Review of the Dell Inspiron 15 3000 (3511)

 Budget laptop shoppers must be prepared to give up certain comforts to get the greatest deals, particularly when looking in the $300 to $500 price bracket. However, Dell's Inspiron 3000 series has distinguished itself as an exception to the trend by providing high-quality entry-level laptops at competitive pricing. The Dell Inspiron 15 3000 (3511), which shares many features with the 15-inch Dell Inspiron 15 3000 (3505) we evaluated earlier this year, has a sizable 15.6-inch display, a manageable $323 asking price, and Windows 11, Microsoft's most recent operating system. Although some aspects of the display reveal the laptop's low cost, if you are certain you prefer a Windows computer to a Mac, it's a good value for the money.

Review of the Dell Inspiron 15 3000 (3511)

The Dell Inspiron 15 3000 (3511) has an Intel Core i3-1115G4 CPU, integrated Intel UHD graphics, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of solid-state drive storage. Although it only has half the RAM we'd expect from a respectable laptop and wades in the shallow end of the graphics pool, the processor is still an improvement over the Celeron CPU seen in even more affordable laptops. Our base test system costs $323, but if you're ready to pay more money, you can get options with up to 12GB of RAM, an Iris Xe graphics chip, and up to 512GB of storage. (How to pick the best laptop CPU is shown here.)

It's not a terrible thing that the 3511 model doesn't appear all that different from the 3505. The laptop's chassis is sturdy and well-built, and its carbon-black hue gives it a slick, modern appearance. Although there are even lighter options, such as the 15-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 4, it weighs 3.8 pounds, which is on the lighter half of the 15-inch laptop spectrum. The 3511 is approximately typical for its weight class at 0.7 by 14.1 by 9.2 inches (HWD). Despite being broad, it's not very awkward.

It's important to note that Dell's environmental initiatives have extended to laptops as well. Although it's unknown exactly how much and where post-consumer recycled polymers have been used in the laptop itself, the business claims to employ them in its products. In contrast, the packaging tray and other packing supplies are almost completely composed of recycled paper.

For a low-cost laptop, the sturdy chassis and attractive appearance are impressive, but the benefits continue. The keyboard is fairly pleasant, and typing only receives the tiniest amount of feedback. The entire board is spill-resistant, which is a great inclusion that I did not try out. You also get a separate number pad. The buttonless touchpad is broad and has plenty of room on each side for your hands to rest without coming into contact with anything.

More, but not brighter, pixels

The 1,920 by 1,080-pixel display is one of the main differences between this model and the preceding 3505 model. An improvement over the 1,280 by 720-pixel resolution of its predecessor, the full-HD, 15.6-inch anti-glare screen is another plus for this superb low-cost device. There is no touch-screen option, but at this price point, you wouldn't expect one. Unfortunately, the highest brightness of the screen during our testing was just 261 nits. This means that the laptop still produces dark-looking photos and videos despite having a greater resolution than its predecessor.

Although reaching maximum volume causes the machine's chassis to wobble, the speakers, which are placed below the device, are loud and clear for a laptop of this grade. It's fair in terms of quality; tinny, but not in an uncomfortable way.

Although there are plenty of connectors on the Inspiron 15 3000, the lack of a USB-C port is unfortunate. An SD card slot, a USB 2.0 port, and an audio connector (a combo headphone/mic jack) are all located on the right side of the device.

Two USB 3.2 Type-A ports, an HDMI 1.4 port, and the power-adapter connector are all located on the left side of the device.

In terms of software, Windows 11, Microsoft's most recent operating system, is the key draw. The Windows 11 S operating system that comes preinstalled on the Inspiron 15 3000 restricts customers from downloading apps only from the Microsoft Store. Thankfully, you can quickly undo this by clicking a few times in the Microsoft Store app, which will restore complete Windows 11. Apart from a McAfee antivirus application, the machine doesn't have any bloatware.

