Owner's Thread: Dell Inspiron 7000 series

Thank you all for your feedback! I'm about to buy a i7-4500U with 8 GB RAM. I'm mostly scared about the fan noise and heat, but you have reassured me. The screen had me worried as well, but after seeing a couple of those fullHD screen pictures I'm not anymore. I will need this laptop to seamlessly compile lots of stuff, so I'll probably upgrade it with a SSD later on.

 

Have moved my focus to this over the XPS due to price and the fact FHD plus a 750M is more than enough. Just can't find any reviews to make me pull the trigger.

Any throttling? I hear the keyboard is a little average. Anything else of note?

Sent from my Galaxy Note 2 now Free

 

After 7 years of being exclusively a Mac user at home, think I'll be buying the top end 15" model. I'd also like to install an mSATA drive alongside the 1Tb drive. That said, can the 1Tb hard drive be replaced with something bigger? Also, what's the best way to clone the Windows 8 system to mSATA?

Lastly, anyone heard of Hackintosh possibilities with this model, as with the previous SE models?

 

Those of you that have one already, how long did it take for it to arrive after you got an email from Dell saying it had left production in China? I'm waiting for mine to appear on tracking.

Also, sorry if I've missed it, but has anyone found any reviews yet if the top end i7 version?

 

Hello Akvavit

...you change the hdd to ssd and I would like to know little bit more info about warranty ... maybe you wrote it before ,but I didn't catch it ... If I will have this machine .. can I without void warranty change the disk ?? Do you know anything about that? ..

Thanks Igy

 

Hello,

It won't void the warranty, check my post on last page, I talked with Dell and they said the warranty is only void if you actually damage anything while upgrading etc.

 

Hey guys i just went to bestbuy today and to my surprise they have the 15 inch model with i7 cpu and 1080p screen for $880.

by the way the thing is heavy for my taste and the screen you need to use it at full brightness for the usable brightness thats not good in my opinion cause than how do i save battery , the viewing angels are good ,
The keyboard flexes some and then its hard to see the keys when they lit .

just my 2 cents

 

Thanks !!! .. It sounds good

 

Hah you're right. Crazy that it's available at BB but not on Dell's own website! 880$ sounds good for that kind of machine though! I'm tempted to drive south of the border to pick one up.

The weight is what's troubling me as well. Are you eyeing another model? To me, it seems like the Inspiron 7000 is the best balance of quality/price/specs I could find.

Does the panel wobble when you touch it?
Anyone else can confirm that low brightness for the 1080p display?

Thanks!

 

the 2 full HD models are officially up on Dell website and they're a full price as well. Pretty pricy

 

Basically, we're talking about a 220$ extra for +8GB (total 16GB, overkill imo), and +GF 750M.

For anyone not looking to game on that machine, it seems like this one is a great deal:
Dell Inspiron 7000 Series 15.6" TouchScreen Laptop 8GB Memory 1TB Hard Drive I7537T-4340SLV - Best Buy

It's a shame I live in Canada, this complicates matters a bit. heh ;p

 

mSATA.... Please!!! anyone can confirm if they managed to put in an mSATA into this Insipron 15 7000 series???

 

Uhh, well I think it's pretty clear. We've had confirmation over Dell chat. We can see what looks like an mSATA port in the manual and now the web page lists "256GB mSATA Solid State Drive" as an option. I think that about confirms it.

 

Hmmm... I thought that the Dell reps had earlier said no mSATA drive. The website seems to be offering the mSata option.... Wonder what they do with the 2.5" HDD slot - leave it free?

 

Ya, it seems strange that they would leave the 2.5" HD slot free, but it's likely that they get 256 GB mSATA drives for less than a regular 2.5" SSD, so it saves Dell money in the end.

 

Hey I really wanted to buy the dell 7000 but the keyboard killed it and I don't like the weight it comes with I want something that lighter than my 3 years old dell studio. The brightness is not high even compare it to my 1080p dell machine. Anyhow its a solid built.
Yes it won't show on dell site its a joke but someone has posted a dell built site with a 15 model same as the best buy version 1080 screen for $1200. Shipped on Oct 31. It can be ordered. How crazy is.
I ended up with a Acer V7 aspire 15 model from amazon, for $900 even with shipping it has a I5 CPU and 8 gig ram 1 tb hard drive ,20gig ssd, GT720 gpu and a ISP screen should be gorgeous im not a gamer.check out the Acer forum for the 14 inch model very popular and got good reviews I hope I will like it. This the model number Acer Aspire V7-582PG-642. Amazon has the 14 inch model as well. It should be under 5 lbs and thin as well.

