If you are in the market for the cheapest yet reasonably powered gaming laptop, the Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK is perfect for you. Powered by an Intel i5-6300HQ 2.3 GHz Quad-Core processor coupled with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 4GB graphics unit, the Dell 15.6-inch gaming laptop i7559-763BLK has enough power to allow gaming at 1080p and heavy applications in a multi-tasking environment.
We are not claiming that this is the best gaming laptop out there today, far from it. This laptop is perfect for mid-tier gamers and those users who want a little more power from their laptop than what you get on a normal laptop that lacks dedicated graphics.
It’s one of the cheapest gaming laptops you can buy today as it was retailing at just under $750 on Amazon at the time of publishing this review. This is a solidly built laptop and we definitely recommend it.
Pros
- Nice full-size keyboard
- Reasonably priced
- Solid design
- Great IPS display
- Great Internal SP BL Keyboard
Cons
- GPU may be a bit dated if you want enough gaming power for the next 5 years
- Battery life is a bit low
- Intel i5-6300HQ 2.3 GHz Quad-Core (6M Cache, Turbo up to 3.2 GHz)
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 4GB GDDR5
- 8 GB DDR3L / 256 GB Solid-State Drive
Dell was one of the first OEM manufacturers to introduce portable gaming laptops after they acquired Alienware. Since then, they have been creating class-leading gaming laptops with the Alienware in attempts to satisfy this market. Indeed, one of my very first 15-inch gaming laptops was an Alienware M15x discontinued in 2009.
It was a big, bulky and thirsty toaster and yet one of the best gaming 15 inches of its era. It’s amazing how far the laptop gaming segment has come from those early days.
Today’s gaming laptops are reasonably thin and powerful little monsters that breeze through modern AAA titles at over 65fps. You may be wondering the reason for the history lesson, well apart from the nostalgic value, it forms a good precedent for asking the following question….
Dell owns Alienware which makes gaming laptops, what then is this Dell 15.6-inch gaming laptop i7559-763BLK? This is a question a lot of tech-heads asked when Dell introduced this Nvidia 960M powered gaming laptop.
Whether it packs enough compute power to be considered a gaming laptop at this price point is what we demystify in the Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK review below.
Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK Specs
| Processor | 6th Generation Intel i5-6300HQ Quad-Core | 6M Cache | 2.3 – 3.2 GHz |
| RAM | 8GB DDR3L 1600MHz (8GBx1) |
| Display | 15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-Glare LED-Backlit Display |
| Graphics Card | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 4GB GDDR5 |
| Internal Storage | 256 GB Solid State Drive |
| Ports |
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| Audio | Stereo speakers and subwoofer + MaxxAudio Pro |
| Connectivity | Wireless 1×1 802.11ac WLAN | Bluetooth 4.0 | Ethernet |
| Battery | 6-Cell 74WHr |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home 64-bit |
| Dimensions | 15.08 x 15.08 x 10.43 in |
| Weight | 6 lbs | 2.7 kgs |
| Warranty | 1 Year Parts and Labor Limited Warranty |
DESIGN AND FEATURES
This laptop is housed in a solid aluminum chassis with a matte finish. As with the rest of the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 series of laptops it’s a bit on the heavy side weighing at just under 6 pounds according to our scale-(the official weight is 6 pounds) but weight is definitely not the focus here because the Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK gaming laptop is meant to be a desktop replacement laptop.
Not the best for lugging around in your backpack unless you want to use it as your daily driver. But the overall design is not too thick and the nicely done aluminum surfaces make it easy to slide into any backpack or sleeve.
There is not much to write home about with regard to aesthetics but the Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK is appealing to the eye and feels quite solid and definitely durable. That said, the red accents around the trackpads and below the speaker grill do make the Dell i7559-763BLK stand out as a powerful gaming laptop, not just a normal Dell laptop.
This laptop does come with some pretty decent sounding Stereo speakers and subwoofer featuring MaxxAudio Pro. We like the positioning of the speakers just above the keyboard which is great since audio is directed towards you as opposed to the down-firing bottom-mounted speakers that we see in most laptops today.
