Those who thought laptops would never get cheaper were proven wrong. Recently, new laptops have appeared that can provide the necessary minimum performance for everyday tasks, at a price that is only a fraction of the cost of other models. These include the Lenovo IdeaPad 100, Dell Inspiron 5545, Acer Aspire E15 and Lenovo Yoga 500, for example.
In any case, the Dell Inspiron 3552-0514 laptop does not shine with hardware, but the Pentium N3700 quad-core processor will handle most everyday tasks and multimedia playback, as it offers an HDMI connection. In addition, the build quality is quite good and the input devices are among the best in their price range.
The laptop comes in a standard box with the usual user manuals, charger and cable.
Dell Inspiron 3552 Design Review
Laptop casemade entirely of plastic, but with different finishes. Relatively light (2.4 kg) and rather thin (21.7 mm), the budget model is able to compete with other alternatives on the market, such as Lenovo IdeaPad 100 and Acer Aspire E15. But in general, the design of the laptop is very different from them.
Like other devices of the manufacturer, the Dell Inspiron 3552 laptop looks rather austere and minimalistic and is limited only by a small number of functionalities. The lid features textured black plastic with the manufacturer's logo in the center and flexes a little more under pressure, but that's normal for laptops in this price range. Fingerprints on the body are very visible. The hinges are tight, so it is impossible to open the laptop with one hand. Below there is a large service hatch that provides access to the hard drive, RAM slot and Wi-Fi module.
Flat glossy sides provide the minimum necessary for conveniently located ports. On the left are the DC charging jack, main air vent, SD card slot, USB 3.0 and HDMI ports. On the right are a 3.5mm audio jack and two USB 2.0 ports.
The inside of the Dell Inspiron 3552 Black is finished with the same textured plastic as the lid. Here the coating is quite firm, and the keyboard does not flex much. Unfortunately, the issue of visible fingerprints is still there, but more importantly, the input devices work great. The keys have sufficientmove, they are spaced well, there are also the usual media player controls. The touchpad for this price range of laptops is just perfect. The touchpad does not stagger and accurately detects all gestures, and its buttons are delightful - they are not hard and almost the entire surface is reserved for the left mouse button. It's funny that Dell has managed to make a great touchpad when some of the more expensive models on the market can't even come close to this level of comfort and practicality.
Display
The Dell Inspiron 15-3552 screen is a TN panel with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels and a 15.6” diagonal. This corresponds to a pixel density of 100 dpi. The display is manufactured by the Taiwanese company CHI MEI. The screen can be considered as Retina when viewed from a distance of more than 86 cm. Of course, the viewing angles are not very good due to the use of TN technology.
Dell Inspiron 3552 screen brightness is described by users as low and uneven. In the center it is 257 cd/m2 (232 cd/m2 on average). This means that the maximum deviation is 17%. At least the color temperature is pretty close to optimal and equal to 6550 K (D65 is 6500 K). Thus, the largest deviation of dE2000, compared to the center of the screen, at 100% sRGB and 100% brightness is 4.4 at the top right and in the middle. Anything above 4.0 is considered a big outlier, but since this laptop isn't designed for optimal color reproduction, with these settings you canput up.
Dell Inspiron 3552 laptop display reviews blamed for insufficient color reproduction. The screen only covers 49% of the sRGB color gamut before calibration and reaches 54% after. Since more than half of the colors are missing, you should not expect a bright image. Contrast ratio before calibration is 380:1, and then decreases to 320:1.
According to the owners, the test for pixel response time when switching from black to white from 10% to 90% and vice versa gives 20 ms, which is slightly slower than most TN panels. Unfortunately, the panel uses Pulse Width Modulation with an aggressive 260Hz ripple. This means that most users will experience negative effects from screen flicker.
Image and sound
The TN panel featured in this model is nothing special, but given the price of the product, the test results are expected. Some mid-range laptops have almost identical specifications, so you don't have to be too picky. Viewing angles are awkward, maximum brightness is low, more than half of the sRGB space is not covered, and contrast is below average. However, the color temperature is almost perfectly aligned and corresponds to the optimum. Last but not least, PWM appears on the screen at all brightness levels except 100%, and the frequency of the pulsing light is quite low (260 Hz) and is considered aggressive.
According to user reviews, the laptop speakers provide excellent clarity at highfrequencies that are lacking in the mid and low ranges.
