The Dell Inspiron i5547-7500sLV 15.6-Inch Touchscreen Laptop is something of a curiosity. Like the new class of “Ultrabook” portable computers, it is very thin and sleek looking, with no optical drive to add weight or girth. However, at 6 pounds it is twice the weight of your average ultrabook. So what do you get for the extra weight? In my opinion you get about twice the functionality and that’s a good thing.
I own an ultrabook( HP ENVY 13-2150nr Spectre XT 13.3) and I like it for a number of specific tasks. I especially like its portability( 3 pounds with a small footprint) and the speed of its solid state drive. It slips neatly in the smallest briefcase or even a small tote. It’s great for streaming media on the go, doing simple correspondence or messing around on social media. It is NOT, in any practical way, a substitute for a full function laptop or desktop computer. Depending on your needs the Dell Inspiron i5547-7500sLV may well be.
With my ultrabook( and the others I’ve looked at) what you give up for the wonderful lightness and sleek profile are screen size( between 10”and 14” generally) and storage capacity( a couple of hundred gigabytes or less) . I have also found that my ultrabook has less battery life than your typical notebook computer. I chalk this up to the smaller profile battery. I work in freelance media and teach college. The audio and video editing I do on my computers takes up a considerable amount of hard drive space and the detail work is hard to do on any screen smaller than 15-inches. For me the The Dell Inspiron i5547-7500sLV is nearly the perfect compromise between small and light and big and beefy, nearly perfect.
When it comes to looks you have to give it to the Inspiron. It definitely has the sleek look of an ultrabook. The combination of brushed aluminum with black trim, keys and bezel make for a very classy, “corporate” presence. The fit and finish are first rate. This machine has a very solid feel. There is no torque in the hinges, the unit closes securely and sits flat without a tendency to flop over when open. The keyboard backlighting is very nicely done and the keys themselves( including a number pad) are full sized and well placed for comfortable typing. The touchpad works fine as well.
While the Inspiron’s display is technically HD( similar to 720p resolution on a TV) it is not full HD( like 1080p) . I would think that in this day and age and at this price point, full HD( or better) would be pretty standard. The Inspiron’s picture is surprisingly good considering its specs. With both image movement for navigation and video playback the image motion is steady, artifact free and has good color characteristics. The 10-finger capacitive touchscreen sensitivity is good. It is similar to the high end tablets I own or have used.
Sound is another matter. The sound sucks. I have owned 10 notebook and laptop computers over the past two decades and this Inspiron has the worst sound of any before it. It is weak, tinny and what low end it has is muddy and indistinct. While we’ve all come to expect pretty lousy sound from notebooks, this is subpar even considering those low standards. I did the usual fiddling with the setup and software controls, but there is no internal solution to this problem. The good news is that it is strictly a speaker fail. I hooked the machine up to a brand new JBL Voyager Portable Bluetooth Speaker and the improvement was staggering. If I were Dell I would add another ounce or two and put some reasonable speakers in these things from now on. It’s a media driven world and this simply won’t do. I know it’s possible. I own a Kindle Fire HDX 8.9” tablet and it has amazing sound for its size.
The Inspiron comes with a 2 GHz Intel Core i7 processor and 8 GB of ram( upgradeable to 16GB) . While not blazing fast or top loaded with a ton or memory, both should be more than plenty for just about any day-to-day application. Having a 1TB hard drive in a computer this size is huge. It allows you to do a whole host of work that the tiny solid state hard drives in ultrabooks prevent. Why Dell would use a drive that spins at only 5400 RPM is another matter. I haven’t installed any high end video editing software on the machine yet so I can’t say exactly how it will perform, but I have had some trouble in the past with doing video editing work on slow hard drives. For everyday use like video playback, streaming, etc. It will( and does) work just fine.
As far as connecting to the outside world the Inspiron comes with all the standard I/Os along with an HDMI jack that actually works correctly( not all computers can say this) . The Centrino wireless and the Bluetooth 4.0 connected first time with no hassle and so-far have not dropped the signal once. The Inspiron also has a media card reader built in and 2 USB 3.0 ports which will come in handy on a machine with no optical drive. Another thing this machine has that some ultrabooks don’t is a standard Ethernet wired jack. The machine also comes with a built-in web cam which is also pretty standard these days.
I charged the battery to 100% before booting up the machine for the first time. Since I left it alone for a couple of hours, I can’t say how much charge it came with. I turned on the Inspiron and spent about 45 minutes going through the registration, firmware updates and setup routines. After that I played around with the unit for two hours or so of streaming video, listening to music, playing with settings, etc. I was down to about 60% charge remaining. Battery life is about 20% less than Dell’s claim( for my style of use), which is pretty standard among notebook computer manufacturers in my experience. Obviously, your battery drain will depend greatly on the operations you’re performing.
The Inspiron comes with Windows 8.1( 64 bit) installed. I am currently using four computers at home. One has Vista, one has Windows 7 and two have Windows 8. As far as I’m concerned all of the operating systems have their pluses and minuses. Windows eight’s biggest problem is that it’s very different than the MS interfaces that came before it. After you invest a little time in the learning curve, it’s just fine. There is some of Dell’s usual bloatware installed, but not a lot. Most of the hard drive is open for you to fill as you see fit.
To sum up, the The Dell Inspiron i5547-7500sLV 15.6-Inch Touchscreen Laptop has a lot going for it. It is sleek, well built, and has considerable computing power and versatility for its size. The nasty audio, slow hard drive and slightly disappointing battery life leave it one star short of excellent.
