Buzz
1. Overview of the Dell Inspiron 3421 Design
Even though it's a used laptop, the design of the Dell Inspiron 3421 still captivates users. The machine boasts an eye-catching design with a textured pattern for a luxurious appearance and a solid feel. Made entirely of plastic, weighing about 2kg, and with a thickness of 25.5mm, the sturdy build quality ensures durability even after several years on the market. While it may not be considered lightweight compared to today's slim laptops, it's still portable enough for users to take to work or school.
The keyboard features a common chiclet design with short key travel and quick response for comfortable typing. The touchpad offers relatively smooth navigation, with nothing particularly noteworthy to praise or criticize.
On the left side of the machine, you'll find two USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, an HDMI port (for projecting images onto projectors or TVs), and a cooling vent. The right side includes an additional USB port and a DVD drive. If you're feeling nostalgic, you can keep the DVD drive for use, or replace it with dual SSD and HDD drives for enhanced practicality.
2. Screen and Display Quality
This Dell Inspiron laptop features a 14-inch display with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. While the aesthetic appeal of the screen may not be high due to the thick bezels, it offers good display quality with sharpness and fine detail, decent brightness, and vibrant colors.
Additionally, the screen is coated with an anti-glare layer to reduce eye strain, allowing users to work or view multimedia content comfortably for extended periods.
3. Hardware Configuration and Performance of Dell 3421
The hardware configuration of the Inspiron 3421 can be considered somewhat outdated at this time, but at a price of 3 million dong, it is still seen as a reasonable choice for those prioritizing affordability and basic performance needs.
Specifically, the Dell 3421 utilizes the Intel Core i3-2375M processor (1.50GHz clock speed, 3MB cache) or the Core i3-3217U processor (1.80GHz clock speed, 3MB cache). Both of these processors offer processing speeds that are not particularly fast, especially considering the relatively high performance demands of modern applications.
RAM options for the machine vary depending on your chosen configuration, with either 2GB or 4GB, which may not be ideal for multitasking and could be somewhat limiting for those accustomed to opening numerous Chrome tabs. However, if only essential applications are running, it still manages to operate relatively smoothly.
A surprising feature of the Dell Inspiron 14 3421 is its inclusion of a dedicated graphics card, the Nvidia GeForce GT 625M 1GB, providing a slight boost to overall performance for a better entertainment experience. With this discrete card, users can still enjoy playing some popular online games at low settings, although the frame rate (fps) may not be ideal, it's still commendable considering it's from a laptop released in 2015.
In addition to the Core i3 version, users may also consider two Core i5 versions - the Core i5-3317U (base clock 1.70 GHz, turbo 2.60 GHz) or the i5-3337U (base clock 1.80 GHz, turbo 2.70 GHz) - and the Core i7-3537U (base clock 2.00 GHz, turbo 3.10 GHz) if desired. These versions offer significantly better processing performance than the Core i3 versions, but naturally come at a higher price, with the Core i5 version priced at around 5 million dong and the Core i7 version around 7.3 million dong.
4. Battery Life
The machine is equipped with a 6-cell battery, and due to its moderate performance, it also doesn't consume much energy. Therefore, each charge allows the machine to be used for approximately 2 - 4 hours, depending on the configuration settings.
5. Dell Inspiron 3421: A Laptop for Basic Use at Only 3 Million Dong!
In general, the Dell Inspiron 3421 is not the optimal choice in terms of performance, partly because it's a mid-range product at the time of its release, so the configuration won't be as powerful as the high-end models. However, with the current price of only around 3 million dong, this is still a laptop that many people are eager to get their hands on, mainly for educational purposes, Office editing, or serving some other purposes that do not require high specifications.
Apart from performance factors, other aspects of the Dell 3421 are quite positive: the display screen is good, bright enough, the exterior design is glossy and attractive, and it even has a dedicated graphics card.
If what you need in a laptop is the most basic functionality at an affordable price, then the Dell Inspiron 3421 is definitely a very worthwhile suggestion to consider.
