Dell Inspiron 13 5379 Review: An Efficient Convertible Laptop

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Dell Inspiron 13 5379: At First Glance

Convertible laptops have saturated the laptop market so much that top brands like Dell have a lot of them in their database. Therefore, choosing the best one for your needs becomes difficult considering the quick succession between different models.

Thankfully, this review is aimed at helping you discover one of the many Dell convertible laptops – Dell Inspiron 13 5379. In agreement with what I stated earlier, the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 was released just a few years after its predecessor – Dell Inspiron 13 5368.

Hence, one might begin to wonder about the differences between this laptop and its predecessor.

To discover the significant differences (if any) between the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 and its predecessor, continue reading this review.

Dell Inspiron 13 5379: Design, Dimension, and Weight

Design-wise, this laptop does not have any significant change from its predecessor. Instead, it comes with a simple look, just like its predecessor, Inspiron 13 5368.

Specifically, the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 comes with an all-plastic chassis. Hence, this laptop may be more fragile than laptops with metal chassis.

However, the laptop lid has a light feel, and it is smooth when running your palm through it. On the laptop’s lid, you will find a glossy Dell logo encircled at the center of the lid.

Meanwhile, this laptop is available in a color option that has been described as Theoretical Gray. You might be wondering what color that is, well a Theoretical Gray has a similar shade as industrial cement.

Having talked about the lid, let us proceed to open the lid. However, opening the lid with one hand might be difficult due to the stiffness of the laptop’s hinges.

Thankfully, the hinges support the lid firmly, and they allow you to smoothly transition between tablet, tent, stand, and laptop modes. However, the hinges create a wide gap between the tablet and the keyboard area when using this laptop in tablet mode.

Upon opening the lid of the Dell Inspiron 13 5379, you will uncover its 13.3-inch display surrounded by thick bezels.

Although the bezels are unimpressively thick, the thickness allows the top and bottom bezels to house some essential features.

Speaking of which, the top bezel houses the webcam together with an infrared camera that supports Windows 10 Hello for facial recognition. The camera allows you to unlock your laptop securely via facial recognition.

For the lower bezel, it is home to the center-positioned Dell logo.

When it comes to the display, it comes with two resolution options that you can pick from. Firstly, it comes with an HD (1366 x 768 pixels) resolution.

Secondly, you can get this laptop with a Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) resolution. In comparison between the two options, the Full HD display produces a better and clearer image compared to the HD display.

In addition to its resolution, this laptop comes with an IPS panel. It is expected of an IPS panel display to have excellent viewing angles such that the display remains viewable irrespective of the angle you view it.

Sadly, the viewing angle on the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 is not impressive despite its IPS panel. As a matter of fact, at about 160 degrees angle, the colors on the display are terribly washed out.

Another display feature that determines the quality of display contents is screen brightness. Unfortunately, the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 reaches only a maximum brightness of 198 nits.

With this brightness level, the display might be disappointing to use in brightly lit environments. Another area where this display fails to impress is its meager color reproduction.

Specifically, this display only manages a 47% coverage of the AdobeRGB color gamut. This implies that the display will be unable to display a wide range of colors.

On a positive note, the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 features a glossy White LED-backlit touchscreen. The touchscreen is responsive, and it works well with the fingers or a stylus pen.

However, the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 does not ship with a stylus pen. Therefore, you will have to purchase a stylus pen at an extra cost.

In addition to the responsiveness of the touchscreen, it also supports palm rejection which helps to differentiate actual screen inputs from accidental ones. Hence, there will be no unintentional inputs when you place your palm on the screen when writing or drawing.

Moving on to the laptop’s deck, this laptop features a chiclet keyboard with decently spaces keys. The keys have shallow key travel of 1.1 mm.

For clarity, key travel refers to the distance between a key’s resting and fully depressed position. Meanwhile, some people may find the shallow keys on this keyboard more convenient to type on.

However, the shallow, deep travel of these keys might be a little challenging to users who type better on keys with deep travel. Thankfully, the keyboard on the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 is backlit.

Hence, this keyboard is suitable for use in the dark.

For the touchpad, you will find it below the keyboard on the palm rest. The touchpad has integrated keys, and it is very sensitive, even at the corners.

Hence, touch inputs on the touchpad register quickly. Additionally, the touchpad supports multitouch gestures such as pinching with two fingers or swiping with three fingers.

For its sound production, the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 has two speaker grilles located at the bottom of the chassis. The speakers have relatively better sound than the predecessor’s however, the speakers still lack bass.

Let us talk about the weight and the dimension of this laptop. The Dell Inspiron 13 5379 weighs 1680 g and has a dimension of 324 x 224.7 x 19.5 mm (W x D x H).

Compared with other similarly sized laptops, the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 is thicker and heavier. Specifically, the Acer Spin 5 is lighter with a weight of 1202 g.

