Regular customers may not be very well familiar with the creator laptop segment, but this category of PCs come with loads of potential. Unlike gaming laptops, creator laptops are aimed at professionals who require extra juice in their portable PCs, and they come with some eye-catching features without compromising the design. That essentially means you’ll get to see high-end specifications in a sleek form factor. That’s why I was very excited when Dell approached me to review their Inspiron 16 Plus (7610) that not only looks good but also carries a mighty starting price tag of Rs 1,29,990, which is still not the most expensive laptop when compared to rivals. It also means that the laptop can be considered an entry-level creator laptop in the segment. If you’re a professional who likes running multiple browser tabs, editing videos and photos, and enjoys occasional gaming, here’s a breakdown.
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Design: Just to be clear, I’ve never used a laptop with a 16-inch screen before, and I always had my apprehensions. I’ve reviewed and owned multiple laptops with 13-inch to 15-inch screens, but somehow a 16-inch display always seemed a bit too much. The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus cleared all the doubts and assured me that laptops with large screens can not only be user-friendly but are portable as well. The metal body does add some weight (roughly 2kg); however, it does not feel the heaviest to carry. We also get a chunky 130W charger, so make sure you’re not using an inverter-backed power outlet in case of a power cut.
The metal body also offers a sturdy build, and users can open the lid with one hand. We get multiple vents on the sides and back (and of course, bottom) for heat dissipation. The trackpad placement is good (slightly towards the left), which could be useful for those who are left-handed. The front-facing speakers are loud, and we get a full-sized keyboard. There are loads of connectivity ports on the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus including a headphone jack, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, SD card reader, HDMI port and USB-C port with Thunderbolt 4.
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Overall, the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus comes with a thoughtful design and a premium finish. The laptop sports a Mist Blue colour scheme that may appear dull to some users, but I like it better than the generic black and silver finish. The webcam gets a shutter; however, there’s no Windows Hello support for face recognition. It may spook some customers when we consider the over Rs 1 lakh price mark. The power button doubles as a fingerprint scanner. Lastly, I am not fond of the keyboard (backlit support available) that seems closely packed (1.3mm key travel) and tight at times. This is coming from someone who spends roughly eight hours daily typing to make a living.
Display: To be clear, the display does not come with touch support if you’re wondering at this price point. We get a large 16.0-inch IPS display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, 3K (3072 x 1920 pixel) resolution, 300 nits of brightness, and a 100 percent sRGB coverage. That being said, the display performance is vivid and highly satisfactory. Additionally, there’s Dolby Vision support, and content with HDR looks spectacular on the large screen.
The ‘snap layout’ feature on Windows 11 makes the best use of the 16-inch screen. It essentially lets users divide the screen into equal parts by hovering the cursor over the minimise button at the top right. It is highly useful on the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus, especially when you have to make notes while running the web browser simultaneously.
However, there’s a major setback that may not go well with lots of spec-hungry users. The screen refresh rate maxes out at 60Hz when rivals at different price points offer a 144Hz display. It does not mean that the viewing experience is poor by any metric, but even content creators would like to experience a high refresh rate.
Performance: Before we jump to the main part, a quick summary of the on-paper specifications. The Dell Inspiron 16 Plus (7610) carries an 11th Generation Intel Core i7-11800H CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 4GB GDDR6 GPU, 16GB (8×2) of DDR4 RAM, and 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD. In simple words, the laptop packs a series of high-end hardware that is more than enough if you’re looking for a reliable daily driver.
For creators and professionals, the Inspiron 16 Plus (7610) can run multiple high-end software without heating too much. For professional Instagram and YouTube creators, this laptop is more than enough to run heavy Adobe editing apps. For business customers, the laptop again runs smoothly if you want to run multiple stock-tracking apps and switch between browser tabs. However, if you use 3D-visualisation tools, you might want to look for an upgraded version as the under-the-hood hardware paired with this screen might not be enough.
Coming to gaming, though I am not much of a gamer (neither is this laptop), I did play Forza 5, Age of Empires IV, and old Batman Arkhan Knight. As expected, the laptop was able to run these titles efficiently with considerably loud fans but no heating. However, the low refresh rate does create a huge difference and hampers the gaming experience. It also scored an impressive 6024 points on the PC Mark 10 benchmark. In the Digital Content Creation test, the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus scored a total of 7157 points. During the 3D Mark GPU test, it achieved 4933 points on Time Spy, while the best score is said to be 6121. The display was able to achieve 31.92 FPS during the test.
Customers must also note that the HD camera’s performance is average so if you use your webcam daily for online meetings, do keep that in mind. The fingerprint scanner is responsive, and the boot-time is also quick.
Battery: Thanks to large build, the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus (7610) slips a 6-Cell Battery rated at 86WHr that offers roughly five hours of runtime if you’re using the web browser, native notepad, and your phone companion. The laptop takes roughly two hours to fully charge with the bundled 130W adaptor.
Verdict: By looking at the spec sheet, one can easily infer that the laptop is more than capable of running efficiently. But at this point, it is more pertinent to understand who should buy this notebook. If you’re a budding yet somewhat established YouTuber or Instagram creator, the Inspiron 16 Plus (7610) won’t disappoint. The laptop offers a crisp viewing experience, delivers a good sound output, and provides reliable battery backup.
Business professionals won’t regret their purchase decision either because it’s blissful to use Excel on Inspiron 16 Plus (7610)’s large screen. But as mentioned, the HD webcam delivers poor performance, so if you need a good-quality webcam, you may want to purchase it separately. Lastly, full-time 3D artists or video editors may look for another option as you can find other laptops at a slightly higher price point that support stylus-pen and carry other inbuilt creator accessories.
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