I am, as one can read from my previous reviews of Dell's XPS 12 series, a fan of these convertible laptops, which offer a touchscreen/tablet mode as well as a full fledged laptop mode with a full sized attached keyboard.
While the XPS 12 was targeted to the premium ultrabook segment in price and performance, this Insprion 13 700 series aims at a lower price point, and makes some concessions as a result. Most obviously, the construction, which uses a sturdy rubberized finish plastic instead of metal, and the hard drive in the cheaper models, which is a hybrid mechanical (Seagate) drive. That said, the case is actually quite aesthetically pleasing and nice to the touch, and the hard drive is easily replaced. (More on that below).
Dell offers this laptop in several configurations. The important specs that are common across all the configurations:
13.2 inch touchscreen
Haswell processor/Intel HM87 chipset (better battery life than earlier generations)
Intel integrated 4400 HD graphics (good enough for most purposes except high end gaming)
Wireless N
Bluetooth
2x USB 3.0 ports
1x USB 2.0 port
HDMI out
Full sized SD card reader
Capacitance PASSIVE pen with built in holder
Backlit keyboard
2-in-1 convertible laptop with a 360degree flipable screen
HD webcam
Windows 8.1
Dimensions: 0.75" X 12.99" X 8.74"
Weight: 3.7 pounds
The options depending on configuration:
Screen resolution. The cheapest model features a 1366x768 resolution screen. I would not recommend this. All other models feature a full HD 1920x1080 resolution screen.
Processor: This comes with either an Intel I3 or I5 processor. Unless you are doing work that tends to peg the processor (e.g. video processing, scientific computing, etc.) then the I3 will be more than sufficient and you are not likely to notice the difference.
Memory: This comes with either 4Gb or 8Gb of memory. Memory replacement is straightforward (remove the bottom cover by removing a few screws). There is one memory stick slot on the motherboard. Since memory can be replaced, if you don't think you need 8Gb to start (and most do not), go with 4Gb and you'll be happy.
Wireless card. The cheapest model has only Wireless N (which is good enough for almost anyone). The higher end models add Wireless AC, which is the latest wireless spec--although it's not supported yet in most hotspots nor even in most homes. The higher end models also add both 2.4 Ghz and 5Ghz bands for N (the low end only supports 2.4Ghz). That's an upgrade many will actually find important--the 5Ghz band is usually less crowded and faster (although with less signal penetration).
Hard drive: A Seagate 500Gb hybrid hard drive. This is, essentially, an old fashioned spinning drive with a few GB of flash memory that the drive uses to "learn" the apps you load most and to then boot those apps more quickly. The hard drive is easily replaced and I STRONGLY recommend replacing it with a SSD as your first upgrade, since this is the bottleneck on this laptop. The space available supports 7mm thick drives. You might be able to fit a 9.5mm drive, but it would be very tight.
OK, enough with the specs and options. What's the verdict?
In terms of performance, coming from platforms built on SSD drives (the Dell XPS 12, the Microsoft Surface Pro), I found boot times with the included 500GB hybrid drive to be annoyingly slow. They aren't bad compared to boot times of just a few years ago--after a few reboot cycles for the drive to learn your system, I'd say boot times are maybe half a minute. But given that I'm now spoiled by boot times of 10 seconds or so, this seems poor. More significantly, new apps that the hybrid drive hasn't "learned" open much more slowly. The same is true for installs. The hybrid drive helps not at all with installs, and installing complex software with lots of "parts" is a trip back to the bad old days of many many minutes to install even some software that's relatively common (e.g. Acrobat). For fun, I imaged the included drive to a decent Plextor 256Gb SSD that I had lying around. This immediately fixed all the aggravations I experienced with the hybrid drive. But I should emphasize that if you are not coming from a laptop that has a SSD, you will find the performance with the included drive fine. The key is that including the non SSD has helped Dell meet a price point for this laptop.
The system is (thankfully) devoid of bloatware. So performance is (especially after replacing the drive) snappy and pretty much indistinguishable from other modern laptops with modern chipsets. The model I reviewed has an I5 and 8Gb of memory, but the system monitor confirmed what I already pretty much knew: That neither the processor nor the system memory were anywhere close to maxed out for normal use cases outside of video encoding or running some proprietary resource hog software for work.
I found the keyboard to be very comfortable to use. The keys feel good and all the special keys are exactly where you expect them to be. I did encounter the occasional glitch in the behavior of the track pad, where the cursor would seem to jump suddenly. This only happened a few times, but a perusal of the Web suggests its a driver issue and I expect it will get fixed shortly. But again, it didn't happen enough to be important (in my experience).
Battery life? It's not bad When I put the laptop on an endless video loop to test battery life, with the screen brightness at medium and using the default Dell power program, I got just about 4.4 hours before the laptop turned itself off. During another test session where I limited myself to productivity work (MS Office, Acrobat, email, a little surfing), I got a little over 6 hours. I doubt in any real world use case you should expect much more than that unless you're willing to keep the screen unacceptably dim or you just have it on doing absolutely nothing. But 6 hours is enough for a trans continental flight, and to me that's the necessary benchmark if I'm packing it for work.
In terms of ports, it's nice that there are 3 USB ports, although only two of them are USB 3.0 (the third is USB 2.0). It's GREAT that there's a full sized SD memory card reader. One of my peeves about the mostly excellent Dell XPS 12--which has been my work computer for a couple of year snow--is that there's no memory card reader. On the downside, you have a HDMI out port here, and not a more flexible micro-Displayport, which has become standard with Ultrabooks. That means this laptop definitely will NOT be suitable for road warriors who want to use it for work presentations--too many installations (in my experience) still do not support HDMI and only have VGA connectivity, and USB-> VGA adapters are both expensive and, in my experience, a bit too flaky to rely on them for work.
I played with the included passive capacitance pen a little. I though, at first, it was cool they included such a pen, along with a nice slot in the laptop where it's stored. However, I found that the pen was pretty much worthless--too inaccurate to use for actual functions such as note taking. I am not sure what the value of it is, actually, other than as a way to select items on the screen without using your actual finger.
Regarding the ergonomics of the convertible 360 degree flip screen: Unlike Dell's previous convertible entry, the XPS 12, which features a novel approach to convertibility (screen rotates 360 degrees in an attached frame), this model basically follows the paradigm already demonstrated by Lenovo in their Yoga series and the Asus in their Transformer Book Flip model. That is, you can fold the screen back entirely, so that the back of the screen sits against the bottom of the laptop, and the screen is exposed on one side and the keyboard is exposed on the other side. The downside to this approach is that if you decide to use your laptop in tablet mode, the keyboard is exposed underneath. The worry is that this leaves the keyboard susceptible to getting dirt, key damage, etc. But again, I am sure this design is much less expensive to execute than the XPS 12 flip-in-frame model. Ignoring the exposed keyboard in tablet mode, it works fine, the hinges between the keyboard and the screen are nice and tight--supporting any desired angle. In laptop mode, this sat nicely on my lap--something I can't exactly say with the Microsoft Surface, for example.
Finally, there's the weight and size. This is a little thicker than the cutting edge ultrabooks available now, but I didn't find it disconcertingly thick as a laptop. However, it's not exactly light, weighing in at over three and a half pounds. That's obviously another concession to keeping costs down. And while it's not going to make your friends go ooh and ah in the weight sweepstakes, it's not bad when you throw it in your briefcase or backpack.
The place where I find the weight and thickness to be an issue are in tablet mode. Like the XPS 12, the Microsoft Surface Pro 1 and 2, the Lenovo Yoga and others, I continue to find these convertibles continue to feel a bit clumsy in terms of heft when used as tablets. That said, I would imagine the most obvious use case as a table would be as a consumption device, e.g. watching a movie, and then you're not likely to be holding the tablet (laptop) for more than a short amount of time before you set it down to watch.
In summary, I was generally quite pleased with this platform. I think Dell is offering a lot of value here, although the entry model for $600 list price is the one I'd avoid--primarily due to the lower resolution screen in that budge model. Any of the higher end models, with the full HD screen, should be more than suitable. All suffer somewhat from the lack of a SSD as provided, but Dell has made it simple to replace both the SSD and the memory (just remove the backplate), and when you have the time and a little money, I'd recommend doing just that. The battery life is not amazing, but it's adequate. And the ergonomics and feel of the construction all are solid. The port selection is good--much better than, say, the Surface--although the inclusion of a HDMI port rather than the more flexible mini-Displayport is a strike against it for road warriors.
There are slicker laptops out there, but not at this price point--even if you account for the cost of replacing the included hard drive with a SSD. If the size and ergonomics work for you, this is a strong entry in the convertible sweepstakes.
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