Face Off: Dell Inspiron 15 5558 vs. Lenovo Z51 70 vs. Acer Aspire V3 574G

Unlike the costlier Latitude series, the Inspiron 15 is plastic from top to bottom. The matte finishing and rubberized palm rests are a stark contrast to the shiny brushed aluminum designs on many Ultabooks. As for quality, the notebook is weakest on the center of the keyboard and outer lid where surfaces can be more easily depressed. However, these are common weak spots for notebooks. We can observe no manufacturing defects or creaking on our test model.

The Lenovo and Acer both utilize a combination of aluminum for both the palm rests and outer lid and plastic for everything else including the bezels and undersides. This doesn't mean that quality is any better than the Dell, however, as it is still possible to twist the base of the two notebooks. In Lenovo's case, creaking noises can be heard if attempting to twist its base. We can notice more uneven gaps on the Acer in particular, which suggests a less-than-perfect manufacturing. The lids of both the Acer and Lenovo are more susceptible to twists than the Dell.

While the quality of the Inspiron isn't perfect, it's still a couple steps ahead of the Z51 and Aspire V3. The fact that the Dell notebook also happens to be thinner, smaller, and lighter than the other two only adds insult to injury for Lenovo and Acer.

Winner: Dell Inspiron 15

Physical ports are nearly identical between the notebooks with one or two key exceptions. The Inspiron quickly loses this round for having less USB 3.0 ports, no VGA, and only a Fast Ethernet (10/100 mbps) RJ-45 port.

The Z51 and Aspire V3 have almost identical port placement. The slight advantage, however, goes to Acer for its 2.5-inch SATA III bay compared to the M.2 slot in the Z51. Upgrading a standard 2.5-inch drive is considerably cheaper at the cost of size and weight. In our particular case, opening the maintenance panel for the Lenovo unfortunately requires breaking the warranty seal as well.

Winner: Acer Aspire V3

The GeForce 920M in the Dell is slower than both the Radeon R9 M375 and GeForce 940M by wide margins. The M375 and 940M are both mid-range GPUs compared to the entry-level 920M, so users can expect 15 to 50 percent slower graphics performance out of the Dell depending on the 3DMark benchmark.

Meanwhile, the M375 and 940M trade blows fairly well in the same benchmarks. The Lenovo and Acer should theoretically provide nearly the same GPU performance levels.

Results from the synthetic benchmarks translate well into real-world gaming performance. The GeForce 920M is consistently pumping out 20 to 40 percent fewer frames per second than both the M375 and 940M. The 940M tends to perform better at lower resolution settings than the M375, though the performance advantages shrink when running on higher graphical settings.

See our dedicated GPU pages on the GeForce 920M, Radeon R9 M375, and GeForce 940M for more comparisons and benchmarks.

System Noise & Temperature

The systems fans in both the Acer and Dell never idle, but are thankfully at low enough speeds where fan noise is not an issue during daily loads. The Lenovo is the quieter notebook out of the three and stays well below 40 dB(A) is most cases. Its fan becomes inactive during low processing loads for silent operation. Nonetheless, we can notice no humming or abnormal noises from any of the notebooks.

Surface temperatures are highest on the Acer and lowest on the Dell with the Lenovo sitting comfortably between them. The low-power GeForce 920M and higher fan noise in the Dell may partly explain its cooler temperatures compared to the more graphically powerful Z51 and Aspire V3. Expect one side of the keyboard to always be warmer than the other when gaming.

Winner: System Noise -- Lenovo Z51

              Temperature -- Dell Inspiron 15

The Inspiron takes this round without much of a fight due to its higher capacity, longer runtimes, and replaceable battery. Under similar WLAN conditions, our test model can outlast the Lenovo and Acer by up to 50 minutes. Battery replacement on these two competing models is inconvenient as the maintenance panel must first be removed.

Winner: Dell Inspiron 15

See more quick comparisons in our Face Off series:

• Dell XPS 15 vs. Apple MacBook Pro 15 vs. Asus ZenBook Pro UX501
• Aorus X3 Plus vs. Gigabyte P34W vs. Razer Blade 14
• Dell XPS 13 vs. Apple MacBook Pro 13 vs. Asus ZenBook UX305
• HP EliteBook 820 G2 vs. Lenovo ThinkPad X250 vs. Dell Latitude 12 E7250
• Asus ROG G751 vs. Dell Alienware 17 vs. MSI GT72 Dominator
• Lenovo ThinkPad T450 vs. Acer TravelMate P645 vs. Dell Latitude 14 E5450
• Dell Alienware 15 vs. Clevo P751ZM vs. MSI GE62
• Acer Aspire V17 Nitro vs. Asus N751 vs. HP Envy 17
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 vs. Sony Xperia Z3 Compact vs. Dell Venue 8 7000
• Asus EeeBook X205TA vs. Lenovo S20 vs. Acer Aspire ES1
• Microsoft Surface Pro 3 vs. Asus Transformer Book T300 Chi vs. Toshiba Portege Z20t
• Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E550 vs. Acer Aspire E5 vs. HP ProBook 450 G2
• HP Pavilion 15 vs. Lenovo IdeaPad Z50 vs. Toshiba Satellite S50
• Apple MacBook Air 13 2015 vs. Samsung ATIV Book 9 900X3G vs. Asus ZenBook UX303
• Asus ROG G501 vs. Lenovo Y50 vs. Acer Aspire V15 Nitro
• OnePlus 2 vs. Honor 6 Plus vs. Motorola Moto X Play
• Lenovo Yoga 500 vs. Dell Inspiron 15 7000 vs. Toshiba Satellite Radius 15
• Apple iPhone 6S Plus vs. Huawei Mate S vs. LG G4