Best Performing 2-in-1 Laptop Dell Inspiron 13 7000 Specifications and Review

Specifications

The Dell Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-1 is available in a wide range of configurations including options for your choice of Intel Pentium, i3, i5, i7, or M processors, 4-8GB RAM, choice of HDD or SSD drives, and resolutions from HD (1366 x 768) to FHD (1920×1080) touch screens. Our review unit featured the following specifications:

• 5th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-5500U Processor (4M Cache, up to 3.00 GHz)
• Windows 8.1 (64Bit) English
• 8GB Single Channel DDR3L 1600MHz (8GBx1)
• 13.3-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) Truelife LED-Backlit Touch Display with Wide Viewing Angle (IPS)
• 256GB SSD
• Intel HD Graphics 5500
• Full size spill resistant backlit keyboard
• Touchpad with multi-touch gesture-enabled pad & integrated scrolling
• Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 802.11ac, 2×2, 2.4 & 5GHz; Bluetooth 4.0
• High definition audio with Waves MaxxAudio
• HD (720p) webcam
• HDMI, 2 USB 3.0 (one with Power Share), 1 USB 2.0, lock slot, combo headphone/microphone slot Jack, 2-in-1 Media Card Reader (SD & MMC)

Display

While there is a bit of glare on the touchscreen display, the laptop is bright enough for use almost anywhere.

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The FHD touchscreen display on the Inspiron 13 7000 is crisp and rich in colour. The display responds quickly in tablet mode, and as with any other touchscreen laptops I found myself using the screen to replace various functions usually reserved for mouse clicks like closing windows or switching between apps. As is the case with touchscreens, there definitely is a bit of glare but the screen was bright enough at maximum brightness to make it useable in almost any lighting condition.

 

Performance

The i7 version with 8GB of RAM definitely performs well. Everything from video playback to app launching and basic games from the Microsoft Store ran flawlessly. Other games like Hearthstone had no issues and was fun to play in tablet mode, while Heroes of the Storm was also playable at low settings with high textures enabled at about 25fps. Not the greatest way to play by any means, but given the Intel HD Graphics 5500 video card, Heroes was definitely playable and ran fine albeit on the low settings.

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Software/Ecosystem

There’s not a lot to say here, our review unit shipped running Windows 8.1 which works great in a 2-in-1 touchscreen scenario. In addition to the typical Dell apps like backup/recovery and help, the laptop also comes with a 20GB Dropbox bonus, Skype, McAfee Central, Flipboard, an Office 365 trial, and a few others.

Speakers

The speakers on the Inspiron 13 7000 surprised me in a good way. I’ve come to accept that laptop speakers aren’t usually the greatest but the ones on this laptop are quite loud for starters. When watching videos and movies the sound is pretty rich and has a good range, including bassier tones. When listening to music however, some of the bass is lost but that was rectified by going into the Dell Audio app and enabling the equalizer. Even so I couldn’t seem to get the same range on the deeper end as watching movies, but music playback was better sounding than quite a few of the other laptops I’ve tested and used over the years.
Given the placement of the speakers, when in laptop mode the sound bounced out and off the table, while in tablet mode it bounced a bit off the back of the screen. As a result, sound was great when the laptop was used in both these modes.

Battery Life

According to Dell, with the version we tested you can get up to 9 hours battery life. I tested it a couple times and seemed to hit the 5 hour mark under what I consider normal use. This including having Google Play Music streaming, doing some word editing on Google Docs, hangouts, a few YouTube videos, web browsing, and a couple rounds of Hearthstone. The battery settings were set to balanced with display turning off after 5 minutes of inactivity, and computer set to never sleep while on battery power. I did get closer to 7 hours when I removed Google Play Music streaming and Hearthstone from the mix so it should be possible to hit the 9 hours depending on your activities.

Accessories

As with other laptops, Dell offers a wide range of accessories for their devices. The Inspiron 13 7000 is no exception with many additional accessories available including portable speakers, external optical disc drives, Dell Active Stylus, slipcase, 1TB portable backup drive, wireless travel mouse, and more.

Price/Value

Dell’s Inspiron 13 7000 starts at $549USD ($720CAD) for the Intel Pentium version with 4GB RAM, 1366×768 resolution, and 500GB SATA hard drive. Higher end configurations offer an Intel Core M processor with 8GB of RAM, 1080p screen, and a 512GB SSD drive and cost upwards of $3300CAD. Our review unit with the i7 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD will set you back $1359USD ($1400CAD). At regular prices for the low and mid-range units, the Inspiron 13 7000 is definitely an affordable option. All models are currently on sale for between $20-$1400 off adding to the value, especially on the higher end spectrum. Our review unit is available currently for $999USD ($1099CAD).