Dell Inspiron 15R review

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Verdict:

Decent performance and a good selection of expansion ports are the 15R's highlights, but its overall build quality and decent screen make it an award winner.

Review Date: 24 Apr 2011

Price when reviewed: £479

Reviewed By: Barry de la Rosa

Our Rating 4 stars out of 5

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When we first saw the Dell Inspiron 15R back in August last year we were impressed by its build quality, style and performance, although it was a slightly more expensive model with a dedicated graphics card and an Intel Core i5 processor. This month's model has a new Intel Core i3-2310M processor running at 2.1GHz and uses that processor's integrated graphics chip, but it outperformed the older model by 11 per cent overall. The best part, however, is that it costs £150 less.

We ran our old benchmarks to get a direct comparison. The previous 15R, with its 2.4GHz i5-450M, scored 82 overall, with a score of 95 in the single-threaded image-editing test. The new 15R, with a 2.1GHz i3-2310M, scored 91 overall, with 97 in the image-editing test. With the processor putting all its effort into a single core, the newer processor with its lower clock speed managed to beat the older processor. Furthermore, it wasn't slowed down as much by multiple applications.

Build quality is superb, and we particularly like the smart brushed-metal finish on the lid and keyboard panel. A chrome rim around the keyboard adds a touch of style. The keyboard itself looks a bit cheaper than the older model's: it has flat, separated keys rather than the comfortably moulded keys of its sibling. The key action isn't as crisp either, and there's a bit of flex in the whole keyboard.

A numberpad is squeezed into the right-hand side, and has smaller keys than the main keyboard. It still retains large "0", Enter and "+" keys so those used to data entry will soon get used to it. The touchpad is large and responsive, and has two large buttons with a pleasantly light action.

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