A Closer Look

The top of the unit is plain for all but the Dell logo front and center, with the plastic shell having some texture for an improved grip. The bottom of the unit is smooth and features no access hatches, which would have been nice. That said, unlike other laptops I have tested, which require complete disassembly to remove or replace the battery, at least the battery can be removed with ease on this model.

For airflow to the heatsink, a few vents are in the bottom as well. There is a dust filter of sorts, which is very dense and therefore very restrictive. Cooling performance can be improved by removing these filters, but that also means more dust will get inside the system. I left the filters in place on this model since it did not seem to impact cooling enough to make the trade-off worthwhile.


The front of the unit has nothing worth mentioning with no WLAN button or other miscellaneous options having been placed here. Taking a look at the left side, you will find a large exhaust vent for cooling and the power plug. Connectivity on this side consists of 1x RJ45 (Ethernet), 1x HDMI 1.4a, and 2x USB 3.1.


Turning the system again, this time to the back, shows nothing other than the two hinges for the display. Moving on to the right side, we find the Kensington lock, DVD-RW drive, 1x USB 2.0, headphone jack, and SD card reader. Overall connectivity on this unit is decent for the price. While the lack of Type-C USB 3.1 is a bit depressing, it is again expected due to cost restraints.


The keyboard is nothing to write home about; it has no LED backlighting and feels extremely mushy with a bit of bounce in the middle. It does the job, but is not the most comfortable to use over extended periods of time. The trackpad also has a bit more flex then I would like with the bottom left and right corners feeling quite flimsy. When pressing down to activate left or right clicks near their very corners, the buttons will depress twice as far as the dividing middle line on the trackpad. This leaves it feeling exceptionally cheap and in dire need of improvement. As for the power button, it is in the top right above the keyboard and recessed into the case, which is nice as it makes it difficult to bump into or depress unless done so intentionally.