Dell's Inspiron range has always been the go-to notebook whenever you're looking for something cheap, but reliable. The series has always managed to offer a great balance of features and performance without costing a bomb which is why it's so popular. The Inspiron line up gets its annual dose of upgrades and every year we see a refreshed design with new internals depending on what Intel has to offer. At the start of 2011, we reviewed Dell's new Inspiron 15R notebook, which featured a funkier design (huge upgrade from the old drab one) and new innards at an attractive price.

Dell recently launched a slightly tweaked version of the 15R and for reasons unknown calls it - New! Inspiron 15R. Silly as it sounds, the ‘new' series brings with it quite a significant change compared to its predecessor. Let's see if this offers a better bang for buck.

The design hasn't changed all that much and from far you won't be able to tell the two apart. The new addition is a removable faceplate which can be swapped for a variety of colors and designs. There's a little button added below the lid that lets you unlock the faceplate. Installing a new one is pretty simple, simply allign the hinges and it snaps into place.

The ports have also been shufled around a bit. The right side now has the DVD burner, headphone and microphone jack and a USB 3.0 port, a first in the Inspiron series. The rear has another USB 3.0 port along with LAN jack, charging port and a VGA port. On the left, we have a multi-card reader, a USB 2.0 port and an ESATA/USB port, which can also charge any USB device when the notebook is off. There's nothing on the front other than the status lights.The build quality very good.

Although, it's primarily plastic, I didn't find any creaking parts, or too much screen flex. The screen has a glossy finish to it which makes the picture pop a little, but also introduces reflections. The area around the keyboard has a matte finish and there's plenty of space around the palm rest for the largest of hands. Dell has included a chiclet keyboard which makes typing very comfortable even for long durations. The keys are sized well and have sufficient spacing around them. They also have a better response than the older Inspiron 15R and the flex issue is slightly reduced. The trackpad is very large giving you ample room to work with.

The changes to the Inspiron 15R are not merely cosmetic. It packs the latest Sandy Bridge Core i3 2310M running at 2.1GHz. Along with that, we have 4GB of memory, a spacious 320GB hard drive and an Nvidia GT 525M with 1GB dedicated memory. Coupled with Windows 7 Home Premium, it seems like a very potent notebook for multi-media.