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Dell Inspiron 14 (5482): an economical 2 in 1 with good features for upgrade

Choose a laptop for 100 thousand is much easier than a middle-class laptop for half the budget. In the first case there will be almost no compromises in most offers. In the second, on the contrary, among the many options you need to find the least compromise. Specifically, we, Dell, in the price range "from 40 to 60 thousand rubles" have their own favorite - a laptop in the class "2 in 1" Inspiron 14 (5482) . And it is about him that we want to tell you in detail today.



Appearance and ergonomics


Creating a case Dell Inspiron 14 (5482), engineers tried to make it both economical, practical, and modern. In our opinion, it was possible to cope with the task. The main material, of course, was plastic, but it is unlikely that its quality will disappoint anyone. It is dense and, most importantly, matte: on a gray laptop, the fingerprints are barely noticeable, and on the silver case they are almost completely invisible.



The lid of the laptop in the folded state bends slightly down from pressing, however, it hardly gives any discomfort during operation. The working panel of the Inspiron 14 is additionally reinforced with a metal plate. And then it will be difficult to bend it to tangible depth during printing, even if someone in the chat has made you very angry and you press them with obvious effort.

The device has a wedge-shaped case, the thickness is not a record one, but absolutely moderate: a little less than 2 centimeters at the base with hinges.



The hinges, of course, metal, just outside of them close the plastic inserts, made in the same style as on more expensive Dell devices. They even look like metal, until you touch them.



Since the Inspiron 14 (5482) belongs to the 2-in-1 notebook class, its cover can be fully folded back all 360 degrees, turning the gadget into a tablet. At the same time, in none of the positions will it ever outweigh the main part of the body standing on the table.



In order to lift the lid up, the working panel should be held a little with the second hand. The minimum opening angle at which the hinges hold the lid is somewhere around 45 degrees. But this, of course, is not a working option. Over the rest of the opening range, the lid will be held securely in exactly the position that the user chooses.



The computer weighs 1.75 kilograms, and this is quite a lifting burden for every day. This option is suitable for work, and for study, and for retreats, and even for travel. Undoubtedly, there are more compact solutions, including in our portfolio, but they also have a significantly higher price.



Interfaces, data and sound


Dell Inspiron 14 (5482) is a universal laptop, and, therefore, it should always be ready to solve various problems of its owner. Often they are achieved by connecting peripheral devices, and that is why on the sides of the computer there is all the set of interfaces that any average user needs.

The input for the power adapter and USB Type-C with DisplayPort and USB Power Delivery support are located on the left side of the computer. The second clearly hints that you can use the optional adapter with the appropriate cable to charge the device. Also there are two full-size USB 3.1 and a combined audio jack.



On the right side of the Inspiron 14 is quite expected full-sized USB 2.0, where it would be more logical to connect a wired mouse during operation, a place to attach a security lock and, of course, a microSD card reader. Please note that the data here is transmitted at an average speed of 30-35 MB / s. For home and office, higher speeds in this case will be pleasant, but still not necessary.



The quality of Wi-Fi signal reception is more important. And in this regard, the hero of our today's review is all right, because it has an Intel 9560 adapter installed. This is an excellent solution with a maximum bandwidth of more than 1.5 gigabits per second and good signal reception quality. The real indicators on the transmission and reception of data in tests reach marks in the range from 600 to 700 megabits per second, so a very good foundation for the future is guaranteed in this regard.



A couple of nice words you can add about the sound. Of course, no one will expect from a laptop, especially from the middle price category, the audio quality of a home theater level. And, at the same time, the stereo speakers here are loud and of sufficient quality, the Waves MaxxAudio software “enhancer” is also supported at the hardware level. The result is noticeably more pleasant sound than on average by the standards of this class of devices. Music is a separate story, but to watch TV shows at home with such a laptop in hand, on a stand next to it or even on the belly (after all, the transformer is!) Is very nice.

Input Devices


Waiting for the keyboard is always a very individual moment for everyone, it is simply impossible to please everyone at once. To our taste, the Inspiron 14 (5482) is good because there is plenty of space on the working panel to position your hands freely, and the buttons during printing produce a very quiet sound that will hardly interfere with your relatives or colleagues in the office. The unique advantage is the presence of a two-level backlight, which greatly facilitates the work in the dark.



The key travel is quite deep, smooth and soft, the resistance level is below average. Compared to XPS and Latitude, typing is different. If you are accustomed to making a higher-end Dell solution, then before you buy, you should look into the store and type 14 small text on the Inspiron to create your own impressions. This review we traditionally typed on the keyboard of the reviewed laptop and no difficulties arose in the process: the gadget is suitable for working with large texts.

