Preface
So, it's been a while since I've posted. Sorry, about that - got distracted by a few summer courses. I decided to post about my laptop because I just made a video about it so all of its details are still fresh in my mind. There are other articles about this laptop already, and I am a little late to releasing this, but in this post, I plan to add my personal experience and thoughts after having used the laptop for about 8 months. Enjoy!
Intro
I got my Dell Inspiron 14 5493 in the December of 2019. For those wondering, the total price before taxes was $719.09 CAD ($812.57 after taxes). That price also included an additional 3-year basic warranty (cost a little over 50 bucks). Like just about every other laptop, this laptop also has its pros and cons. That is exactly what I will be 'talking about' in this post. I actually also just recorded a video about the laptop too (link: ). As a matter of fact, that video is rendering while I type this post.
Overview
Now, there are a variety of laptops you can get within this price point. In my opinion, this laptop was a rather good deal for what it packed. Here are the main specifications of the laptop.
Processor: Intel i5-1035G1
RAM: 8 GB (upgradeable to 16)
Storage: 512 GB M.2 NVMe SSD (Samsung PM991)
Display: 14 inch 1920 × 1080 WVA TN Panel
Touchscreen: No
Battery: 3-Cell, 42 WHr
Power Adapter: 45 watt
Wi-Fi: Qualcomm® DW1810 (WiFi 5)
Bluetooth: 4.1
Backlit Keyboard: Yes (two levels)
Window Hello: Fingerprint reader on power button, but no facial recognition
Ports:
Barrel connector
HDMI
RJ45
2 × USB 3.1 Type A
Audio Jack
1 × USB 2.0 Type A
Full-size SD Card Reader
Battery Life
Not great. The laptop comes with a 3-Cell 42 WHr battery and 45 Watt power adapter, as mentioned earlier, but what does that mean? Well, this is the type of battery and adapter found in most entry-level laptops and therefore, the laptop does not last all that long and charges at a normal speed (I think about two hours or a bit less for full charge). With normal use, it will not last the entire day, at all. With my use, at 100% screen brightness and keyboard backlighting at medium, the laptop lasted for less than 3 hours (2h 47min). With 50% brightness and the same backlight level, the laptop lasted for 3 hours and 30 minutes. Battery life will vary with the exact tasks being done, but in most cases it will not be much more than that and you will likely need to keep the power adapter at hand.
Build Quality
It's okay. The build quality is just okay. Nothing more, nothing less. For, the price, it is not awful, but it could be better. Build quality is probably one of the weak points of the laptop. The top of the laptop, the hinges, and the main deck, are made of a material which is some sort of metal alloy, but is a little plasticky-feeling. The bezels around the screen and the bottom of the laptop are made of a 'not-so-durable' plastic; I say this because after less than a year of use, I have started noticing minor cracks in them. The build quality of the laptop is somewhat made up for by the weight of the laptop. The laptop weighs a little over 3lbs, 3.13lbs according to Dell. This is a fairly light weight for its price point.
Connectivity
Pretty good. The port selection is fairly decent as there are plenty of ports available. A noticeable port missing is the USB C port. Although at this price Thunderbolt 3 ports are basically non-existent, a regular USB Type C port would have been very nice to see. The USB 2.0 Type A port was definitely a cost-cutting measure, but three USB Type A ports are still better than two. For most users, the ports available should be good enough in my opinion (maybe not in a few years though, when USB Type C is more common).
Wi-Fi connectivity is as expected, and pretty good. However, people currently looking for a new laptop may want a Wi-Fi 6 laptop instead for future-proofing. Bluetooth connections are also usually pretty good. That said, I was having some Bluetooth issues in the past few weeks, but Dell Support was able to solve that (they didn't charge me because it was under warranty). Again, people currently looking for a new laptop may want Bluetooth 5 instead of Bluetooth 4 as that offers better connections and is becoming more common.
Display
Good, for the price. So, earlier I mentioned the display is 14 inches (from one corner to the opposite). This is a somewhat common size, but I believe 15.6 inches is more common with Windows laptops. I always recommend going to a store to check a screen size (or checking a device of someone you know) before ordering a device with a new screen size online. This allows the buyer to make sure they will be comfortable with the screen size.
