The new AMD CPU in the Dell G5 15 is a beast, but the GPU falls short at higher price points.
The Dell G5 15 SE is one of the first AMD hardware gaming laptops, but is the new technology up-to-date? Well, in some ways, yes, in other ways, no. We are going to explain everything in detail in this Dell G5 15 review, so, stick to it.
For $1,199 bucks, the Dell G5 15 Special Edition along with an AMD R7 4800H CPU outperforms its competition. When combined with a vibrant 15.6-inch screen and a long battery life, the Dell G5 15 Special Edition appears to be a quick grab.
However, there is surely a catch to this catch. The AMD Radeon RX 5600M Graphics unit falls short of its Nvidia equivalents. When that is combined with the G5 15 SE’s robust form and harsh speakers, there is potential for improvement.
However, with its affordable cost, the Dell G5 15 Special edition still manages to steal the show, ensuring it is among the finest game-playing laptops, finest VR laptops, and top-notch video editing laptops.
Dell G5 15 Special Edition: Specs and Price
So, this beast comes with an arsenal of specs. The common ones you should know about are mentioned below:
- → Battery: 7:14
- → CPU: AMD Ryzen R7 4800H
- → Display:6-inch, 1920 x 1080, 144Hz
- → GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5600M
- → Price: $1,199
- → RAM: 16GB
- → Size:4 x 10 x 0.9 inches
- → Storage: 512GB SSD
- → Weight:5 pounds
We have tried the Dell G5 15 variant that comes with a price tag of 1,199 bucks, which has an AMD Ryzen CPU R7 4800H, an AMD Radeon RX 5600M GPU, 16GigaBytes of Memory an SSD space of 512GB, and a screen display of 144Hz – 1080p.
The $879 entry-level model has an AMD Ryzen 5 4600H chipset, Gigabytes of RAM, a 256 Gigabyte Storage, as well as a 60Hz, 1080p LCD, whereas the $1,299 top-tier model has a Ryzen 7 4800H Chipset as well as a 1TB Hard drive.
Although, if by any chance this price tag is still way out of your league, you can try your luck in our already reviewed Best Gaming Laptops to keep things under a cap of 1,000 bucks.
Dell G5 15 Special Edition: Design
We love that iridescent silver color applied to the lid of the Dell G5 15 SE, however, our main concern is that this is still far too hefty and feels like plastic. The lid is a vast, barren landscape with just a silver Dell logo as well as some arched touches that give it the appearance of a car’s bonnet. Both grilles and the G5 emblem on the bent joints appear to be pieces from a toy vehicle. The plastic must be removed – as soon as possible.
When we opened the lid, we observed that the edge connecting the black surface to the white bottom is a tad sharp. Aside from the RGB lit keyboard, the inside of the Dell G5 15 Special edition is relatively simple. Additional G5 emblem with an accentuated ‘S’ may well be found in the upper left corner. However, the screen’s bezels might be slightly slimmer. When we turned on the laptop, we found that its power switch had an abnormally deep range that you had to battle before it clicks.
The Dell G5 15 SE is a bit large and hefty for a 15-inch laptop, weighing 5.5 pounds and measuring 14.4 x 10 x 0.9 inches.
- → HP Omen 15 (2019) – 5.4 pounds, 14.2 x 10.2 x 0.8 inches
- → Lenovo Legion Y545 – 5.3 pounds, 14.2 x 10.5 x 11.1 inches
- → The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 – 3.52 pounds, 12.8 x 8.7 x 0.7 inches
all seem to be thinner and sleeker in contrast.
Dell G5 15 Special Edition: Number of Ports
The Dell G5 15 SE comes with a good variety of port connectors. The power jack, a mini DisplayPort, an HDMI 2.0 connector, a USB 3.1 connector, a dropped jaw RJ45 Ethernet connector, as well as a USB Type-C connector are all on the left. A wedge lock slot, two USB 2.0 ports, a headphone jack, and an SD card slot are located on the right side.
Dell G5 15 Special Edition: Display Features
For that price, Dell G5 15 Special edition has an unusually vivid and brilliant monitor of 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 in resolution. This one has a crisp 144Hz refresh rate.
In Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, when we entered the Militarized Temple of Megara, we were blessed with the ample greenery and brilliant yellow flowers which stood out on the screen display. We also observed the unmistakable and distinctive gear of the Captain in the distance while creeping through a Leader House late at night. When we turned the game down to its minimum configuration settings, we were able to see the flawless 144Hz refresh rate in motion as we slaughtered our opponents.
The crimson scar of Tom Hardy spilled through the display in the Capone teaser, improving the horrific type of situation. We could see a group of guys in the backdrop in a dark warehouse, where someone was bloodied and strapped to a seat. The screen was crisp enough to emphasize Hardy’s face’s lines as well as bruises.
