New Dell Inspiron 14 7000 / 7437

Bummer!
Mine is also an i7 14 and has been shipped through FedEx overnight so I'm getting it tomorrow. I will check this out as soon as possible.

 

Can anyone comment on the buttons (Ieft click right click) on the touch pad? I am used to a laptop with physical left click right click buttons and I'm curious about how those work/feel.

 

It has a physical click, but it is one button that tilts to the left or right when you click it. I keep messing up with it, but I haven't used a laptop in several years so right now I'm just chalking it up to me not being used to it.

 

Just got my 14 i7 after waiting for ten days. A few complaints:

1) There's a damn scratch on my keyboard for which I have to return this laptop. Can't stand it!!!!
2) It's kinda hard to plug in the power adapter but it is very light.
3) The keyboard kinda sinks when you press it hard.
4) The keyboard has a relatively short travel so it will take some time to adapt to it. However overall not a bad typing experience.
5) Though it's a 14 inch screen, the wide black surrounding of the screen makes it look smaller.
6) The touchpad is the biggest drawback. Yes it is big but it is also a) hard to press b) hard to track (with some sweat things get better tho). I'm gonna stick to my wireless mouse all the time because I feel like getting used to the touchpad is gonna take a long time.

Overall a good machine with amazing fHD screen (I can read content of the screen from almost any angle. Doubt if it's TN because I feel it might be IPS), light weight, modern design, satisfactory sound(cannot compared with XPS with JBL for sure but this is almost an ultrabook), generally good quality.

 

So has anyone confirmed that a 7mm drive will not fit in their 14" unit? Thanks in advance.

 

Yes, it would be great if somebody would take a look inside of the hdd compartment. For that matter, where is the hdd compartment on the 14 7000?

A picture would be great.

 

Ultra Mobile HDD: 500GB Tablet Storage | Seagate
ST500LT035

 

I am actually pleasantly surprised at how fast the computer boots with the 5400 RPM drive. I am not sure if it is Windows 8 or if it is actually the hardware, but my 14" i7 model can do a complete cold boot in less than 25 seconds. Because of this I am definitely waiting for a good mSata deal (maybe Black Friday) before getting one. Really everything loads very quickly except for loading my games like Dota 2.

 

Also I found all the ports very tight (not only the adapter port but also USB and earphone). There is also noticeable ground noise when I use the in-ear earphone compared with my previous laptop. Anyone with similar issues?

 

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Order placed on: October 18, estimate arrival before Oct. 31
( the i7, 8gb model)

Also, placed order on Amazon for a mSata ssd 256gb Plextor PX-256M5M. I want original hdd as 2nd storage for media files, or take it out to save weight and battery time (no spin), probably make a good difference, I can put it back any time. Either way, I don't see any point buying regular-size ssd for ultrabook with msata.

I think I may find a few issues clone / migrating original hdd to ssd (msata), I also need a msata adaptor... anyways, pictures will be posted here.

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You should be able to clone the HDD to the mSata by installing the mSata before removing your HDD from the laptop. Also, I think you'd be surprised on how light the hdd is, so to me it isn't worth it to remove it. The hard drive in the 14" weighs 3.25 ounces and only uses 1.7 watts. To me that is so insignificant that it is definitely worth keep in the laptop for extra storage.

 

I used Aconis 2013 to clone a win 8 hdd to a ssd without any issues. MIght as well leave the OS on the hdd as a backup and then set mSata as the boot drive in the bios. Just how tough a job is it to install a mSata in the 14 inch 7000? The manual sounds like a learning curve if you haven't done laptop surgery before. Maybe, eventually someone will make a video on how to do it for thoses of us scared to kill a perfectly running laptop.

 

What SSD did you end up using? Not mSata? 7mm? 5mm?

Folks you need to give us more detail in your posts.

 

Or you need to read better. You cannot fit a 7mm hdd/ssd in the 14" inspiron 7000, it has to be an ultra-rare and expensive 5mm. You also can add a 2nd drive at the mSata slot, which is reasonably priced, but it looks difficult to access.

 

I won't have the 14 7000 until early nest week. I was talking about how to cone a win 8 hdd to a ssd.

I've ordered an $8 2.5 inch mSata adapter card which will be here next week also. Maybe it will fit into the 5 mm drive bay on the laptop. If it does, I'll order a msata drive and replace the hdd drive for the time being with the adapter setup until I get the nerve up to tear into the laptop and install the msata on the motherboard.

