The Dell Inspiron 14” 5000 series is a 2-in-1 (commonly called a 360° hinge) laptop aimed at consumers and the SOHO (Small Office/Home Office) market.
While all the 5000 series are focused on value, the Dell Inspiron 14” 5000 series is a 2-in-1 (model 5482 website here) has everything you could ask for. A great 14” Cinema Colour touchscreen, Cinema Sound, USB-C (including DP and Power Delivery), 8th generation Intel Core i7 (or i3 or i5), plenty of ports and more for a mere $1,529 (or less) including freight.
We recently reviewed the new Intel 8th generation Core i5 in a 15.6” Dell 5000 (review here) and frankly the difference is like chalk and cheese (the 14″ is the cheese) despite the 5000 family moniker.
Review: Dell Inspiron 14” 5000 2-in-1
The base review unit specifications include
| Model | Dell Inspiron 14” 5000 2-in-1 (model 5482) |
| Screen | 14” FHD (1920 x 1080) 157.35ppi, IPS LED-Backlit Touch Display, Pen-Enabled |
| Processor |
8th Generation Intel Core i7-8565U Processor (up to 4.6GHz) Option i3-8145U up to 3.9 GHz or i5-8265U up to 3.9GHz |
| Graphics | Intel UHD graphics 620 with shared graphics/system memory As tested, it also has an NVIDIA GeForce MX130 2GB GDDR5 |
| RAM | 8GB DDR4 2666MHz Option: Intel Optane 16GB with SATA/600 1/2TB 5400 drive |
| Hard disk |
256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD 128GB on i3. |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi AC, dual-band, 2×2 MU-MIMO and Bluetooth 5.0 |
| Battery | 42WHr and 19.5V/3.34A (65W) charger To use USB-C power delivery you will need a 65W charger (5-19V and 3A) |
| OS | Windows 10 |
| Price | i7 $1,529 inc delivery i3 $959 i5 $1,274-$1398.99 |
| Product website | here in Urban Grey |
But to describe the 5000 series in a table above is a bit constraining. The 5000 series includes a 13” and 14” 2-in-1, 15” and 17” Intel laptops, and 15” AMD laptops. All focus on great value.
The first impression
Dell Inspiron 14” 5000 2-in-1 is a stylish Urban Grey, metal finish with a decent
For the price, it is lovely svelte 360° hinge design laptop at 328 x 232.8 x 19.95 mm and 1.75kg.
Setup
It is a typical Windows 10 setup. You can read more about that in the Dell Inspiron 27” All-in-one review here.
Be prepared to download more than 4GB of updates (mainly Windows) and invest a couple of hours in getting it up to date. Dell provides a Support/Assist app that handles hardware updates and can run a series of tests to see if it is in peak condition.
The Screen
It is a 14” FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS LED screen. Unlike its 15.6” big brother (from another mother we suspect) it has a more reflective surface (to help punch out colours) and Cinema Colour adjustments for movies, evening (low blue light), sports and animation. Our preliminary tests showed an impressive 300 nits and 1200:1 contrast.
Colours default to saturated but can be tuned via Windows profiles. Our tests showed 90% sRGB (office colours) and 60% Adobe RGB. It is not for photo editors, but it is pleasing for office and casual movie use.
There was no annoying backlit bleed from the bottom bezel. It is quite good for off-angle viewing as you would expect of a 360° hinged device.
Gaming response is slow – 40ms black to white and 30ms grey to grey.
Screen summary: A far better screen than the 15.6” big brother and perfect for a 360° screen device. You would have to spend a lot more to get a DCI-P3 colour gamut screen. For example, the Microsoft Surface Pro 6 has 450 nits, 1700:1 contrast and better DeltaE colours but it is two to three times the cost.
Keyboard, trackpad and Pen
A full-sized keyboard. Keys are 16 x 16mm and well-spaced. The throw is a little less at 1mm and 40g actuation, so it will slow typists down. It is pretty good, and the slightly roughened keytops give a good tactile feedback. It is three stage backlit.
The trackpad is oversized at 105 x 68 and again slightly roughened for good tactile feedback.
The two button Pen PN338M is active (uses an AAA battery for around 18 months life). It has 1024 pressure levels so its fine for handwriting and using Windows Ink. For professional use you need 4096 pressure levels.
