Dell amazes with new Inspiron 7000 series and sub $400 Ultrabook

By Michael Archambault
last updated

Just in time for the holiday season, Dell has announced a few new additions to its line of PCs. Typically Inspiron has served as the company’s budget line of machines, but with these latest editions, Dell is going above and beyond to make budget seem premium for Windows 8.

The first introduction is a selection of new Inspiron 7000 series laptops. Typically, Inspiron units have been made from plastic, but not this time; this time, the 7000 series is made of “forged aluminum” and features “diamond-cut beveled edges”. According to Dell, the 14-inch model that measures in at .6 inches is 27% than its predecessor. The 15 inch and 17 inch models are just as impressive, coming in at .9 inches and 1.1 inches respectively (Remember, these are budget machines).

All 7000 series machines will have an edge-to-edge Corning Gorilla Glass screen with 10 points of multitouch. On the 14-inch and 15-inch models, an optional Full HD 300-nit display is available. Beneath the screen will sit an Intel 4th generation Core i5 or i7 processor with SSD configurations available on the 15-inch and 17-inch models.

The Inspiron 700 series of machines will be available September 26 and will start at $699 for the Inspiron 15 and $849 for the Inspiron 14 or Inspiron 17.

Inspiron 3000 11

Dell will also be introducing a new Ultrabook part of their Inspiron 3000 series, the “11”. The unit is only .83 inches thin, weighs a bit over a pound, and promises to pack over eight hours of battery life. The Inspiron 3000 11 will also feature a 10 point multitouch display for the ultimate Windows 8 experience. It will be available October 3 and starts at $379. (Less than $400 for an 8+ hour Ultrabook? Insane!)

Lastly, Dell will be adding a new member of the family to their All-In-One unit selection with the Inspiron 23. The new desktop will feature a full 1080p HD display with 10 points of multitouch and is able to be used standing upright or flat on a table. The unit will be available October 1 and start at $999.

Inspiron 23

Dell really seems to be stepping up their game – what do you think?

Source: Microsoft

82 Comments
  • Sweet
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  • You ruined it, I am done.
  • And it was on a good run too...
  • nevermind
  • Awesome! I guess you read my other post.
  • What are the screen resolutions on them? 
  • This for real. $350 sounds really good until you dig deeper...
  • On the 11-inch one, I think you could live with anything 720p and up, in my opinion.
  • 720p is good enough for me.
  • Typically their Inspiron line is tailored for consumers. I'm considering getting their new Latitude 7000 14" Ultrabook for work as we only have the option of Dell's lineup tailored for work use.
  • dell recently has been refocussing on business, shying from consumer grade PCs.
  • I was thinking of getting a Latitude 7000 14" for an employee but you cant configure it with anything but a crap 1366X768 screen.
    The better screens are being "tested" whatever that means.
    Typical dell.
  • I am in the same boat.  They truely suck.  I cannot deal with 768 with Visual Studio and other tools I use
  • Awsome
  • Nice lineup and pricing. This will surely help Windows8.
  • Amazing.
  • 1. With the lowered price here, along with the $350 tag on that ASUS T100, could it be that Microsoft lowered the licensing costs to OEMs, in order to get prices to a seriously-competitive level?
    2. You said Full HD and 300-nit display was an option for the 14- and 15-inch iterations, but what's in the 17-inch? Is it that the optoinal display is non-optoinal on the 17-inch? Oh, and what OTHER display options are there for the 14- and 15-inch models?
    3. What's powering the 3000-series machine? Is it an i3? Atom? i5?
    4. Why is the 14-inch model more expensive than the 15-inch, which appears to be an identical machine?
  • I really like Dell, best experience I had with productivity devices.
  • I really dislike Dell, worst experience I had with a unproductive device.
    Bought an xps all-in-one machine, didn't work out of the box, they sent an engineer, couldn't fix it. Sent a replacement part, didn't work. Refused to send another engineer out of working hours. Refused to give me my money back. Eventually said they'd give me half my money but I had to be in all day to wait for someone to pick it up. Wasn't worth the day off work to do that. Still got the bastard machine sitting never used in a cupboard, keep meaning to put it on ebay for spares and repairs but just annoys me thinking about it and the money I wasted.
    I hate it when they bring out a machine that looks good, but I refuse to give them any more of my money.
  • Dude, you got a Dell!
  • They sent a guy here who didn't even bring the right screwdriver to open the laptop for which he was supposed to replace the motherboard.  He then tried to force it, wrecked one of the screws, and left without accomplishing anything else.  LOL!
  • I once had a Dell tech (To be fair he was a contractor from NCR) sit at the table he was working at doing nothing. When asked he said the sun was in his eyes so he was waiting for it to move.
  • They are still selling the horribly made xps 15 l521x that suffers horrible throttling and horrible WiFi because of dells stupidity,placing the antennas behind a metal lid. They have not given us a fix or anything and are misleading consumers. Do not buy it...take my word. Google xps l521x WiFi, throttling!!! Its been over a year ,these new "laptops" aren't worth it.
  • Because they had bad throttling on one model in a chassis with a poor fan configuration running a dGPU and quad core ivy makes these new budget models using haswell ULV CPUs and no dGPU a dangerous buy? What?
     
