Dell Inspiron 14 (5447)
Brushed-aluminum lid. Touch-screen display. 1TB hard drive. Backlit keyboard.
Low-resolution display. Quiet speakers. No Gigabit Ethernet.
Bottom Line
The Dell Inspiron 14 (5447) is a solid desktop-replacement laptop with respectable performance and minor drawbacks, like quiet speakers.
The Dell Inspiron 14 (5447) ($699.99 as tested) is a desktop-replacement
with a solid mix of capability and features. It's priced for affordability, but small touches, like a brushed aluminum lid and backlit keyboard make for a nice laptop that looks a bit better than its mainstream price. It's not a perfect system, but it's an option to consider alongside leading laptops, like the Editors' Choice .
//Compare Similar Products
Design and Features The new Inspiron 14 may have the price tag and the specs of a basic mainstream laptop, but it sure doesn't dress the part. While the chassis is mostly black plastic, the lid and underside of the chassis are covered in brushed aluminum, which adds a premium look and makes for a sturdy system. The Inspiron 14 measures just 1 by 13.5 by 9.7 inches (HWD), and weighs only 4.6 pounds, making it lighter than the
(5.2 pounds), but not by much.
The system is outfitted with a 14-inch display with 1,366-by-768 resolution, which is a common resolution at this price range&we saw similar displays on the
and the . It's high enough for 720p HD video, but won't match the 1080p resolution of the Lenovo Edge 15, even though the two systems are similar in price. The display offers 10-point capacitive touch, with a sturdy hinge that stands up well to taps and pokes, and which Dell says should stay tight even after opening the lid 20,000 times.
The Inspiron 14 has a full-size, chiclet-style keyboard, complete with backlighting for easier typing in dark and dim environments. A large touchpad offers full gesture support, with all of the same swiping and zooming capability as the touch screen. Two 2-watt speakers offer decent sound quality (enhanced with Waves MaxxAudio software), but the speakers pipe sound through vents in the hinge and underside of the laptop, which can muffle the sound, and you'll need to crank up the volume just to hear it.
On the right of the laptop you'll find a fast Ethernet connection, an HDMI port, two USB 3.0 ports (colored black instead of the usual blue), and a headset jack. On the left are a Kensington lock slot, a USB 2.0 port, and a card reader (SD, SDHC, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro). For wireless connectivity, the Inspiron 14 has 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.
There is no optical drive, but the system is outfitted with a 1TB, 5,400rpm hard drive, so there's plenty of storage space for all of your programs, documents, and media files. Preinstalled on the drive are several apps and programs, including retail links to Amazon and Ebay, a few Dell-branded apps, like Dell Shop (which lets you shop for other Dell computers and accessories) and MyDell (formerly known as Dell Support Center). The system comes with free, 30-day trials of both McAfee Central and Microsoft Office 365. Dell covers the Inspiron 14 (5447) with a one-year warranty.
Performance
The Inspiron 14 is equipped with a 1.7GHz Intel Core i5-4210U ultrabook processor, a common CPU for this price range&the same CPU is found in the Lenovo Edge 15 and the Editors' Choice Lenovo Flex 2. This processor offers decent integrated graphics with Intel's HD Graphics 4400, and is paired with 8GB of RAM. In terms of performance, the Inspiron 14 did quite well, pulling ahead of competing systems in PCMark 8 Work Conventional (2,732 points) and Photoshop CS6 (4 minutes 55 seconds). This is relatively strong performance in these tests, pulling ahead of the similarly equipped Lenovo Edge 15 and Lenovo Flex 2 in both.
Graphics performance with these two comparison systems is nearly identical, thanks to the similar hardware. The higher RAM allotment actually let the Inspiron 14 crank out an extra frame per second in both our gaming tests, Heaven and Valley, though neither test showed anything approaching gaming levels of performance. In fact, even a few competing systems with dedicated graphics cards&both the
and the Lenovo Z40 boast an Nvidia GeForce GT 820M GPU&still won't handle games.
Finally, in our battery rundown test, the Dell Inspiron 14 lasted 7 hours 16 minutes. That's long enough to take you through an 8-hour day if you factor in a lunch break, and it comes out ahead of several competing systems, falling behind only the Acer E5-471-59RT (8:45) and the Acer E5-471G-53XG (9:12).