The Acer Spin 5 also has a dimension of 300 x 235 x 14.90 mm (W x D x H).

Likewise, another Dell Inspiron, the Dell Inspiron 13 7373 has a weight of 1630 g and a dimension of 309.60 x 215.70 x 15.50 mm (W x D x H).

So far, I have covered a lot of grounds but there is still more to learn about this laptop. At this point, I will now talk about the ports featured in the Dell Inspiron 13 5379.

As expected of a 19.5 mm thick laptop, the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 has a decent selection of ports. The ports are majorly located on the sides of the laptop.

Specifically, the right side houses one USB 2.0 port and an SD card slot. Meanwhile, the left side houses an AC charging port, two USB 3.1 ports, and an HDMI 1.4b port.

In conclusion, despite the plastic build of the Dell Inspiron 13 5379, its design has a relatively decent design. Therefore, I will be rating it an eight out of ten in this design section of the review.

Dell Inspiron 13 5379: Processor (CPU) Performance

This Dell Inspiron 13 5379 comes with two processor configuration options. Firstly this laptop comes with an Intel Core i5-8250U processor.

The Core i5 processor comes with 4 cores and a base frequency of 1.60 GHz. In addition, the processor has a maximum frequency of 3.40 GHz and 6 MB cache memory.

Secondly, you can get this laptop with an Intel Core i7-8550U processor. This processor runs at a base and boost frequency of 1.80 GHz and 4.0 GHz, respectively.

Furthermore, this processor also comes with 4 cores and has an 8 MB cache memory.

Meanwhile, this review is based on the first processor option – the Core i5 processor.

With the Intel Core i5-8250U processor, this laptop should perform processor-intensive tasks. However, the laptop with the second option will be more powerful because of its higher clock speed.

Meanwhile, to be sure of this laptop’s capability, I will be sharing its Cinebench R15 result with you.

For clarity, Cinebench R15 is a test tool that evaluates a computer’s real-world performance capabilities. This benchmark is divided into two parts – the single-core and the multi-core.

For better understanding, by single-core, we’re referring to utilizing just one processor core. Meanwhile, multi-core refers to when all the processor cores are utilized.

You should be aware that the higher the benchmark score, the better the computer performance. Based on the test, the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 scored 144 points in the single-core test and 611 points in the multi-core test.

Comparatively, the Acer Spin 5 scored the exact 144 points in the single-core test, just like the Dell Inspiron 13 5379. Meanwhile, in the multi-core test, the Acer Spin 5 scored 534 points which are below the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 multi-core scores.

Also, the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 performed better than its predecessor in the benchmark test. Specifically, the predecessor – Dell Inspiron 13 5368 – scored 130 points in the single-core test and 312 points in the multi-core tests.

For a better perspective, the Acer Spin 5 runs on the same Intel Core i5-8250U processor as the Dell Inspiron 13 5379. Meanwhile, the predecessor to Inspiron 13 5379 runs on an Intel Core i7-6500U processor.

From the test result, it is easy to see that the Core i5 processor in my test model performed well. Hence, the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 deserves nine out of ten in this review section.

Dell Inspiron 13 5379: Memory (RAM) Performance

The Dell Inspiron 13 5379 comes with DDR4 memory, which runs at a speed of 2400 MHz. DRR4 is the fourth generation of DDR RAMs with increased efficiency than the previous generations.

Furthermore, the RAM on this laptop has a standard memory capacity of 4 GB and a maximum memory capacity of 16 GB. Fortunately, the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 comes with two memory slots.

Hence, to upgrade the memory to its maximum capacity, you can have up to 8 GB RAM on each slot. Meanwhile, with the standard 4 GB RAM on this laptop, you will be able to perform light multitasking.

However, the multitasking ability of the laptop gets even better when you increase the RAM capacity above 4 GB. Meanwhile, the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 model I am reviewing comes with 8 GB of memory in one of its slots.

With 8 GB RAM, this laptop is powerful enough to multitask with 25 Chrome tabs without slowing down. That said, let me show you this laptop’s performance on a PCMark 8 benchmark.

Speaking of PCMark 8, this is a test tool that evaluates the overall performance of a computer. As you might expect, a higher score in this benchmark shows a better performance.

From the benchmark test, the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 had 3592 points. In comparison, the Acer Spin 5 had a lower score of 3197 points.

However, it is surprising that the Dell Inspiron 13 5379’s predecessor performed better than it in this benchmark. Precisely, the predecessor – Dell Inspiron 13 5368 – scored 3699 points.

Considering the benchmark test result, I will be rating the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 seven out of ten in this section.

Dell Inspiron 13 5379: Storage Options and Performance

The storage options of this laptop are impressive as well. The Dell Inspiron 13 5379 can ship with two storage options that you can choose from.

Firstly, this laptop comes with SATA HDD, which takes up to a 1 TB storage capacity. Secondly, this laptop comes with a SATA SSD storage drive with a maximum storage capacity of 512 GB.