Hope its helps you make a decision!
John

 

If you in Canada you can buy the Acer v7 14 model similar price range even has a GT750 gpu Acer Aspire V7-482PG-662 IPS screen .

 

First of all, can we just keep this thread related to the Inspiron 7000 series?

I was looking at the Acer before but the DDR3 VRAM turned me off, as well as quite a lot of reported faults with one of the fans. I can also get a substantial discount with Dell which isn't offered by many other online stores and made the top spec model cheaper than the Acer (in the UK).

The reason it won't ship until 31st is it needs to be built first (supply & demand).

 

Really? Dell advertises the display as 300 nit. That's brighter than my L502X, which I already find pretty bright.

Come to think of it, when I first booted up my (now returned) Samsung Ativ Book 8, the brightness was very low as well. I couldn't turn it up without disabling some power-saving setting in the Intel menu. After that, it was fine. Are you sure that wasn't the case here?

Hopefully some good info on the 1080p panel will pop up, while I wait for my refund on the Samsung. I'm looking for contrast, mainly, but gamut and accuracy too, as I do a little graphic design. And I don't want a straight downgrade from my L502X.

 

Interesting. The model listed for $1099 on the US site is only $999 on the Canadian site. Plus if you add at least 1 cent, you can use a $50 off coupon code.

The $1199 model isn't available on the Canadian site yet.


TrueG

 

In my opinion its not that bright at full brightness and it was plugged in to the power, I would use it at full brightness for my taste and I don't like my screen too bright . than I walked over to the new lenovo yoga 2 and that thing has enough brightness to use it at half settings and its gorgeous. The dell screen has good viewing angels .
Why don't you stop by at best buy and see it for your self than you will know what i'm talking about unless I missed something.

 

Ha ha, I guess they were still updating the Canadian site. Now it's listed at $1399!!!!!

Funny, I was only moderately interested at $999, but at $1399 Dell can keep it.

 

Has anyone had any luck with Linux on this?

 

OMG I just saw that most of the Dell 7537 is off at least $320 bucks! OMGGGGGGGGGGGG The top tier is only 1199 now. Should I return my evny 15t for that since the screen and build quality is better on the Dell? The only thing I'm a little concerned is I can get i7 4700 (or 4800MQ) on the envy while the one on Dell is just 4500U. Is hat processor capable of video editing?

 

Yes, I'm aware of the Acer V7-482PG-6662. I could've bought it for around 800$ tax in, but 14" 1080p is just too small for me.
The Acer V7-582PG with 1080p display is priced similarly to Dell Inspiron 7000 15", but with worse build quality and WAY worse support. Moreover, Core i5-4200U is a bit on the low end. The i7-4500U sounds more reasonable to me. I also had VERY bad luck with all Acer laptops I purchased (father in law, mine, my sister).

There's however an Acer V7-582PG that seems interesting and it's only available in Europe, go figure! V7-582PG-74508G52 (5lbs instead of 5.7lbs, but plastic!)

 

Hilarious. Dell Canada has the 15" / 1080p / Intel 4400 version for 1150$, shipping in December. It's freaking 880$ USD, available now at Best Buy US! Our currency value is basically the same and we're neighbours. Major bull. I'll just drive to Plattsburgh and smuggle it. :/

 

Guys, is it just me or is the hard drive on this thing noticeably loud? Like, I could hear it spinning on occasions and it rattles even lighter than the fan (while in minimal use.) Is this why owners wanted to switch to using SSDs? I have the 14 inch model and from what other people are saying, it uses a slimmer SATA hard drive.Is it normal for it to make noises from time to time during operation?

 

The Samsung I mentioned was plugged into power at the time as well, so I'm still curious if the 7000 may have had the same power saving setting turned on.

And there are no Best Buys where I live. I haven't seen any Dell laptops in any of the stores around here.

 

YES! Its ridiculously loud, although an ssd would resolve that.

 

Oooh! Okay. So it wasn't defective or had a screw loose. I noticed that the light kind of blinks at the same time the hard drive spins, so I figured it couldn't have anything wrong with it. I was even thinking of replacing it for a Yoga Pro 2 at one time, but the Inspiron has really, really good battery life. I get maybe 8-9-10 hours through just web browsing and running W8 apps in the background on battery saving mode. I hear the YP2 gets about 6. Plus, I really like the Chromebook Pixel-esque design of the 7000 series--even moreso than the YP2. Although 1080p isn't high, it's adequate for most things.

