Dell inspiron with linux
EDIT 12 Oct 2021: DO NOT BUY. Sadly I now also have gotten the trackpad issues with this laptop that I was so afraid of. After some usage the trackpad just randomly freezes and works intermittently, and a reboot is necessary. This happens on both Windows and Linux (with the newest Bios installed as of 12 October 2021). There are countless posts of this issue on Reddit/Dell website/Amazon — Dell needs to recall this laptop and fix this issue. Unbelievable that after years of trackpad misery with the XPS lineup Dell still continues to produce and sell laptops with broken trackpads. Very sad given that this machine ticks all the right boxes otherwise.
I’ve had the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus for 3 months now and I’m still amazed by it.
I work in academia, often switching between working from my office (where I hook up my laptop to 2 external 4K displays) and working from the library with only my laptop. This laptop ticks all my boxes:
A 3K high-resolution display WITHOUT Nvidia dgpu, just the integrated GPU in a 16 inch display with 16:10 aspect ratio. Finding this combination is almost impossible. This has a phenomenal 3K display (same resolution as Macbook Pros) that’s just so easy on the eyes for coding, reading and so on. It is matte rather than glossy.
It’s such a relief to not have the NVidia GPU and all the related issues on Linux I got with it over the years on different laptops (draining the battery, problems when moving between workspaces with different monitors, flickering, scaling, waking from sleep, crashes etc.)
Just the iGPU of this laptop can drive 2 external 4k monitors (and the internal monitor) flawlessly. These monitors usually have text editors, Chrome tabs and Youtube videos on them, I don’t game.
Battery life: 10 — 12 hours on Fedora 34. My workflow consists mainly of writing papers, coding, browsing with Chrome and watching YouTube lectures. I can go all day switching between these tasks. The laptop has a big 86 Whr battery and not having the dGPU but just the iGPU really helps. A 3K resolution and such battery life on Linux is just fantastic — like a Linux replica of a Macbook Pro.
Dell separately sells 56Whr and 86Whr batteries that are compatible with this laptop as well (70N2F is the part # for the battery). You can chat with Dell and they will send you one — replacing it in the laptop is a matter of unscrewing 8 screws, 10 minutes of work. See the link to the service manual that I posted below.
Stability on Linux (Fedora 34): I haven’t rebooted the laptop in a week now and have carried it around everywhere. Close the lid and it’ll go into sleep mode where it drains about 5% in 12 hours. Open the lid back up and it works flawlessly again, even with external monitors and so on.
All the hardware in this laptop works out-of-the-box with Fedora (except for the fingerprint reader like every other laptop).
Fast CPU with 8 cores: 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11800H
Components are all easily replaceable and upgradable: SSD, RAM, wifi card, battery, just a matter of unscrewing and rescrewing about 8 screws with a standard P1 screwdriver. Dell put the whole service manual for this laptop online with steps on how to do this:
I upgraded the RAM to 64GB DDR4 3200mhz (although Dell says 32GB is the max for this laptop, the CPU supports up to 128GB. I followed the Crucial website which said that 64GB works on this laptop, and indeed it does). I sometimes work with large datasets which need the memory. Took me 10 minutes in total to replace the RAM and it was one of the first times I opened a laptop, very easy.
There are also 2 SSD slots in the laptop which support 2TB each. Note that one slot accommodates 2230 SSDs only — these are more pricey than the conventional 2280 SSDs.
Other Laptops
Comparison with other laptops I bought this year and returned:
LG Gram 16: Also without Nvidia dGPU — Linux ran flawlessly on this as well and it’s 2 pounds lighter than the Dell which is nice. However I returned it because of the extremely glossy display. Because of the glare I couldn’t work with it in the library where I had no control of the lightning and the max brightness is relatively low as well (350nits I think) to get around glare issues. I put a matte screen protector on it but it made the screen too grainy for me.
The beautiful matte finish and the 3K resolution of the Dell just blows the LG Gram display out of the water.
Also the fact that the 16GB RAM is soldered in the LG Gram 16 was a deal breaker for me.
Also found the keyboard of the LG Gram a little stiff although it has more key travel (1.6mm vs 1.3mm), but the keyboard on this Dell I find really comfortable.
