如果您正在寻找一款外观漂亮、硬件配置(hardware configuration)良好、能够同时处理桌面程序和触控应用程序且价格不超过 1000 美元的笔记本电脑，那么您肯定会遇到戴尔 Inspiron 灵越 14(Dell Inspiron 14) 7437。虽然不完全是一款新的超极本，它是一款不错的设备，可以流畅地运行 Windows 8.1，价格合理。这就是为什么我们决定在有机会时对其进行测试并为您审查。阅读本文以了解有关这款超极本的更多信息，它的优缺点以及是否值得购买。
拆箱戴尔 Inspiron 14 7437
戴尔 Inspiron 灵越 14(Dell Inspiron 14) 7437 装在您的标准纸箱中(carton box)，上面没有显示任何特殊图形或信息。如果你看它，你甚至不会知道你买了什么笔记本电脑。你只知道那是一台内部装有英特尔处理器的(Intel processor)戴尔(Dell)。而已！
在包装盒内，您会找到笔记本电脑本身、充电器、保修、快速入门指南(start guide)和其他包含信息的传单。不包含光盘，包含驱动程序或系统恢复(system recovery)工具。
硬件规格
Dell Inspiron 14 7437 提供多种硬件配置。首先，它配备了运行频率为 1.6GHz 的Intel Core i5 4200U处理器或运行频率为 2GHz 的Intel Core i7-4510 CPU(CPU running)。我们收到的用于测试的设备具有Core i7处理器。视频芯片(video chip)是英特尔HD4400(Intel HD4400)，非常适合办公室工作(office work)和一些休闲游戏，但仅此而已。这台笔记本电脑可以有高达 8GB 的 RAM DDR3，运行频率为 1600MHz。Core i5型号通常配备 6GB的RAM。我们的测试模型(test model)有 8GB内存(RAM)。
硬盘可以是Seagate制造并以 5400 RPM运行的经典 500 GB 笔记本电脑硬盘，也可以是快速的 256 GB SSD 驱动器(GB SSD drive)。我们的测试模型(test model)有 500 GB 的硬盘。
屏幕是另一个规格可能会有所不同的区域。是的，屏幕始终为 14 英寸，它是 LED背光触摸屏(backlit touch screen)，但其分辨率可以在 1366 x 768 像素和 1920 x 1080像素之间变化。我们测试的版本具有全高清触摸屏(touch screen)。我们从官方的规格中了解到，非高清屏幕的版本也没有触控功能，在屏幕的顶部，戴尔 Inspiron 灵越 14(screen Dell Inspiron 14)集成了 1 MP 网络摄像头。
在连接方面，您有一个Intel Dual Band Wireless-N 7260 网络适配器(network adapter)，它能够连接到 802.11n 无线网络，但不能连接到 802.11ac 网络。有两个USB 3.0端口（笔记本电脑两侧各一个）一个HDMI 端口(HDMI port)，一个SD 存储(SD memory) 卡读卡器(card reader)。它还有一个蓝牙4.0(Bluetooth 4.0)芯片，可以方便地连接各种设备。
在电池方面，它采用 4节锂离子 58 (lithium-ion 58) Wh 电池(Wh battery)。
此笔记本电脑可能安装了Windows 8.1或Windows 8.1 Pro。一些版本也随Ubuntu Linux一起出售。我们测试的模型上装有Windows 8.1。
由于这款笔记本电脑主要面向商业用户，因此戴尔 Inspiron 灵越 14(Dell Inspiron 14) 7437 具有可用的安全锁(security lock)。其尺寸为 13,6" (345 mm) x 9,4" (240 mm) x 0,6" (15,3 mm)（宽 x 长 x 高(Width x Length x Height)），重量为 4,4 lb (1,99 kg ) 如果它有一个全高清屏幕或 3,88 磅 (1,76 公斤) 如果它没有。
完整的硬件规格可在此处阅读：Inspiron 灵越 14 7000 系列带触控功能的笔记本电脑(Inspiron 14 7000 Series Laptop with Touch)。
使用戴尔 Inspiron 灵越 14(Dell Inspiron 14)（型号 7437(model 7437)）
首先(First)，我们喜欢戴尔 Inspiron 灵越 14(Dell Inspiron 14)的设计、尺寸和重量。它看起来很棒，握在手中感觉很好，而且很容易随身携带。其他人肯定会欣赏它，因为它具有高级笔记本电脑的外观。
