Dell Inspiron 15 7548

So, instead of taking over the 7547 thread, here's a new thread for the 7548.

 

So a couple of carryover questions from the 7547 thread:

I own the Best Buy model 7548 with 1TB HDD, 12GB of RAM, 4k Screen and AMD 270.

The Wifi Card is the Intel 7265 2x2.

The HDD is Toshiba MQ02ABF100 5400 RPM drive.

The Ram Modules are an SK hynix hmt451s6afr8a-pb 4GB and a Micron mt16ktf1g64hz-1g6e1 8gb.

Also, it has the 56Wh battery.

As I type, a Samsung 850 EVO 512GB SSD is being recovered as the primary drive.

 

If I may, I think you should edit the title to read something like: "Dell Inspiron 15 7000 (Q1 2015): 7548 - 4K version" as it would be self explanatory directly from the title

 

Awesome! Thank you very much for answering to all my questions. I am ordering it now

 

I own 7548 bought directly from Dell

FHD Screen, Intel HD 5500 + AMD R7 M270
Wifi Card is Intel Dual Band 3160
HDD WD 10SPCX 5400 RPM
16gb RAM 2 x GB SK hynix
battery 43Wh

 

I am about to order the very same model from dell site but i want to updragde the HDD to a SSD, is there any recommendation i could use before buying it? I have never done a hard drive upgrade , should I ask dell for the OS in a physical drive or something? Otherwise How do i install it on thr ssd ?

Thanks for your help

 

I got a sweet deal on a 7548 today, (i7 5500/R7 M270/12gb/1 TB HDD/4K screen), and am wanting to do the upgrade path with my SSD (Crucial M500 480gb). How do I go about putting the recovery on the Crucial SSD? Is it hard to do the HDD enclosure for my existing 1 TB drive?

 

One questione, does this laptop has WiFi problems like 7547 version?

Because I see someone saying that this laptop has the Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160Intel while others Intel 7265 2x2

 

Hi have the SSD version of the laptop, with dual band AC-7265 network interface. Never had problems.

 

What about battery life?

 

I'm looking at the bestbuy model of this laptop with the high-resolution screen and the AMD graphics. Does anyone know if that model has the larger battery capacity as well?

 

Hi I'm considering the inspiron 7548

2 questions:

What can I expect from an R7 270? I can't seem to find many reviews on it and wonder about its performance for gaming.

If I take the upgrade route, will I void my warranty?

Thanks!

 

The R7 270 is kind of meh. It's going to be slightly better than the R7 M265.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-R7-M265.109394.0.html

I wouldn't expect to play any high-spec games from the last couple years, and even less demanding games would need to be run on low-medium settings. It's actually a significant step down from the GT 750M in the 7547.

 

So I saw the earlier post that confirmed that the Best Buy model has the larger battery.

Can anyone confirm how the display closes? I had purchased the 13 7000 series and the screen pressed against the wrist rest. Did that design pull into the new 15 7000 series?

 

I am wanting to do the upgrade path with my SSD (Crucial M500 480gb). How do I go about putting the recovery on the Crucial SSD? Since there isn't any media, what cloning program is recommended?

 

In normal usage it last about 4 hours

 

Really? The 7547 got around 9 hours with a smaller battery. Maybe there's a bug with the AMD card not shutting off?

 

Remember the 4k screen... For the most of the time I use the laptop with the sun that reflect on the display, so I need to raise the brightness almost to the highest level. Probably the problem is this.

 

Still disappointing. Looking at reviews the 1080p model only gets around 5 because of the smaller battery.

Oh well, guess this laptop is off my list now.

 

Hi,

I ended up buying the 4K model from Best Buy last week however I have a problem with it.

side topic: I opened it to update a few components - I took pictures etc so I will post about this later.

For these that have the 4K model, can you please tell me if you have this grinding noise problem explained below ?

I have noticed a grinding noised around the CPU area. I opened the back panel and listened to every inched of the laptop: it is 100% coming from the CPU or just above it. It is not the fans (CPU or GPU as they were not moving when I listened), it is not the RAM as I have a good ear and really can tell it is not coming from that zone, and it is not the SSD (that I added in there, see below) as that should not make noise and again I have a good ear, it is not coming from there.

Full disclosure, 1) I changed the RAM for 2x8Gb Kingston HyperX Impact Black. I tried with them and with the original RAM that came with the laptop. Grinding noise still there. Also, 2) I changed the HDD for a new SSD Samsung EVO 850, but again the noise it not coming from the SSD area (far from the CPU area, where the noise seems to come from).

I called Dell Tech support this morning, we did their diagnostic procedure. At the end the representative told me to send it back for checks and replacement as Diagnostic was fine but noise still there. As I bought the machine from Best Buy less than 14 days ago, I think I would just bring it back to BB to replace or refund.

In order to double check my trouble, after the call with Dell, I went to TWO Best Buy stores to listen to the CPU area. These 2 demo units also have the grinding noise around the CPU area.

