Dell G3 15 (2019) gaming laptop review: Solid gaming, lackluster screen
Our Verdict The Dell G3 15 has a sleek look for a budget gaming PC and offers strong performance for the price, but the trade-off is a bland display.
02/01/2022
Our Verdict
The Dell G3 15 has a sleek look for a budget gaming PC and offers strong performance for the price, but the tradeoff is a bland display.
For
Attractive design
Solid gaming performance for the price
Longer than average battery life
Versus
Dull display
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It's not because you can't afford the most expensive
gaming laptop
yours should feel cheaper. That's what impressed me the most about the Dell G3 15 ($849.99 as tested). Sure, our review unit has specs to match the price, like an Intel Core i5-9300H and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650, but the build quality is solid. It's upgradable with the removal of a few screws, and the gaming performance will allow you to play most current titles, even if not on the highest settings. However, there is often a trade-off with cheaper PC hardware. And for this Dell, it's a bland, dull screen. The appearance of the laptop can be better than the appearance of your games.
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
Design
Dell G3 15 (3579) (Black) at Amazon for $729
Honestly, I wish more
gaming laptops
look like this. Sure, the Dell G3 isn't made of the most premium materials, but it's sleek without excess. The black plastic lid features a Dell logo flanked by two lines, giving it a bit of edge without screaming that it's a gaming machine. It opens on a single hinge below the screen 15 inch FHD surrounded by mid-size bezels. The plastic tray feels smooth to the touch, and while not exactly soft-touch materials, it's comfortable when you rest your wrists on it.
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Blue accents are also on the keyboard and touchpad, as well as on the feet of the
laptop
and on the vents on the back. There's also a bit of a racing car motif on the back, with the G3 logo with air vents on each side, and the same G3 logo above the keyboard, as if it were a painting on board.
The left side of the laptop houses most of the ports, including the power jack, USB Type-C, HDMI out, USB 3.1 Type-A, Ethernet, and a headphone jack. On the right, there's a full-size SD card slot, a pair of USB 2.0 Type-A ports, and a lock slot.
At 5.4 pounds (2.4 kg) and 14.4 x 10 x 0.9 inches (365.5 x 254 x 21.6 mm), the G3 is smaller than the
Acer Nitro 5
(5.7 pounds, 15.9 x 11 x 1.1 inches), but its size is close to the< /p>
Lenovo Legion Y545
(5.3 lbs, 14.2 x 10.5 x 1 inches).
Specifications
CPU
Intel Core i5-9300H
Graphics
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 (4GB GDDR5)
Memory
8 GB DDR4 2666 MHz p>
SSD
128GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD and 1TB 5400RPM HDD
Screen
15.6 inches, 1920 x 1080 p>
Network
Qualcomm DW1810 1x1 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.1
Video Ports
HDMI2.0
Ports
USB Type-C with DisplayPort, Ethernet, headphone/mic jack, USB 3.1 Type-A, 2x USB 2.0 Type-A, lock slot, SD card reader
Camera
720p
Battery
51Whr
AC adapter
130W
Operating system
Windows 10 Home
Dimensions ons (WxDxH)
14.4 x 10 x 0.9 inch / 365.5 x 254 x 21.6mm
Weight
5.4 lbs / 2.4 kg
Price (as configured)
$849.99
Games, graphics and virtual reality
The Dell G3 we reviewed came with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 (4GB GDDR5), which will play most games at medium or low settings. When I played
control
to
1080p
on medium settings, the graphically demanding game was stable at 40 fps while I took down enemies in the astral plane.
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On the
Ascending the Tomb Raider benchmark (1920 x 1080, very high), the Dell G3 ran the game at 30fps, tying the Nitro 5 and beating the 25fps average. The Legion, with the same GPU but a better Core i7 processor, achieves 49 fps.
On
Hitman
, (1920 x 1080, ultra), the G3 hit 62 fps, beating the Nitro 5 (56 fps) and the average (51 fps), but falling short of the Nitro 5.
