Dell has recently launched the 15.6-Inch Inspiron 5558 Signature Edition laptop. While the specs are expected, the thing that caught my eye to it is that for it’s affordable price it comes with a FullHD(1920 x 1080 Pixel) 15.6-Inch touchscreen. So let’s have a detailed look at it and see what’s what.
The Exterior
Dell has been on a roll in recent years launching laptop after laptop with very clean and elegant designs. This Dell Inspiron 5558 Signature Edition 15.6-Inch Touchscreen Laptop is no exception.
The top cover is finished in a textured silver finish with the black Dell logo right in the middle. The same silver finish continues on the sides of the body.
The inside and underside of the laptop are finished in matte black plastic. Surprisingly for a touchscreen laptop, the 15.6-inch touchscreen isn’t completely covered by a single continuous peace of glass. It has the same black matte plastic border as non-touchscreen models with the built in 720p Webcam and stereo mics in the middle of the top border. The FullHD (1920 x 1080 Pixel) 15.6-inch screen of the Dell Inspiron 5558 is already a very desirable feature and it also is a 10 finger touchscreen display. With such a grate display they have had to save somewhere. The only other design detail is a small silver Dell logo on the bottom edge of the screen.
The palmrest is finished in a slightly lighter black than the full sized chicklet style keyboard. Another surprising feature on this laptop is the backlit keyboard. The power button is placed in the top right corner of the palmrest. The Dell Inspiron 5558 comes with a very generously sized touchpad. The touchpad shares the same simple and elegant design of the rest of laptop with no visible click buttons. The only giveaway is the small silver line in the middle of the bottom part of the touchpad.
The status LEDs are placed on the left side of the front edge. The two built-in speakers are located right underneath the front silver edge. As with all laptops with this sub optimal placement, expect the speakers to easily get muffled due to covering during use.
The underside comes with some features that are becoming rarer by the day. The battery pack can be removed and replaced or upgraded if desired and it also features a large service cover that gives you access to the HDD, RAM and WiFi module.
The Connectivity
The available connectivity on the Dell Inspiron 5558 is pretty much what you would expect from a laptop. The left side of the body features the power port, the Ethernet port, HDMI-Port, 1 USB 3.0-Port and the built-in card reader. The other side of the body features the Kensington-lock port, the DVD-writer, 2 USB 2.0-Ports and the combo Headphones-Mic-Jack. On the inside it features the latest WiFi 802.11 b/g/n/ac technology and Bluetooth 4.0.
The only thing missing from this package is a VGA-out, but this has become standard by now. Another surprising aspect is the USB-mix, with only 1 USB-3.0 port and 2 USB-2.0 ports. I would have expected to see this combination reversed.
The Performance
The performance of the Dell Inspiron 5558 Signature Edition 15.6-Inch Touchscreen Laptop is average for its price range. It comes with a 4th generation low voltage Intel Core i5-4210U running at 1.70 GHz. It can speed up to 2.7GHz if required. I think this is the feature where Dell decided to save some costs. Intel has already launched the 6th generation of Intel Core processors. Nonetheless the Core i5 is usually more than enough for most users. This processor features the Intel HD 4400 integrated graphics card. This card is getting old in its years and it can only manage older games and 3D applications.
Other than the somewhat older processor this Dell Inspiron 5558 comes with 8GB of DDR3L RAM and a 1TB HDD. The built in battery pack is a 4-cell 40Wh unit. Based on the specifications of this laptop the battery life should be good for up to 4 hours of usage.
The very big bonus with this laptop is the generous service cover. This means you can very easily change the HDD in a couple of years with an SSD and extend the RAM and battery life as needed.
On the software side, this is a Signature Edition laptop. This means it comes with a very clean Microsoft Windows 10 install without bloatware and unwanted software than usually tends to come with new laptops. It will run like a freshly installed laptop out of the box so you won’t have to get down and dirty to clean it all up.