I am coming from an old VAIO Z 2008 therefore I am used to noise from that old computer, however all my tech savvy friends with recent laptops tell me that their Haswell i7 do not make a sound at all when idle... Therefore, 1st this grinding sound does not sound good / normal, 2nd I get feedback that other recent laptops do not do that.

I live on a busy NY Manhattan street but I can still hear this annoying grinding noise while fans are idle and not other moving parts as I have an SSD in there...

Please, what's your take on this as it does not make sense that the CPU would be making a grinding noise while almost idle with say not even 7% load?

Many thanks for your help

 

I am interested in this laptop but am curious is someone could provide some more information?

1. Is the screen glass?
2. If it is a glass screen, is it glass edge to edge or does the screen have a plastic bezel?

Dell says it is not edge to edge, but Youtube reviews/videos seems to show otherwise. So if someone could possibly post some better photos of the screen edge/display picturing this part it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for anything you can offer.

GreyBrahms

 

The higher end models that come with the 4k display are covered in edge to edge glass. The lower end models that have the 1080p display have a glossy black plastic bezel around the screen.

 

I have the 4K model, and like you, upgraded the HDD to an SSD (cloned the drive). As far as noises go, this has to be BY FAR the quietest laptop I have EVER used! Doesn't get hot at all, and is really quite the elegant piece.

Sounds like to me that it's one of two things.. either your CPU or GPU fan is hitting/rubbing against something, or you are hypersensitive to noises. If in doubt, bring it back and trade it in for another. $1100 is a lot to throw down if you aren't happy with it.

 

Any of you is able to use vlc or chrome with AMD gpu? Everytime I play a 4k video from chrome or vlc, playback is laggy! This is because of the Intel gpu. From catalyst control center I can't switch these applications to use dedicated gpu... It's normal?

 

Hi all.

I have been playing with my one since it arrived last night and struggling to get good scaling / compromise between the 4k on this laptop and a 1920x1080 21.5" screen via HDMI - have to make external monitor main one to get anything half decent :-( Also Google Chrome won't play YouTube 4k Videos without stuttering but Internet Explorer does fine!

Don't think I have managed to use anything that actually used the AMD graphics yet either as you can't set Google Chrome to use them (for 4k Videos etc) even when on mains power as chrome.exe is set as "power saving" within the AMD Switchable Graphics stuff and "To ensure compatibility, this application is locked.

Oh and the keyboard is the same size as the one I have on my Venue Pro 11 so overall not sure I will be keeping this despite the 16GB ram etc - please convince me to though!

 

What's the battery on this like on the 4k model?

 

Just ordered my 7548 4k model with the low the end 8 gig ram and 1 TB HDD from Dells website. They are selling it right now for $999 which is cheaper than Best Buy's version and I got a military discount, with an additional 10% reward cash for using their credit card program, so that's another $86 back I can use for accessories in their store. Total cost with tax and free 2nd day Fedex was $863.

Using the additional saving to upgrade as soon as I get it to the 16 g ram and a 1 TB SSD. Does anyone know the exact specs for what the motherboard can support for ram speeds? All I can find is the ram amounts supported at 1600hz, I would think it should be able to drop in 1866 hz, might not be worth, havent decided.

 

1600 and DDR3L. I got a duo of HyperX in mine.

 

Hi,
what is the battery life for the version with 1920x1080?

thank you

 

Seems like dell kinda messed up on putting a lowered power GPU in this instead of something that can easily drive the higher screen resolution. This overall does seem like a great laptop though, I just wish there was a nvidia GPU in there instead of AMD.

 

Yes, it's not quite ready for full power gaming. Going to the Radeon 15 Beta seemed to help with stuff too. Weirdest problem I have right now is poor video performance in Chrome, but not in IE. The biggest mistake was definitely the 5400 rpm hdd first, the GPU I think can be handled with drivers. Hopefully it will be.

 

How did you solve the "switching graphic card" problem?

 

Download ATI's Radeon Catalyst.

 

Guys, do you have problems removing fingerprints off of your 7548?

 

I have latest version, but chrome, vlc and other applications are locked!

 

So last weekend as a part of their 2-day sale, Best Buy had the i7 and i5 on sale for $649 and $599 respectively. I made a mistake and thought that the sale would last until midnight PST. When I checked back at 10:30pm PST the sale was over. I was really bummed out because I thought I had missed a great deal.

However, judging from the reviews on Best Buy, it seems like the two models have been on sale at least one other time before last weekend. Do you guys think there is a chance they'll go on sale again for Memorial Day?

Best Buy's current weekly ad is considerably weak. The best deals are for the Lenovo Yoga 3 and the Dell Inspiron 13" 7000 2-in-1. I am considering the 2-in-1 because I feel a little impatient (currently using a laptop that I'm planning to return to the store once I get a real laptop). However, I am not sure the 13" is the right laptop for me. I wouldn't ever use the 2-in-1 tablet feature.

