I'll be the first to admit that I'm usually all about the extreme stuff. If
it's the thinnest notebook in the world, you've got my attention. If it's the
biggest, baddest curved display, you've got my attention. So, why on earth then
am I bothering to cover the Dell Inspiron 177000 series, a hyper
mainstream model that bears more resemblance to my wife's compact from
college than it does to anything else that I've ever covered on this channel.
because it folds up to be a 17in sixlb
tablet. What the
Whoa. Mass Drop is featuring the M220
semi-open headphones from AKG, boasting
a pretty steel black and white color theme. Check them out at the link in the
video description. Let's open up with the basics. When I
say the Inspiron 177000 series is
mainstream, I really do mean it. This is a moderately thin 17-in machine with
solid build quality in the $900 to $1,400 price range. Not cheap enough to
be a commodity box made of plastic, but
it's not trying to be some kind of mobile workstation powerhouse. So, the
hardware inside is pretty modest, keeping the overall cost fairly low.
It's available with a Core i5 6200U or a
Core i76500U. But like I mentioned in the Techquicky
episode about what i3, i5, and i7 actually mean, the 6500U, while an i7,
is actually a dual core hyperthreaded 15watt low power skew, not designed for
more than moderate productivity or light content creation or gaming. Anyway, mine
is the middle-of the road model, rocking the Core i7 processor option, 16 gigs of
DDR4 RAM, a 128 gig SSD with a 1 TB hard
drive for overflow, and a GeForce 940MX
2 gig dedicated graphics card. Something I was pleased to see even on the
entry-level model since a DGPU can make a big difference in certain video
editing workloads, as I covered in my can you edit 4K video on an Ultrabook
video here. In terms of I/IO, on the
right is an SD card reader and a Are you
for serious right now, Dell?
Starting to remember why I don't cover mainstream stuff. A USB 2 port. This I
got to see for Yeah, that's a USB 2
port. Damn it, Dell. Anyway, on the left is a headphone microphone jack, a USB 3
port, an HDMI 1.4 port, and a USB type-C
port that'll handle USB and DisplayPort duties. and you can actually charge the
laptop with it. So, that's kind of cool, I guess. Even if the IO isn't
impressive, at least I can find some comfort in the solid construction. Good
build quality actually doesn't really surprise me anymore since everything
Dell has shipped me since they took the company private again has been very
solid for the price. And the Inspiron 177000 continues this trend. The palm
rests don't really flex unless you put a lot of pressure on them. The speakers
are surprisingly good for bottom-mounted ones and don't suffer from that sounds
like it's coming from behind you thing that I've experienced before. And the
webcam is a solid pretty good. Though, if I was using this regularly for video
conferencing, I would probably wish for a better microphone. Moving on to the
experiential things. The keyboard is a little spongy, but it's quiet and didn't
slow me down too much with a basically bog standard layout and the number pad
being one of the nicest things about carrying around something this size.
Side note, I'm glad keyboard backlights are standard now. The touchpad tracks
well and is thankfully an appropriate size for the 17inch 1080p IPS
touchscreen display. Another huge improvement over the displays of
mainstream notebooks of your and I
hadn't really used Windows Hello much, but the facial recognition from the
integrated IR camera is really, really
fast, even in pretty poor conditions. Though, I haven't experimented much with
having other people try to break through it, so your mileage may vary. Let's talk
about the killer app now, though. The laptop by day, tablet by night, twoin-
one conversion that can be done with a quick backflip of the LCD panel.
Honestly, whether it was watching
movies, playing casual touchscreen games, or
what else do people even do on tablets? I really wasn't sold on this feature.
Dell's promotional images are all focused on touchscreen DJing
applications and people enjoying concerts. So, I guess there's a market
there that they're going to go in and corner. But from an average user's
perspective, the weight, something Dell
either forgot or conveniently omitted from the product page and size end up
being more of a hindrance than a help for the Inspiron 177000 in this
operating mode. But that's okay as long as the tablet mode doesn't hurt the way
it functions as a normal laptop. So, does it? In a couple ways, maybe, but
not much. The display is a bit heavier,
making actual laptop operation less
feasible since it's poorly balanced and will easily fall off your knees if you
move around too much. And my guess is that the 360° hinge is the reason that
it can't be lifted with one finger. But
that's about it. Screen wobble, which some of you are probably noticing when I
bang on this table, is almost entirely due to this table being unstable. It's
not a laptop issue. So then if I was to
completely ignore the twoin oneness, there's a lot to like here. Battery life
is really solid. Thermals are a strong point with the aluminum chassis
remaining at much lower temperatures than I'm accustomed to with all the
gaming laptops that come through here, even while under heavy CPU load. And on
that note, the dedicated GPU doesn't cause overheating either, even when it's
working hard at the latest casual games like Lego Batman 2, making this machine
suitable for keeping the kids busy, as long as they don't expect to be playing
the latest AAA titles at 4K or whatever.
This is what Tomb Raider looks like, by the way, at 720p, all lowest details.
Not pretty, especially at less than 30 FPS. So, that's the bottom line here,
then. If you can forgive the weight, something folks who desire a 17-inch
laptop are probably going to have to deal with one way or the other, the
Inspiron 177000 gets a solid recommendation, even if I personally
think the tablet mode contributes nothing to the experience. And beyond
that, made me feel kind of ridiculous while using it. Every time I do one of
these spots for Blue Apron, it kind of annoys me because they're not available
in Canada yet, and I have heard absolutely rave reviews about the
service. It's really cool. So, Blue Apron allows you to create delicious
chef-designed recipes at home. They deliver all the farm fresh ingredients
that you need right to your doorstep in exactly the right proportions. No
unnecessary trips to the grocery store, no wasted food, and they're delivered in
a refrigerated box so the ingredients will stay fresh even if you're not at
home when your package arrives. They offer two types of plans, the twoerson
plan and the family plan. And there is no commitment. You can skip or cancel
the service at any time. The meals are between 500 to 800 calories per person
and can be prepared in 40 minutes or less, which is actually, from my rough
napkin math, less than the time that it takes for me to gather up all the kids,
go out to somewhere for takeout, and carry it home. I mean, it's actually
more efficient to just make my own food and it's better for you. So, Blu-ray
print offers a large selection of recipes and is always adding new dishes.
And if all of this sounds appealing to you, all you got to do is be one of the
first 100 people to use our link in the
description below to get three free meals on your first Blue Apron order.
So, go check that out. So, thanks for watching, guys. If this
video sucked, you know what to do. But if it was awesome, get subscribed, hit
that like button, or check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured in
the video description. Also linked in the description is our merch store,
which has cool shirts like this one and our community forum, which you should
totally join. Now that you're done doing all that stuff, you're probably wondering what to watch next. So, click
that little button in the top right corner to check out our latest video
over on Channel Super Fun.