    That's also why he said "stepping up their game" Because it was subpar and now it's getting much better. I'm very interested in that inspiron, especially if it has an IPS display. The Asus T100 is slightly smaller with an IPS display, running Atom. If Dell's can come with IPS and Haswell, it will be an awesome buy. 
  • You forgot the really bad WiFi, I speak from experience as well as thousands of forums and upset buyers. As I said, just do a google search.. I've had two xps m1530s, then 4 studio xps 1645s/1647 and two xps 15 l521x.. All horrible build quality and I wish I had never purchased that m1530back in 2008.. Anyway, just search, you'll see.
  • I owned the XPS 1521 and found the wifi to be average in my environment. Then again there is no wall between my router and where I used it. Having said that, I sold mine and got an HP Envy... I don't think you know terrible build quality untill you've used an Envy DV6 lol
    I look forward to Dell's next model and will buy that one.
  • +1 on dv6 hate. Got one cheap a few years back (QVC maybe?) and POS lasted less than 6 months. Both Dell and HP have let me down hard in consumer grade laptop departments. This is why I'll recommend Surface (both Pro and RT) to folks as build quality is good and does what you need it to.
  • if you can pay the premium, take a look at the Samsung Laptops. I have a Series 9 I will never give up. The build quality equal to a MacBook Air and very fast. I love mine. BUT, you will pay a premium price.
  • $379!
  • These are gonna sell like hot cakes
  • Yeah, or real cheap laptops.
  • what does this have to do with windows phone?
  • They both like turtles
  • nice tiles?
  • Anyone want to make $5800 in a week?
  • Too bad Dell is infamous for bad build quality. They make great devices, but they don't last, based on personal experience and the experience of others.
  • Not true at all for me. All the Dell computers I bought over the years were assembled in Mexico, and I never had one fail on me yet. Dell Dimension 3250, Dell studio 7100, Dell studio 1158, Dell Studio 1737. I recently got a Dell inspiron 15 with Windows 8 on it.
  • This. Beyond low quality hardware, they only warranty their batteries for a year, even if you purchase their extended warranties (which are themselves actually quite good, if you ignore the customer service and accept wasting on to three hours over the phone to get the replacement part). And that is because the battery goes from the real life 2-3 hour battery life (if that) to less than a few minutes after the first year. I expect that the ultrabooks are a bit better, and certainly Haswell helps those numbers, but their battery tech is bottom of the barrel.
  • Anything but gaming computers (even those of which get more than 2 hours now) haven't been getting 2 hours of battery life since at least 2010, if not earlier. I suspect your opinion is a little out of date.
  • I have a 2013 Dell Precision laptop at work. It's a powerful 15" laptop, but it gets less than 2 hours of battery life with the standard battery except in the case where I am not actually using it...
  • Hmmm, I've only had great experiences with Dell. I've found them fast and reliable. This thread is the first time I've heard of anyone having problems with Dell.
  • I got my wife a Dell laptop about two years back.  It had an embarassing number of issues early on.  But working with their customer service wasn't too bad, and they sent out a repair guy the next day to replace the motherboard.  This was just with their standard warranty.  Its been working pretty solid since then.  So I guess my anecdote is a 50/50 because their shit can break but at least they fix it in reasonable time.
  • Dell did a nice job here, but I'd go with a Vizio, much slicker looking imo.
  • and where's my GDR2/Amber @ATT ?
  • lol
  • Why are you asking WPCentral, ask ATT.
  • Finally some gorgeous machines!! Now Vizio and Dell make Apple level hardware. Maybe Windows has a chance now.
  • The glass may go edge-to-edge but the relatively large looking black border takes away from the overall appearance.  It would be nicer if the viewable screen area was closer to edge-to-edge.
