Despite it not actually being large for its size, the first impression I got from it was that it looked chunky. Maybe it’s something with the design of the lid, but it does give the impression that it’s larger than it actually is. Fortunately, up close it looks a lot more like your usual 15.6-inch laptop of today. Of course, the thinner bezels help in keeping the size down. That said, it does feel pretty hefty when lifted.
The Dell G3 15 is also pretty showy on the outside, with the G3 branding being very prominently visible at the back when the lid is down. It also makes its presence clear on the top left corner of the keyboard when you flip the lid up. Perhaps due to the G3 branding on the back, there are no I/O ports to be found there. They’re all found sensibly on the sides instead. On the right you have two USB ports and an SD card reader, while on the left you have a USB-C DisplayPort, a HDMI port, a USB port, an RJ45 LAN port and a 3.5mm audio jack.
The keyboard itself is pretty subdued. It’s backlit with RGB lighting, it’s very subtle compared to other RGB backlit keyboards. The WASD keys are also highlighted with a white outline, but that’s about the only other standout element.
Typing on it feels pretty much like any other laptop keyboard. There’s a fair amount of travel, and the keys themselves aren’t too stiff. The touchpad also does its job well. It’s fairly accurate, but being a gaming laptop, you should probably use a mouse anyway.
Flipping it over, you’ll see the G3 branding grabbing all your attention in the middle. At the back is the ventilation vents, which is pretty much the standard placement. Towards the front, you’ll see a pair of relatively small speaker grilles. Their position makes it so that they reflect off the surface of the table and outwards, rather than directly towards you. All that said, it was difficult to tell if the speakers themselves had good volume output due to the surrounding noise level.
Due to time constaints, I wasn’t able to get any game time with the Dell G3 15. While the components that it packs suggests that it shouldn’t face any trouble running the latest games of today, it would still be nice to be able to put it through its paces through thorough testing.
