Review Summary
Expert Rating
Intel’s Meteor Lake devices are all the rage at the minute. However, plenty of powerful 13th gen machines are up for grabs, too. I recently tested Dell’s Inspiron 7430 2-in-1 convertible and was highly impressed with its performance, which was on par with a Core Ultra 7 155U processor-backed machine.
As such, I also decided to test the more affordable Inspiron 5430. While it draws many parallels to the pricier 7430 laptop, it doesn’t come with a touchscreen display or sport a 2-in-1 design. After using it as my daily for a bit, here’s everything I like and dislike about it.
Table of Contents
Design and Display
From afar, the Dell Inspiron 5430 looks like a facsimile of the Inspiron 7430 I reviewed a while ago. In fact, to the untrained eye, the laptops will look indistinguishable, even when viewed up close. That said, the 7430’s unique hinge sets it apart. Barring that, though, the laptops look and feel the same, and the 5430’s plastic build also leaves a little to be desired.
Additionally, both laptops come with a slightly different set of ports. The Inspiron 5430 misses out on one Thunderbolt 4 port, and ships with an additional Type-A port. Like the 7430 however, it has a speedy fingerprint sensor embedded within the power button. It also has an SD card reader and an HDMI port, which, like the one on the 7430, limits the output resolution to 1080p.
Notably, the Inspiron 5430 doesn’t come with an IR sensor for Windows Hello facial recognition. It also misses out on Windows Studio effects, which power the latest range of AI laptops. On the bright side, the 1080p webcam offers serviceable image quality, and it should suffice for taking video calls.
Both laptops ship with similar screens. The Inspiron 5430 doesn’t come with a touchscreen panel, but its 14-inch display offers the same FHD resolution. It also refreshes at 60Hz and can get reasonably bright at 250 nits. While the display should suffice for office work and some media consumption, it is let down by its skimpy peak brightness levels and viewing angles.
Keyboard and Trackpad
I have no qualms with the laptop’s keyboard and trackpad. To that end, the Inspiron 5430 has a comfortable keyboard with well-spaced keys. Although there is some give in the middle of the keyboard, it didn’t affect my typing speed. Additionally, the keys don’t wobble when pressed, and they have a good amount of travel.
The same goes for the trackpad, which offers a smooth typing surface. The left and right mouse clicks work as advertised, and it could comfortably pick up on multi-finger gestures as well.
Performance and Battery Life
The Dell Inspiron 5430 is backed by the same specs which powered the Dell Inspiron 7430 2-in-1 laptop. On that note, the laptop comes with Intel’s 13th Gen Core i7-1355U processor, which works alongside 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM. The laptop also comes with a 1TB SSD. While I didn’t run into too many performance niggles, the Inspiron 5430 benched lower than the 7430 in various synthetic benchmarks.
Note that the difference in scores wasn’t night and day. For instance, in PCMark 10 and PCMark 10 Extended runs, the Inspiron 7430 scored 5,752 and 4,943 points, respectively. The Inspiron 5430, on the other hand, logged 5,464 and 4,981 points. Similarly, the laptop’s Iris Xe integrated GPU trailed behind the one inside the Inspiron 7430 in GPU-centric benchmarks as well.
In Fire Strike and Night Raid test runs, the Inspiron 5430 netted 3,876 and 13,620 points, respectively. The Inspiron 7430 edged out in front with 4,545 and 16,145 points, respectively. Benchmarks aside, the Inspiron 5430’s performance did not leave me wanting more. The laptop could crunch through my workload effortlessly, including using various communication and project management apps.
It slowed down occasionally when I opened too many Chrome tabs or was adding modules to some CMSs. But, these instances were far and few in between. On the whole, buyers looking to get a dependable workhorse will find a lot to like here. 
Verdict
The Dell Inspiron 5430 has some strong points, such as good performance in a compact and portable design. However, the laptop’s display is average, and its port selection is also not ideal. Therefore, the laptop is a good deal if you can get it at a significant discount. Otherwise, it would be better to opt for a newer Meteor Lake machine.
Editor’s Rating: 7 / 10
Pros:
- Good performance
- Comfortable keyboard deck
- Compact
Cons:
- Build quality could be better
- Sub-par display