In today’s fast-paced digital world, laptops have become essential for work, education, and entertainment. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or simply someone who enjoys using a laptop for various daily tasks, finding a machine that balances power, design, and price is key. One laptop that fits this bill is the Dell Inspiron 15 3520 Intel Core i5 12th Gen. This device promises reliable performance, sleek design, and a host of features that cater to a variety of users.
In this comprehensive review, we’ll take a deep dive into the features, design, performance, and overall value of the Dell Inspiron 15 3520.
Design and Build Quality
Dell has always been known for creating sleek, professional-looking laptops, and the Inspiron 15 3520 is no exception. At first glance, the laptop exhibits a clean and minimalistic design. The matte-finished plastic body feels sturdy and has a premium look despite its mid-range pricing. The smooth edges and simple aesthetic make it suitable for both professional and personal use.
The 15.6-inch display sits within moderately thin bezels, giving the laptop a modern appearance without compromising screen size. While the chassis is plastic, it’s durable enough to handle daily wear and tear. At approximately 1.7 kg (3.75 lbs), the Inspiron 15 3520 is not the lightest laptop in its category but remains portable enough for users who frequently travel or move between workspaces.
The keyboard on the Inspiron 15 3520 is well-designed, featuring comfortable keys with decent key travel. Typing is smooth, and users will appreciate the full-sized layout, which includes a numeric keypad on the right—an essential feature for those who deal with numbers or data regularly. The touchpad is also responsive and supports multi-touch gestures, ensuring smooth navigation without the need for an external mouse.
Overall, the Dell Inspiron 15 3520 scores well in the design and build quality department, with an ergonomic and durable construction suitable for both casual and professional use.
Display Quality
The 15.6-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) display on the Dell Inspiron 15 3520 delivers a vibrant and sharp viewing experience. For its price, this laptop offers a solid display that handles day-to-day tasks with ease. The anti-glare coating is particularly useful for users who work in bright environments or outdoors, as it reduces reflections and makes the screen easier to view under different lighting conditions.
With a 60Hz refresh rate, the screen provides decent fluidity for basic computing tasks such as browsing, streaming, and word processing. While it may not be ideal for intensive gaming or professional-grade video editing, it’s more than adequate for regular media consumption, working with documents, and even some light photo editing.
The viewing angles are reasonable, though, like most laptops in this category, the colors tend to shift slightly when viewed from extreme angles. However, for typical front-facing use, the color accuracy and brightness levels are good enough for most users, including students and professionals.
Performance
One of the major selling points of the Dell Inspiron 15 3520 is its Intel Core i5-12th Gen processor. Powered by Intel’s latest Alder Lake architecture, the i5-1235U processor offers a perfect blend of performance and efficiency. This 10-core processor (comprising 2 performance cores and 8 efficiency cores) is designed to handle multitasking, ensuring smooth performance across a range of applications.
With a base clock speed of 1.3 GHz and the ability to boost up to 4.4 GHz, the Intel Core i5 in the Inspiron 15 3520 is capable of handling most daily computing tasks, such as browsing, document editing, video streaming, and even moderate multitasking, with ease. Users can comfortably switch between multiple applications without experiencing significant slowdowns, making it suitable for productivity-focused individuals.
The 8GB DDR4 RAM included in this model further enhances multitasking capabilities, allowing users to run several programs simultaneously without performance drops. For most office tasks, educational work, or moderate content creation, 8GB of RAM is more than enough, though users who frequently work with more demanding software may consider upgrading the RAM (expandable up to 16GB).
The 512GB SSD storage is another highlight of this laptop. Solid-state drives (SSDs) are significantly faster than traditional hard drives, and the inclusion of a 512GB SSD ensures fast boot-up times, quick file access, and smooth overall performance. The storage capacity is generous enough to store plenty of files, documents, photos, and even a decent number of games or media files.
Graphics Performance
The Dell Inspiron 15 3520 comes with integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics, which, while not comparable to a dedicated GPU, delivers impressive performance for integrated graphics. For users who plan on using the laptop for typical day-to-day tasks, multimedia consumption, or light gaming, the Iris Xe graphics are more than capable.
Casual gamers will be able to play less graphically demanding games like League of Legends, Minecraft, and older titles at lower settings, though users looking to play AAA titles will likely need to invest in a laptop with a dedicated GPU.
For content creators, the integrated graphics are sufficient for light photo editing, video streaming, and basic graphic design tasks. However, if you’re a professional editor or need a machine for heavy 3D rendering or video editing, you may want to look at laptops with more powerful dedicated graphics cards.
Battery Life
Battery life is another important factor to consider when purchasing a laptop, and the Dell Inspiron 15 3520 performs admirably in this area. Equipped with a 3-cell 41Wh battery, the laptop offers decent battery life that should comfortably last between 6 to 8 hours on moderate usage. For users who spend most of their time browsing the web, watching videos, or working on documents, the Inspiron 15 can easily last a full workday without needing a recharge.
That being said, battery life can vary based on the specific tasks being performed. More power-intensive activities, like video editing or extended gaming, will naturally drain the battery faster. Fortunately, the laptop supports fast charging, which allows users to quickly top up their battery when they’re in a hurry.
Connectivity and Ports
The Dell Inspiron 15 3520 offers a good selection of ports, ensuring compatibility with a wide range of peripherals. The laptop includes:
- 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports
- 1 x USB 2.0 port
- 1 x HDMI 1.4b port
- 1 x 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo jack
- 1 x SD card reader
- 1 x RJ-45 Ethernet port
This selection of ports is more than sufficient for most users, allowing for easy connection to external displays, USB drives, headphones, and other devices. The inclusion of an Ethernet port is also a nice touch for those who prefer wired internet connections, especially when working from home or in environments where Wi-Fi is not as reliable.
In terms of wireless connectivity, the Inspiron 15 3520 comes with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2, both of which ensure fast and stable connections for wireless internet and peripheral devices.
Software and Features
The Dell Inspiron 15 3520 comes pre-installed with Windows 11 Home, Microsoft’s latest operating system, which offers a range of modern features and an intuitive interface. Windows 11 is designed to enhance productivity, with features like Snap Layouts for easy multitasking, Microsoft Teams integration, and better support for touch and pen input (though the Inspiron 15 is not a touchscreen laptop).
Dell also includes its Dell Mobile Connect software, which allows users to connect their smartphone to the laptop for seamless file transfers, screen mirroring, and notifications, making it a handy tool for people who want to integrate their mobile and desktop workflows.
Final Verdict
The Dell Inspiron 15 3520 Intel Core i5 12th Gen is an excellent choice for anyone seeking a well-rounded, reliable, and affordable laptop. It offers a great combination of performance, design, and battery life, making it suitable for students, professionals, and casual users alike.
With its powerful 12th Gen Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and fast 512GB SSD, the Inspiron 15 3520 can handle most tasks with ease, from day-to-day computing to more demanding workloads. While it may not be suitable for heavy gaming or professional-grade content creation, it delivers more than enough power for general productivity, media consumption, and light creative work.
For those in search of a solid mid-range laptop that balances performance and affordability, the Dell Inspiron 15 3520 is definitely worth considering.
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