Dell Inspiron 15z Ultrabook Battery life
The 44WHr 6-cell Inspiron 15z Battery manages to last about 2 hours in Battery Eater Pro, which means you should get about 4-5 hours under normal usage. The discrete card also features Nvdia’s Optimus technology, so it can dynamically switch between the onboard and discrete card when the need arises.
Design and build
The Inspiron 15z is similar to the notebooks in the series and features the same matt silver and grey finish. The notebook is fairly slim for a 15-incher with a depth of just 21 mm. With a weight of around 2.17 kg, it’s not as heavy as we expected it to be. The chassis is made up mostly of plastic in order to cut costs and that’s where we ran into a small issue. Although the notebook looks sturdy, the build quality isn’t very reassuring. For example, the seal around the edge of the lid kept opening up, exposing the panel. In case you were wondering, this was a brand new piece, and no, we hadn’t dropped it.
Features
The fully spec’d out 15z that we received consists of an Intel Core i7-3537U, a dual-core multithreaded CPU running at 2GHz and the ability to turbo up to 3.1GHz. You also get 8GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive along with a 32GB SSD for IRST. For graphics, we have a dedicated Nvidia GT630M with 2GB of dedicated graphics. This version of the 15z also has a multi-touch panel, but it’s not a very good one. The trouble is not with the panel itself but more with the resolution and colour reproduction.
Performance
The Inspiron 15z puts up a good show when pitted against high-end Ultrabooks like the Acer Aspire S7. Acer manages to maintain its lead due to its dual SSD in RAID configuration. The Inspiron 15z redeems itself in the graphics test where the Nvidia discrete card gets to flex its muscles.
The keyboard is incredibly comfortable to type on even for extended durations and the backlight helps in dimly lit rooms. The trackpad functions well and the same goes for the mouse buttons as well. The SkullCandy speakers face outwards and manage to produce good sound that’s loud and has decent definition. The low resolution screen is a bit of a problem as images and text are not sharp; the colour reproduction also could have been a lot better.