 

Just got another comment from Dell regarding the mSATA,

"Hello,

Glad to see that you wrote back and hopefully I can solve your question for you! I did some research on this issue and here is what I found. There does indeed seem to be an mSATA slot attached to the USB I/O board on this laptop. I cannot confirm 100% if this is a mSATA port or not but I do know that if it is, it is not actively recognized by the system. This board might be used in several systems and in the Inspiron 7537, it is used only for USB controlling. Sorry for any confusion on this issue! The system can ship with 2.5" SSDs from the factory and will be configured for Intel's SSD technologies pre-installed. FYI- the 2.5" HD slot on the laptop is rated for SATA III.

Hope this helps!
JonathanNforDell"

 

Hehe, while it is good to finally getting some solid info on this one - I had hoped for the opposite answer really. Oh well, still not regretting my purchase, this would just have been a pleasant surprise

 

Yes can only imagine, although there is a limited choice in terms of mSATA drives and they each seem to have mixed reviews, will just have to see how it goes.

 

Hi everyone,

So because of the discount, the 7537 model suddenly looks so appealing to me and I'm willing to sacrifice the more powerful (yet more power consuming) i7 on the envy for a lower end i7 4500U on this. But I'm still not totally sold so if someone can help give a rest to my concerns, that'd be great. I heard people praising the battery life but not mentioning how long they were able to use with one full charge (normal usage) and how capable is the 4500U of handling most major light to medium-heavy tasks (I'm not playing games at all)? Thanks all.

 

Hello,

Well I've not got my own just yet but have heard between 8-9 hours from light browsing with wifi. I believe the 4500U will be pretty good at most things bar heavily threaded programs. Especially on turbo boost where you will probably get a stable 2.6GHz. This is just what I've heard though, can't wait until mine arrives to try it out myself

 

Hi Guys,

This is my first post here. Was in the market looking for a FHD laptop and there arent many options. Mostly only 15" have them and also Dell XPS 12. From most reviews I see, mostly all praise the keyboard of the XPS systems, but after comparing it side by side, personally I like the Inspiron keyboard better over the XPS which I tend to mistype alot on. That's just my personal opinion. Maybe I have fat fingers. Anyway, picked the Dell Inspiron 15" 7000 (7537) instead off the shelf. Compared it with other brands, and Dell still gives the best bang for the buck.

Only had it for a night, so I can only comment on certain things.

1. The FHD screen is impressive superbly bright. I had to tune it down few notch so it wont be so painful on my eye. Viewing angle is superb. I dont think this is a TN panel.
2. Mousepad seems a little clunky if I double tap on it. Maybe this is how it feels for a clickable mousepad. I'm not too sure. Other than that, it's quite responsive and can register windows8 gestures. (Makes me wonder do I even need a touchscreen).
3. HDD is freakingly slow. That's the only bottle neck for the system. But in a way, I am glad Dell throws that in to keep the price low. Giving me an option to upgrade to a better SSD 1 year down the road when price gets cheaper.
4. Battery Life for a 15" is quite impressive actually. But depending on what task that you're doing. I see the battery life indicator fluctuates from 2.5hrs up to 9.5hrs. I was mostly doing file copies while trying to do Windows Update. It ran on battery for over 2 hrs and still show a 60% battery remaining. So I'd reckon for normal usage you could get about 5.5hrs out of it.
5. OS. Am currently doing Windows 8.1 update. Takes quite a while. Don't really like Windows 8 but got no choice. What was microsoft thinking? Hate the tiles and the Microsoft apps. Even with touchscreen, I don't see the point of mimicking a tablet especially when we have such high resolution and can only see one app at a time or maybe two. Such waste of screen real estate.

That's all from me. If I discover any other thing later I could share.

Cheers.

 

in windows 8,1 you can turn of tiles entirely. after that its act like windows 7 plus you can install a start menu from a third party software and after that everything is back to normal
That's all from me. If I discover any other thing later I could share.

 

So msata is definitely not available here? Is anyone game to try?