The 15 7548 is absolutely perfect to me. I saw it in the store and I was in awe. But the price is out of my range unless it goes on sale again.

tl;dr How likely do you think it will be for the 15" 7548 to go on sale for Memorial Day after going on sale last weekend? Consider that it wasn't too long ago that there was a previous sale for it. I really want this laptop, but I don't have the money for full price!

 

I bought this laptop from Dell Outlet about a week and so far my experiences have been both positive and negative. I got the laptop with the following specs: 4K monitor, 16GB ram, 1TB HD and the AMD Radeon R7 M265 Series graphics card. The first thing I did when I got my laptop was to install a new 512GB SSD and clean install Windows 8.1. I got the latest drivers from Intel for the graphics card and am using the Beta 15 AMD driver for that card. The following are my observations after a week of use:

- The graphics card and processor (dual core i5500) struggle with intensive tasks on the 4k display. I've had performance difficulties with Lightroom 5.7.1. This could however be software related so I'll have to wait and see what a LR update will do.
- I like the keyboard and find the trackpad adequate although I usually use a mouse and disable the trackpad.
- The overall construction seems solid despite the plastic bottom and I feel the durability should be good.
- The wireless connection works well with one caveat. You need to disable the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" in the device manager or your network adapter will turn on and off continuously when running on battery power.
- The display is beautiful and, when I calibrated it, it achieved 90% sRGB coverage with a delta E of less than 4. There is, however, a problem with adaptive brightness where it lowers the overall brightness output automatically (went from 120cd/m2 to 100cd/m2 by the end of the test) and, even worse, this cannot be shut off either in the BIOS or the system controls. I did an online search and found a large topic on the Dell forum discussing the exact problem relating to the 13 inch XPS laptop that has the same 4k screen. Hopefully, Dell will address this in future BIOS upgrades (My system came installed with A02).
-Scaling issues are also present and make some programs unusable but, in general, it's not that much of an issue.
-Battery life is average about 4-5 hours depending on usage.
- Playing YouTube videos in Firefox works fine but Chrome seems to have some issues. Netflix, Pandora, etc, all work fine.
-overall, for the price I payed ($940 including the SSD), it's a pretty decent laptop.

 

Got 7548 4k model from BestBuy, got gray plastic body but lower price than dell order. Tried BitLocker with Win10, worked without TPM, but needs a key file stick in the SD card slot. Moved a win7 disk from Sony FW290 and boots up fine and continue using it once updated all the drivers. This made transition much easier. Some apps use tiny fonts with 4k screen, even though dpi set to 200%. Pretty quiet overall.

 

Hey guys

How was the update to Windows 10 ?
Dell has just launched new Inspiron 7548 with Windows 10 embedded.
I tried to put the 10240 build on my one, but some drivers are missing and experience is not good.

What about you ?

Thanks

 

I had an issue both during then once the laptop was running Windows where it would give a "internal power error" and restart. I did some Googling and it seemed to be to do with ATI drivers so I got into safe mode and removed both ATI and Intel display drivers, restarted then put on these better drivers that also allow YOU to decide which programs you want to use the ATI dedicated graphics and have been trouble free for a few hours now: http://www.leshcatlabs.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=956

 

Which drivers did you install ? Can you post a screenshot of your device manager ? Thanks

 

So i just picked this up for $749 at best buy with windows 10 already loaded with it. However if i play CSGO it has this weird issue where there is random blue streaks on the screen. any ideas if its the drivers or?

 

I had the same problem after updating to the most recent ATI driver. A reinstall, where I downloaded the driver direct from ATI's site, solved the issue.

I am still waiting to "upgrade" to Win 10 and will probably wait a while longer as Win 8.1 working just fine for now.

 

Anyone installed an Anti Glare screen protector on their 7548? That screen is so glossy, on the terrace in the sunlight I see myself more than my excel spreadsheet...
Very annoying.

 

Can we put 2 hard drives in this like a m.2 or msata and the 1tb

 

Nop. Only one normal SSD. But if you need more space than your current drive, for instance the Samsung 850 EVO 500GB at $150 online these days, can be a good upgrade.

 

Has anyone tried putting in a wigig from a latitude in place of the 3160ac or 7260 wifi module.

Also does the hdmi on the 4k do 4k resolution? Can I buy a 4k TV or 4k monitor and hook it up via hdmi as dual 4k screens. Does the newer version of hdmi do this resolution and does the 7548 have the newer hdmi?

 

hey bro , i have the exact same issue with my unit , did u found a fix ??????

 

hey man i have the same issue , do u know any fix

 

The spacebar on my 15-7548 has sometimes not registered presses when typing for a while now, but it is subtle and uncommon enough that I thought I simply wasn't quite pressing it down. Now it is starting to stick when pressed.

1 Anyone had this problem before and is it fixable without replacement?

2 Anyone know where you can get the replacement part (or the part number)? The dell replacement part store doesn't have it, parts-people doesn't have it....

I really don't want to send this in for a gorram keyboard.

EDIT: After a bit more looking around there are a few on ebay, still interested in other sources though, thanks.