Dell G5587-7866BLK-PUS Laptop Review

The Dell G5587-7866BLK-PUS is a great value mid-range laptop with a strong choice of components. You get a high-end hard disk, memory, and processor all aimed squarely at mainstream use and entry-level gaming performance. If you’re looking for a gaming laptop that can run most games at Full HD, and double up as a productivity machine, the Dell G5 15 is one of the most affordable options for the job.

Pros

• Remarkable performance for the price
• Capable of playing almost every game at Full HD
• Long battery life
• System hardly ever overheats
• Comfortable keyboard

Cons

• Dull display
• Bulky and heavy to carry around
• Powerful speakers
• Red and black design
• Easy to upgrade

Dell released their new laptops, a whole new series dedicated to filling the budget gaming segment of the market. In this review, we take a look at the new Dell G5587-7866BLK-PUS, a modern-looking laptop with bezel-less screens and thinner chassis. Ideally, the Dell G5 15 is a refresh of the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 series, our Editor’s Choice from last year.

For this new laptop series, Dell implemented an arguably more appealing design, a wide variation of GPU integration all the way from the GTX 1050Ti on our laptop to the RTX 2080 Maz/Q. Other options included in the configuration list include an Intel Core i5-8300H and Core i7-8750H processor and Full HD IPS panel displays (one of them 144HZ) and one 4K OLED display option.

Our review unit comes with Intel Core i7-8750H Processor, 16GB of RAM, 128GB SSD/1TB HDD, and Nvidia GTX 1050Ti graphics. What is common among this year’s G5 lineup is the design. The inside is made of an aluminum base while the outside is all plastic. The laptops flaunt a really good battery life and thoroughly comfortable keyboard. But other than that how does it perform. Join us as we dissect and figure out how it stacks up against other rivals in its wake.

Dell G5587-7866BLK-PUS Specs

Display	15.6 inches
Processor	8th Generation Intel Core i7-8750H Processor
RAM	16GB 2666MHz DDR4
Storage	128GB SSD/ 1TB 5400RPM
Graphics Card	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti with 4GB GDDR5
Operating System	Windows 10
Dimensions	10.82 x 15.32 x 0.98 inches
Weight	6.28 pounds
Ports
Networking	802.11a

Design and Features

The Dell G5587-7866BLK-PUS Laptop is a refinement of last year’s Dell Inspiron 15 7000 gaming laptop. And as such continues to offer good entry-level gaming performance with extras like futuristic ports and storage options (Thunderbolt 3 and PCIe NVMe). The main changes Dell made aside from design and aesthetics, is the processor and graphics card.

But we’ll deal with those in the performance section. As for the design, it’s a tame, low toned one that won’t immediately catch people’s attention. Just like its G3 sibling, at first glance, you won’t find anything flashy about it.

The case doesn’t take up the gaming personality you find on gaming-themed laptops. In fact, apart from the red and black color scheme, it would easily blend next to another office laptop. Dell did, however, build the Dell G5 15 to be as subtle as a dove but powerful enough to win a performance fight. Overall, it makes a good statement of performance over aesthetics. Of importance though, is that the case is sturdy and even when hurled to the ground, will emerge unscathed.

At 6.28 pounds and measuring 10.82 x 15.32 x 0.98 inches, the Dell G5 15 is chunky and heavy. It is certainly among the heaviest among its competitors. While the MSI GV62 8RE (5 pounds, 1.2 inches) is the thickest, it’s also about 1 whole pound lighter than the Dell G5 G15. The Lenovo Legion Y730 (5.1 pounds, 1 inch) is also sleeker and featherweight compared to our unit while the famous Dell XPS 15 is the lightest and thinnest (4.2 pounds, 0.7-0.5 inches)

Display

One of the biggest wrinkles on the Dell G5 15 is the display brightness. First, the G5 brags of a 15.6-inch screen, Full HD (1920 x 1080), thick bezel panel and a record low brightness level. You will have to turn on the brightness level all the way up to see anything beyond the first image on your screen. Don’t get me wrong, the display is dull and gloom but the images are clear and you can make out the faces of characters in your gaming scenes.

What I mean is the display misses the original bright natural colors of an image. At 219 nits, the display is way below the 284-nit category average. Compared to the competition, it is higher than MSI GV62’s 240 nits but lower than Lenovo legion Y730’s 302 nits and Dell XPS 15’s 371 nits.

Even so, the display has a few positive aspects about it. To begin with, it runs on an In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel which ensures great wide viewing angles. The panel also covers on 58% of the sRGB color gamut, which is a touch more than half of the 110-percent mainstream gaming laptop average.

Connectivity

The Dell G5 15 has a healthy selection of ports. The left sides house a Noble Lock slot, power jack, an RJ45 port, a single USB 3.1 port with the capacity to charge, and finally a 2-in-1 SD card slot. Generally, the left side holds the bulk of the ports.

Meanwhile, the right side features an HDMI 2.0 port, one Thunderbolt 3 port, two USB 3.1 ports, and a headphone jack. It would have been great if Dell had added a Mini DisplayPort to be able to compete with other rival systems.

