Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming (7566) Short Review

This is the latest budget gaming laptop from Dell, the 7566.
I purchased the base model for ~AUD1180 after a 30% discount.

The specs:

• i5 6300HQ
• Intel HM170 Chipset
• 1x 8GB DDR4 2400 RAM (SK Hynix)
• NV GTX960M 4GB GDDR5
• 1TB 5400rpm HDD (Toshiba MQ01ABD100)
• 15.6in FHD TN Panel (Chi Mei CMN15C4)
• Intel Wireless-AC 3165 1x1 NIC

Externals

The laptop has a dark metallic silver exhaust covers instead silver in the photos so it looks much more agreeable.
The lid and sides uses a soft touch plastic which feels nice but scratches very easily.
The large single bottom panel allows access to everything but the heat sinks, similar to 7559, even the mobo outlay is very similar.
It doesn't have any status lights apart from the power button and caps lock key.
The whole laptop feels sturdy with very little flex on the lid, base or hinge.


Keyboard & Trackpad

The design of the laptop is such that front is angled forward so when the lid is open, the edges of the laptop are actually very "edgy" (I've circled it out in the photo). I've to take care to avoid the edge to not get poked on my forearm. In fact, the whole front end of the wrist rest feels uncomfortable to rest on because of the angular design. The wrist rest area is also raised up, to the level of the keys, which doesn't make sense when you have a shallow travel keyboard.
The combination of laptop chassis design and shallow keyboard makes an awful typing and gaming experience.

The trackpad surface is not completely smooth, which I prefer. I've no complains with the build-in mouse keys either, which are firm and quiet.

Display Panel

I've heard of the Inspiron 7559 Display Panel Lottery but this.
Behold, the infamous Chi Mei CMN15C4 used in the 2014 Lenovo Y50 that people were swapping out.
Some specs taken from the Notebookcheck review of the Y50 (with the same panel):
Brightness: ~220nits
Contrast: 315:1
AdobeRGB: 34%
sRGB: 49%
6-bit Panel

The viewing angles are extremely limited. ~20deg off from center on either axis and you'll be seeing deviations in colour and contrast.

It was considered a subpar panel back in 2014 and for Dell to reuse it in 2016 is unfathomable.


Cooling System

I was quite attracted to the newly redesigned cooling system that resembles the new Alienwares.
Protruding exhausts to isolate the heat plus dual fans and dual copper heat pipes.
If anything, they also resemble the Alienwares with their huge core imbalances.

System drivers and bios updated @ stock clocks, ambient temp @ 25C:

Prime95 (30mins): CPU 73/61/78/62

Prime95+Furmark (10mins): CPU 93/77/98/77 GPU 75

I stopped the Prime95+Furmark test because the system was throttling the power limit between ~22W and ~33W to keep the temps from exceeding 99C.

Some serious temperatures with equally bad core imbalances.
It looks like Dell/Alienware is having some major QC issues among their Quad core range.
Core imbalance is a major theme across the new Alienware 15 & 17.
The laptop needs to be disassembled completely to access the heat sinks so I didn't bother.


Conclusion

The rest of the laptop is very similar to the 7559, review by Ramzy
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/inspiron-7000-15-7559-quick-review.783284/
Decent 2.1 sound system, 8-10 battery life for light Wifi browsing, similar performance.

I'm not going to expand further because the negative qualities are way beyond what's acceptable for me.
There are inherent qualities about this laptop that cannot be solved by a replacement or repair so I'm sending it back for a refund.

I frankly cannot recommend this laptop to anyone.

If you're looking for a budget gaming laptop, you should either wait for the GTX 1050 to come out, which should replace the 960M range of laptops, or grab one of the 960M laptops on clearance if you need one now.