Intel’s Meteor Lake devices have taken the market by storm. A fringe effect of the same is that capable 13th Gen laptops have come down in price. Take the Dell Inspiron 7430 2-in-1, for instance, which is among the more affordable convertibles powered by a potent Core i7-1355U processor. Here’s everything you need to know if you are planning on picking it up.
Table of Contents
Design and Display
The Dell Inspiron 7430 2-in-1 is made entirely of plastic, and it shows. The laptop looks nice from afar, but its frame flexes when pressure is exerted on the keyboard deck or other parts of the device. The keyboard deck, in particular, feels a bit spongey and hollow. With that said, the brushed metal finish on the lid and around the keys feels velvety and luxurious. The silver paint job, while quite common, still looks elegant.
The laptop’s hinge is quite sturdy, too, and it keeps the screen affixed at the desired angle. I didn’t notice the screen wobble when I was interacting with the touchscreen display, either. 
However, the colours appear dull and washed out. Notably, the display doesn’t get too bright, topping out at 250 nits of brightness. It also only refreshes at 60Hz. While it should suffice for office work or watching movies, buyers can get a laptop with an OLED screen in the same price bracket.
The Dell Inspiron 14 7430 2-in-1 comes with top-firing speakers. The setup flanks the keyboard deck and gets extremely loud. The audio output doesn’t sound shrill either, which is excellent. As for ports, the laptop gets a USB 3.2 Type-A connector, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and an SD card reader. It also has an HDMI port that, disappointingly, only outputs at 1080p resolution.
In addition, the laptop’s 1080p webcam doesn’t support Windows Hello or Windows Studio effects like auto-framing. That said, the camera’s picture quality is quite nice, and the device also comes with a speedy fingerprint sensor embedded in the power button for seamless authentication.
Keyboard and trackpad
Despite its compact footprint, the Dell Inspiron 14 7430 2-in-1 offers a spacious keyboard deck. The keys provide good tactile feedback and are adequately spaced. The keyboard deck sits up at an angle, elevating (no pun intended) the typing experience. Additionally, unlike the key legends, the keycaps are dark grey. This ensures that the legends are clearly visible and don’t blend in when illuminated by the keyboard’s backlit LEDs.
The trackpad offers a smooth surface, too. The left and right mouse clicks functioned as expected, and I didn’t notice any dead zones when using the trackpad to select text or apps or perform other functions.
Performance
The Dell Inspiron 14 7430 2-in-1 is powered by Intel’s Core i7-1355U processor. My review unit comes with 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and a 512GB M.2 NVMe SSD. Coincidentally, the Core i7-1355U’s core distribution is quite similar to the Core Ultra 7 155U chipset. To that end, both offer two performance and eight efficiency cores. However, the Core Ultra 7 155U processor comes with two more LPE or Low-Power Efficient cores, taking the core tally up to 12.
The 1355U processor comes with Intel’s Iris Xe Graphics, which has a lower maximum dynamic frequency than the one on the Core Ultra 7 155U processor. On the flip side, the 1355U’s P-cores can turbo higher at 5GHz.
Unsurprisingly, the Core i7-1355U powering the Dell Inspiron 14 7430 2-in-1 performed similarly (and, at times, better) than a competing laptop with the Core Ultra 7 155U chipset. Take the HP Envy 14 x360, for instance, which benched slightly lower than the 7430 2-in-1 in Cinebench, which is a CPU-centric benchmark.
In CineBench R24, the HP Envy 14 x360 net 377 and 95 points in its multi-core and single-core test sprints. However, the Dell Inspiron 14 7430 2-in-1 overturned slightly higher numbers and scored 423 and 101 points, respectively. The Dell and HP laptops performed similarly in PCMark 10, too, outputting 5,753 and 5,757 points respectively.
We also tested the machines in GPU-centric benchmarks from 3DMark’s testing suite. Here, the Core Ultra 7 155U-powered HP Envy 14 x360 scored better in Fire Strike, Fire Strike Extreme, and Fire Strike Ultra benchmarks. However, the Inspiron 7430 wasn’t too far behind and logged comparable numbers, too.
I didn’t find the laptop lacking in performance either. In fact, the 7430 2-in-1 could comfortably handle my workload, which revolves around Google’s web apps like Docs and Sheets and communication and project management services like Slack, Discord, Basecamp, and Asana. The laptop could comfortably juggle between a handful of apps and didn’t slow down when bogged down with over a dozen tabs in Chrome, either. Rest assured, the device should suffice for office-goers and creatives looking for a portable laptop for light photo editing.
For those wondering, the laptop can run casual indie games like Hades, Hollow Knight, Stardew Valley, and more. You can even run eSports games like Rocket League and Valorant on the machine. GTA 5, which is a fairly old title, also nets around 45 FPS at 1200P resolution and High graphics setting. Turning most graphics presets to Medium will even let you play the game at around 60FPS. That said, the device will come to a halt when taxed with resource-hungry games.
On the bright side, the laptop’s chassis never felt too warm to the touch. Additionally, it offers a serviceable backup and can last around five hours off a single charge.
Verdict
The Dell Inspiron 14 7430 2-in-1 retails for around Rs 95,000 in India. For the price, the laptop offers dependable performance that is in line with competing devices powered by a Meteor Lake U-series chip. In addition, the laptop is quite compact and, despite that, comes with a spacious keyboard deck and a healthy assortment of connectors. It’s not perfect, though, and the unit’s display will leave you wanting more. The laptop’s build quality doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence, either. That said, those looking for a reasonably priced Windows convertible with a powerful processor will still find a lot to like here.
Editor’s Rating: 7.5 / 10
Pros:
- Compact and portable
- Sharp and responsive touchscreen
- Capable performer
Cons:
- Display is dull
- HDMI port output limited to 1080p resolution