 

Received laptop 2 days ago, build and screen is good but has lot of light bleed.Trackpad is horrible. But I have strange problem, installed win 8.1 , laptop goes to sleep mode after 5 min of non activity but never comesback, I have to hard reboot to it every time it goes to sleep, but it works okay if I put it to sleep manually or by just closing the lid, Dell tech support said they can't fix it, so I have to return it, is it just me or same with all laptops?

 

I also have light bleeding, but it's only noticeable during the boot up screen with the Dell logo. I don't see it during normal use, so it doesn't warrant a return. I haven't noticed any problems with the track pad. Half the time I'm using the touch screen.

 

I was told that it would ship with Win 8.1.

 

Good point, using a msata to (std) sata adaptor /enclosure (2.5") could work. The problem is again that I found none with 5 mm height (the enclosure). Even if there's one, it could be problematic having msata ssd inside the enclosure running in extended time due to the ssd's heat not being cooled properly.

I got an update from Dell, mine the new delivery date is changed from Oct 31 to Nov 7 I could only think it's shipped with new Win 8.1... it better be.

And I hope, by the time I set it up, Dell would have already solved a few driver issues on this laptop with the new Win 8.1 (auto sleep issue might be related)

 

I Received mine October 15. I also upgraded to Windows 8.1 and having the exact same issue. I call dell and we troubleshoot on the phone for over two hours. They checked everything and decided that they will have to replace the motherboard. They are sending a technician to my house by next week as soon as the technician receive the parts. Apparently the laptop came with a 3 months in house service after remote diagnostics.

Other than that I really like the laptop. Design and construction is very solid. Screen looks sharp and nice. Except for the light leak at the bottom of the screen at start up. IT's not really noisy and doesn't heat up much while in usage. I've been getting about 5 to 6 hour battery life with normal usage.

The Dell technician told me that memory is not upgradable. The memory is soldered to the motherboard. SO I will pass on trying to upgrade that one.

Open the computer and the hard drive in mine is a 2.5" Seagate ST500LT032. it is a 5mm. Hard to find a 5mm SSD without paying through the roof. I'm probably going to get a 32 - 64GB mSATA cache SSD (Caching to speed up the computer) or a 128 GB mSATA SSD to put in the mSATA port (Booting drive) depending which process is easier.
Overall I really like the computer. It is not slow at all with the original drive.

 

"They checked everything and decided that they will have to replace the motherboard."

That doesn't make any sense if it didn't do it before upgrading to 8.1. My new Asus Haswell desktop system didn't like the 8.1 upgrade at all it. It froze at the logon screen. I ended up doing a fresh install and then upgraded it to 8.1. I'm still testing it. We'll see.

"It is not slow at all with the original drive"

The review that I read on the flat seagate put it in the middle of the pack against other 2.5 inch hdds.

If they come by and replace the motherboard for you that would be a perfect time to install your mSata. If you do, I would like to hear how it went and how you did it.

 

I had the same problem after upgrading to Windows 8.1. If the display goes black, it won't come back. Half the time the machine is actually still running so if your power button is linked to "power down" and not "sleep" you can shut down cleaning assuming nothing stops the power down process. Which is never, right?

Luckily Intel has already got new drivers available that fix it, surprised Dell doesn't know that:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/De...graphics+driver&DownloadType=Drivers&lang=eng

Intel: Our graphics drivers haven't improved since 2003! I am a former game developer so I have a bit of a grudge about Intel EXTREME graphics. Back when they had 1/100th the performance of discrete GPUs their drivers would take all kinds of shortcuts to get peak performance while rendering an unusable image, leading to hundreds of hours of wasted development to work around them.

 

Exact sam thing happened to me, tech support troubleshoot for 2 hrs but he decided it is some drive issue and they don't have fix for it now. So asked me return it.

 

WOW, looks like this fixed it, Thanks a lot, you saved lot of time and hassle.

 

Don't return it. The new driver put out by Intel fixed the problem.
Just downloaded it from the Intel website extracted the file and it worked perfectly.
Awesome...Now do I Call dell to cancel the In Home service or what?
Thanks CapnBry for the tips and the link to the Graphic Driver

 

Just an FYI for those of you waiting for your order, I ordered the i7 version on 10/14 and it was expected to be delivered by 10/30. I have NOT received an e-mail yet but I just checked the status online and it's showing that it was shipped today (10/21) with 2 day shipping. Mine will be here about a week ahead of schedule. For those of you waiting chances are it won't be as long as it says if you ordered shortly after me.