Input devices
The Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK comes with a backlit full-size keyboard and trackpad powered by windows precision drivers. The trackpad is slightly off-center which seems to be the trend for most modern gaming laptops today as having it nearer to the WASD keys improves gaming input.
The trackpad is actually very snappy and quite accurate so can be used for light gaming and general use but an external USB/Bluetooth mouse is always the best bet for serious gaming.
The keyboard on the Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK is very nice. It has adjustable backlighting for usage in dark environments. Key travel and tactility are great; no complaints there except maybe for the size and positioning of the arrow keys. Overall, we love the keyboard as it performs well for gaming as well as typing without a hitch
Ports
This gaming laptop comes with a decent selection of ports. On the right side, you will find an HDMI port, one USB 3.0 port, SD card slot, and Kensington lock slot. Moving over to the right side, you find two more USB 3.0 ports, headphone/mic combo jack, and the power port.
The lack of USB Type-C and a display port is a little discouraging but hey, this is an entry-level gaming laptop after all and we think available ports are just adequate for most use cases anyway. The HDMI port is more than sufficient for 1080p display output as the 960M is actually at home at 1080p.
Wireless
A modern laptop should not miss Wi-Fi and even Bluetooth connectivity. The Inspiron i7559-763BLK has the 6th Generation Intel 3165AC -BT4.0 802.11ac Wi-Fi as well as Bluetooth 4.0. Since it’s a gaming laptop, it also has a gigabit Ethernet port for faster and more stable internet data transfers.
DISPLAY
This gaming laptop is equipped with an impressive FHD anti-glare IPS wide-angle display (1920×1080). This being an IPS display you get a very rich color reproduction, deep contrast, and amazing viewing angles. The downside to glossy IPS panels is the reflections and glare but the display on the Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK features anti-glare technology which reduces reflections and glare to a degree.
Consuming media like YouTube, Netflix, and movies at 1080p on the Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK is amazing, to say the least. This display supports almost 99 percent of the sRGB color gamut and can really get bright.
Our verdict on the FHD display on the Dell i7559-763BLK? Excellent and definitely usable.
PERFORMANCE
The Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK is powered by a 6th Generation Intel Core i5-6300HQ Quad Core with 6M Cache and up to 3.2 GHz clock speeds coupled with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M with 4GB GDDR5 memory. Though a bit dated, the 960M graphics chip is still widely used on entry-level gaming laptops and still packs enough power to handle modern games and heavy graphics applications.
The Intel CPU is one of the flagship chips based on Intel’s sky lake architecture. It’s a pretty powerful and power-efficient processor that really shines on single-threaded workloads as well as performing decently on multi-threaded tests.
This means that it’s an excellent choice of CPU for gaming. This laptop has 8GB RAM and an ultra-fast 256GB SSD. Read and write speeds on the SSD are well over 1500 Mbps as per tests were done on crystal disk.
Graphics and Gaming
To get the best out of the Dell 15.6-inch gaming laptop in terms of games, avoid playing demanding titles at ultra or very high settings. Modern games like PUBG, GTA, and Dirt rally play at decent frame rates above 60fps at high settings on 1080p resolution.
In addition to gaming, the Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK gaming laptop is a great productivity machine thanks to its powerful Core i5 processor as well as Nvidia dedicated graphics.
Graphics editing on Photoshop, the illustrator is very fluid and snappy and render times are quite swift. Cooling on the Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK is nicely executed with twin fans that exhaust air to the sides. Thermal throttling on the CPU is minimized through this clever cooling mechanism.
Battery life is not great especially during heavy use which is something we’ve gotten used to when it comes to these desktop replacement laptops. The 6-cell 74WHr battery will keep you on for up to a decent 4.5 hours of heavy usage like streaming, web browsing and gaming.
CONCLUSION
Compared to similarly specced and priced laptops like the Aspire VX 15 Gaming Laptop, the Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK gaming laptop is a pretty solid entry-level gaming laptop that packs enough power on the cheap.
- Intel i5-6300HQ 2.3 GHz Quad-Core (6M Cache, Turbo up to 3.2 GHz)
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 4GB GDDR5
- 8 GB DDR3L / 256 GB Solid-State Drive
