With the exception of its 360-degree screen (and the Chrome operating system), the Dell Inspiron Chromebook 14 could probably pass for any of the company’s corporate laptops. Slate gray with black accents, its averageness extends not just to its design, but to its performance, too.
Design
The Dell Inspiron Chromebook 14 isn’t exactly overloaded with design flourishes. A curvy undercarriage contains a roomy, but not backlit keyboard with a small passive stylus tucked away underneath. The 14-inch screen (the same size as the HP Chromebook x360 14) offers the usual 1,920 by 1,080 pixel resolution, and that screen can fold back to rest against the base of the laptop for tablet mode. The curves around the edges of the screen and base make the all-aluminum laptop awkward to firmly grip when using it in this configuration, but otherwise the system works well, with few hiccups.
Features
The inclusion of a stylus is the big sell here, as the keyboard and touchpad both offer basic plain usability and average performance. Screen brightness and the 20-millimeter thickness are average as well, but the 4.0-pound weight of the system is heavy for a machine of this size, tipping the scales at a half pound heavier than the HP Chromebook x360 14, which has a screen of the same dimensions. That heft is noticeable in regular use, and the machine weighs you down when using it for an extended period of time, particularly in tablet format.
Specs
The Dell Chromebook 14 has the same 2.2 GHz Core i3-8130U CPU as the HP Chromebook x360 14, and while it features 128 GB of flash storage, Dell has dropped only 4 GB of RAM into this system (all other laptops in this roundup have 8 GB of RAM). That’s a big weakness, and the lack of RAM clearly restricts performance. Ports include two USB-Cs (either can charge the device), a single full-size USB 3.1 and a micro SD card slot, a standard array.
Performance
The Core i3 CPU isn’t the fastest on the market, but it’s really the lack of 8 GB of RAM that holds the performance of the Inspiron 14 back. Overall, this system’s performance was as close to average as it gets, with a Speedometer 2.0 benchmark (the industry standard, which measures the responsiveness of web applications) 3 percent above the average of the field. On the JetStream 1.1 test, which looks at more advanced operations like graphics and audio processing, as well as encryption, the Dell scored 2 percent above average, while it mustered a score 13 percent above average on the similar Kraken 1.1 test. Those numbers put the Dell squarely in the middle of the pack, across the board.
Battery
The Inspiron Chromebook 14’s battery lasted for 8 hours and 30 minutes on my full-screen video playback test. That’s a good score, and only 45 minutes shorter than the Acer Chromebook Spin 13, which led this roundup.
Conclusion
While the Dell Inspiron Chromebook 14 feels awfully average on most fronts, it’s definitely not when it comes to price. Just in the weeks I spent working with the system, its price dropped from $600 to $500 on Dell’s site (let alone other sellers), making it a massive bargain in a category that sees competing systems flirting with the $1,000 mark. I’m not thrilled about the relatively beefy size or the relatively lackluster performance, but if price is at all a concern, it’s a system well worth looking at.
