It’s been almost 5 years since I’ve bought a new laptop. When I went to university in 2012 I picked up an Asus laptop with a i7-2670qm and a 635m graphics card. That got me through University and helped me get my engineering undergrad degree. The 5 lbs hunk of plastic and sandybridge silicon was starting to show it’s age. After pulling it apart to replace the thermal compound for the 3rd time, I decided it was time to upgrade.
After shopping around I went out and picked up a new Dell Inspiron “7373” model. This model came with an 8th gen i7-8550u with 4 hyperthreaded cores and a max boost of 4.0GHz. This thing is seriously fast compared to my Sandybridge i7 and only sips 15 watts. I ended up paying around $1000 for the machine with specs shown below:
| Dell Inspiron 13 7373 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Display Adapters | Size | 13.3” | |
| Type | IPS | ||
| Resolution | 1920x1080 | ||
| Touch | Touch with Active Pen Support | ||
| CPU | SKU | i7-8550U | |
| Cores/Threads | 4c / 8t | ||
| Cache | 8MB | ||
| Frequency | Base | 1.8 GHz | |
| TDP-up | 2.0 GHz | ||
| Turbo | 4.0 GHz | ||
| TDP | 15W | ||
| GPU | SKU | Intel UGH Graphics 620 | |
| Base | 300 MHz | ||
| Turbo | 1.15 GHz | ||
| DRAM | 16GB, DDR4, 2400MHz | ||
| SSD | 256GB Samsung M.2 | ||
| USB | 1 x 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C 2 x 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A | ||
| Card Reader | SD Card Reader | ||
| Wi-Fi | 2x2 802.11ac | ||
| Bluetooth | 4.2 | ||
| Ethernet | N/A | ||
| Display Outputs | 1 x HDMI 2.0 | ||
| Audio | 2 Rear Speakers Combo Headphone / Microphone Jack | ||
| Webcam | Standard Webcam | ||
| Infrared Camera w/ Windows Hello | |||
| Fingerprint Reader | N/A | ||
| Battery | 38 Whr, 3-Cell Battery | ||
| Dimensions | Width | 12.2” (309mm) | |
| Depth | 8.5” (215mm) | ||
| Thickness | 0.61” (15.5mm) | ||
| Weight | 3.20 lbs | ||
| Colors | Gray | ||
| Price | $999.99 |
I’d like to do some Linux compatibility testing at some point. Most of the heavy engineering work I do relies on a Windows based machine but I could always just remote into my desktop when I want to do that kind of work.
One problem I have found so far is related to fan noise. The fans come on when I do anything more than light web browsing or office tasks, and they don’t have the most pleasing sound. The noise ranges from nearly inaudible in a coffee shop or with music on, to unbearable in a dead quite room. Something to consider.
I will probably give an update later on when I have more time with this machine. Overall, I would recommend it you’re looking to get good all-around specs for around $1000.