Conclusion The Inspiron 14 (5447) shows off what Dell does best: deliver well-made machines at reasonable prices. The aluminum-clad system offers performance that matches the more flexible Editors' Choice Lenovo Flex 2 (15-inch), and even exceeds it in one or two areas, making it a worthwhile system to consider when shopping for your next desktop replacement. It's held back only by a pair of quiet speakers and a low-resolution display that feels like a bit of a compromise even at this mainstream price.
Other Dell Laptops & Notebooks
More Stories by Brian Westover
Part desktop-replacement laptop, part convertible-hybrid tablet, the Lenovo Thin...
The OneLink Pro Dock works with several Lenovo-branded laptops, and provides USB...
The latest 13-inch Apple MacBook Air updates one of the best ultraportables arou...
Please enable JavaScript to view the
12 issues for $19.99
ONLY $1.67 an issue!
24 issues for $29.99
ONLY $1.25 an issue!
Lock in Your Savings!
American Samoa
APO/FPO-Canada
British Columbia
California
Connecticut
District of Columbia
Massachusetts
Mississippi
New Brunswick
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
Newfoundland
North Carolina
North Dakota
Northern Mariana Isls
Northwest Territories
Nova Scotia
Pennsylvania
Prince Edward Island
Puerto Rico
Rhode Island
Saskatchewan
South Carolina
South Dakota
Washington
West Virginia
Yukon Territories
Afghanistan
Aland Islands
American Samoa
Antarctica
Antigua And Barbuda
Azerbaijan
B W Indies
Bangladesh
Bouvet Island
British Indian Ocean Terr
British Virgin Isl
Brunei Darussalam
Burkina Faso
Canary Islands
Cape Verde Islands
Central African Rep
Christmas Island
Cocos Keeling Islands
Congo Dem Republic
Cook Islands
Costa Rica
Cote D\'Ivoire
Czech Republic
Dominican Republic
East Timor
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Faeroe Islands
Falkland Islands
French Guiana
French Polynesia
French South Territ
Great Britain
Guadeloupe
Guinea-Bissau
Heard Isl and McDonl
Isle Of Man
Ivory Coast
Kazakhstan
Korea, Peoples Rep
Korea, Republic Of
Kyrgyzstan
Libyan Arab Jamahiri
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Madagascar
Marshall Islands
Martinique
Mauritania
Micronesia
Montenegro
Montserrat
Mozambique
Netherlands
New Caledonia
New Guinea
New Zealand
Norfolk Island
Northern Ireland
Northern Mariana Isl
Papua New Guinea
Philippines
Repub Of Seychelles
Russian Federation
Saint Helena
Saint Lucia
Sao Tome & Principe
Saudi Arabia
Seirra Leone
Serbia-Montenegro
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Solomon Islands
South Africa
South Georgia and SS
South Korea
St Barthelemy
St Kitts & Nevis
St. Helen Islands
St. Helena
St. Martin
St. Pierre-Miquelon
St. Vincent
Svalbard and Jan Mayen
Switzerland
Tajikistan
The Bahamas
The Netherlands
Timor Leste
Trinidad & Tobago
Turkmenistan
Turks & Caicos Islands
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
US Minor Outlying Is
Uzbekistan
Vatican City
Virgin Islands, Brit
Virgin Islands, Us
Wallis And Futuna
West Indies
Western Sahara
Winward Islands
Mastercard
American Express
Automatic Renewal Program: Your subscription will continue without interruption for as long as you wish, unless
you instruct us otherwise. Your subscription will automatically renew at the end of the term unless you authorize
cancellation. Each year, you'll receive a notice and you authorize that your credit/debit card will be charged the
annual subscription rate(s). You may cancel at any time during your subscription and receive a full refund on all
unsent issues. If your credit/debit card or other billing method can not be charged, we will bill you directly instead.
Follow the link after sign up to get your free issue. Offer valid for new app downloads only. Subscribing to a newsletter, constitutes acceptance of our
(or search for the PC Magazine app on your iPad or iPhone)
to get your free issue. Offer valid for new app downloads.
Subscribing to a newsletter, constitutes acceptance of our