Currently searching for a budget laptop that will be used mainly to run Bluebeam, Microsoft Office Applications and be able to multitask without slowing down.

I came across the Dell Inspiron 15 w/ a Ryzen 5 5500u processor and 8 gb of ram for $350 which seems extremely cheap to me but am not very familiar with AMD processors. There is also a 12th gen series intel i5-1235u model which is priced at $430.

Just wanted a little guidance if this is a purchase which is worth it or if I should keep looking for a better laptop.

I don't know why this laptop is getting a lot of bad press on Reddit but I like mine and I'm glad I got it. It's long, but worth the read.

First off, I was looking at an Inspiron 15 5510 with an i7-11390H, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD and buying directly from Dell. I missed out on several opportunities for a fantastic price, and when it was time to finally get it, I did more research and the 5515 with the Ryzen 7 5700u seemed to be the better buy and more future-proof per many of you on Reddit. So, I went with the 5515.

I needed a laptop with a 15" screen, it needed an SD card slot and after having owned a MacBook Air, I loved the backlit keyboard, and I wanted that too. The display with a 1920x1080 resolution is nice and an upgrade over the 1366x768 resolution on my 15R 5537. There was an HP 15t-dy200 that I also had my eye on that had similar specs and the same features I was looking for. Custom building an HP and patiently waiting for it to arrive was nearly something I was going to do, until everyone in the HP sub who ordered anything from HP said they were having issues trying to get their purchases.

The 5515 was an Amazon purchase, $200 off the regular price, and coming directly from Amazon and not a third party seller. The only downside was that it only had a 512GB SSD, but it did have 16GB of RAM. However, after watching some videos on YouTube, Dell seems to have made it so one can put in a second SSD should they choose to do so. I'm definitely going to do that, and may opt to put in a 1TB SSD. I'll have to read up on all that because these aren't SATA SSDs like the one I put in my 15R 5537.

I have 16GB in this and according to Dell, it is upgradable to 32GB. I'll be doing that, but I don't know when. What I've got in there now is more than enough for my needs, and I won't be doing any gaming on it.

I believe it came shipped with Windows 10. When I started it up for the first time, I had to do software upgrades... no big deal, that is always expected. I didn't think I'd expect to download Windows 11 and install that right then and there. Setup was a breeze and without any issues. Once I got everything up and running, I installed Google Chrome. No issues. More system updates were needed and one of them was an upgrade to the BIOS. Doing that update made the fan scream louder than an F-22 Raptor jet engine in mil power. It was ducking loud.

Everything else I needed to install went on without a hitch and after three weeks of using it, I am very happy I made this purchase. It starts up very fast, almost as fast as an M1 MacBook. Programs load quickly, videos load quick, and the screen is adequate. Photoshop loads about 50% faster and video editing software that's ten years old still works with Windows 11 and the time it takes to load and save is definitely at least 50% faster than the 15R 5537. I don't think there's a computer screen out there that comes anywhere near as nice and crisp as any device with the Apple logo on it. They're in a whole different realm.

In terms of ports, like I stated earlier I needed the SD card slot. There was no way I was going to buy any USB-C hubs just for a memory card slot, especially when those prices are all over the place. There's only two USB 3.2 ports, which is a let-down, but I did buy a four port USB 3.0 hub which has come in handy. There's one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port with DisplayPort and Power Delivery built in. It works as advertised, and when I travel, I bought a small 65W USB-C block. The computer gave me a warning message saying it wouldn't charge the battery via that way, but after having it in for a while, it did indeed charge the battery. The AC adapter came with a smaller plug, so my existing Dell adapters and plugs were not compatible.

There is one thing I wish this laptop didn't have and that is a touch screen. In my opinion a touchscreen on a laptop is absolutely useless. If I want a touchscreen device I'll turn to an iPad or an iPhone, not my computer. I hate fingerprints on computer screens with a passion.

Overall, this is definitely a great buy. I've owned ten desktop and laptop computers over the last 25 years and this is my fourth Dell. I managed to get nearly eight years out of my previous Dell laptop even after replacing the hard drive and upgrading to an SSD and upgrading the RAM, and it still works to this day (though it's seen better days). I hope the 5515 lasts just as long.

The specs are in the second image.

I plan on upgrading to 16 GB memory and Intel Iris Xe graphics card if I plan on buying it.

Is this a good recommendation for a student going into college. There won't be heavy usage as I'm going to be a finance major.

I will mostly use it for watching videos, playing games (optional), studying and browsing the net, etc...casual uses like that.

I would also appreciate a review from those who've used it before. I'm open to more recommendations, my maximum budget is $650.