Dell Inspiron 7000 14" first impressions + goodies

[gus6464]

So I saw this laptop at BB the other day when buying my rMBP and was pretty impressed by the build quality. This is not your normal plastic Dell. Chassis is completely made from aluminum and it is actually thinner than the 13" rMBP. My wife was on the market for a new laptop and she is not a Mac person and she really liked the machine so we found a store that had one and brought it home. Now the model BB sells is pretty much the same thing Dell sells online for $1099 but for $929 and you get the following:

Core i7 4500U
8gb RAM
1080p IPS screen with Gorilla Glass
Backlit keyboard
Intel 7260 N + BT4.0
Large touchpad (and actually not bad for a Windows machine)
500gb Seagate slim HDD (only downside but easily remedied as you will see)
8 hour battery life

Now the first thing people will not like about the machine is the HDD. But Dell I guess saw this coming and decided to include an unused mSATA port with the machine. The manual has detailed instructions on how to replace everything from speakers to battery. So I went ahead and ordered the following:

Plextor M5M 256gb mSATA SSD
http://www.amazon.com/Plextor-M5M-0-...ds=plextor+m5m

Now also while I was in there I said what the heck and also ordered the Intel 7260 AC + BT4.0 module. I ordered the following:
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Wireless...=intel+7260+ac

Now the reason I ordered the desktop version is because that is actually the mobile module with a PCI-E adapter and antenna. I did this so I can use the 7260 N module that is being replaced with the adapter and use it on a desktop. Another plus of this is that if you have an Ivy or above CPU used in conjunction with this card you now have WiDi on your desktop.

So for a total of $1159 the machine will now have the above specs plus the following:

256gb SSD
802.11ac + BT4.0 low energy

I will have some benchmarks of the SSD once it arrives and I get everything installed.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I had to do a double-take when I saw this thread title. It looks like Dell is reusing model numbers. The first laptop I ever bought (which I actually still have) is an Inspiron 7000 from 1998:

PII-300, Windows 98, a hardware mpeg decoder for playing back DVDs -- don't recall how much RAM I have in it for sure, but IIRC, I think I did expand it to 128 MB. Oh, and it was a 6 GB hard drive. I ought to get it out and fire it up.

 

[sulu171]

So I saw this laptop at BB the other day when buying my rMBP and was pretty impressed by the build quality. This is not your normal plastic Dell. Chassis is completely made from aluminum and it is actually thinner than the 13" rMBP. My wife was on the market for a new laptop and she is not a Mac person and she really liked the machine so we found a store that had one and brought it home. Now the model BB sells is pretty much the same thing Dell sells online for $1099 but for $929 and you get the following:

Core i7 4500U
8gb RAM
1080p IPS screen with Gorilla Glass
Backlit keyboard
Intel 7260 N + BT4.0
Large touchpad (and actually not bad for a Windows machine)
500gb Seagate slim HDD (only downside but easily remedied as you will see)
8 hour battery life

Now the first thing people will not like about the machine is the HDD. But Dell I guess saw this coming and decided to include an unused mSATA port with the machine. The manual has detailed instructions on how to replace everything from speakers to battery. So I went ahead and ordered the following:

Plextor M5M 256gb mSATA SSD
http://www.amazon.com/Plextor-M5M-0-...ds=plextor+m5m

Now also while I was in there I said what the heck and also ordered the Intel 7260 AC + BT4.0 module. I ordered the following:
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Wireless...=intel+7260+ac

Now the reason I ordered the desktop version is because that is actually the mobile module with a PCI-E adapter and antenna. I did this so I can use the 7260 N module that is being replaced with the adapter and use it on a desktop. Another plus of this is that if you have an Ivy or above CPU used in conjunction with this card you now have WiDi on your desktop.

So for a total of $1159 the machine will now have the above specs plus the following:

256gb SSD
802.11ac + BT4.0 low energy

I will have some benchmarks of the SSD once it arrives and I get everything installed.