Separately, we note that we always read all your comments and see righteous indignation about the performance of Russian characters on Dell notebook keyboards. The decision to change them is made at the global office level, but from the local office in Russia we are actively trying to convey the opinion of the Habr users to the higher authorities, which we consider absolutely reasonable.



Next, go to the touchpad. And to say something special about him is difficult. It has quite standard dimensions (10.1x6.5 cm) by the standards of the class, a shiny frame around the perimeter, he himself is slightly recessed deep into the case, the surface is matte. The finger slides well on it, with the positioning of the cursor there are no problems, but for long work in the office, of course, the mouse will be more convenient. At the same time, on-site touch panel with its replacement copes well.

Display


By the name of the laptop it is not difficult to guess that the diagonal of its display is 14 inches. Immediately, you can pay attention to the frame: from the bottom side, the indent is quite large, but on the top, and especially on the sides, their thickness is quite modest.



The matrix in all configurations of Inspiron 14 (5482) is the same: this is an IPS panel with Full HD resolution and support for touch input. If necessary, you can interact with the computer with your fingers, or with the stylus of the Dell Active Pen or - what is there to hide - similar solutions from other manufacturers. The pen is not included in the delivery package, because it’s not a fact that absolutely all users will need it. Still, not every person is a supporter of handwriting, and the need to make edits or make notes on mock-ups, documents and images does not always occur. The cost of our pen in different stores varies in the range from 3 to 4.5 thousand rubles.



Turning to talk about the detailed features of the matrix, we immediately note that the Inspiron 14 was not thought of as a gadget for creative guys like photographers and designers, this is a machine with a bias towards office work, web surfing and multimedia content. And for this coverage of the sRGB color space at 60% will be enough.

The maximum brightness is average by the standards of the class - about 250 nits. This is not enough for comfortable work outside, especially on bright sunny days, but there should be no problems in the rooms. Unless you are sitting near the window itself with your back to the sunny side, but with an expensive laptop with a cool matrix, the pleasure is much lower than average.



The contrast ratio is good - about 1400: 1. It is also extremely important that the laptop has very wide viewing angles. With strong deviations the picture almost does not change. Also note that the display has a glossy finish, but inside it should not be a critical point either.



There is support for Dell CinemaColor technology. It fully reveals itself in top products like XPS 13 and 15, but in the Inspiron 14 it is not at all useless. For example, one of the four proposed color profiles (“Film”) allows you to raise the brightness above standard values ​​and significantly increase the saturation of hues. Not the fact that it is suitable for everyday use, but when watching a video, it really comes in handy.



Configuration and Performance


Dell Inspiron 14 (5482) is available in three basic configurations: with Intel Core i3-8145U processors, with Intel Core i5-8265U, as well as with Intel Core i7-8565U and discrete graphics GeForce MX130 with 2 GB of memory. Immediately, we note that in Russia at the moment only the first two versions of computers with integrated graphics are available in official retail.

All of these chips belong to the generation codenamed Whiskey Lake and the U line, which is focused on installation in the most portable devices and low power consumption while maintaining a good level of performance for any office and household business, and even with a margin for something more serious, like simple installation and work with graphics. The difference with the previous generation of processors of the same level reduces only to the increased number of PCIe lanes (for i3 and i5) increased from 12 to 16 and to increased maximum frequencies in the Boost mode.

If we talk specifically about the configuration of today's surveyed sample, then inside it is installed Intel Core i5-8265U. The processor operates at frequencies from 1.6 to 3.9 GHz, it has four cores, each of which can simultaneously perform two computation threads, and the integrated UHD Graphics 620, which has long been known to everyone, operating at frequencies from 300 MHz to 1.1 GHz . In this regard, compared with the i5-8250U, nothing has changed.



Well, it is immediately logical to compare this version with the lower configuration of the Inspiron 14 (5284) with the dual-core and quad-threaded i3-8145U inside the Cinebench R15. And at the same time with last year's versions of the same chips. This is what happens:



Results are predictable and easily interpretable. If you are sure that in addition to office programs, chat rooms, a browser and a video player, you do not need anything, then i3 will be enough. If the work assumes a little more serious tasks associated with, say, huge tables in Excel, Photoshop, presentations with a lot of objects and something else, then it is better to pay attention to older configurations with four-core i5.

Next in the list are tests of the overall system performance in PCMark 10. The clear advantage of points in the Express and Standard tests regarding Extended again hints at office-home work scenarios. In them, this computer is really good.



