Dell Inspiron 17-3721

Specifications

Price comparison

Reviews for the Dell Inspiron 17-3721

80% Dell Inspiron 17-3721
Source: IT Reviews Archive.org version
The Dell Inspiron 17-3721 is a great choice for many budget-minded users, especially those who want a much bigger screen than they can find on any standalone tablet. It has an attractive $450 price tag, and you don’t have to give up any performance for that relatively small purchase price. A large screen, good performance, nice price, and user-friendly features give the Dell Inspiron 17-3721 budget laptop a leg up on the competition.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 03/27/2013
Rating: Total score: 80%

80% Dell Inspiron 17-3721
Source: PC Mag Archive.org version
The Inspiron 17-3721 is great budget computing for the general PC user. It's a true home and student workhorse PC for about the same price as a tablet, which makes it attractive to users who need Windows program compatibility plus a real keyboard. Sure, the Inspiron 17 doesn't have a touch screen, but for less than $450, you won' miss it. The larger screen and full-size Ethernet port make it more usable in a household with older equipment (and users) than the former EC Acer Aspire V5-571-6891. Thus, the Dell Inspiron 17-3721 is our new Editors' Choice for budget laptops.
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 03/25/2013
Rating: Total score: 80%

80% Dell Inspiron 17-3721
Source: Techreview Source Archive.org version
The Dell Inspiron 17-3721 is a budget-priced Windows 8 laptop that offers an attractive 17-inch display, good performance and a comfortable keyboard. It does have below average graphics performance, but this isn't really meant to be a gaming notebook.
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 03/18/2013
Rating: Total score: 80%

Comment

Series:

The Dell Inspiron 17 5000 is a nice-looking desktop-replacement laptop that offers good productivity performance and decent battery life for a very affordable price. Dell’s Inspiron series used to aim at entry-level users who do not run resource-hungry applications, but the new Dell Inspiron aims to succeed with powerful and high-quality components. The notebook's lid is made of gunmetal-gray plastic with the Dell logo in silver. Lifting the lid reveals a 17.3-inch, 1920 × 1080 display surrounded by a thick bezel, an island-style keyboard, and a silver, plastic deck. At 6 pounds and 16.7 x 11 x 1 inches, the Inspiron is both larger and lighter than the competition. For example, the Dell Inspiron 17 7000 2-in-1 weighs 6.2 pounds and measures 16.2 x 10.9 x 0.9 inches. With its 1.2 millimeters of travel (1.5 to 2 mm is typical) and 74 grams of force required to press, the keyboard feels shallow. However, the 4.1 x 3.1-inch touchpad is nice and spacious and responds to Windows-10 gestures. A user can tap with three fingers to activate Cortana and swipe with ease with three fingers to show all open programs. The Inspiron 17 5000 appears to have a familiar Full-HD (1920 × 1080) IPS panel. As a result, the display has excellent viewing angles. It covers 94% of the sRGB color gamut, thus colors will appear vivid and vibrant. The display guarantees a pleasant multimedia experience thanks to the decent maximum brightness, wide sRGB coverage, high contrast ratio, and wide viewing angles.

As for the performance, the Dell Inspiron 17 5000 is equipped with an Intel Core i7-8550U, which is part of the new 8th-generation Kaby Lake Refresh family. With the latest alteration to the ULV (ultra-low voltage) processors, Intel doubles the core count from 2 to 4 and retains the so-called Hyper-Threading technology, keeping the same 14nm manufacturing process and the same 15W TDP. The chip also incorporates a newer Intel Gen-9.5 integrated graphics card called Intel UHD Graphics 620. For graphics, the laptop has an AMD Radeon 530, which is made for entry-level notebooks and can be used for general multimedia and light gaming. The memory setup consists of 4 GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 2250 MHz that is connected to the graphics processor using a 64-bit interface. For storage, it has a 1TB HDD and a 128GB SSD. The RAM installed in this laptop consists of 8 GB of DDR4 at 2400 MHz. Due to the limited 3-cell, 42Wh charge and rather demanding Full-HD 17.3-inch IPS display, the battery life is definitely not the best. Still, it should get users at least a couple of hours away from the plug. On the left side of the laptop, users will find the power jack, Ethernet, HDMI output, a pair of USB-3.0 ports and a headphone jack. On the right side are a DVD drive, a USB-2.0 port, an SD-card reader, and a Noble lock slot.

Hands-on article by Jagadisa Rajarathnam

Intel HD Graphics 4000: Processor graphics card in the high end Ivy Bridge models. Offers a different clock speed in the different CPU models (ULV to desktop quad core) and therefore a different performance.

Non demanding games should be playable with these graphics cards.

» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.

3227U: Ivy-Bridge-based ULV-CPU in Q1 2013. Offers a core clock of 1.9 GHz (no Turbo Boost) and an HD 4000 GPU (350 - 1100 MHz). The TDP is rated at 17 W.» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.

17.30": This display size is a standard format for desktop replacements (DTR). The DTR laptops are heavier to carry, need more power, but texts are easy to read and high resolutions are no problem. DTR are mainly intended for stationary desk use, where weight and energy hunger don't matter. In return, you enjoy the advantages of high resolutions (more details, better legibility).» To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.

2.6 kg:

With this weight, a laptop is rather heavier than average. Devices in this range shine more with screen size and performance than with mobility.

Dell: Dell is a U.S. manufacturer (based in Texas) of computer hardware founded in 1984 and is one of the largest international manufacturers in terms of both market share and notebook models. Its product line includes desktops, notebooks, storage systems, monitors, servers, printers, consumer electronics and peripherals. Dell offers laptops that are suitable for various applications, such as business laptops, gaming laptops, ultra portables and workstations. Dell's business laptops from the Latitude and Precision series are an option for professional users and businesses.

In 2023, Dell had an approximate 17% market share of global PC sales, ranking #3 after Lenovo and HP.

For gaming enthusiasts, Dell's Alienware brand is for gaming notebooks.

80%: This rating is not earth-shattering. This rating must actually be seen as average, since there are about as many devices with worse ratings as better ones. A purchase recommendation can only be seen with a lot of goodwill, unless it is about websites that generally rate strictly.

» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.

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