The next test on our list is Cinebench R23, the multi-core benchmark meant to exercise all of a processor's cores and threads. The Inspiron's Intel Core i3-1115G4 chip does well enough but is bested by the HP Laptop 14's Intel Core i3-1125G4. The Asus VivoBook 15 sat on the bench for this test, as Cinebench would not run on the hardware. For example: For a No Memory Detected Error (2,3). The battery LED blinks 2 times with an Amber color, followed by a pause and then blinks 3 times with a White color. The battery LED will pause for 3 seconds before the next cycle repeats itself again. Each LED blink takes 0.5 seconds. This article provides help with Microsoft Office programs, A Guide to the various Microsoft Office programs available on your Dell PC. Accidental Damage-Additional Information: Accidental Damage Service excludes theft, loss, and damage due to fire, flood or other acts of nature, or intentional damage. Customer may be required to return damaged unit to Dell. Limit of 1 qualified incident per contract year. For more information, consumers visit Accidental Damage Service Contract (Consumer) or commercial customers visit Accidental Damage Service Contract (Commercial).

One major difference between this model and the previous 3505 model is the 1,920-by-1,080-pixel display. The full-HD, 15.6-inch anti-glare screen is an upgrade from the 1,280-by-720-pixel resolution of its predecessor and another feather in the cap of this capable budget machine. There is no touch-screen option, but it’s not something you’d expect in this price range anyway. Unfortunately, the screen brightness isn’t that bright, registering a maximum of 261 nits in our testing. That means that despite the higher resolution compared with its predecessor, the laptop still makes images and video look dim. Estimated valueis Dell’s estimate of product value based on industry data, including the prices at which third-party retailers have offered or valued the same or comparable products, in its most recent survey of major online and/or off-line retailers. Third-party retailer data may not be based on actual sales. Rounding out the productivity tests is the Geekbench benchmark, another CPU stress test meant to simulate real-world applications. The HP Laptop 14's processor helps it nab the top spot here, but the Dell still manages to best most of the competition. Finally, we turn our attention to the screen and use Datacolor's SpyderX Elite calibrator tools to measure display performance. We test screen-brightness output levels at 50% and 100% brightness, as well as measure gamut settings for the three most relevant color spaces for laptop users: the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 standards. The Inspiron 15 3000 did fairly well here, coming out on top of its budget competition, while the Asus VivoBook 15 didn't even make the grade. Night Raid is the more modest of the two test workloads, suitable for laptops with integrated graphics. Time Spy, the more demanding of the two, would not run on any laptop in our comparison group.

More Pixels, But Not Brighter Ones

First Group: The LED blinks with an Amber color 1 to 9 times, followed by a brief pause with the LED off for 1.5 seconds.

The Inspiron 15 3000 didn't do that well here, coming second to last, with only the MSI Modern 14 doing worse. Of course, the chances of doing any serious multimedia work on a budget laptop are unlikely. Try to flash the BIOS to the latest version. For more information, browse to Dell BIOS Updates (Refer to the How do I update BIOS using a USB flash drive? section). Typically, one of the first benchmark tests we run is UL's PCMark 10. The wide-ranging benchmark suite simulates a variety of Windows programs to give an overall performance score for office workflows and the like. Unfortunately, budget laptops normally don't have enough memory to run the tests properly, so we couldn't quantify performance for a comparison as we normally would. Diagnostic Error Codes will always supersede any other use of the LED. For instance, on Notebooks, battery codes for Low Battery or Battery Failure situations will not be displayed when the Diagnostic Error Codes are being displayed. Second Group: The LED blinks with a White color 1 to 9 times. Followed by a longer pause before the next cycle starts again with the LED off for 3 seconds.

The blinking patterns will consist of 2 sets of numbers being represented by a group of Amber blinks, and then a a group of White blinks.