The Dell G3 ran at 38 fps on the
Grand Theft Auto V
benchmark (1920 x 1080), beating the average (32 fps) but below the Nitro 5 and Legion. To stress the machine, we ran
Metro Exodus< /p>
on a ten-piece loop at normal presets, which is mostly 1080p at medium settings. It ran at an average of 41.7fps and was largely consistent from run to run.
Typically, we also use this test to check CPU speeds and temperatures. This works quite well on systems with
SSD
, but the paltry 128GB meant we had to put games on the hard drive, which meant longer load times between runs than we'd like. The laptop has reached an average processor
Dell G3 15 Gaming Laptop Review: A Consistent Gaming Experience With an Attractive Price Tag https://t.co/Q6vzI5NWfH https://t.co/afwpsruolQ
— microsolutions-sa Wed Jan 30 11:06:55 +0000 2019
clock speed
of 2.8 GHz, but that includes the lower loading times. Often it reached 3.9-4.0 GHz. The processor averaged 79.5 degrees Celsius (175.1 degrees Fahrenheit).
The average GPU temperature was 66.5 degrees Celsius (151.7 degrees Fahrenheit) and ran at an average of 1.2 GHz (again, that didn't work as hard during those loading screens. It often reached 1.6 GHz).
Productivity performance
The Dell G3 15 we reviewed came with an Intel Core i5-9300H processor and 8GB of RAM, allowing for mainstream productivity use when you're not gaming.
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On Geekbench 4.3, the Dell G3 scored 16,650, beating the entry-level gaming average (13,285) and the Acer Nitro 5 with the same CPU (14,432). Only the Lenovo Legion Y545 with an Intel Core i7-9750H processor and 16GB of RAM did better, which is expected given the specs.
It took 17 seconds to copy 4.97GB of files (the spinning hard drive may have been a factor there), that equates to 299.4MBps. That's still a bit faster than the entry-level gaming average (295.4 Mbps) and Legion (188.5 Mbps). The Nitro 5 was faster.
On our Handbrake video editing test, in which laptops convert video
4K
at 1080p, the Dell took 14 minutes and 1 second, beating the average (15:52) and the Nitro 5. The Legion, with the strongest specs, did it in 8:51.
Display
The weakest point on the Dell G3 15 is the display. The 13.3-inch FHD display just isn't as vivid as its competitors. When I watched the trailer for
Charlie's Angels
, the colors of the orange explosions, green dresses, and blue lights outside a museum all looked a bit muted. When I played
control
, colors like Jesse Faden's red hair were bland.
That's because the screen only covers 63% of the sRGB color gamut, below the 76% average for entry-level games, and well below the Nitro 5 and Legion.
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
At 272 nits, Dell's screen is slightly brighter than the average (269 nits) but dimmer than the Nitro and Legion.
Keyboard and touchpad
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
< p>The Dell G3's keys feel a little cheap, but that doesn't reflect the overall keystroke quality. The switches aren't terribly deep, but they're clicky, responsive, and nice to tap on. On the 10fastfingers typing test, I hit 101 words per minute with my usual 2% error rate. The touchpad measures 3.2 x 4.2 inches, which is roomy and maybe even a little tall for some people's needs. Thanks to the Windows Precision drivers, it was accurate when browsing Windows, browsing the web, and using complex multi-finger gestures.Audio
I'll give this to the Dell speakers: they're loud. When I listened to AC/DC's "Shoot to Thrill," rock music easily filled my small New York apartment. The vocals and guitars were crisp and clear and the cymbals clashed, although at times the drums got lost in the mix.
In Alienware Command Center (more on that below), I was able to adjust the speakers a bit, and the music preset brought out the drums a bit more than the default settings.
In game, the default audio worked fine. When I played
control
, shots from Jesse's service weapon rang out, and her inner monologue as she problem-solved was loud and easy to understand.
Improvement
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
To open the Dell G3 15, you will need a Phillips screwdriver. There are four screws that need to be loosened, while the other six come out fully. Then, using a spudger, you can pry the lid off.
Once you remove the base cover from the G3, you will have easy access to the HDD, SSD, and RAM. You can replace the hard drive by removing and replacing a few screws to release it from a bracket. On our test unit, with 8GB of RAM, there was a free DIMM slot for you to upgrade to 16GB of memory.
