Dell Inspiron 15 Black 2024

A RAM-heavy office drone with a dim screen and an old processor. It's a multitasking bargain if you get it cheap, but a total pass if you value a good display or modern performance.

The 32GB of RAM is the real surprise here. It's well above average for this class of machine and lets you keep a frankly ridiculous number of Chrome tabs and Office docs open without a hiccup. But that Intel i5-1155G7 is a letdown, landing in the bottom quarter of CPUs we've tested. It handles everyday tasks fine, but the moment you try anything demanding, you'll feel the age of that 11th-gen chip. The integrated graphics are also a weak spot, making this a non-starter for anything beyond Solitaire.

Stacked against something like an ASUS Zenbook Duo or an HP OmniBook X Flip, the Inspiron feels like a dinosaur. Those competitors offer vastly superior OLED screens, modern processors with real graphics power, and premium build quality. The Inspiron's only real weapon is that 32GB of RAM at a low price. If you need a touchscreen work laptop and your budget is tight, it's a contender. But if you can spend more, a MacBook Air M1 or a newer Ryzen-powered Windows laptop will run circles around it in performance and battery life.

Pricing on this model is all over the map, with a wild spread from $585 to over $14,000 across different sellers. At the low end, the sheer amount of RAM and storage makes it a tempting deal for a no-frills office laptop. But you absolutely must buy from a reputable seller. A verified complaint about a bait-and-switch SSD replacement is a major red flag, so stick with a trusted storefront and avoid shady third-party deals.

The Dell Inspiron 15 is a weird mix of generous specs and corner-cutting. You get a massive 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, which is fantastic for a budget-friendly workhorse, but it's all strapped to a dim, 220-nit screen and a processor that's frankly showing its age. The one thing to know is this: it's a multitasking beast for office apps and browser tabs, but don't expect it to shine for anything creative or even casual gaming.

If you're looking for a laptop with a vibrant screen for watching movies or editing photos, this isn't it. The 220-nit display is a dealbreaker. Go get a refurbished MacBook Air or an ASUS Zenbook with an OLED panel instead. You'll lose the touchscreen but gain a display that doesn't make you squint.

The Dell Inspiron 15 is a single-purpose machine. Buy it if you need a cheap, no-nonsense Windows laptop with a ton of RAM for office work and web browsing, and you've found it for a price near the $600 mark. For anything else, especially if you care about screen quality, build, or any kind of gaming, you should look elsewhere. The spec sheet looks better on paper than the laptop feels in your hands.