Based on the colorimeter, 108 percent of a total of the sRGB color gamut was covered by Dell G5 15 Special Edition display, which ran over the 106 percent typical laptop game average. It was also:
- → 102 percent for HP Omen 15
- → 99 percent for the Y545 Legion,
- → 117 percent for Zephyrus G14 (the G5 couldn’t compete with this one)
In the meantime, the 60Hz baseline display of Dell G5 15 SE covered 63 percent of the SRGB color spectrum which equals 72 percent.
The Dell G5 15 Special edition display exceeded the average of 290 nit bracket with 301 Nit of light power. It narrowly topped out the Legion Y545’s 300 nits, but it was not intense enough to compete with the Zephyrus G14 as well as Omen 15, both of which scored 323 nits & 320 nits, respectively. In contrast, the 60 Hz foundation of the Dell G5 15 SE screen has been reduced to 231 nits, which is lower than the typical standard of 268 nits gaming laptops.
Dell G5 15 Special Edition: TouchPad & Keyboard
The Dell G5 15 SE’s keyboard was effortless to use. The buttons, on the other hand, seemed a tad hollow and they were a bit too far off from each other, which required a little getting accustomed to.
On the 10fastfingers.com typing test, we got 72 words per minute, which is somewhat higher than our 70 words per minute norm. If you have ever played with a Dell Gaming laptop, you’ll be familiar with exactly how these keyboards feel, the buttons are small and shallow, providing an overall bad experience.
Four zones are included in the number pad for the RGB lights. The lighting can be customized via the Alienware Command Center application’s FX category featuring effects such as Rainbow Wave, Breathing, and Spectrum. Though We prefer the individual keys had been RGB-lit, the overall glow is great.
The touchpad, more like ancestors, is… well, crappy. The surface is not particularly soft, the clickers are flat, as well as the cursor movement is a bit too touchy for our liking. The two-finger scrolling and three-tabbing, on the other hand, operate nicely thanks to the Windows 10 Precision drivers.
Dell G5 15 Special Edition: Audio Features
The side fire speakers of the Dell G5 15 Special Edition aren’t particularly loud; they do not have much bass power.
Alexios’ audio was clean as well as rich in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. But the strokes of the blade were just too sharp as well as not enough depth when we stepped into a fight. Many percussion sounds plus violins performed behind likewise were muffled by the absence of bass.
We have been listening to Nano’s track called Kemurikusa as well and there was a lot which we did not enjoy except the sharp voice. Most electronic beats have been blown away and because of the absence of bass, the drums were hardly present in the music. In addition, instead of mixing in harmony, the instruments collided forcefully.
You may discover an option for the Nahimic audio program in the Alienware Command Center program, which is pretty useful in improving sound. Multiple presets are available, including:
- Alienware
- Com
- Movie
- Music
- Racing
- Role Play
- Shooting & Strategy.
You may design unique profiles for yourself as well. The audio effects like bass, voice, loudness, reverberation, surround sound, equalizer, as well as microphone controls, are integrated across each profile.
Dell G5 15 Special Edition: VR, Graphics, Gaming
The legendary AMD Radeon RX 5600M Graphics card with 6 Gigabytes of VRAM to make its appearance in Dell G5 15 SE. The new AMD GPU has scored the Assassin’s Creed Odyssey with 46 frames per second (Ultra, 1080p) as We chopped our path through a couple of goons on the roadway.
The average Dell G5 15 Special Edition is 45 frames per second while trying out the Shadow of Tomb Raider beating the 42-fps budget gaming average – below the typical 47 frames per second laptop average gaming norm. The GPU RTX 2060 in the Zephyrus G14 had been hammered with 49 frames per second, and the GTX 1660 Ti of the Legion Y545 had 50 frames per second.
The Dell G5 15 Special Edition scored 56 frames per second on the Grand Theft Auto V test, falling short of the 62 frames per second category average – keeping in mind that it once again flew by the 45 frames per second budget gaming average. The Omen 15 (60 frames per second) and Legion Y545 (62 frames per second) performed somewhat better, but the Zephyrus G14 (115 fps) outperformed them all.
The Dell G5 15 SE scored a benchmark of 83 frames per second while playing Hitman (Ultra, 1080p), once more under an average of 85 frames per second (it passed the 65 frames per second budget gaming average). It managed to outperform the Omen 15 (78 frames per second), however not the Zephyrus G14 (87 frames per second) nor the Legion Y545 (95 frames per second).
The Dell G5 15 SE ended the competition by scoring 46 frames per second on the Metro Exodus benchmark, exceeding the common laptop average of 40 frames per second with Zephyrus G14 (41 frames per second), Omen 15 (40 frames per second), and Legion Y545 (41 frames per second): The Dell G5 15 SE also swiped through the budget gaming average of 31 frames per second.
