Dell G7 15 Gaming Laptop Review: Affordable, Stylish, And Powerful
Dell G7 15 Gaming: Software And User Experience
Dell has not shied away from offering Linux on some of its laptops, though with the G7 Series being aimed at gamers, the choices boil down to Windows 10 Home 64-bit (default) or Windows 10 Pro 64-bit ($60 upgrade option).
We installed a few programs before remembering to grab a screenshot of the desktop, hence why you see Rise of the Tomb Raider and Middle Earth: Shadow of War, plus a few other non-gaming applications in the above photo. Those aside, the G7 15 Gaming arrived with a clean desktop and custom checkered wallpaper to further reinforce the racing theme.
The G7 also comes with McAfee LifeSafe pre-loaded, along with a 12-month subscription. There is no way of opting out of this pro bono AV offering—if you do not want McAfee, you have to manually uninstall it.
The onboard Ethernet controller is powered by an integrated Killer E2400 NIC. Using the included Killer Control Center software, you can test your bandwidth, set bandwidth limits and prioritization for different apps, as well as get an overview of your network settings. In theory, this should provide better latency and lower pings when gaming. We say "in theory" because it is difficult to isolate this sort of thing for testing.
On the wireless side, the G7 leans on Intel to offer dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity.
Dell also pre-loads a few of its own utilities on the G7 15 Gaming. One of them is its familiar SupportAssist software, which is sort of a catch-all hub for maintaining your PC. You can use SupportAssist to clean up temporary files, scan your hardware for potential conflicts and problems, grab drivers, and so forth.