What follows is a surprising design commitment. Much of the interior retains the same blue and black color scheme, which is pleasantly surprising.
Otherwise, storage and RAM are fairly easily accessible. The RAM is under a thin heat shield. The hard drive is in a standard carrier, so you only need to remove a few screws. Our model comes with an SDD, but not all of them. It's under a copper heat shield but fairly easy to access. But it's a
Toshiba 2230 SSD
, which means it is shorter than most in the market. These aren't easy to find right now, so if you want to upgrade, you might have to wait a bit.
Battery life
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
The Dell G3 15 has solid battery life, at least for a gaming laptop. It lasted 6:41 on our battery test, which constantly browses the web, runs OpenGL benchmarks, and streams video, all at 150 nits.
The entry-level gaming average is 5:03, and both the Legion and the Nitro fell below.
Heat
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During our stress test
Metro Exodus
, the bottom of the laptop measured 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) at its hottest point. The center of the keyboard measured 40.2 degrees Celsius (104.3 degrees Fahrenheit) and the touchpad reached 28.3 degrees Celsius (82.9 degrees Fahrenheit).
webcam
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)< /p>
The Dell G3 has a
720p webcam
, which is functional enough for a simple video chat. My beard looked like a big ball of brown and red fur, but my blue eyes and the blue stripes on my shirt were true to color.
Software and warranty
The G3 15 comes with a mix of Dell's own software as well as that of its gaming division, Alienware. The flagship software is Alienware Command Center, which serves as a library of games and displays system performance.
Dell Mobile Connect lets you use your phone from your laptop, although that's a little less impressive now that Windows has integrated it into the 'Your Phone' utility. Dell also has a Dropbox (with 20 GB for 1 year for new users) and Netflix pre-installed.
Windows 10, of course, contains a whole lot of garbage. In our review unit, this included Hotspot Shield Free VPN,
Farm Heroes Saga
,
Candy Crush Friends Saga
, Hulu and Spotify.
Dell sells the G3 15 with a one-year warranty.
Setups
Our review unit costs $849.99 with an Intel Core i5-9300H processor, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650, 8GB DDR4-2666, 128GB NVMe M.2 SSD
PCIe
and a 1TB 5400 rpm SATA hard drive. This has since dropped to $799.99.
As of this writing, Dell is still selling some units with a latest-generation Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPU. This includes the $699.99 model which also gets rid of the 128GB PCIe SSD
NVMe
. Spend a single dollar and get at least the model we reviewed. At $899.99, there's a version with the same CPU and RAM as our model, but with a 512GB PCIe M.2 SSD and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
Max Q
. Opting for this model will give you both more room to install games on the faster SSD, as well as better performance now and more future-proofing for future titles as they become more demanding.
There are a variety of models with a Core i7 and a GTX 1650 or 1660 Ti, for a maximum of $1199.99.
Summary
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The Dell G3 15 does a lot of good for a budget laptop. It feels solid, the price is right, and it will play most games reasonably well. It even looks good. But the screen is bland, which is a shame, because games just don't look as good without vivid colors.
If the display is where you want to put your money, the Acer Nitro 5 or Lenovo Legion Y545 are better bets. But either way you'll lose battery life, while the Legion has a worse keyboard and the Nitro 5 is bulky with weaker sound.
This makes the Dell a solid choice for anyone who can rely on the display as a sacrifice for an otherwise powerful machine. Hell, for those times when you don't need to game on the go, you can plug it into an inexpensive monitor and get a bigger, prettier screen for your games and media playback at home.
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All Notebook Content< /p>
BEST DEALS OF THE DAY
$729
at Amazon
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at Walmart
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at Dell
Andrew E. Freedman
Andrew E. Freedman is an editor at Tom's Hardware, specializing in laptops, desktops, and games, as well as keeping up to date with the latest news. He holds an MS in Journalism (Digital Media) from Columbia University. A lover of all things gaming and technology, his previous work has appeared in Kotaku, PCMag, Complex, Tom's Guide, and Laptop Mag, among others.