A Little Budget Brawler: The Inspiron 15 3000 Under Test?

How does the Inspiron 15 3000 compare to its rivals in our benchmark tests? It has been handled nicely so far. To find out, we contrasted the laptop's performance with that of four other low-cost devices examined in 2021: the MSI Modern 14, the HP Laptop 14-dq2020nr, the VivoBook 15 from Asus, and the Laptop L410. All of these laptops, despite some RAM variations, are in the $300–600 price range and have comparable CPU and GPU configurations. (Check out how we test laptops.)

UL's PCMark 10 is usually one of the first benchmark tests we conduct. To provide an overall performance rating for office workflows and similar tasks, the comprehensive benchmark suite simulates several Windows apps. Unfortunately, inexpensive laptops typically don't have enough RAM to run the tests correctly, so we weren't able to compare performance as usual.

The Inspiron 15 3000 did, however, manage to make some noise, earning a 3,818 total score on the PCMark 10 test. What we're looking for here is a figure in the range of 4,000 and 5,000 in a reliable mainstream machine. Though it doesn't exactly stick to the landing, it also doesn't stray too far from the mark. On the other hand, the PCMark 10 Storage Test failed to launch and could not be used. Additionally, as PugetBench for Photoshop does not function correctly on PCs with less than 8GB of RAM, we omitted this benchmark from the list.

With our HandBrake 1.4 benchmark test, our comparison gets on in earnest. An open-source video transcoder called HandBrake 1.4 can transform multimedia files into various resolutions and formats. We don't anticipate inexpensive laptops to do well because the work is so CPU-intensive and their CPUs are often weaker and have fewer cores.

Only the MSI Modern 14 performed worse than the Inspiron 15 3000, which placed second to worst. Of course, using a cheap laptop for any kind of professional multimedia work is improbable.

The multi-core benchmark Cinebench R23, designed to work every core and thread on a CPU, is the next test on our list. The Intel Core i3-1115G4 CPU in Inspiron performs admirably but is outperformed by the Intel Core i3-1125G4 chip in the HP Laptop 14. For this test, the Asus VivoBook 15 remained idle because Cinebench did not function on the system.

The Geekbench benchmark, another CPU stress test designed to mimic real-world workloads, completes productivity testing. The HP Laptop 14 takes the top rank in our comparison thanks to its CPU, but the Dell still outperforms the majority of the opposition.

Although integrated graphics chips have advanced significantly, low-cost laptops still struggle to execute graphics tests due to their poor GPUs and memory capacity. Nevertheless, we were able to successfully complete one 3DMark benchmark.

The Inspiron 15 3000 performed admirably in this regard, besting its low-cost rivals, but the Asus VivoBook 15 failed to pass muster. The more manageable of the two test workloads, Night Raid, is appropriate for laptops with integrated graphics. None of the laptops in our comparison group could run Time Spy, the more demanding of the two games.

GFXBench 5.0, a different graphics stress test that runs low-level operations like texturing and high-level tasks like game-like picture rendering to assess GPU performance, likewise only supported the Inspiron 15 3000.

The Dell got 15 frames per second (fps) during the 1440p Aztec Ruins test but more than quadrupled its frame rate on the 1080p Car Chase test, while the other cheap laptops fell short. Even while it's by no means a gaming laptop, the Dell should be able to run some simple games at 1080p at 30 frames per second, provided they aren't very graphically demanding.

Except for the HP Laptop 14-dq2020nr, the Inspiron 15 3000's battery performed below average compared to the competition, but not horribly.

Finally, we focus on the display and evaluate its performance using Datacolor's SpyderX Elite calibrator tools. In addition to measuring gamut settings for the three most important color spaces for laptop users—sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 standards—we assess screen-brightness output levels at 50% and 100% brightness.

The Inspiron performed best on this last test, even if only marginally. All of the results were competitive, but none were as bright as the brightest premium laptops, which may reach 500 nits.