It is worth considering that the configuration of the test Inspiron 14 includes a SSD-drive with 256 GB of memory and 8 GB of RAM. In the modifications, where instead of the solid-state drive, HDD is used by 1 TB, the number of points will be noticeably less. By the way, about the speed of the SSD hero of our review. That's what happens in the CrystalDiskMark test. For a home-office PC is quite good!



There is nothing special to talk about gaming performance: any laptop without discrete graphics is not intended for them by definition. Of course, not the most demanding new projects can be launched in 720p resolution at low settings, but it's hard to get pleasure from such entertainment. Although with a well-optimized SD-client World of Tanks laptop with Full HD resolution and low graphics settings copes. DOTA2 on similar settings will also work, but in CS: GO and, especially, PUBG will hardly be comfortable to play.

As examples of synthetic tests, here are the World of Tanks Encore and 3DMark benchmarks, in which the huge difference between the integrated graphics in the i5-8265U and the economical discrete solution GeForce GTX 1050Ti, which by today's standards can be considered the minimum necessary for a comfortable laptop, is clearly visible. gaming in FHD. By the way, about the budget gaming laptop Dell G3 15, appearing in the tables below, we also wrote on Habré recently.



On heating the computer under load just do not have to complain. Even in the “top-end” configuration with the Intel Core i7, the stress tests of the Inspiron 14 (5482) do not heat up more than up to 41-42 degrees. And here we are talking about the hottest spot on the bottom of the laptop. The temperature of most of the working panel with the keyboard does not even reach 35 degrees. The hottest place here is in the upper right corner near the power button, here 40 degrees can be, but, again, only in stress tests, which are very far from actual usage scenarios.

While surfing the web and working in office programs, the cooler is almost inaudible. And at maximum load the noise level reaches a maximum of 37 dB, which is an absolutely adequate indicator. At a distance of 2-3 meters, it is already perceived as a completely non-straining background noise.

Upgrade Opportunities


Dell Inspiron 14 (5482) is a real delight for those who like to change something inside computers with their own hands. The bottom cover is very quickly removed after the 9 fixing screws are unscrewed.



And so what beauty is available to everyone inside the computer.



First, there are two slots for DDR4 RAM at once. In configurations with Intel Core i3, one of them is occupied by a 4 GB bar, in configurations on i5, one bar is used for 8 GB. This is convenient: we need higher performance with multitasking - just buy the second bar and add it to the free slot. In this case, the maximum supported amount of RAM is not 16, but 32 GB.



Secondly, the Inspiron 14 motherboard has an M.2 connector with support for high-speed NVMe drives. In our case, there is an SSD with 256 GB of memory. And very compact, format M.2 2242,



Thirdly, in the lower left corner there is a compartment for 2.5-inch drives. In basic configurations, this is where HDD is installed with a terabyte of memory, which was already mentioned above. But nothing prevents the use of SATA SSD instead in the same form factor.



Well, at the same time, you can take a look at the very same Wi-Fi transmitter Intel 9560, about which we also wrote above.



Working hours


Inside the Dell Insprion 14 is installed a battery with a capacity of 42 Wh. In combination with an economical processor and Full HD display in practice, this gives a very solid battery life. For example, a video with a resolution of 1920x1080 at maximum brightness, the gadget can play more than 6.5 hours in a row. In monotonous web surfing mode, you can count on 9-10 hours of work. Well, in a mixed mode of use, you are provided with a full working day, so the user of this laptop will not be tied to the outlet.

Also pay attention to the compact and fairly light power adapter.



How much and where to buy?


The cost of Dell Inspiron 14 (5482) starts at 42-43 thousand rubles . This budget fits the most starting configuration with Intel Core i3-8145U, 4 GB RAM and 1 TB TB. And this is a good offer, given the opportunity to increase the amount of RAM and add further fast SSD, even without removing the HDD.

The basic configuration with the Intel Core i5-8265U inside starts with a mark of 53-54 thousand rubles . This also includes HDD for 1 TB and 8 GB of RAM. But the maximum cost of a computer in Russia is around 57-59 thousand rubles . For this money, instead of the HDD used SSD 256 GB. And it was on such a machine that all the tests described above were carried out. In all cases, Windows 10 is used as the operating system. Indicative prices are indicated for official distributors.

If you are interested in a large order specifically for these or any other Dell computers (as well as servers and other business solutions), feel free to write us personal messages directly on Habré - we will be happy to help. And, of course, thanks for reading the review to the end!

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/438192/