I’ve been reviewing laptops for over a decade, and something I’ve learned over the years is that budget isn’t a bad word. On the contrary, sub-$1,000 laptops have shown time and time again that they can rise above their seemingly meager standing. One such laptop is the Dell Inspiron 14 7445 2-in-1. This convertible laptop offers plenty of versatility as well as durability and security — all while keeping the price relatively affordable. Plus, the laptop offers solid performance and nearly 10 hours of battery life, which will be music to the ears of consumers from all walks of life.

However, when you’re dealing with value systems, more often than not, some compromises are going to have to be made. In the case of the Inspiron 14, the trade-offs lie with the display. Although the touch panel is fast and responsive, it’s also dim and dull. And the speakers’ audio quality could be more detailed. But if students, mobile professionals, and bargain hunters can look past the Inspiron 14’s shortcomings, it’s a versatile workhorse waiting to be unleashed.

About this review: Dell supplied XDA with a review unit of its Dell Inspiron 14 7445 2-in-1. It had no input on the content of this article.

Pricing and availability

Affordability, thy name is Inspiron. Whether the AMD or Intel options, the most powerful configurations tap out at $1,100. My review unit costs $950 and has a 3.3-GHz AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS processor with 16GB of DDR5 5,600 MT/s of RAM, a 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD, AMD Radeon 780M Graphics, and a 14-inch, 1920 x 1200 touch display.

The $730 AMD base model has an AMD Ryzen 5 8640 CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, AMD Radeon 780M Graphics, and a 14-inch, 1920 x 1200 touch display. The Intel base model costs $750 and has the same specs as its AMD counterpart otherwise, but swaps out the CPU for an Intel Core 5 120U processor.

Design and ports

Durable and versatile

Outside of its striking Midnight Blue color, the Inspiron 14 7445 2-in-1 isn’t going to turn heads. Don’t get me wrong, the Inspiron 14 is a stately-looking machine with its aluminum (50% recycled) chassis –– it’s just not as flashy as the premium XPS line. But it does share some design notes with its more expensive cousin, such as the Dell logo in the center of the lid. The Inspiron 14 is also available in Ice Blue if you prefer a lighter colorway.

The majority of the Inspiron 14’s keyboard deck and palm rest is made of that pretty Midnight Blue aluminum. The palm rest transitions into the keyboard deck via a gentle downward slope. The junction between the deck and display is held in place by a pair of sturdy 360-degree hinges that allow the laptop to seamlessly transform between forms other than the traditional clamshell. These include a tent and a tablet mode, where you can fold the lid on top of the undercarriage. And if you want to share the display with someone, the laptop can also lie completely flat. The hinges are a bit stiff, so you’ll want to apply a little pressure to switch between modes.

The Inspiron 14’s bottom has two slim rubber feet and a longer one towards the rear. There are a pair of vent rows below the longer foot while a pair of speaker grilles sit towards the front of the panel along the sides. A gray white Inspiron logo is smack dab in the middle, while seven black screws secure the bottom plate of the notebook.

Aside from looking good no matter where it goes, the laptop is also sturdy, as it passed 17 tests for MIL-STD-810H certification. That means it can withstand extreme temperatures, altitudes, sand, dust, and drops from reasonable heights.

At 3.8 pounds, the Inspiron 14 (12.4 x 8.9 x 0.62 ~ 0.74 inches) finds itself at the heavier end of the spectrum compared to its contemporaries. The HP Envy x360 2-in-1 (3.1 pounds, 12.3 x 8.6 x 0.7 inches), HP Spectre x360 14 (2024) (3.2 pounds, 12.35 x 8.68 x 0.67 inches), and Lenovo Yoga 7 (2024, 14-inch) 2-in-1 (3.6 pounds, 12.51 x 8.75 x 0.66 inches) are all lighter. However, that doesn’t mean the Dell didn’t slide easily into my massive Telfar bag.

For a 14-inch system, the Inspiron 14 has a healthy number of ports. You get a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, SD card, and a headset jack on the right side. There’s another USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port on the left, along with a pair of USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type C ports, and an older HDMI 1.4 port.

Display, webcam, and audio

A lackluster display and distorted audio

Typically, when you’re dealing with a budget or value system, you’re playing a game of compromises. In the case of the Inspiron 14 2-in-1, the compromise lies in the display. The 14-inch, 16:10 touch panel is quite agile when it comes to drawing or note-taking, although the three-second delay before adjusting screen orientation could be better. But the display’s biggest crimes are the brightness and color accuracy.

The panel is rated for 250 nits, but when I measured it with my light meter, I got an average of 213 nits. Neither number lends itself to outdoor usage and, with the glossy panel, this is definitely an indoor gadget. And while I can forgive dimness (to a certain extent), the color reproduction here really gets my goat. The screen only hits 63% of the Adobe sRGB color gamut, while the sRGB and DCI-P3 gamuts are even lower at 47%, with the NTSC gamut only hitting 45%.

During the trailer for “Pretty Red Dress,” the titular garment was definitely the highlight in every shot with clear detail that showed off every bead and sequin. However, having watched this trailer on several different systems, I definitely noticed the red wasn’t as vibrant as it was on other panels. Actor Alexandra Burke’s cinnamon skin looked washed out, as did Natey Jones.