Wow this one sounds pretty nice. How is lcd quality? does the screen get really bright? I am in market for a ultrabook and have been looking at zenbook and yoga 2 pro but this one seems to have all the right specs at great price.

How difficult is it to open up the laptop to do upgrade?

Look forward to your review.

 

[gus6464]

Wow this one sounds pretty nice. How is lcd quality? does the screen get really bright? I am in market for a ultrabook and have been looking at zenbook and yoga 2 pro but this one seems to have all the right specs at great price.

How difficult is it to open up the laptop to do upgrade?

Look forward to your review.

Honestly it was pretty simple to pop open. The screen I must say though is very nice. It is definitely on par with my retina macbook pro in color and viewing angles. It is not as bright as the mbp screen but I think it's an IGZO panel. I will take a bunch of pics when I put it back together. Right now it's waiting on the SSD and ac wifi chip.

While it's not the brightest out there color really pops though.

 

[Hulk]

Looks good. Let us know how the SSD upgrade goes.

 

[TheStu]

I had to do a double-take when I saw this thread title. It looks like Dell is reusing model numbers. The first laptop I ever bought (which I actually still have) is an Inspiron 7000 from 1998:

PII-300, Windows 98, a hardware mpeg decoder for playing back DVDs -- don't recall how much RAM I have in it for sure, but IIRC, I think I did expand it to 128 MB. Oh, and it was a 6 GB hard drive. I ought to get it out and fire it up.

No, you're not wrong, that's the one that the OP is talking about. He just shoved a Mini ITX board in there and had room left over

 

[jalaram]

The i7 you listed is available via Dell online (in CA at least) for $899 + tax.

Laptop magazine gave it 3.5 stars.

In the notebookreview.com forum, some have said that the mSATA drive is not easy to get to. Link

What's your opinion about the keyboard? Okay or a little mushy like some reviews.

 

[gus6464]

The i7 you listed is available via Dell online (in CA at least) for $899 + tax.

Laptop magazine gave it 3.5 stars.

In the notebookreview.com forum, some have said that the mSATA drive is not easy to get to. Link

What's your opinion about the keyboard? Okay or a little mushy like some reviews.

I have the machine apart right now waiting for the Plextor to come in today. It took me less than 10 mins to get to the msata slot. I don't get why people say it's hard. The manual makes it look a lot more complicated than it is. Here is pictures of the machine:

It already has the battery taken out which is just a giant sheet attached with 2 screws and a cable to the mainboard. After that all you do is take out the screws that have arrows on them and detach the ribbons on the bottom. Then just flip over the board and slide the ssd in.

As far the keyboard goes I wish it had a bit more travel and it's definitely mushier than the MBP keyboard. The trackpad though is definitely one of the best I have used on a Windows machine by far.

 

[sm625]

They should just use that same chassis with modern components, and fill the extra empty space with battery. Imagine a notebook that gets 96 hours of battery life.

 

[gus6464]

SSD and wireless AC upgrade complete. It was super easy to do. Only thing is that when installing Win 8.1 Pro from USB stick I had to choose legacy usb boot mode for it to recognize the drive. Other than that everything went smooth.

 

[MrX8503]

This is an ultra book, not a full fledged laptop like the rMBP. The Dell is thinner, but its bigger in every direction and a pound heavier. Its definitely a good looking windows ultra book though. Its a shame that an SSD didn't come standard with this machine.

 

[chiefsfan27]

This is an ultra book, not a full fledged laptop like the rMBP. The Dell is thinner, but its bigger in every direction and a pound heavier. Its definitely a good looking windows ultra book though. Its a shame that an SSD didn't come standard with this machine.

First of all, this is my first post, and I'm here largely because I just purchased the Inspiron 7000 14 inch model with the i7 and 8GB DDR3. I looked at both in-store, and the screens were very similar IMHO, with the exception of the lack of touchscreen in the mac.

