BackAsus ROG G501VW vs Dell Inspiron 15 7000: Getting into the game
The new Asus and Dell gaming laptops are surprisingly slim, with better-looking designs and powerful processors that offer a superior experience
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Gaming laptops aren’t usually known for their slick designs, but Asus and Dell have managed to change that with the latest update to the ROG laptop series and the Inspiron 15 7000 gaming laptop series, respectively.
For one, the newer-generation hardware, and that includes the latest Intel processors, doesn’t require too many cooling vents—so the laptops look better. In terms of dimensions, the ROG G501VW is 20.6mm thick, and the Inspiron, 25.3mm. The design language of the two laptops, however, is very different.
Design
Asus has not cut any corners in terms of the material used, with an aluminium chassis and good-quality matte plastic components. Unfortunately, we did notice a certain flex on the lid if you press down hard on it, and that might not be good news for the display that sits beneath the metal layer. The red colour accents on the keyboard, the display bezel and the touch pad add a personality to what may otherwise have looked like a conventional laptop meant for homes and offices.
Dell, on the other hand, has carried over a lot of the design cues from its existing Inspiron laptop range. The metal construction is dressed up in a premium matte finish. And it isn’t as much of a fingerprint magnet as the Asus laptop.
Display
The 15.6-inch display of the G501VW is a genuine highlight. It packs in the 4K resolution of 3,840x2,160 pixels, and is an in-plane switching (IPS) panel. The IPS hardware allows for really good colour reproduction, which is great news irrespective of what you are doing on this laptop—gaming, watching movies, or even trying your hand at some photo editing. The purity of the white colour, the excellent viewing angles and the smoothness of the fast-moving visuals all combine to make this a rather impressive canvas.
Dell has also packed the Inspiron 15 7000 with a 15.6-inch screen, with the 4K resolution of 3,840x2,160 pixels. Between the two, this is a tad more reflective because of the glass layer over the screen. The native brightness levels are really good and the colours look sharp, but what really stands out is the crispness of the written word—reading is extremely easy.
Performance
There is no shortage of power in either device. They are powered by the Intel Core i7-6700 processors, which have a whopping 16 GB of RAM, and run Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system by default. While these two specifications define a really powerful laptop, Asus does have an edge with the 512 GB solid state drive (SSD), which has really fast reading and writing speeds. In comparison, Dell has used the hybrid storage combination, which pairs a 128 GB SSD with a 1 TB hard disk drive (HDD). In this, the Windows operating system is stored on the SSD, while your data is stored on the HDD, the latter being significantly slower while opening heavy files.
In terms of capacity then, the Inspiron 15 7000 has the advantage, but the G501VW will be significantly faster in terms of performance. A fast SSD improves multitasking performance in general, and the gameplay experience is enhanced because the game maps load much quicker.
What gamers would be more interested in are the graphics capabilities, and parity on this front continues in terms of some specifications—both laptops have the Nvidia GTX 960M graphics, with 4 GB GDDR5 memory. This is a fairly powerful graphics card, and shouldn’t have any problem handling the latest game titles. The only stumbling block is the 4K display—these cards are not powerful enough to let you play games at the 4K resolution and still reproduce smooth frames without any stutter. You will need to turn down the resolution settings in the game to get smoother performance and frames. Once you do, the gameplay is flawless.
Both laptops are not meant to be road warriors when it comes to battery life. Depending on what you are using them for, both the G501VW and the Inspiron 15 7000 can last anywhere between
2-5 hours.
Verdict
Asus has made a gaming laptop that offers an excellent display, blazing-fast performance and the latest specifications in a slim form. Dell is expanding the Inspiron 15 7000 Series into the gaming domain, and is ticking the boxes in terms of top-notch design, smooth performance, crisp screen and a more comfortable-to-use keyboard.
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