 

The 2.5 inch sata to msata adapter arrived today from Hong Kong. Its dimensions are 95 X 65 X 5 LWH so it might work if the msata doesn't stick up too much above the socket. My 14 7000 is arriving tomorrow so I'll know more once I look at the hdd compartment.

 

Yeah I got notification today that my i7 model will be arriving a week early too.

 

No Win 8.1 on the one that I recieved today.

 

Please let us know if anyone did successful clean install. Procedure you followed and the drivers we need to install. Thanks.

 

Can anyone review the multimedia performance of this laptop? 1080p video and a few touches in photoshop? What about the boot up time? And, Dell is offering this with an mSata 32GB SSD in Singapore!

I'm in dilemma over the 15" (with GPU) version and the 14" (i5) version. I wont be needing more than 6GB of RAM. Advice, anybody?

 

Fresh install to a blank SSD without the hard drive installed. Could *not* install with Win8 enterprise install, Win8 full retail, Win8 OEM. All of these said my product key was invalid. I could install from a friend's Dell backup media USB key, for an older XPS 15 with Win8. I believe you can make your own install media from the Dell Backup utility but it required 12 gigs and the largest USB keys I have are 8. Would not backup to an external hard drive.

Once installed I used the drivers backup USB key to install any devices showing as "Unknown device". You can also use the original hard drive for this at this point, as it has a drivers directory. I also needed to install: Symantec Touchpad, Intel Display Driver.

 

It plays 1080p youtube content at 10% cpu fullscreen, 1080p mkv at 5-10% CPU (DXVA) or 15%-20% CPU with no acceleration. Boot time with my SSD is under 10 seconds. I don't know what a touch in photoshop is but this isn't a celeron from 5 years ago so I don't think it will have a hard time applying a stroke to impact font to make an image macro.

 

The first official review is out.
Dell Inspiron 14 7000 Review | Mainstream Laptop Reviews
It is a decent laptop. Build quality is excellent except for the shallow keyboard and the lack of SSD option in my opinion

 

laptop looks perfect except that bezel. thats a BIg no no for me... Especially the bottom edge. It's like 2 inches thick.

What were they THINKING???

 

Okay, that looks decent. I read the manual and the procedure to add an mSATA card. How safe is that? I do have some good amount of experience in such stuff.

 

I agree with the reviewer build quality and screen is exceptional at this price range, but I am not sure about brightness, my system is set to half the brightness, still it is too bright form me, not sure why they are thinking it is not enough.

 

Yeah, my screen is extremely bright compared to others I have seen as well. Really this is one of the best screens I have seen on a 14 inch laptop ever. Very bright, very good colors, and 1080p.

 

I am looking for some insight from the owners. I will be doing the usual browsing, watching mkv, coding and occasionally some light photoshop. I don't intend to write full programs or do intensive graphics on this machine, I have a workstation desktop for that. After reading everything I could find about this 14" I have few questions.
- Hows the heat/fan in real world use? Reviews say something like "well below our threshold" which is fine but is it distributed nicely? Does the keyboard get hot? I have used macbook pros and yeah its sexy but it burns my lap like bacon
- The 1080p screen is what I'm really interested in. Why don't you guys post some pics?

 

Hi everyone, I just got my Dell Inspiron 14 7000 and I'm enjoying it so far. Everything is great except for two things. When I am two finger scrolling, the screen jumps up in the opposite directions. This is fairly annoying. Is there a driver fix or some sensitivity settings I can adjust? Also, the space bar does not register every time and that gets a bit frustrating when trying to type fast. Is that the keyboard design or just my laptop?

Also, can anyone tell me why they chose this laptop? Say over another comparable one. I know the new XPS 13 is coming out soon and wasn't sure if I should get that instead. Does the 1" of screen size gain of the 7000 necessitate the thick bezel at the bottom of the screen?

 

I had exact same problem with the trackpad, updated to latest driver, now the trackpad very smooth.

 

I just got mine in the mail yesterday and spent some time updating it, etc so I don't have tons of time on it yet but here's my first thoughts:


-Screen: The screen looks excellent. No dead pixels. Very sharp. I like tons of brightness and it's plenty for me. The touch functionality is very smooth. Very much like an iphone type feel.

-Heat: I would say it runs cooler than what I am used to. I wasn't necessarily giving it anything tough to do, but it felt pretty cool compared to what I have used in the past.

