATIVE

Lenovo Yoga 6 (13in, AMD)

This is a similar specification with a slightly smaller 13.3in screen, at a much lower price