Performance

The good assembly and choice of components is the reason the Dell G5587-7866BLK-PUS acquits itself admirably when it comes of performance. Under the hood, you’ll find an 8th Generation Intel Core i7-8750H processor, a six-core 12 threads processor built to deliver high-performance for run-to-the-mill tasks and gaming. The processor has a base clock speed of 2.2GHz but can reach highs 4.1 GHz on turbo.

On actual real-time performance, the i7-8750H has the capacity to power through most tasks. You can run applications, programming/engineering software, VR, content editing, and streaming. It is capable of powering through 30 Google Chrome tabs, three 1080p YouTube videos while running a AAA game in the background.

Memory and storage

Multitasking is powered by the 16GB DDR4 memory. 8GB is in most types of office tasks considered the standard amount of memory needed for casual home and office productivity. For gaming, the extra 8GB is an essential addition for the laptop to handle the extra tasks and graphics-intensive gameplay. So, 16GB is really the sweet spot for gaming machines. It should be capable of handling Office productivity, web browsing, media streaming, photo editing, and some gaming without breaking a sweat.

As far as storage goes, Dell did the right thing of including both SSD and HDD storage. The 1TB mechanical hard drive storage is a decent amount for content creators, gamers, and video editors who want to back up their data, multimedia, games, and music. The extra 128GB is just buffer-storage for when you need to retrieve data faster. It is relatively faster than traditional hard drive storage (the HDD runs at 5400RPM) and also enables loading software, programs, applications, and boot-ups be much faster.

Gaming Performance

The configuration list of this laptop has options for the graphics card you prefer choosing. If you want a laptop for its graphical capabilities and gaming prowess, the RTX family is the best option. The options are the RTX 2060 (6GB GDDR6) and the Max-Q versions of RTX 2070 (8GB GDDR6) and RTX 2080 (8GB GDDR6). Our unit, however, came with the GTX 1050TI card, capable of playing all the latest titles at Full HD with settings cranked up to maximum and yet offer solid frames rates.

To get the correct picture of gaming performance, we put the system to its paces. On gaming, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Ghost Recon: Wildlands played at a respectable 45fps and 36fps respectively in Full HD with optimum settings. That’s a tad lower than the 60fps mark that most gamers aim for. But reducing the graphics preset to medium settings saw those figures skyrocket to 53 fps and 65 fps.

It’s also worth noting that the fans do make so considerable amount of racket when the system get down and dirty. So, we recommend throwing on a pair of headphones or play some music on the speakers to muffle the sound. Even so, the fans manage to keep the temperatures down so it hardly ever gets noticeably hot.

Keyboard and Trackpad

Dell improved on the stiff keyboard from the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 to a springy and well-spaced keyboard. Although the keys come with 1.2mm of travel they have some snap to them. You need 74 grams of actuation force to get any impact which is pretty decent. The keys have click sound when typing and its also easy to blast across the keyboard because the keys are well spaced and comfortable to use. On the 10fastfingers.com typing test, I hit 92 words per minute with a 3.3 percent error rate.

The trackpad measures 4.1 x 3.1-inch has a brushed finish and red outline. It’s soft to the touch and responsive with almost negligible bounce back when pressing it. You won’t find any separate buttons on this touchpad but the pad is very responsive to Windows gestures. Three-finger taps and swiping worked without any unnecessary delays or issues.

Our Final Take

Aside from gaming prowess, one of the biggest highlights of the Dell G5587-7866BLK-PUS is the good battery life and comfortable keyboard. It’s great having a laptop you can rely on for productivity for long hours of your working day. The Dell G5 also combines the top-notch design of the Dell Inspiron 15 7000, high-end components, Full HD display and enough muscle to power through day-to-day tasks and gaming. We also appreciate the healthy set of ports and Nvidia GTX 1050Ti graphics card that is the reason behind its gaming success.

To sum it up, though the Dell G5587-7866BLK-PUS lacks some of the core bells and whistles and features to make it hardcore or even mid-range gaming rig, its price-to-performance ratio allows it to stand up as an easily recommendable gaming laptop. If you don’t mind the few sacrifices (like dull screen, lack of RGB lighting and mechanical keys), this is an easy-to-live-with laptop with enough grunt to get you through entry-level gaming.

Are there other alternatives?

If you’re willing to put in some extra money on the table, the Dell XPS 15 has a longer battery life (almost double), a detailed a brighter display, thin bezels, cleaner and louder audio, faster processor and ultimately better performance.

For users looking to save some cash, the MSI GV62 8RD offers more muscle thanks to a higher-end GPU than both the aforementioned Dell for much much less. Some other pros include a comfortable keyboard, strong speakers and all packed in an awesome design.

Should you buy it?

Well, as we’ve clearly seen, there are other alternatives. But for us, the Dell G5587-7866BLK-PUS makes a lot of sense for budget users. So we do recommend it as a great starting point for your gaming needs at this budget price point.