Keyboard/trackpad summary: Good – certainly for this price bracket.
Performance
The Intel i7-8565U (1.8/4.6GHz) is a solid performer scoring an 8842 PassMark. It is the same processor used in the new ASUS Zenbook 14/15/Flip/Pro series, so it is in good company.
It is similar to an AMD Ryzen 7 2700U processor. The higher turbo speeds, however, are limited to mains power use due to thermal performance. After a full load, we saw throttling to 88% and then even lower.
The i5-8265U (1.6/3.9GHz) has a PassMark of 8,113, so it is no slouch either. Not surprisingly is is similar to an AMD Ryzen 5 2500U.
The i3-8145U (2.1/3.9GHz) has a {PassMark) of 5,721 – fine for most personal use. It is similar to an AMD Ryzen 3 2300U.
The Intel UHD Graphics 620 supports H.265 decoding. It will support most Internet games, but 4GB of shared memory means it’s not going to get much over 30fps.
The NVIDIA GeForce MX130 with 2GB GDDR5 RAM is equivalent to the GeForce 940MX. While it beats the hell out of the Intel UHD Graphics 620, it only fires up when apps require it or for driving an external 4K monitor. It should
This GPU is also widely used in laptops from Dell, Acer, ASUS, HP and Lenovo. You can read more here.
At full load fan noise reached 40dB (quiet) and about 43° over the processor location.
Ports
- 3 x USB-A 3.1 Gen 1 (5Gbps) with sleep charging
- USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 (5Gbps)
- HDMI 1.4b
- 3-in-1 SD Media Card Reader (SD, SDHC, SDXC) capable of 30MB/s
- 3.5mm audio combo
HDMI will support a 4K monitor, and USB-A 3.1 Gen 1 will support up to 5Gbps for fast data transfers from an external SSD.
It has USB-C 3.1, Gen 1 5Gbps port as well. We tested this with two external 4K monitors (one via HDMI and one via USB-C), and it was great.
Port summary: Yea! USB-C makes things so much easier, but you need to invest in sometimes expensive dongles.
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and comms
The Intel AC 9560 is a great improvement over its 15” brother. It can achieve 867 Mbps full-duplex at 2 metres from our D-Link AC5300 reference router. It does this by having a 2 x 2 MU-MIMO antenna and will access higher 160Mhz bands if the router is capable of it.
Bluetooth is 5.0 and supports standard SBC and aptX/HD codecs.
Sound, camera, mic
We measured maximum volume at 80dB with low apparent distortion. It has MaxxAudio Pro software with +/-6dB adjustments across the spectrum, but in practice, it makes little difference as the speakers are the limiting factors.
There is no bass, peaky (not perky) high-mids and some treble giving it a clear vocal signature. It is not unpleasant for movies, but it is recommended to use a Bluetooth speaker or headset.
Bluetooth is the standard SBC codec, you can enable aptX/HD, and there is an option of purchasing the Dolby Atmos codec from the Windows store. This is for headphones only.
Sound out via the 3.5mm jack to an external amplifier showed a relatively flat 20Hz to 20kHz response with good signal strength.
The camera is .9MP good for 1280×720 images and 720p@30fps. Colours are OK and fixed focus works to about 500mm from the screen. An LED shows when the camera is active.
Dual mics either side do a good job in video and voice conference.
Summary: Sound is fit for purpose for an office-based device.
Battery
We tested the i7-8565U that uses more power than the i3 or i5.
Under full load in GeekBench it was just under two hours. In general office use about 6 hours. An FHD video loop (aeroplane mode and 50% screen) lasted just over 4 hours.
Recharge time with the 45W charger was just over two hours.
Summary: It falls within the specs of most brands of laptops.
GadgetGuy’s take. Dell Inspiron 14” 5000 2-in-1
It is a relatively low-cost, reasonable performance, 14” 2-in-one.
It has the much-needed screen brightness (Cinema colour), USB-C and everything you need.
To do better, you would need to spend at least $1000 more to get a 4K screen like on the Lenovo Yoga 920 (review here), ASUS Zenbook Flip (review here) or a Dell XPS 13, 2-in-1 (link here).
This is a
One Comment