Dell Vostro 5471 Review: Perfect Budget Business Laptop?

July 16, 2018

Laptops are capable of a lot of things, but most will use it for basic tasks. Most of us will buy a laptop for gaming, or media consumption, but there are a lot of people who just want a laptop that works well, can do text editing, browse the web and take it where ever they go. Well, this one is mostly targeted at those people. The Dell Vostro 5471 is very portable, well-performing laptop with good thermals and a decent display. Continue reading to find out if this laptop is the perfect combination for you.

Specs of Dell Vostro 5471

Display: 14″ Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution IPS technology
Processor: Intel Core i7-8550U
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon 530
RAM: 8GB DDR4
HDD: 1TB
Weight: 1.6kgs
Battery: 65Whr (load 1h/idle 4h)
Price: Rs 1,00,000
▶️Available at Big Byte, Putalisadak (9851183182)

Build and Design

The looks did succeed to impress me. The 14-inch laptop shows off rounded corners at the edges that don’t go out of notice. The notebook is slim and lightweight which has surely aided my activity of carrying it around every time. Well, I have never had to break a sweat trying to fit it in my bag!

Also, the slim design is something I was happy to show off. The only complaint I have with the design is that the edges are a bit too pointed and if not careful you can get scratches on your hands.

Display

The Dell Vostro 14 5471 features an IPS Full HD display that greets you with excellent viewing angles and a bright and vibrant display. Additionally, you also get an anti-glare feature that helps you prevent possible eye strain. Colours on this device seem bright and vibrant. I have loved watching videos and movies on this device.

Performance

The Dell Vostro 14 5471 is powered by Intel’s 8^th generation Core i7-8550U CPU coupled with an independent AMD Radeon 530 graphics card that handles the graphics of this device. Likewise, the 8 GB DDR4 RAM that comes with this device is ample for usage.

On day to day use, I have had no complaints with this device what so ever as this one provided me with speedy performance. Regular works including using Chrome, Microsoft office run like a breeze. I have also run Photoshop on this device and to my surprise, it ran quite smoothly. What was even more surprising is that Photoshop ran quite well with Illustrator running alongside it.

I am not trying to slam the performance of the GPU but even though this is an entry-level graphics processor, demanding applications like Photoshop and Illustrator ran quite well. Up until now, we have reviewed quite a few laptops and what’s common in them is that all of them were gaming laptops. But the Dell Vostro 14 5471 is a bit different because it caters to a different audience.

Gaming performance

All the impressive performance was until I started gaming on this device! The gaming performance of this device is, what I would like to say disastrous. First I played CS-G0, which ran at around 60 fps at medium settings at 1080p resolution. Now, this is not a very demanding game so I had more expectations for the laptop.

Then I tried playing PubG and even at low settings it was unplayable. Then I switched to very low settings and still, the game ran very poorly at around 30 fps. After some time I experienced serious frame drops and the game ran at 15 fps. So, the bottom line is, if there is something this laptop should not be used for, it’s gaming!

Since the Dell Vostro 5471 is not intended for gamers, I will not complain. I was just checking if this one would surprise me, but it didn’t.

Thermals

The laptop did heat up a little, although the surface temperatures never went above 50 degrees at any point, even under the most extreme loads. Under normal usages like Microsoft Word, Chrome and other stuff, the temperatures were totally usable. Neither did the laptop throttle up to a point where it was actually noticeable.

Storage & Connectivity

It has a 1TB hard drive, with an option to opt-in for an SSD. The hard disk did not feel slow at any point and app opening time was also fine. I would still put in an SSD for myself, but for the purpose, most will hardly care.

As a business user, you get ample ports for usage at your disposal. There are two UBS 3.0 ports, you get an SD card slot, HDMI port, DP/PD port, etc. So working on this laptop while connecting to other devices or network devices is not a problem. The fingerprint sensor that resides on the power button is just an icing on the cake.

The laptop also has a decent webcam for all the Skype calls and conferences, although selfies lovers will struggle. Similarly, the laptop had decent audio output with two speakers located at the bottom of two sides. With headphones connected, the Vostro 5471 has quality audio output.

Keyboard and Trackpad

Talking about physical usability, the keyboard is something that has impressed me thoroughly. The keys are placed at a good distance from each other making it less probable that you will press the wrong keys. Similarly, the keyboard has two levels of backlit adjustments that you can set in accordance to your preference. So, typing in dark conditions is not a problem with this one. The trackpad, on the other hand, is smooth and responsive.

Battery Life

Talking about battery life, the device gives you good backup for around 4 hours without plugging in the charger. Of course, battery drainage is relative to brightness settings and the type of work you do. So, on a medium level of brightness and regular works, it gave me 4 hours of battery. It’s impressive that the device takes less than an hour to get fully charged.

Conclusion

So if you ask me if business users should get this device, the answer is yes! In terms of looks and usability, the Dell Vostro 5471 delivers good performance. And since it can run Photoshop and Illustrator very well, it may be a good option for photographers who are looking for a portable yet good-looking laptop at a relatively lower price than high-end laptops. The drill here is, this is a good laptop, no doubts on that but I think it’s slightly overpriced. It would have been the best buy for a little bit lesser price tag. But on a serious note, for the gamers out there, this one is a big NO.