触摸屏效果很好，在与Windows 8.1(Windows 8.1)及其来自Windows 应用商店(Windows Store)的现代应用程序交互时绝对有用。显示器的质量很好，具有良好的色彩还原和视角(color reproduction and viewing angles)。您会喜欢在具有全高清显示屏的笔记本电脑版本上观看电影。一对体面的扬声器补充了电影观看体验，这对笔记本电脑来说相当响亮。与其他笔记本电脑相比，声音芯片(sound chip)和扬声器都可以提供优于平均水平的音频体验。
键盘使用起来很愉快。我们非常喜欢戴尔 Inspiron 灵越 14(Dell Inspiron 14)的打字体验，因为按键间距适中且易于打字。但是，有一个方面我们不喜欢：功能键是倒置的。它们兼作多媒体键，但不是传统方式。基本上，如果您想按 F1 访问应用程序的Help，例如，您需要实际按Fn+F1。这类似于微软(Microsoft)对其 Surface 设备所做的事情。另一个不太积极的方面是键盘的背光：它相当不均匀且不够明显，无法在黑暗环境中提供帮助。当您没有可用的鼠标时，触摸板很好，反应灵敏且易于使用。
网络摄像头质量低下，仅适用于与您的朋友和同事进行快速视频聊天。此外，请勿将其用于自拍，因为您会对结果感到非常失望。
Dell Inspiron 14 7437最大的缺点是机械硬盘。与笔记本电脑的其余部分相比，它的速度很慢。因此，启动时间会变慢，并且有时您会注意到一些延迟，尤其是当您启动要求更高的桌面程序时。将Core i7(Core i7)与标准 5400 rpm 硬盘捆绑在一起没有多大意义，戴尔(sense and Dell)将其与慢速硬盘混合在一起浪费了完美的硬件和构建质量。如果您想要流畅的计算体验，我们强烈建议您购买带SSD的版本。但在这种情况下，如果 256 GB 的存储空间(storage space)不足以满足您的需求，您可能还需要购买SD 卡(SD card)。
戴尔 Inspiron 灵越 14(Dell Inspiron 14)型号7437的(model 7437)电池寿命(battery life)通常不错。在我们的测试中，我们设法缩短了 5 到 5 小时 30 分钟。如果您使用的是Core i5模型，而不是像我们那样使用Core i7，您应该从中获得更好的自主权。
与Dell Inspiron 14捆绑的(Are Bundled)应用程序（型号 7437(model 7437)）
不幸的是，戴尔(Dell)选择在此型号上捆绑大量软件以及以最佳性能运行笔记本电脑所需的驱动程序和工具。首先(First)有很多来自戴尔和英特尔(Dell and Intel)的工具。像：
Dell Backup and Recovery - 允许您手动备份整个系统或部分数据。如果您想要自动备份，则必须支付额外费用。
Dell Update - a tool that checks for driver and firmware updates for your laptop.
My Dell - a control panel of sorts that share information about your laptop and provides links to other tools or useful resources on the Dell website.
Intel Smart Connect Technology - a weird tool that is designed to update programs by periodically waking up your PC from sleep or standby, for a brief period of time. It also allows you to remote wake your system from other devices.
英特尔控制中心(Intel Control Center)- 另一个奇怪的工具，它显示一些系统信息(system information)并告诉您没有可用的注册应用程序。我们无法弄清楚它的作用。
Intel Update Manager - this program checks for updates for the Intel hardware that's found inside your laptop.
Intel Rapid Storage Technology - allows you to monitor and control the performance of the hard disk that's found inside your laptop.
