Over the years, Futuremark has made a name for itself with comprehensive benchmarks that provide consistent results for comparing granular and big-picture performance. We put the Dell Inspiron 15 7537 through PCMark 7, which has been around for a while, and PCMark 8, which is the latest benchmark in the series. With PCMark 7 we've provided overall scores, while PCMark 8 tests are broken out into three key modules.
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Futuremark PCMark 7 |
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Simulated Application Performance |
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PCMark 7 runs through the types of tasks your ultrabook is likely to encounter during ordinary home and office use. It tests the system’s graphics capabilities as part of the process, but you should think of PCMark 7 as an indicator of system’s general usage performance. We’ll get to the gaming-oriented benchmarks on the next page.
The 7537 surprised us a bit in PCMark7, scoring only 4191. We didn't expect the discrete graphics to make much of an impact in this test, but given the performance of the XPS 13 (which has the same processor), the 7537's score is disappointing. The hybrid hard drive may be part of the issue here, as it's not a true SSD.
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Futuremark PCMark 8 |
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Simulated Application Performance |
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Futuremark recently launched PCMark 8, which has several separate benchmarks. The Home test measures a system's ability to handle basic tasks: video chatting, web browsing, photo editing, and similar day-to-day activities. The test is designed to be run on just about any Windows 7 or 8 computer. The Creative test offers some of the same types of tasks, but puts more stress on the system and is meant for mid-range and higher-end systems. The Work test simulates the workflow of a typical office user. And the Storage test - you guessed it - benchmark's your system’s data storage performance.
The hybrid drive gives the 7537 lots of storage without spiking the system’s price, but it means the laptop suffers a little (compared to systems with SSDs) in storage heavy tests. It handled the Home Accelerated and Work Accelerated tests very well, though.
