Best Dell Laptops of 2015

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Best Dell Laptops of 2015

1. Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 (3147)

The Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 lasted 8 hours 24 minutes on our battery rundown test. For comparison, the Asus Transformer Book T100TA (64GB, k) £257.00 at Amazon, our Editors' Choice for entry-level, detachable-hybrid tablets, lasted 11:20, but the Lenovo Yoga 2 11 only managed 6:53. The Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 will get you through a typical work day, and its battery life is exceptional for a convertible-hybrid laptop.

The Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 (3147) proves that you don't have to endure a stripped-down laptop when you only have $450 to spend. It combines a well-designed flipping hinge with all-day battery life and a relatively full feature set. All this earns the Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 our first Editors' Choice for entry-level, convertible-hybrid laptops.

Design and Features

The compact Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 is built around an 11.6-inch, 1,366-by-768 resolution, 10-point touch screen. The laptop chassis measures about 0.83 by 12 by 8 inches (HWD), and weighs a relatively light 2.99 pounds. That's smaller and about a quarter-pound lighter than the HP Pavilion 11t-n000 x360, but a smidge heavier and larger than the Lenovo Yoga 2 11$464.00 at Amazon. It feels fine in the hand, and is balanced for one-handed use in slate-tablet mode. The system will fit fine in most commuter bags, including messenger bags and backpacks made to hold full-size tablets and compact laptops.

The In-Plane Switching (IPS) screen is bright and clear, but you'll have to disable the somewhat aggressive screen dimming. Thankfully, the dimming isn't as dark as it is on the business-oriented Dell Venue 11 Pro (7139) tablet, since you can still see what's on the screen in a typically lit room. The 1,366-by-768 resolution is common for sub-$500 laptops and is capable of displaying 720p HD videos at full resolution, but 1080p HD videos will have to be scaled down. Screen taps and swipes register quickly, and there is a multipoint touchpad below the full-size keyboard. Key fnjeel is average for a compact laptop, but there's a hint of keyboard flex.

Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 (3147)

You can flip the screen around into four modes: Laptop, Stand, Tablet, and Tent. Laptop and Tablet modes are exactly what you think they are. Stand mode has the screen facing you with the keyboard upside down on the table, while Tent mode has the screen facing you with the keyboard facing up and away from you. With both Stand and Tent mode, you use the touch screen without access to the physical keyboard, but Tent mode may work better when you have limited desk space, like when you're working on an airplane tray table.

Though the chassis is slim, it has a good selection of I/O ports, including an HDMI port, an SD card reader, two USB 2.0 ports, and a USB 3.0 port. Note that the USB ports are all the same black color, so you'll have to figure out which one is the USB 3.0 port by searching for the tiny USB SS icon (hint, it's on the left, next to the HDMI port). The full-size HDMI port is more convenient than the micro-HDMI port you get with the Lenovo Yoga 2 11.

The system comes with 4GB of memory and a 500GB hard drive. The hard drive is slower than the flash memory or solid-state-drives (SSDs) found in slate tablets, but there's a lot more space for your files. While very few users will do so, Dell offers instructions on how to replace the hard drive and memory with a speedier SSD or higher-capacity memory, respectively. The hard drive has lots of free space on it, and the Start screen has relatively few pre-loaded apps: Adobe Revel (for photo sharing), Amazon, Dell Shop, Dropbox, eBay, Kindle, Office Trial, OneNote, and Pocket Cloud. The system comes with a one-year warranty.

What is Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 (3147)?-Video

Performance

The Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1's components include a 2.16GHz Intel Pentium N3530 quad-core processor with Intel HD Graphics, built on the Bay Trail-M platform. The system managed a passable 1,712 points on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test, which measures performance while working on office documents, video conferencing, and Web browsing. We don't have a lot of comparison PCMark 8 scores yet, but the Dell system's score is higher than the 1,576 points earned by the Atom-equipped Acer Aspire Switch 10$279.00 at Amazon.

It also did comparatively well on the multimedia tests: 5 minutes 54 seconds on the Handbrake video encoding test and 12:35 on the Adobe Photoshop CS6 test. While these scores can't hold a candle to those of ultrabooks with Core i5 processors, they are better than the scores we've seen on other systems with Atom, Celeron, and Pentium CPUs.

The 3D scores were par for the category: single-digit frame rates that show the system is better suited for casual games. The Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 has good speed for an entry-level system, and will be sufficient for day-to-day general use.

The Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 lasted 8 hours 24 minutes on our battery rundown test. For comparison, the Asus Transformer Book T100TA (64GB)£279.95 at Amazon, our Editors' Choice for entry-level, detachable-hybrid tablets, lasted 11:20, but the Lenovo Yoga 2 11 only managed 6:53. The Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 will get you through a typical work day, and its battery life is exceptional for a convertible-hybrid laptop.

The Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 (3147) proves that you don't have to endure a stripped-down laptop when you only have $450 to spend. It combines a well-designed flipping hinge with all-day battery life and a relatively full feature set. All this earns the Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 our first Editors' Choice for entry-level, convertible-hybrid laptops.