除了这些程序之外，您还可以找到对许多用户有用的Office 365试用版、 (Office 365)McAfee Internet Security的副本（我们建议卸载它是缓慢且弱的安全解决方案(security solution)）、帮助您购买东西的Amazon 1Button 应用程序(App)来自Amazon和几个现代应用程序：eBay、McAfee Central for Dell、OneNote、Amazon 和 Kindle(Amazon and Kindle)。
所有这些桌面程序和应用程序往往会使戴尔 Inspiron 灵越 14(Dell Inspiron 14)比应有的速度慢，我们强烈建议删除那些您不打算使用的程序和应用程序。
基准性能
为了让您更好地了解Dell Inspiron 14 7437 提供的性能，我们运行了多个基准测试并将其与我们过去测试过的一些类似设备进行了比较：ASUS Transformer Book Flip TP300LA 和 Surface Pro(ASUS Transformer Book Flip TP300LA and Surface Pro) 2。
首先，我们使用Bootracer来测量 Windows 8.1 在此设备上的启动速度。如下图所示，戴尔 Inspiron 灵越 14(Dell Inspiron 14)相当慢，平均需要 70 秒才能启动。机械硬盘绝对无济于事，该型号随附的捆绑软件也无济于事。
然后，我们使用3DMarkRT 应用程序(3DMarkRT app)来查看这款设备在运行针对平板电脑用户的休闲游戏时的表现如何。我们使用了Ice Storm Unlimited测试。这是一张图表，其中包含每个设备获得的平均分数。Dell Inspiron 14表现不错，仅比ASUS Transformer Book Flip TP300LA慢 4% 。
您可以在下面看到一个图表，其中包含在 3DMarkRT 应用程序运行的三个测试中每个设备获得的每秒帧数，以便您更好地了解戴尔 Inspiron 灵越 14(Dell Inspiron 14)在运行基于触控的休闲游戏时的表现如何。视窗商店(Windows Store)。
接下来，我们在3DMark Vantage(3DMark Vantage)基准测试的帮助下，测量了戴尔 Inspiron 灵越 14(Dell Inspiron 14)在运行要求更高的游戏时的表现。正如您在下面的屏幕截图中看到的那样，这款超极本不是更严肃游戏的好选择。在此基准运行的大多数测试中，它每秒提供的帧数很少。
我们通过运行PCMark 8(PCMark 8)基准继续我们的测量，该基准运行一系列测试计算机在常见计算场景中的表现，如网页浏览(web browsing)、编写文档、视频聊天(video chat)、休闲游戏和高级照片编辑(photo editing)。戴尔 Inspiron 灵越 14(Dell Inspiron 14) 7437 获得了 2377 分，除了这款超极本提供一般良好的性能水平外，这并不能说明太多。在下面的屏幕截图中可以找到关于它在每个测试中的速度的更详细的细分。
我们进行了Peacekeeper 电池测试(battery test)，以评估电池在浏览网页时的续航时间。Dell Inspiron 14 437 表现非常好，持续了 5 小时 1 分钟。
PowerMark基准测试也证实了这一良好结果。它说这款笔记本电脑在进行网页浏览(web browsing)、文字处理(word processing)、观看视频和轻度游戏时可以持续长达 5 小时 24 分钟。
我们还测量了电池在几乎完全放电后充电需要多长时间。平均而言，戴尔 Inspiron 灵越 14(Dell Inspiron 14) 7437 需要大约 2.5 到 3 小时才能将自身充电至 100%。
判决
戴尔 Inspiron 灵越 14(Dell Inspiron 14) 7437 是一款制作精良的超极本，外观精美且易于携带。它非常适合在日常工作中不玩高要求游戏或使用要求非常高的桌面程序的办公环境和休闲家庭用户。此外，它的自主性很好，它应该能让你度过一个工作日(work day)。如果你至少午休。(lunch break)🙂
总体而言，它是一款价格合理的设备，提供多种配置选项。但是，我们建议您注意您购买的确切版本及其具体硬件规格(hardware specs)。一些版本包括较慢的硬盘驱动器而不是快速的SSD 驱动器(SSD drive)，而其他版本则具有较低分辨率(lower-resolution screen)的无触摸屏幕，而不是带触摸的全高清屏幕(Full-HD screen)。我们强烈建议您购买带有全高清触摸屏(touch screen)和SSD 驱动器的(SSD drive)酷睿 i7(Core i7)版本。它是唯一提供与一般构建质量相匹配的性能水平的版本(build quality)这款超极本和完美的计算体验。其他版本的缺点使该设备感觉不如外观。
Reviewing The Dell Inspiron 14 7437 - An Affordable Ultrabook
If you are looking fоr a good-looking laptop, with a good hardwаre configuratіon, thаt's ablе to deаl both with desktop programѕ аnd touch apps, while not cоsting more than $1000, уou will surely encounter the Dell Inspiron 14 7437. Whilе it's not exactly a new ultrabook, it is a good device and it runs Windows 8.1 smoothly, at a reasonable priсe. That's whу we decidеd to test it and revіew it for you when we had the chance. Read this article to learn more about this ultrabook, іts strengths and weaknesses and whether it is worth buying.
Unboxing The Dell Inspiron 14 7437
Dell Inspiron 14 7437 comes in your standard carton box, without any special graphics or information displayed on it. If you look at it, you won't even know what laptop you have bought. You know only that is a Dell with an Intel processor inside. That's it!