-Track pad: This thing SUCKED when I first go it. You need to go to dell's website and download the latest drive and it makes a significant difference. Also, there is a tough pad utility that I made a lot of adjustments to the standard set up. You can adjust the two finger scrolled, pinch to zoom, etc etc. All in all, the touch pad may not be 100% perfect, but it's decent and it could get better with future upgrade. Also, the touch pad has an actual click to the buttons at the bottom. You can turn off the "touch the pad" to click feature so that you don't accidentally click a lot.

-Keyboard: Everyone seems to complain about it, but mine is ok. I don't have a dead space bar or any other issues that I can see. While the key travel isn't huge, I think it's livable. It will take some time to adjust to typing on it, but I think it's decent overall.

My only complain about the track pad/keyboard is they placed them just a little close to the front of the laptop. I wish they would have pushed them maybe a half inch back towards the monitor and they had room to do that.

Overall, the laptop actually looks nice in person than from what I saw in the pictures. It seems to have a pretty solid build and feels right when you pick it up. It's a touch heavy at 4.5 lbs but I'm coming from an older 15.6" 6.5lbs beast so its pretty light in my book.

I am planning to do the upgrade to an SSD in the msata slot tomorrow or the next day so I'll post an update on how that goes.

Edit: I noticed zero heat on the keyboard itself and I used it for 3 or 4 hours straight. The back lighting on the keyboard is a little uneven as some have noted but who cares, it's back lit enough and it works. In terms of the screen, someone posted pics earlier in the thread but you can't really see quality of a screen from pictures online. I put the laptop right up to my face to look really close and it was still incredibly sharp, the screen is excellent.

 

Hi there,

I am interested by the Inspiron 7000. I'm currently typing on a 15" one that I bought for my mother (low end HD display). For those of you who purchased the 14" FHD version, do you find it a bit small? Also, how hard is it to change the mSATA drive?

What's interesting with the 14" is the -absence- of keypad and added portability (1.2lbs less than the 15"). However, I'd be a bit concerned about that size at FHD (14" / 1080p might be harsh for my bad eyes). What are your thoughts?

 

Ahhh... Finally someone taking the plunge. Please please let us know how it goes!

I desperately need a mSATA+ HDD combo for highstorage but fast boot/load times combo.

Thanks!

 

I "took the plunge" back on page 2, with full details on page 3. You have to remove a ton of parts to get to it but it's not hard as long as you don't drop a screw on the carpet.

As far as heat goes, there is next to nothing under 90% of this machine so it feels very cool. The hard drive is barely above ambient so you won't feel that. The CPU and all that junk are beyond the F-keys so your hands won't get hot typing. I use it on my lap all the time and it feels warm like someone is resting their legs on your lap. If you max out the CPU for a minute the fan will come on and blow hot air on your legs, which I don't find enjoyable but it isn't uncomfortable. The CPU throttles when it hits 70C so there's no going above that, which will effectively limit how hot it can get.

 

You said you had to move the battery around to get to the hard drive. From your experience, does the battery look self-replaceable if they had made spare batteries for owners to replace themselves? The Dell agents kept saying that the battery's integrated and not user-replaceable.

 

Surprised that I've received it today on November 1st (guess I can't trust shipment tracking!) ... gonna to play a bit tonight, I will post impression on it, and the how to SSD if got enough time for that.

Let me know if anyone want to know anything - 14 inch model: Inspiron 14 7000 - 7437 ( i7 / 8gb )

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Best Buy is now selling what looks to be a 14" 7000 with an i7 CPU, although it isn't actually labeled a 7000. In my area, the unit isn't in stores, but can be shipped to a store in 3-5 days. Dell Inspiron 14" TouchScreen Laptop 8GB Memory 500GB Hard Drive I7437T-2509SLV - Best Buy. Has anyone purchased one of these units from BB? BB is selling it for $930 today (Nov. 2), while Dell has just bumped up the price of an i7 unit from $999 to $1099, making BB an even better deal at the moment.

 

Which SSD are you planning on installing? I see that Seagate 600 series SSDs comes in a 5mm Z height. The 2 mm thinner 120G version looks to be going for $132 at cdw.

 

I have the same 14 inch model due on November 7th. Did yours ship with 8.1? Have you done the SSD update yet? I have a BP4 MSATA drive on the way and I will post pics of the install. I didn't wand to wait for more 5mm SSD options to be released.