Sent from my Galaxy Note 2 now Free

 

Hey,
Thanks for all the info!!
I am going to buy this laptop but have a few questions?? I am looking at the i5 with touch model.(500 GB).
I want to know how is the experience of using Windows 8 with the touchscreen, and how is it for regular use and Internet browsing and light Gaming ??
What about the keyboard?? Is it good enough for regular typing and for games ??
And is the touchpad good enough or do we need an external mouse??
Do you think the touchscreen is necessary???

 

Hi everyone! I recently returned my laptop, an HP Envy Touchsmart Quad Edition. It had a backlit keyboard, 1080p screen, 4th gen Intel Core i7, 1 TB Hybrid Drive + 24gb ssd cache. I returned it because the audio would stutter when listening to audio while the charger was plugged in. The battery of the computer was removable and battery life of the computer was sub-par.

I recently came upon this Dell Inspiron 7000 15 and I'm thinking about getting this instead of replacing the HP. I just have some questions, is the laptop slow or fast? How's the touchpad, is it responsive? Are multi-finger gestures easy on it? I tried it out one time at Best Buy and noticed that they touchpad is textured, what is your opinion of that?

When I tried it at best-buy I also noticed that the key travel isn't so good, how's typing on the laptop been for you? Is the screen bright? Does the battery last a long time? I want to get the $899.99 model, but with a 256 GB SSD instead of the hard drive, but they don't allow you to custom configure. I've never replaced a hard drive or done anything that requires me to open up a laptop, so I was wondering if it's easy and could the hard drive be replaced with a 2.5" 500 GB or 1 TB SSD or does it have to be a 256 GB SSD?

What problems, if any, are you guys having with the laptop? Could someone who already has the laptop make an in depth video about it? You know like showing an talking about every aspect. And if you've ordered one and it's coming soon, could you please make an unboxing video?

 

After seeing laptopmag's review on this laptop, I realized that it scored very low in screen brightness which prompted me to do some investigating. After chatting with Dell, I can confirm that the panel is in fact TN.

Edit: I chatted again with Dell to see if the 1080p screen is also TN and was told that it's IPS.

 

I ordered the lowest end 7537 for my mother. That'll give me the opportunity to test it and see if I take the plunge for the i7/1080p one.

The only "why?!" I have related to this model is the weight. 5.7lbs when other similar models like Acer V7-582PG are under 5lbs. That's weird no? The MBP is all aluminum and weight around 4.6lbs. What gives? Besides that, it looks great, can't wait to test it.

 

Probably the panel being touchscreen + gorilla glass.

 

hey

my older laptop is a 6 pound machine so i wanted a lighter one i choose the acer , some ppl saying it is not well build thats a total BS it a very well built machine the screen is gorgeous ,originaly v i was gonna get the dell it is a better brand but after i checked out in person i dont like its weight it is well built with all aluminium but the keyboard is a cheap built very spongy and hard to see when is lit . An other lighter machine would be the new xps 15 with good specs but that $1500 and no dedicated GPU for that price you just get the basic model and with a higher clocked I5 CPU i dont think it would get better battery life than the Acer 6-7 hour wich is very important for me and for some . it is a compromise more power or better battery .
i can highly recommend you the Acer V7-582PG it is a great buy , i dont work for acer i just own this machine and i like it .

Hope its helps

 

Thanks for your feedback johny. I personally had very bad luck with Acer but I too am looking at the V7-582PG. Which model have you bought exactly? It seems like the i7/1080p model (74508g52) is only available in Europe.

Does your screen wobble when you touch it?

 

The only upside of the Acer seems to be the weight. None of the specs are better than the Dell and are the same price in my region.

I'll reiterate my point about the title of this thread....

 

i have the V7-582PG-6421 just got for $900 with shipping
the screen hinges are very strong i dont notice any wobble ,i got the I5 1080p,with nvidia GT720 ,1TB Hard drive 20GIG Cashe SSD .
i have had a acer before it was a tablet lasted me long time before i sold it on ebay and got a nexus 10, did not have any issues.hope this one will last long too.
the 14" has the I7 cpu,and GT750 gpu
i got it from amazon.

 

The other upside of the Acer is it comes with the 20 gig cache SSD its boots very fast ,and has a 1TB HD plus it has a GT720 GPU so its not just the HD 4400 that you can rely on.

im not here to convince anyone ,each of its own

 

Is it really that bad? I type quite a lot, so that'd be a dealbreaker for me. Anyone else who's used it care to comment? I can get used to short travel, but along with spongy feedback, I'm not so sure.

 

well you need to try it for your self but i think it dont match the rest of the machine quality its feels like they just glued it there with double sided tape.