Inside the box you will find the laptop itself, the charger, the warranty, a quick start guide and other leaflets with information. The is no disc included, with drivers or system recovery tools.
Hardware Specifications
Dell Inspiron 14 7437 is available in several hardware configurations. For starters, it comes with an Intel Core i5 4200U processor running at 1,6GHz or with an Intel Core i7-4510 CPU running at 2GHz. The device that we have received for testing had the Core i7 processor. The video chip is an Intel HD4400 which is great for office work and a bit of casual gaming but not for more than that. This laptop can have up to 8GB of RAM DDR3, running at 1600MHz. The Core i5 model generally comes with 6GB of RAM. Our test model had 8GB of RAM.
The hard disk can be either an classic 500 GB laptop hard disk made by Seagate and running at 5400 RPM or a fast 256 GB SSD drive. Our test model had the 500 GB hard disk.
The screen is another area where the specifications can vary. Yes, the screen is always 14" in size and it is a LED backlit touch screen but its resolution can vary between 1366 x 768 pixels and 1920 x 1080 pixels. The version we have tested had a Full-HD touch screen. As far as we understood from the official specifications, the version with a non-HD screen doesn't have touch either. On the top side of the screen Dell Inspiron 14 features a 1 MP integrated webcam.
In terms of connectivity, you have a Intel Dual Band Wireless-N 7260 network adapter that is capable of connecting to 802.11n wireless networks but not to 802.11ac networks. There are two USB 3.0 ports (one on each side of the laptop) an HDMI port, an SD memory card reader. It also has a Bluetooth 4.0 chip that can come in handy in connecting all kinds of devices.
In terms of battery, it sports a lithium-ion 58 Wh battery with 4 cells.
This laptop may come with Windows 8.1 or Windows 8.1 Pro installed. Some versions are also sold with Ubuntu Linux. The model we have tested had Windows 8.1 on it.
Since this laptop is aimed mostly at business users, Dell Inspiron 14 7437 has a security lock available. Its size is 13,6" (345 mm) x 9,4" (240 mm) x 0,6" (15,3 mm) (Width x Length x Height) and it weighs 4,4 lb (1,99 kg) if it has a Full-HD screen or 3,88 lb (1,76 kg) if it doesn't.
The full set of hardware specifications can be read here: Inspiron 14 7000 Series Laptop with Touch.
Using The Dell Inspiron 14 (model 7437)
First of all, we love the design, the size and the weight of the Dell Inspiron 14. It looks great, it feels good to hold in your hands and it is very easy to carry around. Others will definitely admire it as it has the looks of a premium laptop.
The touch screen works great and it is definitely useful when interacting with Windows 8.1 and its modern apps from the Windows Store. The quality of the display is good, with good color reproduction and viewing angles. You will love watching movies on the version of the laptop that has a Full-HD display. The movie watching experience is complemented by a pair of decent speakers which are reasonably loud for a laptop. When compared with other laptops, both the sound chip and the speakers can provide a better than average audio experience.
The keyboard is a pleasure to use. We very much enjoyed the typing experience on Dell Inspiron 14, as the keys are well spaced and easy to type on. However, there is one aspect that we didn't like: the function keys' are inverted. They double as multimedia keys but not in the traditional way. Basically if you want to press F1 to access an application's Help, for instance, you need to actually press Fn+F1. This is similar to what Microsoft does with their Surface devices. Another less positive aspect is the backlighting of the keyboard: it is rather uneven and not visible enough to help in dark environments. The touchpad is good, responsive and easy to use when you don't have a mouse available.
The webcam is of low quality and it's useful only for quick video chats with your friends and co-workers. Also, don't use it for selfies as you will be very disappointed with the results.
The biggest drawback of Dell Inspiron 14 7437 is the mechanical hard drive. It's just slow compared to the rest of the laptop. The startup times are slower because of it and, at times, you will notice some lag, especially when you launch more demanding desktop programs. Bundling a Core i7 with a standard 5400 rpm hard drive doesn't make much sense and Dell is wasting perfectly great hardware and build quality by mixing it with a slow hard disk. If you want a smooth computing experience we highly recommend that you purchase the version with an SSD. But in that case, you might want to also purchase an SD card if 256 GB of storage space is too little for your needs.
The battery life the Dell Inspiron 14, model 7437 is generally good. In our tests we managed to squeeze between 5 and 5 hours and 30 minutes. If you are using the Core i5 model and not the Core i7 like we did, you should get even better autonomy out of it.
