With the recent crop of Nvidia 1060, 1070 and 1080 GPUs, VR-ready gaming notebooks are here, but they definitely aren’t cheap. For budget-conscious uses who want to play the latest AAA games, but don't need high-end VR, the new Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming could strike an ideal balance between price and performance.
Starting at $899, the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 sports a 15-inch 1920 x 1080 screen, Nvidia GTX 1050 GPU, and an Intel Core i5 CPU. You also get 4GB of RAM and a 1TB 5,400 RPM as standard. That should give it more than enough to power to hit 60 fps at full HD on high settings in most modern games, and if you want a little extra oomph, you can upgrade to an i7 CPU, 4K display, M.2 SSD or an Nvidia 1050 TI GPU.
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It may not be an Alienware, but this laptop definitely looks like it's ready for play. Instead of putting gaming hardware in a standard Inspiron chassis, Dell has a bespoke red-and-black case for the 15 7000, complete with big rear vents on the back to keep heat under control and a relatively big onboard subwoofer on bottom to pump out the bass. Dell says there will also be a version with bright red panels and black accents too.
The 15 7000 Gaming also gets some nice red backlit keys with spill-resistant seals, and a selection of ports that include 3 USB 3.0s, an HDMI 2.0, SD card reader, headphone/mic jackand even gigabit Ethernet.
The best thing about the Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming is that it lowers the barrier to entry for those who just want to be able to take their games on the go without shelling out thousands of dollars.
Recently, it’s been tough to recommend budget gaming laptops because you either had to get something with a last-gen graphics cards to meet your budget, or spend at least $1,500 to get something that won't be obsolete within 6-months.
Now you don’t have to make that decision, and since Dell won’t be only system featuring Nvidia’s new budget-friendly 1050 GPU, 2017 is going to be a good time for mobile PC gaming, even for people on a budget.