That said, the only thing I think the mbp has on this pc is the SSD, which I could add myself for at most $200, and still have $400 left to buy software/additional upgrades before I reached the price of the mac.

I went in with the intention of walking out with a mbp, and walked out with this ultrabook. It was and is that impressive to me.

 

[Enigmoid]

SSD and wireless AC upgrade complete. It was super easy to do. Only thing is that when installing Win 8.1 Pro from USB stick I had to choose legacy usb boot mode for it to recognize the drive. Other than that everything went smooth.

Interesting to see the difference in performance on the same drive.

Firmware version 1.02

(Is is even possible to get values like 680 MB/sec on Sata 3?)

 

[MrX8503]

First of all, this is my first post, and I'm here largely because I just purchased the Inspiron 7000 14 inch model with the i7 and 8GB DDR3. I looked at both in-store, and the screens were very similar IMHO, with the exception of the lack of touchscreen in the mac.

That said, the only thing I think the mbp has on this pc is the SSD, which I could add myself for at most $200, and still have $400 left to buy software/additional upgrades before I reached the price of the mac.

I went in with the intention of walking out with a mbp, and walked out with this ultrabook. It was and is that impressive to me.

1lb lighter, smaller footprint, faster CPU, faster GPU, higher res, 802.11 ac, better track pad, PCIE SSD. I'd say the only thing these two machines have in common is price. The dell is a nice ultra book, that is all.

(Is is even possible to get values like 680 MB/sec on Sata 3?)

No, you need a PCIE connection for that.

 

[gus6464]

1lb lighter, smaller footprint, faster CPU, faster GPU, higher res, 802.11 ac, better track pad, PCIE SSD. I'd say the only thing these two machines have in common is price. The dell is a nice ultra book, that is all.



No, you need a PCIE connection for that.

The Dell was $500 cheaper. And also I put in the Intel AC card for $33.

 

[gus6464]

Interesting to see the difference in performance on the same drive.

Firmware version 1.02

(Is is even possible to get values like 680 MB/sec on Sata 3?)

What machine is that in?

 

[PlasmaBomb]

What machine is that in?

Same machine, he just updated the firmware.

 

[chiefsfan27]

1lb lighter, smaller footprint, faster CPU, faster GPU, higher res, 802.11 ac, better track pad, PCIE SSD. I'd say the only thing these two machines have in common is price. The dell is a nice ultra book, that is all.

The trackpads are remarkably similar in quality, believe it or not. That said, I'd like to (again) point out that I could make the same improvements as the OP, and they only noticeable improvement the mbp would have over my machine would be the GPU, and for $400 more dollars, I'm fine with that.

I'm not sure why you think they have price in common. With similar CPU (both i7) the Dell starts out $600 cheaper. They're not even in the same ballpark for price. (Edit: I don't even see an i7 model of the 13" rMBP. So your point on the CPU was exactly the opposite of the truth. For $600 less, I get a better CPU in the Dell)

And having seen the two screens side-by-side, the 1080p screen on the Dell is NOT a noticeable step down from the mbp. If it was, I wouldn't have changed my mind when I went to buy a laptop.

You can talk about it being lighter if you want, but he mbp is also thicker. I'm more concerned with the thickness of the machine than I am with the weight, especially when both are well under 5 pounds. I guess all that time at the gym has paid off - 4.4 pounds isn't going to kill me

 

[Enigmoid]

What machine is that in?

Same machine, he just updated the firmware.

His in in the dell. Mine is in a lenovo y580.

 

[MrX8503]

The trackpads are remarkably similar in quality, believe it or not. That said, I'd like to (again) point out that I could make the same improvements as the OP, and they only noticeable improvement the mbp would have over my machine would be the GPU, and for $400 more dollars, I'm fine with that.

