DELL Inspiron 2-in-1 Laptop

The old laptop was on its last legs. Slow, crashing and causing mayhem, it meant only one thing. A replacement was needed. Buying a new laptop is a massive gamble but I had some time to look over my options. After buying a new Lenovo Chromebook last year, I was so impressed with the convertible touch screen, I wanted the same in a laptop. Whilst I do all my work on the laptop, it needs to handle all the work, including editing my videos on the Filmora programme and of course the Microsoft suite for writing, so it needs a good processor. I decided that it would need the Intel i5. Narrowing my research, I had just two contenders, which quickly became one. The DELL Inspiron 14 5000, 2-in-1 convertible Laptop, with Intel i5, 11th generation processor came out top.

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Looking for the best deal, John Lewis came up trumps. With an extra £50 off during the Easter weekend sale, the order was placed and a package arrived a few days later. The box was opened and staring at me was a stunning piece of technology. Catch the unboxing on the video below.

The technical bits of the laptop, all that I was interested in, was the processor, memory and ram. All I wanted was for it to do what I wanted it to, was there enough power for it to do what I needed it to? With 8GB of RAM and 256GB of Solid State Drive (SSD) I knew this was going to be more than enough. How the Dell Inspiron 2-in1 looked, worked and performed was to be put to the test.

Pulling the DELL Inspiron 14 5000, 2-in-1 convertible laptop from the box, the laptop felt professional and solid. Opening the lid, the touch screen looked beautiful. It needed a charge before I could turn it on but looking around it, there was an SD card slot and 2 USB (3.1, normal ports) with 1 of the new USB type-C ports (smaller all in one port) along with a HDMI socket and a jack port.

Using the Dell Inspiron

Plugging in the laptop, I had a chance to see the charger socket. Having owned and used many laptops, I was a little disappointed to see a slim, small charger port. From my experience these can become worn over time and are the weakness of the previous ones I have owned that have broke and damaged the casing. I hoped it would be a little more substantial but it was not going to stop me enjoying all the power this laptop was about to produce.

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After a charge it was time to turn it on. A push of the button and the screen jumped to life. A quick log in using the help of the windows assistant, a wi-fi password along with a coffee, as it did its thing and the laptop was up and running in no time. Being that it had been built ages ago, and never switched on, there were loads of windows updates for it to get through. As it was updating and completing its final set up, I got the first chance to see the full contrast of the screen, it was simply stunning.

Downloading and trying out the Filmora video editing software, the laptop dished out the power that was needed for me to do all that I needed. Running the software, whilst surfing the internet and running other programmes at the same time was not a problem for it. The convertible aspect is a nice touch, using the screen as a small TV, flipping the keyboard and accessing the speakers underneath made watching films and TV a joy. Its sharp screen and responsive touch along with great sound meant I was watching more films on the new laptop than the larger TV in the living room.

Thoughts on the DELL Inspiron

The battery is good, but the 9 hours promised is a little high. I am getting around 6 hours of work from it, but I guess if I just surfed the net all day it would probably holdout to the full 9 hours. Using the video camera for video conferencing was also good. The camera was of good quality and smooth, even with the initial set up it needed just a little tweak in the settings.

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In truth there have been a few annoying points since owning the Dell Inspiron 2-in-1 lap top. Some are not the lap tops fault, such as the constant updates of software and operating systems running, however the one thing that is something I have to get used to is the very sensitive touch mouse pad. Hovering a finger over the bottom left corner (think about as if you are ready to click) the heat transfers from the hovering finger and then the ‘Start’ button suddenly pops up.

Other than the lap top working too well (the sensitive touch pad) this really is an impressive unit. Solid, professional looking, quick, responsive with the amazing convertible feature and crystal clear screen, the Dell Inspiron 2-in1 laptop has already been a great investment and I am looking forward to using it over the next few years. I hope with all this new technology, of the screen at latest processor it will be powerful enough to last the test of time, but there is only one way to know.