Software
The laptop runs on Windows 10 (64-bit), all the necessary drivers for which can be found on the Dell Inspiron 3552 official support page. Windows 7, 8.1 and Ubuntu 12.04 are also supported.
Battery life
Battery capacity Dell Inspiron 3552 reviews called sufficient. You can count on a laptop for sure. Although 40Wh doesn't sound like much, the battery performs well thanks to its high power efficiency and low processor power, integrated graphics, and a simple TN panel. These are the main consumers of energy, so the battery life of the battery pack is quite good - it is well above the average level in this price category. This is proved by tests performed with standard settings - Wi-Fi on, power saving mode off and screen brightness equal to 120 cd/m2. According to user reviews, web browsing gives a surprisingly good result - 7 hours 38 minutes. Video playback in HD quality is almost an hour less, but still excellent - 6 hours 36 minutes. Even in games, the laptop remains hardy. Result – 2 hours 52 minutes
Dell Inspiron 3552 CPU specifications
Pentium N3700 is a mobile processor used in budget laptops and netbooks. It is part of Intel's Braswell generation and is the successor to CPU Baytrail. The most notable improvement is the manufacturing process, which is based on 14nm technology. Reducing the size of transistors has improved power efficiency and lowered heat in low-end notebooks.
Pentium N3700 has 4 cores running at 1.6 GHz, which, thanks to Burst Frequency technology, can reach up to 2.4 GHz. All four cores are based on the Airmont microarchitecture and share 2MB of L2 cache. The processor also integrates an 8th generation Intel HD Graphics GPU with a normal frequency of 400MHz, which can be boosted up to 700MHz. Power consumption is 6W for the entire SoC system, including the controller, which allows you to install up to 8GB of DDR3L-1600 RAM. The chipset also supports virtualization technology, as Intel has implemented support for DirectX 12 and Open GL 4.2 for GPUs. In addition, the GPU is capable of processing data for 3 external displays at resolutions up to 4K, but the internal implementation is limited to 2560 x 1440 pixels.
CPU performance
Cinebench 11 scores Dell Inspiron 15-3552 1.72. For comparison, the Inspiron 5551 scores 0.96, the Lenovo Ideapad 100 scores 0.83, and the Acer Aspire E15 scores 2.14.
The Intel Pentium N37000 processor computes the Fritz chess moves benchmark at 4,068 million moves per second. For comparison, one of the most powerful computers Deep Blue managed to achieve a performance of 200 millionmoves/s.
GPU performance
The integrated GPU is used in all Braswell generation chips. Its frequency can vary widely and depends on the model. The GPU consists of 16 execution units, and its architecture is almost the same as that of the Core M (although the latter's graphics include 24 units). The GPU supports up to 3 displays at a maximum resolution of 4K, but only internally handles QHD via eDP. External monitors can be connected via HDMI or Display Port. Other core functionality includes support for DirectX 12 and Open GL 4.2.
Dell Inspiron 3552-0514 scores 3091 in 3DMark Cloud Gate, compared to 1590 for Dell Inspiron 5551, 1382 for Lenovo Ideapad 100, 3786 for Acer Aspire E15.
Temperature conditions
This test may not be a good representation of real-world usage, but it does show how the Dell Inspiron 3552 laptop handles heavy and prolonged workloads. In addition, he talks about the stability of the system in the long run. 100% CPU load for an hour using all four cores at a maximum frequency of 2.4 GHz raises the chip temperature to 83°C. As expected, the surface of the laptop heats up a little - from 25.7 to 30.7 ° C.
Conclusion
Notebook Dell Inspiron 3552 reviews of the owners are called generally reliable, but it has a number of small flaws. In terms of design and build, the laptop impresses with its relatively light weight andcompact size, although some parts flex and leave fingerprints on the case. However, this is typical for all models in this price range. It's rare to find such good input devices. The keyboard and touchpad are very comfortable. The TN panel won't blow your mind, but the battery performance is beyond expectations. The shield is characterized by a very low frequency PWM, which can be considered aggressive. To eliminate this disadvantage, it is advisable to set the maximum brightness of the display. The lack of a LAN port is depressing. The quad-core Pentium N3700 can easily handle everyday and simple multimedia tasks. It's safe to say that this is an improved version of the previous Inspiron 5551 model, and the updated processor makes the laptop a bargain.
