Why Did Dell Downgrade The Inspiron 15 7000?

Dell’s notebook department has been kicking goals for the last few years, with the latest XPS 13 refresh easily the Windows 10 ultrabook to beat. The company was also doing well on the budget gaming front, thanks to its Inspiron 7000: 15-inch IPS display, 7th-gen Intel CPU and GTX 1060, all for under $2000 (often much less, thanks to regular sales and discounts). Except this flavour of the 7000 has disappeared, replaced by something inferior.

It wasn’t long ago you could hit up the Inspiron models on Dell’s website and find the 7577 version. Unlike the “new” 7000, it came with the GTX 1060 GPU, rather than the less powerful 1050Ti.

And believe me, the 7577 did exist. Heck, we posted about it back in February, when it was less than $1400.

So, why did Dell downgrade the 7000? Turns out it decided to rebrand — what was the 7577 is now part of the new “G Series” of gaming notebooks. (On a related note: if the Alienware brand wasn’t murky before, it certainly is now.)

The closest equivalent to the 7577 is the G5. Along with a shiny badge came a drop in RRP (to $1799) and extra grunt: an 8th-gen chip, as well as the thermal-friendly Max-Q design.

Unfortunately, Dell doesn’t seem to be discounting it anywhere as much, or as deeply, as it did the Inspirons (you can get a 1050Ti 7000 for $1200 right now), so don’t expect to get it for much less than ~$1800 in the near future.

If you’re not willing to wait for a sale or discount, and want a $1500 notebook with a 1060 GPU, your best bet is Metabox.