Final thoughts and rating
We've picked faults with Dell's Inspiron 14z - and hey, some faults are hard to miss - but it's worth reminding readers that the laptop does a lot of things well.
The design look smart (if a little simple), the keyboard is great to type on (albeit a little loud), the trackpad is nice and responsive (but accompanied by stiff buttons), performance is strong (but hampered by too much bloatware) and battery life is outstanding (though the battery does protrude from the shell).
Where there's good, there's bad, but the positives far outweigh the negatives, and the trackpad buttons are arguably the only real deal-breaker - we strongly recommend that you try before you buy, as their mushy responsive is very much an acquired taste.
Bottom line: If you can live with the trackpad, the Inspiron 14z is an affordable laptop that looks good, performs well and keeps going for hours on end.
The Good
Outstanding battery life
Good performance
Comfortable keyboard
Sleek design
The Bad
Stiff, cumbersome trackpad
Interfering pre-installed software
Limited upgrade options
Average audio
HEXUS Rating
Dell Inspiron 14z
HEXUS Where2Buy
The Dell Inspiron 14z laptop is available to purchase from dell.co.uk.
HEXUS Right2Reply
At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.