2. Dell Latitude 13 Education Series (3340)

Design and Features

The laptop measures 1.4 by 13 by 10 inches (HWD). A rubberized coating around the screen and bottom lid protects the system from the scrapes and dings that students can dish out. The coating also helps you grip the case when rushing from class, to the library, and back home. The chiclet-style keyboard and touchpad are fully sealed against accidental spills. Corning Gorilla Glass NBT covers the 13.3-inch 1,366-by-768 resolution touch screen, protecting the LCD panel from scratches and impacts.

Our review unit has a touch screen and Windows 8, but is only available in black. There is also a non-touch-screen version available with Windows 7, and that can be ordered with red or blue borders around the standard black body. The system weighs 4.28 pounds, which is imperceptibly lighter than our Editors' Choice for small business laptops, the 4.44-pound Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E431$609.99 at Adorama and within a hair of our Editors' Choice for entry-level ultrabooks, the 4.2 pound Lenovo IdeaPad U430 Touch.

The LCD screen has an anti-glare coating to increase readability in bright classrooms or outdoors. Its 1,366-by-768 resolution display is much tighter than more expensive systems with 1,920-by-1,080 resolution (1080p HD), but still adequate. In any case, students are unlikely to be working on multi-page spreadsheets or professional-grade photo editing, where a 1080p HD screen would start to make more sense. Since these systems are designed for classroom use, an innovative network status light on the top of the lid lets teachers and parents know if the system is using the 802.11ac Wi-Fi or Ethernet.

The Latitude 13 Education Series has a robust, forward-looking set of I/O ports, including a Gigabit Ethernet port, an HDMI port, a mini DisplayPort, an SD card reader, a security lock port, and two USB 3.0 ports. This is an improvement over our previous Editors' Choice for entry-level desktop replacements, the Dell Inspiron 14R-5437$799.99 at Dell, which lacks mini DisplayPort and has a USB 2.0 port instead of a second USB 3.0 port.

The system we tested has an Intel Core i3-4005U processor, 4GB of memory, a 500GB hard drive, and Windows 8 Pro. Other configurations on Dell's website come with options for Intel Celeron and Core i5 processors. Schools have a wider choice of options, like mobile broadband and solid-state drives, but those are off the table for parents just buying one laptop. Thanks to the Latitude 13's educational focus, there is no bloatware or preloaded software, aside from Windows 8.1. The system comes with a one-year warranty that can be extended up to five years for $350.

What is Dell Latitude 13 Education?-Video

Performance

Dell Latitude 13 Education Series (3340) The Latitude 13 Education scored a very good 2,268 points on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test, which tests the system on everyday tasks, including navigating the Web, video conferencing, and office tasks like word processing and spreadsheets. This is competitive with the Dell Venue Pro 11 (7139)$1,141.43 at Dell tablet (2,407 points) with its Intel Core i5-4300Y processor. The Latitude 13 Education bumped into its limits on the Adobe Photoshop CS6 test, taking a leisurely 11 minutes, ten seconds to complete the 11-step test. The Dell Inspiron 14R-5437 was a smidge quicker, but the Lenovo U430 Touch (6:13) and Lenovo Edge E431 (5:38) took almost half the time, showing that their Core i5 processors are better suited for heavier workloads and multimedia tasks.

This is an all-day laptop, lasting an excellent 10 hours 17 minutes on our battery rundown test. The Dell 14R-5437 was closest at just under 10 hours (9:46). To add to the appeal, the Latitude 13 Education has a removable 65-watt battery, which can be replaced when it stops holding a charge. This is a nice alternative to the sealed ultrabooks like the IdeaPad U430 Touch.

The Dell Latitude 13 Education Series should certainly be on your short list when shopping for a moderately priced laptop for your K-12 student. Other systems may have faster processors or more memory, but the Latitude 13 Education has a ten-hour battery life and is designed to be a durable companion for the next few years (and then some). It's our new Editors' Choice for entry-level desktop replacement laptops.

3. Dell Latitude 14 Rugged Extreme

Design and Features

When all of the latches and doors are buttoned up, there is no chance for dust, snow, water, or even inadvertent prods from steel tools to get lodged in the system's I/O ports. Each port door has a two-step latch: a sliding lock, which doesn't have to be held to disengage, and a pull latch, which does. These doors hide a plethora of ports, including a DVD burner, two Ethernet ports, an ExpressCard reader, an HDMI port, a power connector, an SD card reader, two serial ports, a Smart Card reader, two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, and a VGA port. Doors also allow access to the system's modular SSD/hard drive bay and battery bay. This means that you could swap out your drive and pass the laptop on to a colleague to use with their own modular drive. Built-in 4G LTE with GPS and a larger 512GB SSD are?available as options for about $1,000 more than the configuration we tested.

