If you're looking for a basic desktop-replacement laptop for your everyday computing chores, but have limited funds, the Dell Inspiron 15 Non-Touch ($249.99) is a good bet. Powered by an Intel Celeron processor and 4GB of memory, this 15-inch notebook has enough power to handle things like emailing, Web surfing, and home office tasks, and it'll give you more than six hours of battery life. It can't display in full HD (1080p) and it lacks a LAN port, but if you can live with those limitations the Inspiron 15 Non-Touch($397.88 at Amazon) is a good deal.

Design and Features
This version of the Inspiron 15 looks exactly like last year's Editors' Choice, the Dell Inspiron 15 (I15RV-6190 BLK)( at Amazon). Its textured, black finish has the kind of durable look and feel that you'd expect from a more expensive model. Although it can't match the current crop of ultrabooks in terms of portability, at 1 by 15 by 10.2 inches (HWD) and 4.7 pounds, it is still light enough for short jaunts and room-to-room travel.

Beneath the textured lid are a 15.6-inch screen and a roomy keyboard deck. The display's 1,366-by-768 resolution is low compared with some of the hi-res screens we're seeing these days, such as the 3K (2,880-by-1,620) display used on the Maingear Pulse 15, but we're talking about a $250 laptop versus a $2,300 notebook. Although the Inspiron 15's screen can't display HD content at 1080p, it does a fine job of displaying 720p content and delivers crisp colors. The screen's glossy coating can be reflective, though. A webcam and microphone are embedded in the display's upper bezel.

You won't find any backlighting on the chiclet-style keyboard, but it has a firm feel, and the keys are responsive and well-spaced. There's a numeric keypad on the right. The wrist rest sports the same textured finish as the lid and contains an oversized touchpad and two large mouse buttons. Like the keyboard, the touchpad is responsive, and it provides plenty of room for performing Windows 8 gestures, like swiping, zooming, and scrolling.

On the left side of the chassis are the power jack, an HDMI port, two USB ports, and a headphone jack. The USB ports on this model are of the 2.0 variety, whereas the Dell I15RV-6190 BLK has four USB ports (two 3.0 and two 2.0). Also missing is a LAN port, which is surprising, and an optical drive, which isn't, given the laptop's rock-bottom price. Dell's Wireless 1506 adapter provides 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi networking, and there's a 4-in-1 card reader embedded in the lower front edge of the chassis.

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The Inspiron's 500GB hard drive spins at 5,400rpm and is loaded with Windows 8.1 with Bing and a handful of trial applications, including McAfee LiveSafe and Microsoft Office 365. There are also apps for shopping sites, such as Amazon, eBay, and Dell Shop, as well as a few Dell utilities, such as Backup and Recovery and PC Checkup. Dell covers the Inspiron 15 with a one-year warranty that includes a full year of in-home repair (after a remote diagnosis) and 90 days of Premium 24/7 phone support.

Performance
The Inspiron 15 is fueled by an Intel Celeron N2830, a dual-core processor with a 2.16GHz base speed and a 2.41GHz burst speed. It comes with 4GB of DDR3 system memory and uses Intel's integrated HD Graphics solution. This combination isn't very powerful and is noticeably slow when it comes to opening applications and playing games, but it is more than adequate for typing documents, Web browsing, and composing and reading email. Its score of 1,554 on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test is a bit lower than what we saw with the Acer Aspire E3-111-C1BW( at Amazon)(1,605), a smaller budget laptop with a 1.83GHz Celeron N2930 processor, and it trailed the Dell Inspiron 17 5000 Series, which uses a 1.7GHz Pentium 3558U processor, by 543 points. The Inspiron 15's Cinebench R15 score of 71 lagged both the Acer E3-111-C1BW (105) and the Dell Inspiron 17 (129), and it required more time to complete the Handbrake video encoding test (11 minutes) than the Acer E3-111-C1BW (6:03) and the Dell Inspiron 17(5:48).

Don't expect speedy frame rates with this laptop. It managed only 3.2 frames per second (fps) on the medium-quality Heaven test and 1.5fps on the ultra-quality settings. The Acer Aspire E1-510P-2671( at Amazon) and the Acer E3-11-C1BW both turned in similar results (3fps at medium quality and 1fps at ultra quality). The Inspiron 15's scores on the Valley test were also quite low (3.9fps at medium quality and 2fps at ultra quality).

Battery life is very good for a 15-inch desktop replacement laptop. The Inspiron 15's 40-watt lithium-ion battery lasted 6 hours 19 minutes on our battery rundown test, beating last year's Dell Inspiron 15 (4:10) by more than two hours and the larger Dell Inspiron 17 5000 Series (5:20) by an hour.

Conclusion
The Dell Inspiron 15 Non-Touch (3531) won't wow you with speedy performance and extra features, but it offers a durable, textured chassis and solid battery life and provides more than enough computing power for browsing the Web, emailing, and other light home-office duties. A higher-resolution screen would be nice, but at this price it's hard to complain, especially since the 1,366-by-768 panel offers good color quality and a sharp 720p image. If you require a larger screen and a DVD drive, consider our Editors' Choice for budget desktop-replacement laptops, the Dell Inspiron 17 5000 Series. It offers better all-around performance and a 17.3-inch, 1,600-by-900 display for only $200 more.

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