  • Microsoft actually has a required width for the black bezel because Windows 8 depends on users being able to drag their finger across that first pixel along the edge of the screen.
  • I'm really getting into the all in one desktops. I got an HP for my wife and loaded it up with 8.1. It really does impress me.  This Dell all in one ain't half bad looking.
  • Bought one. Friggin love it.
  • Same here - my next will be a Dell all in one, as soon as my private CFO (= my bank Account) allows it. I'll check out the HP all in ones as well.
  • This will make me rethink getting a Chromebook.  Although I do a lot in the cloud, these machines will still allow me to access Google Chrome browser (other browsers like Firefox and Opera) and have a full office productivity suite.
  • Im 100% sure Windows 8 also can do "cloud stuff" in fact, it can do hundred things more than a chromebook, online and offline.... and yes Im 100% sure.
  • If i still had a use case for a laptop i'd be all over these. Dell has always had pretty decent build quality (compared to HP and acer) but their internal hardware has had a knack for breaking (maybe poor heat dissipation?) and their designs haven't been particularly slim/light/attractive. This one looks like a massive improvement.
  • "...is 27% than its predecessor..." lighter?
  • I wish they'd update their XPS laptop for 2013
  • Interesting how they opted not to use the Start screen on the screens.
  • just when i was about to write off DELL as a company on a whole i've had only bad experiences with them bought two alienwares that have been nothing but trouble m17x and m18x considering that i spent 2k+ for each I was completely annoyed right now i am using a crappy toshiba... dell completely upsets you with their insistance on not updating their propriety drivers...  UGH!!! anyway... i vowed to never spend more than $1500 on a mobile device ever again i bought a revolt gaming pc from ibuypower.com for $1800 that does everything i want it do play, plays all the games i thow at it plus it is small enough to considered "mobile" i have it connected to a 30 minuted backup power supply so it is a completely "mobile" gaming rig i will have to wait for the reviews on these new DELL...  once bitten, twice shy
  • Looks like an MS Surface with a huge keyboard.
  • Cool device and I can also say customer service at least on my end have gotten way better and responsive, but beware the 31 days return window. Should your device go over that there is no way to get your $ money back. Might be common practice for PC's, but to lower that risk if I get one, I'll get it from Costco.
  • Nice! In a way, I wish I knew they were redesigning their Inspirons like this. I recently just upgraded from a 2011 14R to a Lenovo U410 and love it.
  • Lenovos are the Citroens of the PC world, they are so ugly. :-)
  • I've had the best experience with Lenovos. I couldn't care less about how they look. Function over form imo.
  • I wish I didn't buy that inspiron 17r se a month ago :(
  • It just occurred to me that my laptop is actually a Dell Inspiron, from 3.5 years ago and I don't even remember the model name. Unlike with phones, it made no sense back then to be brand-conscious, and the best bet was the best value for money. Hence, a Dell. :)
  • according to the permalink, the 11 3000 weighs just over 3 pounds, not just over a pound.
  • +2 pounds
  • Good. Good
  • Really would like to know about the haswell XPS 15, Dell have been strangely quiet about it, very little information on it, thus far
  • Oh this looks really nice!
  • Oh Dell, the dysfunctional company where everyone is doing their job and still the result is totally miserable. Their tech support can't even report manufacturing issue affecting every single unit from a certain model to their engineering department... Avoid at all costs.
  • Dell = Bad WiFi, Bad Cooling, and Worse Customer Service. Of course, everyone has their own experience.
  • Lot of sarcasm in these comments.. Lol
  • All looks great!
  • Are they gonna put the same  crap hard drive in these, too?