Dell G5 15 Special Edition: Performance Benchmarks
The Dell G5 15 special edition’s processor is an AMD Ryzen R7 4800H with 16 gigabytes of RAM, which effortlessly ripped past forty Google Chrome pages as well as five 1080p YouTube clips along with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey being played in the backend. We also evaluated the machine through its paces using an AMD Ryzen 5 4600H CPU and 8 gigabytes of RAM.
The Dell G5 15 scored 29,253 on the Geek-bench 4.3 total performance test, above the 21,322 common gaming laptop benchmark. The Intel Core i7-9750H in the Omen 15 (19,956) and Legion Y545 (23,868) got demolished by it, while the Ryzen 9 4900HS in the Zephyrus G14 (30,181) annihilated the Dell G5 15.
On our HandBrake testing, the Dell G5 15 SE transcoded a 4K movie to high definition in six minutes & forty-three seconds, easily above the market expectation (10:35). It outperformed not just the Omen 15 (12:34) and Legion Y545 (8:51), but also the Zephyrus G14 (6:59).
Dell’s 512 gigabytes of Disk transferred 4.97 Gigabytes of backup in 12.4 seconds, equating to 410 megabits per second, barely behind the common gaming laptop standard of 467 Megabits per second. The 128 Gigabyte Storage in the Legion Y545 achieved a sluggish 189 Megabits per second, but the 512 Gigabyte Disk in the Omen 15 and the 1TB Disk in the Zephyrus G14 achieved 728 Megabits per second as well as 1,131 Megabits per second, respectively.
When tested with the Ryzen 5, the G5 15 got 22,707 on Geekbench 4.3, outperforming the affordable gaming standard of 18,846. It clocked in at 8:44 in HandBrake, compared to the affordable gaming standard of 12:09. Ultimately, the 256Gigabyte Drive had a transfer rate of 419 Megabits per second, which was barely over the budget gaming average of 402 Megabits.
Dell G5 15 Special Edition: Battery life
The battery life of the Dell G5 15 SE is among the best we have encountered in a laptop. Well, it’s all because of AMD. The Dell G5 15’s battery lasted for about 7 hours and 14 minutes after regularly surfing the web over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness, outlasting the 4:50 common gaming laptop standard. The Omen 15 (3:05) and Legion Y545 (3:38) were essentially dead in the water, leaving just the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (11:32), which again should thank AMD for the battery.
Dell G5 15 Special Edition: Web Camera
The 720p shooter on the Dell G5 15 SE is mediocre, as is the case with most laptop cameras. We couldn’t pick out any features from our colleague’s hair in test photographs. The color was fine, though a little bland, at least it captured the sharp green shirt in a backdrop shot of a gentleman standing. Sadly, due to the badly adjusted contrast, the camera blew out all the windows as well as the door behind us.
So, if you want to stream live while gaming, we advise you to go grab yourself a good webcam.
Dell G5 15 Special Edition: Heat
Though We hate the plastic look, it has certain advantages. Heat management is one of them.
The underside of the Dell G5 15 SE measured 106 degrees Fahrenheit during our casual heat test, which is somewhat above our 95°safety limit, yet it only ever felt warm due to the plastic. The keyboard’s and touchpad’s center temperatures were 100℃ and 82℃, correspondingly. The computer reached a maximum temperature of 110°C on the bottom left of the display’s borders.
We ran Assassin’s Creed Odyssey for fifteen minutes and thus the laptop never got hot because the fans were on full throttle.
Dell G5 15 Special Edition: Warranty & Software
The Alienware Command Center is the most helpful feature in the Dell G5 15. You can check your Processor, Graphics card, and RAM utilization, and also the temperature of your device as well as fans, from this tab. To activate high performance while gaming, open the application or click the G button on your keyboard. You also can tweak around the power management as well as enable the application to collect your titles from other interfaces.
Putting a cherry on top, the G5 15 comes with a slew of Dell software, such as Dell Mobile Link up, Dell Customer Connect, Dell Digital Delivery, Dell Power Manager, and Dell Update.
Not to mention the bloatware in Windows 10, such as Candy Crush Friends, Disney Magic Kingdoms, and Farm Heroes Saga. The Dell G5 15 is backed by one-year warranty coverage.
Final Thoughts
With its insane CPU speed, fantastic battery life, and bright 15.6-inch monitor, the Dell G5 15 is a terrific standard gaming laptop. But, its Graphics might have been far better, also, no one desires a bulky body or harsh speakers.
If you are ready to pay an additional $250 bucks, you can have the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, which has much more powerful Graphics, a better display, as well as better battery life, all in a much slimmer design.
However, through the Dell G5 15 review, we easily got to mark it as one of the finest gaming laptops for the money.
Pros:
- → Blistering CPU performance
- → Colorful and bright 144Hz display
- → Competitive pricing
- → Great battery life
- → Strong graphics (compared to budget gaming)
Cons:
- → Chunky design
- → Dim and dull 60Hz display
- → Middling graphics (compared to mainstream gaming)
- → Sharp speakers