Dell refreshes the Inspiron 13/14/15 models with Tiger Lake-H CPUs and Nvidia MX450 dGPUs

Dell is updating the 13-inch, 14-inch and 15-inch Inspiron laptops with the latest Intel Tiger Lake-H and improved discrete graphics from Nvidia. The 2021 models also come with quite the assortment of RAM and storage options.

The CPU options offered by Dell this year replace the i5 and i7 Tiger Lake-U models with the new i5-11300H and i7-11370H, respectively. However, the base i3 options are still Tiger Lake-U, with the 14-inch (5410) and 15-inch (5510) models getting the i3-1115G4 processor, while the 13-inch model gets the slightly faster i3-1125G4.

On the RAM side, the 13-incher (5310) is restricted by the soldered LPDDR4x chips with 8 or 16 GB capacities. The larger models are more generous in this regard, as they include dual RAM slots that can be upgraded and capacities go up to 32 GB of DDR4-3200. Still, the 13-inch model does get to shine in the storage department since it is the only one to offer NVMe SSDs with capacities up to  2 TB plus Intel Optane Memory H20 modules with 32 GB and up to 1 TB of SSD storage. The larger models only offer up to 1 TB NVMe SSDs (dual SSD option on the 15-incher) but no Optane modules.

Graphics options are the same across all three sizes. In this respect, the models equipped with an i3 processor benefit only from the integrated UHD graphics, while those packing i5 and i7 processors get access to the more powerful Iris Xe iGPU plus the option to add the Nvidia GeForce MX450 dGPU. Apart from the obvious size difference, the displays on the 13-inch models are the only ones featuring the 16:10 aspect ratio with FHD+ and QHD+ resolutions, whereas the larger models get 1080p panels.

The port selection on the 13-inch models comes with 2x Thunderbolt 4 fully functional connectors, 1x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, an HDMI video out and a combo audio jack. Surprisingly enough, the 14-inch and 15-inch models get just one Thunderbolt 4.0 connector that is found only on the i7 configurations, while the i3/i5 configurations include a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2X2 instead, but at least they also include 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports plus an SD card reader.

Other standard features across all sizes include Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, an HD webcam with shutter slider, fingerprint reader, and 54 Wh batteries (64 option on the 13-inch only). A fully equipped 13-inch model weighs 2.78 lbs and is 0.55-inch thin, while the 14-inch has a 0.67-inch profile with 3.22 starting weight, and the 15-inch model 0.57-inch thick and weighs at least 3.6 lbs.

All sizes feature a US$549.99 starting price, but availability is somewhat different. Thus, U.S. retailers will be able to start selling the Inspiron 13 as soon as April 12, while the 14-inch and 15-inch models will be available starting with May 4.

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