Dell Inspiron 17 7000 2-in-1 review: It's a flippin' shame

Bigger isn't always better. Last month, I reviewed the 13- and 15-inch Dell Inspiron 7000 2-in-1

6.8

Dell Inspiron 17 7000 2-in-1

The Good

The Dell Inspiron 17 7000 2-in-1 offers a spacious 17-inch backflipping touchscreen, discrete Nvidia graphics, an accurate touchpad and a face-recognizing camera -- all in a remarkably thin metal frame.

The Bad

Poor battery life and fewer features than Dell's 13- and 15-inch hybrid models -- even though this 17-inch version costs hundreds more. The power button, located on the edge, is easy to press by accident.

The Bottom Line

This Dell might be the easiest way to carry around a giant touchscreen, but it sacrifices a lot. Dell's slightly smaller, near-identical 15-inch version is less expensive and better equipped for the job.

The thing is, Dell also sells a larger 17-inch version of the same laptop -- only it's not nearly as nice.

It's not all bad

I don't mean that Dell's 17-inch 360-degree hybrid is a bad laptop. Not at all.

Starting at $899 (£999, not sold in Australia), this Dell Inspiron 17 7000 2-in-1 fits a capable backlit keyboard, responsive touchpad and high-quality 1,920 x 1,080 IPS backflipping touchscreen display into an attractive (if uninspired) aluminum body.

That's already an array of features you won't necessarily find on a laptop under $1,000. My favorite feature, an infrared camera that lets you sign into Windows with your face (it really works!) is hard to find on laptops at all.

Now super-size that screen to 17 inches, add a 10-key numpad for work and a discrete Nvidia GeForce 940MX graphics chip for (limited) play, and one might think you'd have quite the portable PC.

But it's also not great

Though it's pretty neat to scroll through websites on a spacious 17-inch touchscreen, my dreams of using it as a tablet were quickly squashed by the Dell's 6.12-pound (2.77kg) frame. Even propping it up on a leg while sitting on the couch proved tiring.

And before you pick this Dell as a gaming laptop, know that the GeForce 940MX chip isn't all that powerful. I definitely played some Overwatch with this PC, but only at a fairly low 1,280x720-pixel resolution with graphics turned all the way down. Even older games like BioShock Infinite and 2013's Tomb Raider couldn't do better than 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution and low levels of detail.

Meanwhile, Dell's 17-inch version of the Inspiron 7000 has the worst battery life of any of Dell's new 7000-series laptops. It died after only 3 hours of real-world use -- much less than the 4-5 hours I got with Dell's 13- and 15-inch models.

And you can't just pull out an awesome USB-C battery pack to charge it like the 13- and 15-inch models, either: the increased electrical demands of the Nvidia chip means you'll need to carry the standard power brick wherever you go.

Other notes

• Dell's optional $60 USB-C to HDMI / VGA / Ethernet / USB adapter inexplicably doesn't work on this laptop, even though it works with the 13- and 15-inch models.
• Other than the USB-C socket, it has a pretty standard array of ports: Two USB 3.0, one HDMI-out, one 3.5mm audio jack, and an SD card slot.
• There's enough space on the brushed-aluminum deck, beneath the number pad, to comfortably use a small mouse.
• The battery did a bit better in our standard video streaming drain test: 5 hours and 45 minutes. Good news if you watch a lot of YouTube.
• The glass screen cover definitely throws off a lot of glare, but it's the price we pay for touch.
• When gaming, the Dell's fans get noticeably loud, and constantly speed up and down. It's an annoying whiny sound.
• The hinges on this 17-inch model feel stiff enough to keep the screen stable.
• This laptop is huge and unwieldy enough that people will comment, and stare, if you try to use it on a crowded commuter train. (Ask me how I know.)

Verdict: Skip

Unless you absolutely, positively must have a 17-inch touchscreen laptop that flips over backward, your choices are clear. If you like how this laptop looks, skip the 17-inch Dell Inspiron 17 7000 2-in-1 and buy the 13- or 15-inch model instead.

Starting at just $750 in the United States, those smaller notebooks are more capable than the 17-inch version, even if you pay the full $1,150 to upgrade it. They're an easy recommendation, period.

But if you were attracted to Dell's 17-inch version because of the relatively low price for discrete Nvidia graphics, I've got a far better option for you there, too. For just $800 (£749, AU$1,699) the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 has more capable graphics, more battery life, and a solid-state drive for just $50 more.

Just know that better laptops with even better graphics are coming soon.