The dull color also carried over to the webcam. Test shots I took with the 1080p webcam were disappointing. My skin had a grayish tint to it, as did my lavender and pink dress. The details were crisp, as you can see the individual locs that make up my elaborate hairstyle. If you want more vibrancy though, you’ll want to invest in an external webcam. But if you’re in a pinch, it will provide passable video during conference calls. The best thing about the integrated webcam is the physical shutter, which will preserve your privacy.

The Inspiron 14’s speakers are OK, especially at this price point. Keep in mind, however, that the sound tends to distort at full volume and those bottom-mounted speakers are easily muffled by a pair of juicy thighs. The piano on Tommy Richmond’s absolute earworm “Million Dollar Baby” was harsh, and the bass was lacking, but the percussion was quite crisp. And while you can try to augment the sound with one of the 24 presets in the Audio section of the My Dell app via the Dolby Atmos Core and Waves MaxxAudio Pro sound processing, I really didn’t notice any discernible difference. Overall, if you’re planning on doing any serious music listening or movie watching, you’ll definitely want to bring a pair of headphones into the mix.

Keyboard and touchpad

Comfortable typing with bright backlighting

The island-style keyboard delivers firm, springy feedback with large keys that enjoy generous spacing. The bright backlighting is a nice bonus for those of us that like to work in darkened environments. I enjoyed typing out this review on the Inspiron 14’s keyboard. There’s just enough click to hit that spot for the ASMR fans, but not enough where it would annoy a nearby coworker.

The power button pulls double duty on the Inspiron 14, also acting as a fingerprint reader. For those curious about AI and some of what it has to offer, there’s a Microsoft Copilot button next to the arrow keys.

The Precision touchpad lives up to the name, delivering fast, accurate multitouch gestures with great palm rejection. The bottom corners perform their left and right mouse buttons, depressing with a nice click.

Performance

Enough power to get the job done

Armed with an AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS processor and 16GB of RAM with a 1TB SSD, the Inspiron 14 2-in-1 isn’t a powerhouse by any means. But it can handle most light to medium workloads. For instance, the notebook had no problem dealing with my 65 open tabs in Google Chrome with my usual smattering of G-Suite apps, social media, news and entertainment sites, and YouTube videos. I also edited images for this review on the Inspiron 14 with no problem. Video Editing in Adobe Premiere proved to be a bit much, as the system definitely showed signs of slowing down.

The Inspiron 14 held its own against competing systems. The convertible beat the Envy, Yoga 7, and Spectre x360 in the single-core tests of Geekbench 6. The Dell also managed to defeat the Envy and the Yoga 7 on the multicore portion of the benchmark. However, the Spectre x360’s Intel H-series CPU pulled out the ultimate win. I got similar results during the Cinebench 2024 test with the Inspiron 14 eeking out victory in single core results, but losing to the Spectre x360 in multicore tests.

If you’re looking for a laptop that can handle heavy-duty gaming, the Inspiron 14 ain’t it. That’s because it relies on the integrated AMD Radeon 780M Graphics chip to handle most of the graphics-heavy processing. While it’s good for light photo editing and some gaming, you really want something with discrete graphics for those all-night gaming sessions and bigger video editing jobs. As it stands, the Inspiron 14 only beat the Envy on the synthetic 3DMark Time Spy benchmark.

The great thing about laptops that don’t go hard on performance is that they typically have good battery life. Such is the case for the Inspiron 14 2-in-1’s 4 Cell, 54 Wh battery which lasted 9 hours and 51 minutes on the PCMark 10 Modern Office battery life test with display brightness set to 200 nits of brightness. That’s only 13 minutes shy of the 10:04 that Dell rated the laptop for.

Should you buy the Dell Inspiron 14 7445 2-in-1?

You should buy the Dell Inspiron 14 7445 2-in-1 if:

• You want an inexpensive laptop
• You want a convertible laptop
• You want a laptop that can last more than eight hours on a charge

You shouldn’t buy the Dell Inspiron 14 7445 2-in-2 if:

• You want a laptop with a bright, vibrant display
• You want a more powerful laptop

Students, bargain hunters, lend me your ears! If you’re looking for a laptop that won’t break the bank and provide oodles of versatility and endurance, the Dell Inspiron 14 7445 2-in-1 is the laptop for you. Priced below $1,000, the 2-in-1 laptop won’t put too much of a dent in your budget. Armed with an AMD CPU and GPU, the convertible notebook is an able workhorse, capable of handling most tasks, with the exception of graphic-intensive jobs.

It’s got a stately, durable design with some integrated security features. And of course, you’ve got the ability to transform the laptop into a tablet and other useful forms. The laptop also offers a level of endurance, lasting nearly 10 hours on a charge. Does the laptop have flaws? Yes, a display that’s equal parts dim and dull, along with speakers that can sound distorted at full volume. But for those looking for a versatile Swiss Army Knife kind of laptop, the Dell Inspiron 14 7445 2-in-1 is the notebook for you.