Both storage options have their advantages and disadvantages. For instance, SSD storage has a faster speed than HDDs, but SSDs do not support large storage capacities as HDDs.

Another factor that might determine your storage choice is that SSDs are not mechanically built, unlike HDDs. Due to the mechanical build of HDDs, they are prone to noise and crashes.

Hence, based on the criterion I mentioned above, you can choose the storage option that best suits your need. Meanwhile, this review is based on Dell Inspiron 13 5379 with a 512 GB SATA SSD.

To determine the storage drive’s performance, I will share its result in a file transfer test with you. From the test, the SSD storage took 42 seconds to copy 4.97GB of mixed files, which translates to a copy rate of 121 MBps.

Consequently, the copy rate is relatively slow for an SSD drive. However, because this is a SATA SSD and not a more expensive SSD like PCIe, we can only accept its performance.

In addition to the transfer test, I will also share the result of this drive on a CrystalDiskMark test. A CrystalDiskMark benchmark determines the sequential read and writes speed of a computer’s storage.

For clarity, a sequential read speed is a time taken for a file saved on a storage drive to be opened. On the other hand, a sequential write speed determines how long it takes to save a file.

For the CrystalDiskMark benchmark, it is equally important to note that a higher score denotes better performance.

Hence, the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 had a read speed of 447.9 MBps and a write speed of 304.8 MBps.

In comparison, the Acer Spin 5, which uses the same storage drive performed better. Specifically, it had a sequential read speed of 462.7 MBps and a sequential write speed of 439.9 MBps in the same test.

Meanwhile, compared to its predecessor, the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 only succeeded in recording a higher write speed. Precisely, the predecessor – Dell Inspiron 13 5368, recorded sequential read and write speeds of 479 MBps and 270.1 MBps, respectively.

In conclusion, the SSD storage on the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 does not quite live up to our speed expectation. Hence, I am compelled to rate the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 a seven out of ten in this storage review section.

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Dell Inspiron 13 5379: Graphics Card Performance

The Dell Inspiron 13 5379 comes with an Intel UHD Graphics 620 graphics card. This graphics card has a base frequency of 300 MHz, and a boosts frequency of 1150 MHz.

The Intel UHD Graphics 620 is an integrated GPU hence, it does not have a dedicated video RAM. Based on that, this laptop can not be used to play graphics demanding games.

Similarly, you cannot expect the laptop to perform other graphics-intensive tasks.

However, this graphics card should be capable of handling light graphics tasks. Regarding that, this Dell Inspiron 13 5379 should be able to play light games at medium and low settings.

For example, the laptop should play BioShock Infinite (2013) at 27.1 fps on a medium setting. Also, the Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016) should play at 11.7 fps on a medium setting.

In addition to the gaming performance I have shown you, I will also share the laptop’s graphics performance in a 3DMark benchmark. 3DMark is a test tool that determines the graphics rendering ability of a computer.

Similar to the other benchmarks, higher scores imply that the laptop performed better. Hence, the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 had 8053 points in the 3DMark benchmark test.

Meanwhile, the Acer Spin 5, which also uses an Intel UHD Graphics 620, performed better in the same test. Specifically, the Acer Spin 5 scored 8654 points.

On the contrary, the predecessor – Dell Inspiron 13 5368, performed less with 7945 points. However, the predecessor runs on a less powerful GPU – Intel UHD Graphics 520.

In conclusion, despite being an integrated GPU, the Intel UHD Graphics 620 on this laptop has a decent performance. Therefore, I will be rating the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 eight out of ten in this graphics review section.

Dell Inspiron 13 5379: Battery Life and Performance

The Dell Inspiron 13 5379 features a 3 cell, 42 WHr Lithium-ion battery. Unfortunately, Dell did not tell us precisely how long this battery can last under normal usage.

However, to determine the performance of this battery, I will be showing you the result of a battery test performed by notebookcheck.com. According to the WiFi web surfing test, the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 lasted 5 hours 24 minutes.

Compared to its predecessor, you will be glad to know that this laptop performed better. Specifically, the predecessor – Dell Inspiron 13 5379, which also has a 42 WHr, lasted 4 hours in the same test.

In conclusion, from the test result, the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 had about an hour and a half more battery life than its predecessor. Therefore, I will be rating it nine out of ten in this battery performance review section.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The Dell Inspiron 13 5379 is more of a laptop than a tablet. Hence, it is more comfortable to be used in a laptop form than a tablet form due to its dimension and weight.

Meanwhile, this laptop comes with better hardware configurations and performance than its predecessor. Moreover, this laptop graphics is powerful enough for light graphics applications and games.

Not only that, but the overall performance of this laptop has shown that it can be used for basic computing tasks.

Therefore, for business persons, students, and every other person, the Dell Inspiron 13 5379 is an option worth considering.

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