For its pricing and capabilities as a capable big-screen laptop, we awarded Dell’s Inspiron 16 Plus (7610) Editors’ Choice honors last year. With a new 12th Gen Intel processor and an upgraded Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU, the new Inspiron 16 Plus model 7620 ($1,599.99 as tested) improves and upgrades its forerunner. (In addition to the clamshell model shown here, it is also offered as a convertible.) It’s a better replacement with minimal drawbacks thanks to its long battery life, clear 1080p webcam, and solid overall performance. Due to its higher price and less premium build quality than certain rivals in this price range, the Inspiron 16 Plus loses some of its value offer and misses out on this year’s Editors’ Choice award. Yet, it has a lot to recommend it as a general desktop substitute for workloads that need moderate creativity or productivity.
All Workflows at 16 Inches
Despite the reasonably powerful components within, the Inspiron’s construction and aesthetic are somewhat understated—a simple, basic design with a splash of subdued color. The design and materials of the 7620 fall a little short of that premium feel, despite the fact that this design has been a tremendous success for Apple’s MacBooks and Dell’s own XPS line. Of course, keeping things straightforward has a price-saving advantage, but the Inspiron 16 Plus ends up seeming more like a standard consumer notebook than the reasonably powerful, somewhat pricey device it actually is.
While not identical, the new Inspiron 16 Plus is pretty comparable to the model from a year ago. The Dell is quite thin (tapering to an even thinner 0.67 inch at the front edge), but its 16-inch display and onboard components prevent it from being extremely light. It measures 0.75 by 14.1 by 9.9 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.51 pounds. Even yet, for a laptop with a large screen, it’s fairly portable.
The remainder of the construction is decent but ordinary. Although the keycaps feel a little smaller than you’d expect for a laptop this size (especially considering there isn’t a numeric keypad), the keyboard offers comfortable typing with respectable travel and feedback.
The webcam, which offers 1080p resolution rather than the more common 720p, is another noteworthy feature. With video quality that is noticeably sharper than normal and which you’ll appreciate in a multi-purpose laptop on which you’re bound to make some video calls, it makes a significant difference for the end user.
The feature set is completed with reliable all-around connectivity. A USB 3.1 Type-A port, a Thunderbolt 4-compatible USB-C port, and an HDMI video output are located on the left side. A headphone jack, an SD card slot, and another USB-A port are all located on the right. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 6E are also supported by the laptop.
Tests of Productivity
The primary benchmark of UL’s PCMark 10 measures overall performance for office-focused tasks like word processing, spreadsheeting, web surfing, and videoconferencing. It does this by simulating a range of real-world productivity and content-creation processes. We also assess the boot drive’s performance using PCMark’s Whole System Drive storage benchmark.
To determine a PC’s aptitude for processor-intensive workloads, three benchmarks concentrate on the CPU while utilizing all available cores and threads. Although Primate Labs’ Geekbench 5.4 Pro mimics well-known programs like PDF rendering, speech recognition, and machine learning, Maxon’s Cinebench R23 renders a complicated scenario using that company’s Cinema 4D engine. Finally, we transcode a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p quality using the free and open-source HandBrake 1.4 program (lower times are better).
PugetBench for Photoshop, created by workstation manufacturer Puget Systems, uses the Creative Cloud version 22 of Adobe’s well-known image editor to evaluate a PC’s performance for multimedia and content creation apps. It is an extension that automates a number of standard and GPU-accelerated Photoshop operations, such as opening, rotating, resizing, and saving a picture, as well as the use of masks, gradient fills, and filters.
Performance
There are numerous variations of the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus. My test laptop had an Intel Core i7-12700H processor from the 12th generation, Intel Iris Xp graphics, 16GB DDR5 RAM, and 512GB PCle NVMe storage, while 8GB RAM and 1TB storage are also options.
Also, a 12th-generation Intel Core i5 processor is available for this laptop, which is intriguing because it can be combined with either the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 or the RTX 3060 GPU. I am unable to remark with certainty on the performance because I have not examined the RTX variants. Despite their high price, they will be worthwhile to consider if you want to occasionally use this laptop for gaming.
The RTX 3060 should be able to support 1080p gaming at approximately 60 frames per second and will be practical for things like Photoshop or video editing, while it won’t be the best option for creative professionals due to the screen’s low color accuracy. Unless you tinker with the graphics settings, the RTX 3050 will be able to run games at 1080p but at a substantially reduced frame rate.
A battery’s life
The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus’ battery performance is strong, as seen by its 11 hours and 43 minute runtime in the PCMark 10 Office Battery benchmark test. This is perfect for somebody who constantly loses their charger and was more than enough to get me through a workday.
With its weight, it’s challenging to suggest this laptop as an office tool. You won’t have to worry about taking a charger to the office, though, if you are willing to carry it around.
Verdict
Regardless of how you look at it, the Inspiron 16 Plus is the most functional low-cost workstation I’ve encountered and offers a lot of laptop for the money. I’ll even go so far as to suggest that it’s the best multi-use laptop you can have for around £1,000.
Anything is within its power. demanding efficiency? Check. fantastic media playback? Check. Triple-A gaming performance that is acceptable? Check. The fact that all of this power is housed in a stylish aluminum shell with a fantastic keyboard and lots of upgrade options after purchase is simply the icing on the cake. It comes highly recommended, in my opinion.
