The Dell Inspiron series has always been a popular choice for home users due to its very affordable prices and decent specs. In the past, this series may have not been the best looking notebooks around due to their thickness and cheap looking build quality. However, things have changed. The Inspiron series these days are far slimmer and for a low price, they do give a premium look. The Dell Inspiron 15 3542 is a perfect example with its elegant square-shaped design, matte black surfaces and chiclet-style keyboard. Even with a built-in DVD burner, it is only 1" thick, giving it an ultrabook like look.
Its 15.6" screen has a resolution of 1366x768 pixels which is quite low for today's standards and its brightness is slightly below average. The Inspiron 3542 can be configured with up to Intel Core i5 4210U, 4GB of RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 820M graphics card, which is sufficient enough for casual gamers. All hardware suggest that this model aims at average users who do a little bit of everything such as students. Other specifications include all the basic ports; 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 USB 3.0 port and an HDMI output.
All in all, the Dell Inspiron 15 3542 is a very well equipped notebook for its selling price. It looks good and is equipped with the hardware to match its looks. On the downside, it comes with what looks like yesterday's screen and like all low price Dells, it has a rather weak sound system.
NVIDIA GeForce 820M:
