Dell Inspiron 15 5570 i5 vs. Dell Inspiron 15 5570 i7: Which should you buy?

The Intel i7 and i5 chipsets are the cutting edge of processing technology and there is a fair amount of difference between them (besides the price). If you're a casual user of your laptop or a student then the i5 version of the 5570 is more than adequate. If you're a power user, editing video or photos on a regular basis, then go for the i7 — you'll need the speed.

The Breakdown

It's important to note that we are talking about the same physical laptop here. The Inspiron 5570 with the Intel core i5 is the same machine as the one with the i7. Both come with a 1TB hard drive, both run the standard integrated 620 graphics chipset, and both come with Windows 10 Pro 64-bit edition.

The 5570 isn't going to be winning any awards for its gaming capabilities with that integrated graphics chip but the i7 version with the fast processor and extra memory (but again, an integrated graphics chip) may give you enough of a performance boost to play games on a low graphical setting. The i5 however is unlikely to be any good for gaming at all.

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Header Cell - Column 0 5570 core i55570 core i7
ProcessorCore i5Core i7
Processor Speed6MB Cache, up to 3.4GHz8MB Cache, up to 4.0 GHz
Memory8GB DDR424GB Memory: 8GB 2400MHz DDR4 DRAM + 16GB Intel Optane Memory
Optical DriveYesNo
Disk space1TB1TB

A big plus to the Core i7 5570 is the addition of the Optane Memory. Optane memory is a mix between a solid state drive and RAM and allows the 5570 to load information into active memory much faster. Dell sells this to you as 24GB of memory, and that sounds amazing, but only 8GB of that is actually RAM so keep that in mind.

Casual users should go with the i5; power users should go with the i7.

With the bump in memory and processing power, the clear winner for anyone who uses memory intensive programs — Photoshop, Lightroom, or any video editing program for example — is the 5570 with the core i7. At $790 though, it's a big jump in price from the i5 version, although still cheaper than a lot of other laptops.

The Inspiron 5570 i5 version is only $630 and though it has no Optane Memory, it still houses 8GB of conventional RAM, more than enough for your average work day or study session. It also comes with an optical drive that may not be cutting edge but is still useful in this day and age.

The i7 version is the clear winner here, even though it costs an extra $160. However, if you just need a laptop to do basic tasks, you can't go wrong with the i5 version.

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James Bricknell

James built his first PC when he was 13 and has never looked back. He can be found on Windows Central, usually in the corner where all the 3D printers are, or huddled around the Xbox playing the latest games.