A docking device connector on the bottom of the chassis is compatible with a desk dock or one mounted in a vehicle. The new dock isn't compatible with Dell's older ATG and XFR laptops, but works with the semi-rugged Dell Latitude 14 Rugged and fully ruggedized Latitude 12 Rugged Extreme laptop lines. A sturdy handle on the leading edge of the laptop lets you grab the system off the ground while you're accelerating to a full sprint, or retrieve it from a vehicle in a second. There's an NFC reader under the palm rest and a biometric reader for secure computing. A compact stylus sits in its own compartment, attached to the system with a lanyard.

What is Dell Latitude 14 Rugged Extreme?-Video

The 14-inch 1,366-by-768 touch screen may seem to have a low resolution in this day and age, but it is a unique panel for a variety of reasons. Software used in the fire, military, and police fields is designed for quick information retrieval, so it's unlikely that a soldier under fire will need a 1080p screen to look at multipage spreadsheets. Rather, they will likely be using a simple touch-based interface to read weather reports or route communications. To that end, the touch screen uses resistive single-point touch functionality, so you can interact with it even with a gloved hand. Capacitive multitouch screens, on the other hand, require specialized gloves with metal woven into the fingertips.

The screen acts like a single button mouse: You can click and drag, but you can't pinch to zoom or right-click. The Windows operating system treats the display like a mouse as well. The System Control Panel doesn't recognize it as a touch device (which has to have at least five points of touch for Windows 8 to acknowledge it). The rugged touchpad is also a single-touch device, with two physical mouse buttons for clicks. The tech isn't all vintage, though. The screen has full daylight visibility, which is important when you're using it outdoors the majority of the time.

The Latitude 14 Rugged Extreme is fully certified and tested to meet IP65 and MIL-STD-810G standards, which govern durability. The IP65 certification essentially means that the system is impervious to dust and particle intrusion, as well as water spraying at the closed port doors and exposed portions of the laptop. The MIL-STD-801G certification ensures that the system can survive drops, outdoor environmental effects, temperature swings, and severe vibration from riding in vehicles on rough terrain. It's not indestructible, but it's more likely to survive a battlefield environment than laptops like the Dell Precision M2800$1,610.30 at Dell or the HP EliteBook Folio 1040 G1 (G4U67UT)$1,504.57 at Amazon. Drops, kicks, and vibrations from vehicles are unlikely to damage the system beyond cosmetic scratches. The system comes with a three-year warranty.

Design and Features

The Latitude 14 Rugged Extreme$4,705.75 at Dell is sturdily built for soldiers on the battlefield and other active users, like police and fire departments. The tank-like construction is similar to the Dell Latitude E6420 XFR, though this is a newer chassis. It is a fully ruggedized laptop, and meant to survive harsher environments than the semi-rugged Dell Latitude E6430 ATG$3,655.75 at Dell. Its chassis measures a beefy 9.75 by 14 by 2 inches (HWD) and weighs 8.39 pounds.

A docking device connector on the bottom of the chassis is compatible with a desk dock or one mounted in a vehicle. The new dock isn't compatible with Dell's older ATG and XFR laptops, but works with the semi-rugged Dell Latitude 14 Rugged and fully ruggedized Latitude 12 Rugged Extreme laptop lines. A sturdy handle on the leading edge of the laptop lets you grab the system off the ground while you're accelerating to a full sprint, or retrieve it from a vehicle in a second. There's an NFC reader under the palm rest and a biometric reader for secure computing. A compact stylus sits in its own compartment, attached to the system with a lanyard.

The 14-inch 1,366-by-768 touch screen may seem to have a low resolution in this day and age, but it is a unique panel for a variety of reasons. Software used in the fire, military, and police fields is designed for quick information retrieval, so it's unlikely that a soldier under fire will need a 1080p screen to look at multipage spreadsheets. Rather, they will likely be using a simple touch-based interface to read weather reports or route communications. To that end, the touch screen uses resistive single-point touch functionality, so you can interact with it even with a gloved hand. Capacitive multitouch screens, on the other hand, require specialized gloves with metal woven into the fingertips.

Dell Latitude 14 Rugged Extreme

The screen acts like a single button mouse: You can click and drag, but you can't pinch to zoom or right-click. The Windows operating system treats the display like a mouse as well. The System Control Panel doesn't recognize it as a touch device (which has to have at least five points of touch for Windows 8 to acknowledge it). The rugged touch pad is also a single-touch device, with two physical mouse buttons for clicks. The tech isn't all vintage, though. The screen has full daylight visibility, which is important when you're using it outdoors the majority of the time.

Performance

Our review unit comes with a 1.9GHz Intel Core i5-4300U processor and Nvidia GeForce GT 720M graphics. The components are several generations newer than those on the previously tested rugged laptops like the Dell Latitude E6420 XFR and the Panasonic Toughbook CF-31$2,982.00 at Amazon, so we can't directly compare performance to the older systems, but we can compare laptops with similar parts. The Latitude 14 Rugged Extreme received a very good score of 3,136 points on the PCMark Work Conventional test, almost on par with the Dell M2800 and much faster than the HP 1040 G1.

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Best Dell Laptops of 2015