Apps That Are Bundled With Dell Inspiron 14 (model 7437)
Unfortunately Dell chose to bundle lots of software on this model alongside drivers and tools that are required to run the laptop at peak performance. First there are lots of tools from Dell and Intel on it. Things like:
Dell Backup and Recovery - allows you to make manual backups of the entire system or of a portion of your data. If you want automated backups, you have to pay extra.
Dell Update - a tool that checks for driver and firmware updates for your laptop.
My Dell - a control panel of sorts that share information about your laptop and provides links to other tools or useful resources on the Dell website.
Intel Smart Connect Technology - a weird tool that is designed to update programs by periodically waking up your PC from sleep or standby, for a brief period of time. It also allows you to remote wake your system from other devices.
Intel Control Center - another weird tool that displays some system information and tells you that no registered applications are available. We couldn't figure out what it does.
Intel Update Manager - this program checks for updates for the Intel hardware that's found inside your laptop.
Intel Rapid Storage Technology - allows you to monitor and control the performance of the hard disk that's found inside your laptop.
On top of these programs, you will also find an Office 365 trial which will be useful to many users, a copy of McAfee Internet Security (it's slow and weak security solution that we recommend uninstalling), the Amazon 1Button App which helps you buy stuff from Amazon and several modern apps: eBay, McAfee Central for Dell, OneNote, Amazon and Kindle.
All these desktop programs and apps tend to make the Dell Inspiron 14 slower than it should be and we highly recommend removing those that you don't plan to use.
Performance In Benchmarks
To give you a better idea of the performance offered by Dell Inspiron 14 7437, we ran several benchmarks and compared it with a few similar devices that we have tested in the past: ASUS Transformer Book Flip TP300LA and Surface Pro 2.
First, we used Bootracer to measure how fast Windows 8.1 starts on this device. As you can see in the chart below, Dell Inspiron 14 is rather slow and it takes on average 70 seconds to start. The mechanical hard drive definitely doesn't help and neither does the bundled software that comes with this model.
Then, we used the 3DMarkRT app to see how well this device performs when running casual games aimed at tablet users. We have used the Ice Storm Unlimited test. Here is a chart with the average score obtained by each device. Dell Inspiron 14 fared well and it was only 4% slower than ASUS Transformer Book Flip TP300LA.
Below you can see a chart with the frames per second obtained by each device in the three tests run by the 3DMarkRT app, so that you can get a better idea of how well the Dell Inspiron 14 fares when running casual touch-based games from the Windows Store.
Next, we measured how well Dell Inspiron 14 fares when running more demanding games, with the help of the 3DMark Vantage benchmark. As you can see in the screenshot below, this ultrabook is not a good choice for more serious gaming. It delivered a low number of frames per second in most tests ran by this benchmark.
We continued our measurements by running the PCMark 8 benchmark which runs a series of tests how well a computer fares in common computing scenarios like web browsing, writing documents, video chat, casual gaming and advanced photo editing. Dell Inspiron 14 7437 received a score of 2377 points which doesn't tell you much except that this ultrabook offers generally good levels of performance. A more detailed breakdown on how fast it was in each test can be found in the screenshot below.
We ran the Peacekeeper battery test to evaluate how much the battery lasts while browsing the web. Dell Inspiron 14 437 fared very well, lasting 5 hours and 1 minute.
This good result was confirmed also with the PowerMark benchmark. It said that this laptop can last up to 5 hours and 24 minutes when doing a mix of web browsing, word processing, watching videos and light gaming sessions.
We also measured how long it takes for the battery to charge after being discharged almost completely. On average, Dell Inspiron 14 7437 took about 2.5 to 3 hours to charge itself to 100%.
Verdict
Dell Inspiron 14 7437 is a well built ultrabook, that looks great and it is easy to carry around. It is great for office environments and casual home users who don't play demanding games or use very demanding desktop programs during their daily routine. Also, its autonomy is good and it should get you through a work day. If you take a lunch break at least. 🙂
Overall, it is a well priced device for what it has to offer and it comes in multiple configuration options. However, we do recommend that you pay attention to the exact version that you are purchasing and its specific hardware specs. Some versions include a slower hard drive instead of a fast SSD drive while others have a lower-resolution screen without touch, instead of a Full-HD screen with touch. We highly recommend that you buy the Core i7 version, with a Full-HD touch screen and an SSD drive. It is the only version that offers performance levels that match the general build quality of this ultrabook and a flawless computing experience. Other versions have shortcomings that make this device feel lesser than what it looks like.