Zephyrus G15: Tried this gaming laptop for a while because I mistakenly thought that I’d need a dGPU to drive 2 external 4K monitors. Lots of headaches related to NVdia, needed to reboot to turn Nvidia off to save battery, and reboot again to turn it back on because due to the wiring inside the dGPU was needed to drive multiple external monitors. Although with the Linux asus kernel this was one of the ‘better’ Linux-Nvidia experiences compared to other laptops, still too much instability and hacking around.
- Dell is notorious for quality-check issues with trackpads on laptops. I’ve had this laptop for 3 months and the trackpad is still fine, but I did buy the Next-Day On-Site Warranty from Dell with the laptop so if something happens a Dell technician will be at my door the next business day to fix it. I also bought Accidental Damage protection for 3 years for this laptop
- ‘Just’ 300 nits brightness. Not a problem for me but in direct sunlight you won’t be able to see the screen.
- Would be nice to have a second Thunderbolt 4 port on this laptop instead of the AC charging port, particularly since the laptop can also be charged from the Thunderbolt 4 port (I never use or carry the bulkier AC charger but always charge through the TB4 port). But really nitpicking here.
The closest laptop to this seems to be the Lenovo P1 Gen 4 / Extreme Gen 4 which also seem come with the option to have a high-res display (4K) without Nvidia dgpu (though not sure). Their shipping times of +4 months — not uncommon for Lenovo laptops — are a joke though so I haven’t considered these. The IT department at my university also no longer supports Lenovo laptops because of their notorious screen lotteries where the screen from one manufacturer is better than one from the other on the same laptop — leading to colleagues comparing laptops and returning the bad ones en masse.
Hope this helps, shout out to Dell for creating such a nice laptop! Flawless Linux experience on the Inspiron 16 Plus 7610. Let me know if you have questions and I’ll answer them below.
EDIT 12 Oct 2021: DO NOT BUY. Sadly I now also have gotten the trackpad issues with this laptop that I was so afraid of. After some usage the trackpad just randomly freezes and works intermittently, and a reboot is necessary. This happens on both Windows and Linux (with the newest Bios installed as of 12 October 2021). There are countless posts of this issue on Reddit/Dell website/Amazon — Dell needs to recall this laptop and fix this issue. Unbelievable that after years of trackpad misery with the XPS lineup Dell still continues to produce and sell laptops with broken trackpads. Very sad given that this machine ticks all the right boxes otherwise.
The Dell Inspiron 15 3501 supports Linux
The Inspiron 15 3501 scores points with low noise and heat development as well as enough room for two storage devices. The CPU and GPU performance falls short of the possibilities.
With the Inspiron 15 3501, Dell has a 15.6-inch office laptop in its lineup with its technology housed in a slim, matte-black plastic case. The chassis lacks stability: The lid and the base unit in particular can be twisted a bit too much. The matte display (Full HD, IPS) offers stable viewing angles, good contrast, and decent color reproduction. However, the brightness and color-space coverage are too low.
The built-in combination of the Core i7-1165G7 processor, 16 GB of RAM (dual-channel mode), and a 512 GB NVMe SSD (M.2 2230) equips the laptop for office and Internet applications. If the storage space isn’t enough, an additional 2.5-inch storage drive can be installed. You can also replace or expand the RAM.
Overall, the hardware falls short of its possibilities. The CPU benchmark results are below the 1165G7’s average because Dell has chosen a low TDP of 13 watts. The DDR4-3200 RAM only operates at a clock rate of 2666 MHz. The Wi-Fi data rates aren’t compelling, either. The reason for the slow rates can be found quickly: The built-in WLAN chip (Intel Wireless AC 9462) only allows maximum transfer rates of 433 Mb/s.
Besides Windows 10, the Inspiron also supports Linux — Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (64-bit) to be precise. Users who would like to abandon Microsoft’s operating system have an easy way to do so with the Inspiron. We were able to install Ubuntu without any issues, and all the hardware worked correctly immediately after the installation.
The configuration variant that we reviewed is one of the top models in the range, and it purchased for just under 800 Euros (~$928) — a lot of money for a basic office laptop. There are less expensive variants available. Prices start at around 450 Euros (~$522).
Our review of the Dell Inspiron 15 3501 (5FTCX) provides more information and many benchmark results.
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