May 11, 2013 - The Dell Inspiron 15R Special Edition really doesn't look at all different from the model as it was released several years ago. Instead, the company has decided to change the direction of the Inspiron 15R to use lower power consuming parts that provide enough performance for most users and introduced the Special Edition to use the traditional performance laptop parts. Externally, the systems are pretty much the same but internally they are quite different.
Powering the Inspiron 15R Special Edition is the Intel Core i7-3632QM quad core mobile processor. This is one of the faster versions of Intel's current generation of processors and provides it with a very high level of performance that can be used for just about any type of tasks including desktop video editing. The processor is assisted by 8GB of DDR3 memory which provides a smooth overall experience with Windows 8 even when doing a fair amount of multitasking.
One area where the Dell is very different from the competition is the storage system. It still uses a traditional hard drive to store all the applications, data and media files. In this case, it is a very large one terabyte drive that is larger than most at this price point. The drive does spin at a 5400rpm rate which would give it mediocre performance but Dell has elected to also include a 32GB solid state drive to be used as cache for the hard drive. This improves the boot speed of the system to under thirty seconds and helps frequently used applications and data from being available much faster. If you do happen to need some additional storage space, the system features four total USB 3.0 ports which is double what most of the 15-inch laptops tend to offer. There is still a dual layer DVD burner for playback and recording of CD and DVD media.
The next area where Dell tries to distinguish the Inspiron 15R Special Edition from the standard version is with the display and graphics. Here, the 15.6-inch display panel uses a 1920x1080 native resolution panel for very detailed display. It also features a matte coating which is a nice touch as it makes it easier to use under tough lighting conditions such as outdoors. Color is good but there is still some drop off in color and contrast and wider viewing angles. The graphics system uses the AMD Radeon HD 7730M graphics processor rather than just the integrated graphics of the standard edition. This certainly isn't a high end graphics processor as it won't drive 3D games up to the panel's full resolution but can be used for casual PC gaming at lower resolutions and detail levels. Instead, it provides a better level of acceleration for non-3D applications such as Photoshop than the integrated graphics.
The keyboard design has remained unchanged as well and is different from many other 15-inch laptops because it does not have a numeric keypad. This means that the keyboard is better centered on the display and has a bit more room between the isolated keys. It is backlit for those that will be working in lower light conditions. The trackpad is a nice size and is slightly recessed from the texture keyboard deck. Overall it offered an accurate experience and handled the Windows 8 multi-touch gestures without much problem.
The battery pack for the system remains the same 48WHr capacity rated one that was first introduced with this body design several years ago. This is common for many older or lower cost systems but is now on the lower capacity ratings for systems in its price range. In digital video playback testing, this resulted in four hours before the system went into standby mode. This is probably enough for most users but lacks the longevity of the new low power component standard edition with the same battery
Priced at $999, the Dell Inspiron 15R Special Edition sits between the lower cost of the traditional Inspiron 15R and the more expensive Alienware M14x. Competition at this price point either comes from slight more expensive gaming centric laptops or slightly less expensive general purpose ones. Some close options include the ASUS N56DP, CyberPower Xplorer X6-6000, Digital Storm xm15, HP Envy dv4t, and Lenovo Lenovo IdeaPad Y580. The ASUS N56DP is very similar in terms of features but uses an AMD A10 quad core processor and no SSD caching but is less expensive by at least $100. Cyberpower's Xplorer X6-6000 is a gaming system so offers better 3D graphics but is also much larger. The Digital Storm xm15 is similar is design and features but slightly more expensive with less storage space and performance and NVIDIA GT 635M graphics. Finally, the Lenovo IdeaPad Y580 costs just a bit more but features faster NVIDIA GTX 660M graphics
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