Best Gaming Laptop Dell Inspiron i7 559-763BLK Review

Best Gaming Laptop Dell Inspiron i7 559-763BLK Review

A couple of things look promising about DellInspiron i7559-763BLK: it’s quite cheap, it’s advertised as a gaming laptop and there are actually some components worthy of the “gaming” label. The most important is GeForce GTX 960M, a dedicated (yet at most, mid-range) graphics card and a modern, 256GB-capacity solid-state drive with improved performance compared to hard drives. Other things on the paper also seem to be decent – for example Full HD display – which makes one wonder if there’s actually anything bad about this notebook? You never know without examining the item further…

Dell Inspiron i7 General performance

It’s a brand new processor you’ll find in DellInspiron i7 559-763BLK: Intel has released a host of new Skylake architecture based processors (6th Generation) in the Summer and September 2015. One of them, Intel Core i5-6300HQ, is installed in this notebook. The unit in question contains four cores, a 2.3GHz clock speed and up to 3.2GHz turbo boost mode. There doesn’t seem to be benchmarks online just yet, but it’s expected to reach similar performance to some “regular” (not power efficient!) i7s such as the i7-4712HQ. That processor gets around 7500 CPU Mark points which is excellent, and since i5-6300HQ should get more or less the same you can pretty much do anything on this computer and if there’s a bottleneck, it won’t be this processor for sure.

As expected from a gaming machine, the DellInspiron i7 559-763BLK comes with 8GB DDR3L 1600MHz memory. Also a good thing, it’s installed on one chip, leaving the other memory slot on mainboard unoccupied for memory upgrade (maximum 16GB). A 256GB solid-state drive will provide fast, if limited storage, however an easy solution to get more storage capacity is to put your files on various online cloud services. And don’t forget the SSD seems to be installed on M.2 slot, there should also be free space and connector for a regular 2.5″ SATA drive.

What games am I able to play?

The graphics card is GeFocce GTX 960M (4GB GDDR5), in general you’re able to play most games at high settings and 1080p and receive 30 frames per second. To be honest, Grand Theft Auto 5 will give even more than that, closer to 50FPS. Indeed in the case of The Wicher 3 you’d end up with around 30 frames per second using the said settings. My estimate is that this system is good for one or two years until you need a new gaming laptop.

Anything special about the display?

The 15.6″ screen of Dell Inspiron i7 559-763BLK comes with all the bells and whistles: IPS display (superior to cheap TN panels in terms of colors and viewing angles), anti-glare coating and 1920×1080 resolution. Touch is not supported, but for gaming purposes such a display should be very decent at least.

Ports and connections

Ports include three USB 3.0 connectors, all of them supporting USB 3.0. HDMI-out is also provided, although DisplayPort is not which might upset some hardcore gamers. Optical drive isn’t something you find here either; if you need to install games from discs you’d better get an external DVD drive.

Dell Inspiron i7 559-763BLK unit connects to Internet via 802.11 A/C + Bluetooth 4.0 adapter. There’s also integrated 1000Mbps controller with RJ-45 port in case you want to connect using wire.

You’ll be able to transfer data to this computer locally using the built-in SD card slot. One practical use is to upload photos from digital cameras with that.

A 1280×720 webcam is available on Dell Inspiron i7 559-763BLK, you’re good to film videos or chat with your friends on Skype.

Dell Inspiron i7 Other essential stuff

The battery is non-replaceable, as in you can’t just pop it out – you’d need to remove the bottom cover to get to the battery. Its specs are 74Whr and 6 cells, rather beefy one, but I don’t think you’re getting more than 1-2 hours if you’re gaming. If surfing the web etc. you should end up with more than 4 hours, though.

Backlit keyboard should be included, but I predict not everybody likes that the touchpad is positioned left.

The weight is bit on the heavy side, a 5.68 pounds

Dell Inspiron i7 Summing it up

I don’t think Dell Inspiron i7 559-763BLK is over-priced at all. Sure, it costs much more than your general use notebook would, but look what you’re getting here: a powerful machine equipped with 6th Generation Core i5 processor, dedicated video card and a solid-state drive. You can play all the games released in 2015 with this rig, and truth be told, most (if not all) of those in high settings. Utilizing the Full HD resolution will also be possible thanks to the GeForce card. The system doesn’t seem to be have any obvious drawbacks, for this reason I recommend it for all the budget gamers out there.