The native screen resolution is also 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels. This has become a pretty common screen resolution for many laptops. However, beware that some affordable Windows laptops come with lower resolutions such as 1366 by 768 or 1600 by 900. I would recommend against these resolutions for many reasons. I could probably make a whole post about this (maybe I should), but the main reasons are screen recording won't be at Full HD resolution, there will be limitations when coding a graphical interface using the laptop screen, there is less text visible when reading articles or other things using the laptop, the display may appear grainy, and more. It is unlikely you will get a resolution higher than 1920 by 1080 at this price (and higher resolutions drain more battery; this laptop's tiny battery wouldn't fare well), so I would say this resolution is absolutely perfect for this laptop.
Lastly, the type of display is a WVA TN. In this case, WVA means "wide viewing angle". So, basically, it's just a good TN panel. The panel is definitely better than an ordinary TN, as the viewing angles truly are better, from experience, but I would still prefer an IPS panel over a TN any day. IPS panels are a little tough to come by at this price though.
Performance
Not bad. For normal productivity, the laptop performs fairly well in most scenarios. I also upgraded the memory to 16GB (from 8GB) after which multi-tasking has become a breeze (at least until you 'go ham' on the chrome tabs). However, there are limitations with some more demanding tasks such as video editing or gaming because of the lack of a dedicated GPU, but dedicated GPUs are not very common at this price. One additional thing to mention is that the laptop may overheat because all the ventilation happens from the bottom. Personally I use two bumper-type stands (Amazon.ca link: https://amzn.to/3jGrR5K, Amazon.com link: https://amzn.to/2EVReRY) to elevate the laptop, which I've found greatly improves the heat dissipation.
Support
Solid. Dell's support has been really good with the few issues I have had with this laptop. I have heard the Dell has better customer support compared to most other laptop brands. Do back up all your important data before sending you device in to a Dell repair depot though as there is a high chance they will wipe all the data.
Touchpad and Keyboard
Okay, and pretty good. The touchpad on the Inspiron is alright. It's not made of anything fancy like the glass touchpads on more expensive laptops, but the Windows gestures still work just fine. I think the feel of it is okay too. However one thing to note is that if you really like physically clicking touchpad buttons (instead of tapping or using an external mouse), you may not like this touchpad that much. I say that because after many clicks the touchpad gets a little stuck/recessed and additional clicks are a little uncomfortable from that point. However the touchpad is not stuck like this forever, it soon fixes itself.
The keyboard is pretty good. Like most 14 inch laptops, it lacks a numeric keypads, but that allows for some pretty well-spaced keys. My only other complaint would be the "pg up" and "pg dn" buttons placement is a bit annoying; they are placed on the two sides of the up arrow key. I can say for a fact that I click those two buttons on accident much more than I do on purpose. As matter of fact, I accidentally clicked those buttons numerous times while writing this post. Otherwise, I like the feel of the keyboard. The two levels of backlighting are nice too.
Windows Hello
Has it. Windows Hello has become a lot more common on relatively new Windows laptops. Most laptops which are not flagships offer either a fingerprint unlock option or facial recognition, but not both. This Inspiron is no exception. There is a fingerprint reader of the power button which is fairly responsive. I like it. It is a definite upgrade from having to enter my password every time I wanted to sign in on my last laptop and a much faster way to enter. There are times when the fingerprint fails to recognize my finger, but that is usually because of my placement or because my fingers are a little dirty. Luckily, it is easy to register multiple fingers. There have been very few times were the fingerprint reader failed so many times that my pin was required to enter. Overall, pretty good.
Verdict
I could probably continue talking about more pros and cons of the laptop, but I think that would just bore you guys (and I'm a little tired to be frank). So, my final thoughts are this is a pretty good laptop for the price I got it at, but definitely not worth it's original selling price of about a 1000 CAD (there are much better HP Envys and other laptops at that price). The standout advantages of the laptop are the very fast SSD, the light weight / portability, and Dell's customer support. Some of the main disadvantages are the somewhat poor build quality, the potential overheating (or loud fan) issues, and the weak battery life. If you would like to check out the video review I did, here it is below.
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