Dell New Inspiron 3525 Laptop: Review

Dell’s Inspiron economy laptop brand competes with its premium XPS line for mass-market affordability. The newest Inspiron 15 (model 3525; $459; $659 as tested) maintains that reputation with a simpler design and components. Inspiron’s performance is fine, but the HP Pavilion Plus 14 and Asus Zenbook 13 are promising similarly priced intermediate laptops.

Dell New Inspiron 3525 Laptop: Specs

Quality of the build and configurations

Some cheap computers try to look and feel high-end, but the Inspiron 15 doesn’t. This thing is made of plastic, so it’s clear that it’s meant to be cheap. Even though the plastics were strong, the keyboard deck bent in the middle, and the screen was bent in an uncomfortable way. The all-plastic build is smooth and bendy. The laptop’s hinge grips don’t do anything when it’s open, so it slips around on a smooth table or desk when it’s open. This keyboard is frustrating because it doesn’t even have a bright light for typing at night. Some ceiling lights make it hard to see the keys because they are so shiny. The up and down button keys are also hard to use because they are too close together. Some users may like that this model has a full number pad, which some 15-inch computers, like the Surface Laptop 5, don’t have.

Connectivity, audio/video, and apps

All Carbon Black Inspiron 15 (3525) types have the same 15.6-inch, 1080p, 16:9 touchscreen. It has simple plastic borders and a non-glare surface to make it easier to see in different situations, but it’s not very pretty. The 120 Hz frame rate makes reading and moving the mouse more smooth. The screen works again for simple tasks. The anti-glare layer makes the screen easier to see. The 120 Hz frame rate makes it faster to scroll and move the mouse, which is helpful. The images are boring and lack colour, contrast, and power. The panel stops TV and films from playing, making this laptop even more useful. Unexpectedly, the speakers are moving, which makes the picture bad. Dell puts the speakers on the sides of the laptop. If you use this on your lap, your legs might cover them. Busier music can make the sound muddy and annoying in the upper mids when played loudly. Even though there is no bottom, the sound is loud and clear for speakers that face down. The Inspiron 15 (3525) comes with very little extra software, which is good. It comes with My Dell software, which gives you quick access to the laptop’s power management and advanced sound and video streaming settings—not that they’ll help with a computer that’s so bad for entertainment.

Tests of Productivity

UL’s PCMark 10 mimics office and content-creation processes and tests performance for office-related tasks like word processing, spreadsheets, web browsing, and video meetings to figure out how productive a laptop is. Three more CPU measures use all cores and threads to see how ready a PC is to handle processor-intensive tasks. Maxon’s Cinebench R23 uses Cinema 4D to make a complicated picture, and Primate Labs’ Geekbench 5.4 Pro tries to look like PDF rendering, speech recognition, and machine learning. The open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 can change a 12-minute 4K movie to a 1080p video, though shorter times are better. The last productivity test, Puget Systems’ PugetBench for Photoshop, uses Adobe’s Creative Cloud version 22 of Photoshop to measure a PC’s content creation and multimedia speed. It uses GPU acceleration to quickly open, rotate, resize, save, and add masks, gradient fills, and effects to Photoshop pictures.

Tests of the screen and batteries

To compare how long a laptop’s battery lasts, a power rundown test plays a locally saved 720p video file (the open-source Blender movie Tears of Steel) with the screen brightness set to 50% and the sound volume at 100%. Before the test, we fully charge the battery and turn off Wi-Fi and the lights on the computer. We use a Datacolour SpyderX Elite monitor calibration reader and Windows software to find out what percentage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 colour gamuts or palettes a laptop screen can show, as well as the brightness at 50% and 100%, in nits.

Dell’s Inspiron 15 (3525) has a long-lasting battery but a bad screen, which makes it look worse than other laptops. Start with the good stuff. In our tests, the Inspiron’s 41Wh battery worked for more than 9 hours. The other computers were also happy to work for more than 9 hours. The IdeaPad lasts more than 10 hours, while the HP Laptop 17 lasts more than 11. All of these are nothing compared to the ZenBook 13, which we tested and found to last for 17 hours. The screen on the Inspiron is also the worst. Its highest brightness of 258 nits and coverage of 66% of the sRGB colour space make it useless for use and creation outside. The HP Laptop 17 and the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i aren’t much better, but the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i can go up to 400 nits.

Verdict

Dell’s Inspiron 15 (3525) is a fast and economical home or remote business PC that doesn’t accomplish much beyond the essentials. Greater worry: Better machines frequently eclipse it. Even if Inspiron works today, its competitors can stay working tomorrow, something it can’t promise. Plus, those choices are more fun after work.

FAQs

1. What are the Dell New Inspiron 3525 Laptop’s main specs?

For the processor, RAM, storage, display, and other characteristics, see the Dell website or product documentation.

2. Can I increase Dell New Inspiron 3525 RAM and storage?

Dell laptops offer RAM and storage upgrades. See the user manual or contact Dell support for upgrade alternatives.

3. What OS does the Dell New Inspiron 3525 run?

Check if the laptop runs Windows and its version.

4. Dell New Inspiron 3525 battery life?

Usage and parameters affect battery life. Check product literature or user reviews for battery performance.