I'm not sure why you think they have price in common. With similar CPU (both i7) the Dell starts out $600 cheaper. They're not even in the same ballpark for price. (Edit: I don't even see an i7 model of the 13" rMBP. So your point on the CPU was exactly the opposite of the truth. For $600 less, I get a better CPU in the Dell)

And having seen the two screens side-by-side, the 1080p screen on the Dell is NOT a noticeable step down from the mbp. If it was, I wouldn't have changed my mind when I went to buy a laptop.

You can talk about it being lighter if you want, but he mbp is also thicker. I'm more concerned with the thickness of the machine than I am with the weight, especially when both are well under 5 pounds. I guess all that time at the gym has paid off - 4.4 pounds isn't going to kill me

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-4500U+@+1.80GHz
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-4258U+@+2.40GHz&id=2069

The i7 is a ULV processor, its not faster than the i5 in the rMBP. To get the i7, you have to get the top end Dell. So no, its not $600 less for a better CPU. You get a worse CPU/GPU for $200 - $400 less. Its priced as it should be.

The rMBP is thicker by .1". You notice that but not 1lb of extra weight? lol. The inspiron 7000 is a good machine, but it should be compared with other ultrabooks.

 

[chiefsfan27]

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-4500U+@+1.80GHz
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5-4258U+@+2.40GHz&id=2069

The i7 is a ULV processor, its not faster than the i5 in the rMBP. To get the i7, you have to get the top end Dell. So no, its not $600 less for a better CPU. You get a worse CPU/GPU for $200 - $400 less. Its priced as it should be.

The rMBP is thicker by .1". You notice that but not 1lb of extra weight? lol. The inspiron 7000 is a good machine, but it should be compared with other ultrabooks.

In order to get 8GB RAM, the rMBP cost $1500 - I bought the Dell with 8GB for $900. I don't need a calculator for that math.

And you were the one to pick and choose things first, don't fault me for pointing out the thinness of the Dell.

The facts are, the rMBP costs $600 more for a similar CPU (I'll admit the i5 may be a bit better, but not by much, and it draws a lot more power), an imoroved GPU, and a SSD. If I add a $200 SSD myself, I find the $400 savings worth the difference in the GPU. And, again, the 4.4 pounds isn't going to break my arm. If it will do so to you, then the rMBP is definitely the right choice for you.

I tested both in store, and found negligible difference in the overall performance and function of the two machines. If you're convinced the rMBP is worth 67% more money than the Dell, then more power to you.

 

[MrX8503]

In order to get 8GB RAM, the rMBP cost $1500 - I bought the Dell with 8GB for $900. I don't need a calculator for that math.

And its $1100 for the dell if you want an i7. I'm not saying 1 lb is heavy, what I'm saying is that I think its odd you think 1 lb isn't noticeable but .1" thickness is.

I think both machines have good value, I just don't think they're directly comparable considering their differences. I would compare the Dell to the MBA or other ultra books.

 

[chiefsfan27]

And its $1100 for the dell if you want an i7

For the third time, no it isn't. I bought mine with an i7 for $900.

Here http://www.bestbuy.com/site/inspiron-14-touch-screen-laptop-8gb-memory-500gb-hard-drive/1753322.p?id=1219062804631&skuId=1753322&st=categoryid$abcat0502000&cp=1&lp=1 its' $929. It simply isn't $1100 for the i7.

 

[gus6464]

The Dell at their website is $899 with coupon or you could just go to BB and get it for $929.

 

[MrX8503]

For the third time, no it isn't. I bought mine with an i7 for $900.

Here http://www.bestbuy.com/site/inspiron-14-touch-screen-laptop-8gb-memory-500gb-hard-drive/1753322.p?id=1219062804631&skuId=1753322&st=categoryid$abcat0502000&cp=1&lp=1 its' $929. It simply isn't $1100 for the i7.

Simmer down. I wasn't price shopping around, this was based off what I saw at Dell.