Dell Inspiron 14 Plus vs Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9: battle of the budget laptops
The world of budget consumer laptops can be grim. Often you’re juggling performance, battery life, display quality, and design to meet a given price point. However, occasionally we find a few gems in this space, which brings us to the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (7440) and Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9.
Due largely to its astounding 15 hours of battery life and responsive performance, the Inspiron 14 Plus was awarded our Editor’s Choice rating despite a couple of drawbacks. The Lenovo Slim 7i similarly impressed us with its bright, vivid display and snappy keyboard. While we reviewed the more specced out models, both laptops start at an $899 price point which can net you a pretty solid laptop for a price that won’t lead you to bankruptcy.
But how do they stack up against each other?
Dell Inspiron 14 Plus vs Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9: Design
Both Windows systems feature minimalist metal chassis, which can make comparing the designs a bit tricky. Both laptops feature slim bezels, rounded edges, and silver chassis. The Dell Inspiron 14 Plus does technically come in an Ice Blue colorway, though when not compared directly against another object, the ice blue shade just reads as silver. The Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9’s Luna Grey shade also reads as silver, though of a slightly darker shade than the Inspiron 14 Plus.
While the Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9 does have a camera bump at the top of the display, the only other major design difference between the laptops is their dimensions. At 12.28 x 8.7 x 0.59 inches and 3.15 pounds, the Slim 7i is lighter and thinner than the Inspiron 14 Plus which measures 12.36 x 8.92 x 0.63 inches and weighs 3.5 pounds.
I don’t tend to mind the camera bump quite as much as the weight of a laptop, which leads me to lean toward the Slim 7i in this case.
Winner: Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9
Dell Inspiron 14 Plus vs Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9: Ports
Ports can be an ultimate deciding factor for laptops as carrying around a docking station can make a laptop less portable. And one of the main benefits of the laptop form factor is its portability. When it comes to the Inspiron 14 Plus and Slim 7i Gen 9, their port arrays are perfectly serviceable for most people.
The Slim 7i Gen 9 features 1 HDMI port, 2 Thunderbolt 4.0 USB Type-C ports, 1 USB Type-A port, and a universal audio jack. The Inspiron 14 Plus features 1 HDMI port, 1 Intel Thunderbolt 4.0 USB Type-C port, 2 USB 3.2 Type-A ports, and a universal audio jack.
Both laptops have the same number of ports, but I find having 2 USB Type-C ports is more useful to me these days than having 2 USB Type-A ports. If you have mostly older accessories, obviously the Inspiron 14 Plus will be a bit handier, but the Slim 7i is more future-proof having a second USB-C port instead. So I’m giving this category to the Slim 7i, though it's a very close call.
If you need more you can obviously turn to a USB-C hub or docking station. However, for those that like to live a life without dongles or docking stations, there’s a winner here.
Winner: Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9
Dell Inspiron 14 Plus vs Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9: Display
The Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9 has a clear advantage here over the Inspiron 14 Plus, as the Slim 7i comes with an OLED display which is always going to look smoother than a WVA display. While both reviewers were satisfied with the viewing experience of these laptops, the Slim 7i has the edge.
When it comes to our lab tests, the Inspiron 14 Plus had a maximum brightness average of 367 nits and covered 68.4% of the DCI-P3 color gamut with a Delta-E accuracy of 0.2. The Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9 had a maximum brightness average of 382 nits and covered 134% of the DCI-P3 color gamut with a Delta-E accuracy of 0.39. While the Inspiron 14 Plus has a slightly better accuracy score, that has less of a visible impact on the viewing experience of the display.
Since the Slim 7i Gen 9 has the brighter, more vivid display by far this is an easy win for the Lenovo laptop.
Winner: Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9
Dell Inspiron 14 Plus vs Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9: Performance
Both the Inspiron 14 Plus and Slim 7i Gen 9 feature Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processors, so they have some of the quickest performance we’ve seen to date on consumer-grade systems. Both laptops held up easily under our reviewer’s hands-on testing, keeping up with multitasking workloads even with a bevy of open Chrome tabs.
