At $179.99, Dell's Inspiron 11 (3162) is a very affordable laptop. If you're not looking for many frills but want an ultraportable that's capable of basic tasks and is easy to carry with you, there are few better alternatives. For less than $200, you get a 64-bit Windows 10 operating system, a simple but sturdy physical build, long battery life, and fast enough processing for Web browsing, word processing, and other day-to-day tasks. The Lenovo IdeaPad 100S-11 costs slightly less, but features only a limited 32-bit OS and didn't perform quite as well on our tests. Aside from a single color choice that might turn away some potential buyers, this laptop has no unreasonable downsides considering its super-low price, so it's our top pick for cheap ultraportable laptops.

Design and Features

A small, all-plastic laptop that measures 0.69 by 11.1 by 7.6 inches (HWD) and weighs 2.46 pounds, the Inspiron 11 (3162) is quite portable, stacking up well to the IdeaPad 100S-11 (0.68 by 11.4 by 7.9 inches; 2.29 pounds) and the Acer Chromebook R 11 (0.8 by 11.6 by 8 inches; 2.76 pounds). At this size, it's good for taking to class where you have limited room to work, or for throwing in your bag to stay productive on the train or bus.

The entire chassis is unabashedly blue (Dell calls it Bali Blue), with a shiny reflective finish on the lid and a duller surface for the keyboard deck. Aesthetics are generally subjective, but I imagine the appearance won't be to everyone's liking since the blue is very bold; this might make it a better choice for students, who work in less serious environments. You can tell the plastic is inexpensive by its look and feel, but the build quality is good and the body is sturdy, something that can't be said for every budget laptop. Although both feel a little flimsy, the keys are responsive (though they would be more comfortable with more travel) and the touchpad performs well.

With a 1,366-by-768 resolution, the display isn't impressive, but is standard for the price range. It has poor viewing angles, but In-Plane Switching (IPS) and 1080p displays are found on far more expensive models. The IdeaPad 100S-11, the HP Stream 13 (a larger but also very blue budget laptop), the E-Fun Nextbook 10.1, and the Lenovo S21e-20 all feature the same 720p resolution, so you'll have to move up a price tier if full HD is a must.

You'll probably want to invest in an SD card if you need more storage: Only 32GB of eMMC flash storage is available here. That's the same amount found in the IdeaPad 100S-11, though, as you're not going to get much more for this little money. Chromebooks almost always offer only a small amount of local storage to encourage cloud usage, and big hard drives are reserved for larger and/or more expensive laptops.

Connectivity options are basic, but again, you can't expect a full suite of features for less than $200, and Dell's inclusions make sense. On the left side of the laptop are an HDMI port, a USB 2.0 port, and a microSD card slot. On the right there's another USB 2.0 port, a headset jack, and a security lock slot. It does feature dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, which are nice features at this price point. Dell supports the laptop with a limited one-year warranty.

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Performance

This system runs on a 1.6GHz Intel Celeron N3050 processor, 2GB of memory, and Intel HD graphics. On the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test, which measures productivity potential, it scored 1,566 points, more than the IdeaPad 100S-11 (1,399) and the Lenovo S21e-20 (1,533), but less than the HP Stream 13 (1,771). In real-world testing, the Inspiron 11 (3162) wasn't what I would call fast to load desktop items and multitask, but it was serviceable.

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One big leg up it has on the IdeaPad is its full 64-bit operating system, as opposed to the Lenovo laptop's more limited 32-bit version. As a result, and unlike the IdeaPad, it was able to complete the 64-bit multimedia tests, finishing the Handbrake test in 12 minutes, 22 seconds and the Photoshop test in 17:23, and scoring 61 points on CineBench. These marks are very low, and you wouldn't want to rely on the laptop for media projects by any means, but it can technically run them, and we are talking about a $180 laptop.

As expected with integrated graphics, 3D and gaming performance weren't too promising. The Inspiron 11 (3162) scored 1,515 points on 3DMark CloudGate, a bit ahead of the competition, but was unable to run the more demanding Fire Strike Extreme test. Unsurprisingly, it was also unable to score more than just 6 frames per second on the Heaven and Valley gaming tests on medium quality settings. This isn't unique to the Inspiron 11 in this category: Laptops at this price, and even those that cost a couple of hundred dollars more, are simply not powerful enough to play anything but the most basic games.

Battery life, on the other hand, was quite good. The Inspiron 11 (3162) lasted 10 hours, 5 minutes, on our rundown test, slightly shorter than the IdeaPad's 11:31 and the Acer Chromebook R11's 10:30, but longer than the S21e-20's 6:03 and the HP Stream 13's 9:09. That's good enough to qualify as all-day battery life, so there would be no problem taking it through a day of classes or on your commute.

Conclusion
The Dell Inspiron 11 (3162) is an inexpensive ultraportable laptop with 64-bit Windows and acceptable performance speeds. The feature set is very basic, as you'd expect, but there are no glaring exclusions for a system that costs just $179. The flashy paint job may well be a sticking point for some, and the IdeaPad looks a bit nicer, but if don't mind the design, this is the better-performing system. For these reasons, the Dell Inspiron 11 (3162) is our new Editors' Choice budget ultraportable.