Dell Inspiron 3558 — A review. A fresh take on a ponderous yet trusty…
By: Shreyas Kuchibhotla
Tags: Windows, Laptop, Tech, Dell, Inspiron

Every now and then, a consumer electronics company releases a product the public calls a flagship: the product that is considered the premium, most expensive and tricked out product the company has to offer. But obscurely sliding down the manufacturing lines and shop shelves are those that cater to a series of people that need a good device, but aren’t willing to sell their kidneys to get it. These, in the case of notebooks, are what can perform necessary daily tasks with ease but begin to struggle with more power intensive activities. The Inspiron 3558 is one such device which offers more bang-for-the-buck than others, as will be explored beneath.

Build quality

This notebook is not a stylish device. It seems a bit rugged, and yet there is an element to the design that gives it a slightly more premium look and feel than other notebooks at the same price point. The huge plastic chassis houses a large screen panel and a roomy keyboard. It is quite heavy, almost 7 pounds, but is still comfortable on the lap. Despite it being a desktop-replacement notebook, it still feels considerably large by everyday standards, with tiny ultra-thin and light laptops like the MacBook and the Spectre gaining popularity. There are, of course, a few other quibbles with the notebook’s build: the bezel is uncomfortably sizeable and not up to the mark in today’s world with exemplars like the company’s own Infinity Display. Additionally, there exists a fair amount of flex on the back chassis, rather off-putting for a large and ponderous notebook. But overall, it is an iconic Inspiron design with nothing to complain about.

Display, Audio and Camera

If there’s one thing in this notebook that remains a huge gripe for most users, it’s the decidedly pedestrian display. It’s a TrueLife HD 1366x768 15.6 inch non-touch display panel, evidently not as sharp as it should be: a 15-inch screen should not have to keep up with this kind of resolution any more. In fact, tilt it a bit backward and the individual pixels are quite discernible without much difficulty. The viewing angles are particularly horrendous, evinced by the nearly “invert-colours”-esque scenario that plays out with a slight change in angle. To add to the issue, the screen brightness is abysmal, even eliciting severe strain on the eyes indoors at full brightness. To cut it some slack, however, it does possess the forever-despised Intel integrated graphics, and notwithstanding the pathetic display, the graphics themselves can be attributed to the incompetence of the graphics card.

Another major setback of what would otherwise been a good budget device is the audio. The microphone undergoes a fair level of lag, but the overarching point of vexation is the speakers. The sound is neither clear nor loud. The fact that the speakers are underneath the keyboard deck only exacerbates the issue, and as such, it is quite difficult to hear it even at 70 or 80 percent volume. What perplexes me as a user the most is that considering its bulky frame, Dell would have a higher volume in which to include better speakers. Even the much smaller MacBooks and a certain HP Pavilion convertible (which is still mediocre in every other way) have outstanding audio, a testimony to the fact that the provision for good speakers should ideally be indepent of the price point. It’s definitely a disappointment.

Finally, the camera is decent, but is terrible in low-light. It is a 720p shooter, and it takes good pictures overall. It should be fine for some light Skyping.

Keyboard and trackpad

Compensating quite well for the inconveniences in other aspects, these are the best features in this notebook by far. Dell makes some really good keyboards, and the one here is one of the best on the market. It’s a spacious keyboard with lots of travel, and it is comfy enough to maintain your typing speed even on your lap or in a moving car. The keys are quite flexible, and they are apparently spill-resistant, so a drop of coffee or orange juice on the key shouldn’t cause the notebook to malfunction. The power key is placed well out of reach of the backspace key, a thankful addition to the design (perhaps this is only that important for me and my oversized hands), and overall, you’re going to enjoy this keyboard quite a lot. One minor setback is the lack of backlighting, but if you don’t type much without light, this shouldn’t be a problem.

The trackpad is also excellent. It can’t match up with those on the new MacBooks, but it comes quite close to the company’s own XPS and the HP Spectre line. It isn’t very large, but it is responsive and comfortable.

Ports

A huge notebook like this offers much room for ports, and this one is no exception. Dell has generously fitted this one with two USB-2 ports, one USB-3, one HDMI, an audio jack, an optical drive (a rare thing in today’s slim notebooks) a LAN port, and an SDXC card slot. In fact, it even offers a Kensington lock-slot. So if you plug in a lot, this is the one to get.

Performance

This is where things start to get a little dicey. The Inspiron I have is powered by a fifth-generation Intel Core i3–5005U processor running at 2.00 GHz, 4 GB of DDR3 RAM, and a 512 GB 5400-rpm HDD.

Technically, they aren’t too bad, but freezes are quite common and opening even the simplest of applications like Word and Chrome takes ten seconds at the minimum. Editing video is far from intrinsically difficult on this machine, although rendering a ten-minute 4K filmstrip on Wondershare Filmora took almost two and a half hours. Some light work in the way of word and spreadsheet processing and YouTube slash Netflix consumption can be handled, but you edit video and photo a lot or are into programming heavy blocks of code, you would find yourself getting exasperated quite often.

Battery life is below average, rarely crossing 5 ½ hours on a single charge. It does charge quite fast, though.

Summary

Despite its flaws, the Dell Inspiron 3558 is a laptop that is faster than almost all others at this price point. If you’re willing to sacrifice portability for a better value, then go for it. If you’re willing to live with the display and the speakers, then it’s most likely going to be okay for you. But if you’re a power user who likes all the components to be the best, then don’t get it. All in all, it’s a good purchase, if you aren’t eyeing a premium notebook with a premium price.

The Inspiron 3558 (picture taken by author)

Note: This article was written a while ago and the model, while currently available, is difficult to find on the market.