In our lab performance tests, the Inspiron 14 Plus had the edge with a Geekbench 6.2 multi-core average of 12,729 while the Slim 7i trailed just behind with a multi-core average of 12,111 which is far from unusable. The Inspiron 14 Plus also takes the lead on our Handbrake 1.6 video encoding test with a time of 5:02 against the Slim 7i’s 5:21. Lastly, on our File Transfer Test which copies a 25GB multimedia folder to the harddrive, the Inspiron continued to have a performance edge with a 1,618 MBps transfer rate while the Slim 7i boasted a 1,534 MBps transfer rate.
While benchmarks aren’t everything when it comes to performance, the benchmark scores are the greatest difference between the two laptops. After all, both are 14-inch systems with Intel Core Ultra 7 processors and 1TB of storage. In fact, the Slim 7i we reviewed actually had 32 GB of RAM compared to the Insprion’s 16GB of memory. So you’ll get solid performance from either laptop, but the benchmarks tip in favor of the Inspiron 14 Plus.
Winner: Inspiron 14 Plus
Dell Inspiron 14 Plus vs Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9: Graphics
As consumer laptops, neither the Inspiron 14 Plus nor the Slim 7i Gen 9 is suited for 3D rendering workloads or high-end gaming. So if you need to boot up DaVinci Resolve or play Baldur’s Gate III on maximum settings, these are not the ideal laptops.
That said, many people do get up to some light photo and video editing and some indie gaming on their laptops. In this case, the Slim 7i Gen 9’s 32GB memory should give it an edge over the Inspiron 14 Plus. Both laptops are running Intel’s integrated Arc Graphics processor, so that extra system memory will be the biggest difference.
Our lab tests certainly confirmed that prediction, the Inspiron 14 Plus averaged 8,082 on the 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark while the Slim 7i averaged 8,455 on Fire Strike. As for Civilization VI: Gathering Storm, the Inspiron 14 Plus averaged 34 FPS at 1080p on medium settings while the Slim 7i averaged 41 FPS.
While neither game is going to be keeping up with the GPU-heavy tasks or eSports tournaments, they are enough for some casual indie gaming. But the extra RAM on the Slim 7i gives it a clear advantage over the Inspiron 14 Plus.
Winner: Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9
Dell Inspiron 14 Plus vs Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9: Battery life
Battery life is another key point for laptops, as their primary function is to be easily carried from one place to another and function without needing to be plugged into a wall outlet. Ideally you want to have a full day of battery life on your laptop, though there are plenty of factors that can impact the battery life of a laptop from discrete GPUs to OLED display panels. What you do with the laptop on battery power can also impact the battery life, as running editing software will drain your battery faster than just web surfing or watching a video offline.
While both the Inspiron 14 Plus and Slim 7i Gen 9 can survive for over 10 hours on the Laptop Mag battery test, the Inspiron 14 Plus lasted 5 hours longer than the Lenovo. With an astounding 15 hours and 6 minutes of battery life, the Inspiron 14 Plus is the clear winner over the Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9 which lasted a still respectable 10 hours and 3 minutes.
Winner: Dell Inspiron 14 Plus
Bottom line
Depending on your personal needs, you may weigh some categories higher than others. But if we’re looking at all six metrics as equally important, the Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9 is the winner taking home the win in 4 out of 6 categories.
The Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9 also has more customization options, including upgrades to storage and memory. However, for the starting price of $899, the Slim 7i gives you an Intel Core Ultra 5 processor, while the Inspiron 14 Plus gives you the same Intel Core Ultra 7 that we benchmarked. However, the Slim 7i Gen 9 will offer an OLED display even on its entry level model while the Inspiron 14 Plus doesn’t offer an OLED display option. So the Slim 7i is more customizable and does give you an OLED display for just $899.
Of course, if performance and battery life are your key points then you’d probably be better off with the Inspiron 14 Plus. 15 hours of web-surfing battery life is hard to argue with, after all. But, given everything else the Slim 7i offers it is the better laptop all around.
Winner: Lenovo Slim 7i Gen 9
