Dell Vostro 15 3568 (7200U, 256GB) Laptop Review

You are not doing any injustice to the Vostro by calling it a "plastic bomber." The casing is entirely black while the lid and the base unit have  a very tactile, rubbery, textured surface. On the one hand, it is not very susceptible to fingerprints, but on the other hand it is also not easy to clean after you have handled the device with very sweaty hands. The design is otherwise modest, and the only visual accent, if any, is the silver Dell logo on the back.

The base, which resists pressure to a large extent, can be twisted somewhat when using some force, producing some harmless sounding creaking noises. The quite thick lid is relatively solid. However, even slight pressure on the back causes some display distortions in front. While you cannot open the lid with one hand, it bounces for about two seconds after jarring it. For the (potentially) low price, the workmanship is quite decent. Even though the gaps are not always quite even, we noticed this only because we were looking for it. Overall, there are no complaints in terms of workmanship worth the mention.

Among our test devices, only the relatively expensive Asus VivoBook makes an effort in being light and compact. With a weight of just 1.6 kg (~3.5 lb), it is significantly lighter than the three competitors, which are not only similar in not being exactly compact, but also bringing between 2.2 and 2.4 kg (~4.85 - 5.3 lb) onto the scale.

The connectivity features are typical for an affordable office notebook. Of the three USB ports, one still works according to the 2.0 standard. VGA and HDMI are available, but Thunderbolt 3, DisplayPort, and USB Type-C are all missing. The positioning of the ports is likewise typical: apart from the Ethernet port, all of them are on both sides in the area towards the front, where they can easily interfere with plugged-in cables and sticks.

Those who frequently move large amounts of data such as a large number of photos from the storage card to the laptop might soon curse the Dell Votro 15 3568 due to its lame USB-2.0 speed. In contrast, the users of the Acer Aspire 3 will be pleased with their USB-3.0 speed which is about two-and-a-half times faster. And the Asus VivoBook proves that it can go even faster within the limits of the USB-2.0 specifications. But as we will see later, the test unit is not suitable for photo processing anyway

Dell has chosen a Qualcomm WLAN module with Bluetooth 4.1. Even though it can handle the current IEEE 802.11ac standard in the less frequented 5 GHz band, thanks to MIMO 1x1, it achieves a maximum gross data rate of "only" 433 MBit/s, thus sharing the fate of the Acer Aspire 3 module. On the other hand, the throughput in combination with our Linksys EA8500 reference router (1 meter/~3 ft distance) is okay. The slightly patchy values of the Asus and the Lenovo show what is possible with MIMO 2x2 (867 MBit/s max).

TPM 2.0 wherever you look. Apparently this feature, which is now  commonly found in more affordable office notebooks such as our test unit and even in gaming laptops, is not such a huge cost factor anymore. In any case, it cannot hurt. However, you will have to do without a fingerprint sensor to increase your ease of access and comfort, but no one expects it anyway. 

With notebooks as affordable as this, you will always find only the bare essentials such as a power supply, cable, quick-start and setup instructions, and warranty papers in the box.

Unfortunately a rarity nowadays, the battery of the Vostro 15 3568 can really be removed from the outside. For maintenance, you will have to take off the entire bottom plate, which is secured with nine conventional Philips screws and should not be much of a problem.

Dell offers a one-year warranty for the Vostro (collect and return). For a relatively low extra charge, you can increase the duration and extent of the service. In addition, the manufacturer's warranty of two years required by law with the reversal of the burden of proof after six month is also valid (Note that this applies only in Germany).

Please see our Guarantees, Return Policies and Warranties FAQ for country-specific information.

The Intel Core i5-7200U (2x 2.5 to 3.1 MHz, TDP 15 W) is an energy efficient ULV dual-core processor with Hyper-Threading from the current Kaby Lake generation, which like its direct predecessors can be found in numerous laptops, Ultrabooks, and convertibles of the office and multimedia types. The Turbo runs at 3.1 GHz even during load of both cores. A DDR4 storage controller and the Intel HD Graphics 620 GPU, which shares the main memory and the low TDP with the CPU, are integrated. The processor can handle the standard office software up to more demanding programs such as Adobe Photoshop and multimedia applications without any problems, but reaches its limits with software that would benefit from four or more physical cores, such as the current games. 

Even though the Asus VivoBook fares slightly better in Cinebench R15, we can attest the i5-7200U with the performance one would expect. The CPU cannot maintain the two-core Turbo for long, and already in the second run, the clock speed falls below 3.1 GHz from time to time, and the Cinebench score drops from 321 to about 315 points which corresponds to a minus of almost 2%. Away from the power grid, the core speed behavior does not change.

The fact that the Vostro is beaten by the ThinkPad by 7% to 9% in PCMark 8 can be traced back to a much faster NVMe SSD in the Lenovo. This explanation is not valid for the VivoBook, which is up to 12% faster and also has a relatively slow SSD. Instead, the higher Cinebench multicore score is probably relevant here, which points towards a much better Turbo usage of the i5-7200U in the Asus.

Even though there is a subjective difference to the much more expensive (gaming) notebooks with Quadcore, 16 GB of dual-channel RAM and NVMe-SSD, the operation of the Dell appears smooth. The OS and programs start without any delay worth mentioning, and the Vostro also handles some not too extensive multitasking (only 8 GB of RAM) without any problems.

We would like to spare the reader longer explanations on the well-known Intel HD 620 shared memory processor graphics here, pointing instead to our corresponding FAQ article on the GPU. The HD 620 handles all the 2D tasks that come up during office operation effortlessly and efficiently, and H.265/HEVC can now be decoded via hardware. As all the current Intel-HD graphics, the GPU benefits from fast dual-channel RAM, but the Vostro only uses one storage channel.

You can easily see the difference in the comparison with the only dual-channel competitor in the test in the form of the Asus VivoBook. Overall, the performance is within the expected limits and also remains constant in battery operation.

As you can see in the small table below, the Intel HD Graphics 620 completely fails in graphically demanding 3D games. In the visually not very demanding "Farming Simulator 17," in medium settings it still achieves 43 FPS, which corresponds to about the average for this GPU. Laptops where the same GPU can use dual-channel RAM manage up to 61 and 25 FPS, which does not make much of a difference though. The GPU has less problems with isometric games such as "Diablo III" or "StarCraft II," where in parts even high presets are displayed smoothly.

Frequency comparison (Checkboxes selectable!)

In the test comparison with the competitors that have a similar form format and are equipped with identical or similar core components, the Dell Vostro 15 3568 turns out to be the efficiency king in every single partial discipline. If we filter our database for 15-inchers with the i5-7200U, the test unit is also one of the most efficient laptops, at least in the load states from maximum idle to maximum load. That is great! The 45-watt power supply is equal to its task in any situation and offers sufficient reserves to charge the device on the side even under load. We have collected some tips on the right treatment of Lithium-Ion batteries in our special article on the subject.

In practice, the battery life of all the test candidates can be compared easily, since at 40 (test unit), 37, 42, and 42 Wh, the battery capacities of all the involved devices are very similar. Apparently, our Dell benefits from its low power consumption and lasts the longest overall, together with the Lenovo, while the Asus is clearly weaker. In the practically relevant WLAN test (how we test), the Vostro 15 3568 lasts a good 6 hours, and with this remains 13% behind the ThinkPad E570 which has a marginally larger battery.