Dell G3 15 3590 review – a good looking budget gaming laptop

With this review, we are going to hat-trick Dell’s G-series. Since we have already tried the G7 and the G5, it was time for the G3 to come to our office, for in-depth evaluation. If we have to be honest, last year, the G3 15 3579 gave us the vibe of a gaming-centric Inspiron 15 – something similar to what Lenovo did with the Ideapad L340 Gaming (15).

This year, on the other side, Dell has thrown away the yester-year model and started all over with a new concept. Of course, it has its ups and downs, but on the bright side, you can enjoy some great gaming with up to an RTX 2060 and a Core i7-9750H. Additionally, the guys from Dell are giving you the option of buying the laptop with a 144Hz panel. However, this will set you back some sweet green paper.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-g3-15-3590/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Dell G3 15 (3590) - Specs

  • BOE T1WD3-NV15N3D (BOE0819)
  • Color accuracy  5.3  4.0
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 2000GB SSD + up to 2000GB HDD
  • RAM
  • up to 32GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Home, No OS, Windows 10 Pro
  • Battery
  • 51Wh, 3-cell, 56Wh, 4-cell
  • Dimensions
  • 365.5 x 254 x 23.1 mm (14.39" x 10.00" x 0.91")
  • Weight
  • 2.34 kg (5.2 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), DisplayPort
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 2x USB Type-A
  • 2.0
  • HDMI
  • 2.0
  • Card reader
  • SD, SDHC, SDXC
  • Ethernet LAN
  • 10/100/1000 Mbit/s
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ac
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.0
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5 mm combo
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HD RGB
  • Backlit keyboard
  • optional
  • Microphone
  • Dual-Array Microphone
  • Speakers
  • 2x 2W, Nahimic 3D
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot

What’s in the box?

Inside the box, we found a 130W power adapter (for the GTX 1650 version), as well as the mandatory paperwork and the laptop itself.


Design and construction

As you may already well know, Dell is the parent company of Alienware, which gives it the opportunity to copy some homework at any given time. However, the situation is not entirely limited to this. The G3 15 3590 looks suspiciously similar to the HP Omen 15 2019. On the other side, this model is made of plastic. On the top, the finish is matte, while on the inside, there is a sleek glossy one. Of course, this attracts fingerprints as much as a BMW driver is attracted to trouble in the winter. In terms of measurements, the notebook is 23.1mm thick and weighs 2.34 kg – very similar to the Lenovo Legion Y540.

We were glad to see that its lid can be opened with a single hand and we personally liked the overall design – side bezels are thin and the camera is located on its orthodox location above the display, unlike the “nose cam” Legion Y540.

At the base, we see a central-placed fingerprint reader and a keyboard which features the full NumericPad layout. Although it feels very comfortable for typing with its rather long travel and clicky feedback, it probably won’t be the most appropriate for gamers, who often use the arrow keys. Ultimately, they are half the size of those of the Legion Y540, which are actually the biggest on the budget laptop market.

Additionally, the keyboard features a white-blue backlight and you can order the model with 4-zone RGB lighting. Below the board, you will see the touchpad which is one of the bigger ones out there. This comes at the expense of dedicated mouse buttons. As expected from an entirely plastic laptop, the base is susceptible to bends, but it is clear that Dell has given all it has to minimize this effect.

On the bottom side are located the ventilation grills, as well as the speakers. So… about the exhaust. While the hot air technically comes out of the back of the laptop, we’ve noticed that all of the heat is radiated towards the bottom corners of the lid – we’ll talk more about it in a bit.

Ports

On the left side, you will see the charging adapter, a USB Type-C 3.1 (Gen. 2) port with DisplayPort output, an HDMI connector, a USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1) port, an RJ-45 connector, and an Audio Jack. Additionally, there are two more USB Type-A ports, although they are only rated at 2.0 speeds. However, it is good to see an SD card reader.

Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

All you have to do if you want to access the internals of this laptop is to remove the bottom plate. There are a total of 10 Phillips-head screws, and four of them (the closest to the display) stay attached to the bottom plate after you unscrew them.

The cooling setup of the G3 15 3590 is not bad – it features two heat pipes, placed above two large plates. Ultimately, this means that both of the heat pipes cool both the CPU and the GPU. Additionally, there are two fans that are roughly the same in size, although the left on the image seems bigger than the other one.

Next, you have two RAM DIMMs that support up to 32GB of DDR4 memory in total. Moreover, you can put NVMe drives that support PCIe x4, as the M.2 slot supports it as well. Then, there is a 2.5″ SATA slot that can fit up to 2TB of HDD storage.

Lastly, this laptop is equipped with a 51Wh battery pack.


Display quality

Dell G3 15 3590 has a Full HD IPS panel with a model number BOE T1WD3-NV15N3D (BOE0819). Its diagonal is 15.6″ (39.62 cm), and the resolution 1920 х 1080 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 142 ppi, and a pitch of 0.18 х 0.18 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at distance equal to or greater than 60cm (24″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).

Its display has excellent viewing angles. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

The measured maximum brightness of 287 nits in the middle of the screen and 273 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 13%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 6350K – slightly warmer than the sRGB standard of 6500K, which is great.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. In other words, the leakage of light from the light source.

Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work. The contrast ratio is good – 1140:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is an essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Dell G3 15 3590’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 50% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Dell G3 15 3590 with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 33 ms. The panel is one of the slowest out there.


PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

Sadly, the Dell G3 15 3590 uses PWM for all brightness levels, except for the maximum. Additionally, the flickerings have a low frequency which is a downside, as well.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Conclusion

Dell G3 15 3590 has an IPS panel with Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, comfortable viewing angles, and adequate default settings. However, it has some shortcomings, like the modest color coverage, the flickering backlight and the gamers – slow response time. Our particular unit also suffered from severe light bleeding.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Dell G3 15 3590 configurations with 15.6″ FHD IPS BOE T1WD3-NV15N3D (BOE0819).

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

Dell G3 15 3590 has a loud, clear sound with good quality. Subjectively, the laptop sounds great, although there are some deviations in the high tones.


Drivers

All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook are available here: https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/product/g-series-15-3590-laptop/drivers

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. The battery capacity of this notebook is 51Wh.

It is enough for 6 hours and 19 minutes of Web browsing and almost 6 hours of video playback.

In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.

For every test like this, we use the same video in HD.


CPU options

The processor choices for this laptop include the quad-core Intel Core i5-9300H and the hexa-core Core i7-9750H.


GPU options

GPU-wise, you can pick from the GTX 1050, GTX 1650, GTX 1660 Ti and the RTX 2060.


Gaming tests

Far Cry 5Full HD, Normal (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 165063 fps58 fps53 fps

rise-of-the-tomb-raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016)Full HD, Lowest (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650119 fps81 fps36 fps

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon WildlandsFull HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 165054 fps50 fps44 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i5-9300H (45W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Dell G3 15 35903.49 GHz (B+45%)@ 91°C3.30 GHz (B+38%)@ 95°C2.95 GHz (B+26%)@ 82°C
Lenovo Ideapad L340 Gaming (17″)2.73 GHz (B+14%)@ 66°C3.11 GHz (B+30%)@ 84°C2.83 GHz (B+18%)@ 76°C
Lenovo Ideapad L340 Gaming (15″)2.39 GHz @ 52°C3.72 GHz (B+55%)@ 87°C2.92 GHz (B+22%)@ 78°C
Intel Core i5-8300H (45W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
ASUS TUF Gaming FX5053.25 GHz (B+41%) @ 92°C3.13 GHz (B+36%) @ 92°C2.98 GHz (B+30%) @ 92°C
Dell G3 17 37793.44 GHz (B+50%) @ 98°C3.29 GHz (B+43%) @ 98°C3.11 GHz (B+35%) @ 91°C

Dell G3 15 3590 provides a propper performance, thanks to its cooling. Apparently, Dell has been agressive with the thermal setup of this laptop, and gives it the go for high frequencies, in return of high temperatures.

Real-life gaming

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)
Dell G3 15 35901605 MHz @ 67°C1566 MHz @ 74°C
ASUS ROG G5311461 MHz @ 65°C1408 MHz @ 71°C
ASUS TUF FX7051566 MHz @ 74°C1568 MHz @ 74°C
Acer Nitro 7 (AN715-51)1633 MHz @ 61°C1599 MHz @ 67°C

While the frequency and the temperature of the GTX 1650 on this laptop were above the average, the G3 15 3590 still trails the Nitro 7 (AN715-51). At least when it comes to temperature.

Gaming comfort

A little while back we mentioned that the hot air of this laptop is smashing the bottom corners of the lid. Here, you can see the temperature it gets after more than 30 minutes of gameplay, as well as the difference to the hottest spot on the surface of the device. In terms of noise, the notebook’s fans produce quite sound, but it can be muffled by some headphones.


Verdict

When it comes to budget gaming devices, the options are wide, but yet choices have to be made very carefully. Basically, the first thing you have to keep in mind is that in order to reach a specific budget cap, manufacturers need to cut some corners. Some times, they are major, some times the setbacks are minor, but before you buy, you have to set your priorities straight.

Our device, in particular, had some major corners cut in the display department. While it has a good contrast ratio and comfortable viewing angles, the 60Hz IPS panel (BOE T1WD3-NV15N3D (BOE0819)) has a very slow response time, which can result in ghosting during gameplay. Additionally, it covers only half of the colors in the sRGB colorspace and uses aggressive PWM to adjust its brightness (our Health-Guard profile takes care of that). Sadly, our unit had some significant light bleed, which makes it not appropriate for Web designers.

Nevertheless, we are aware that some of you use their laptop with an external monitor. So, how did the thing perform? Quite well actually. In the configuration we got, we didn’t experience a major overheating problem and the framerates were in check. Honestly, the G3 15 3590 provided one of the better gaming experiences for a budget gaming laptop, as the keyboard was comfortable (with the exception of the arrow keys).

However, it is questionable why Dell decided to direct the heat from its fans towards the bottom corners of the lid. While this won’t be a problem in the first months of use, we can see it as a possible dealbreaker after one or two years of frequent gaming, as the heat can result in color switching in the corners of the screen.

On the other side, you can fit the laptop with up to 32GB of RAM with its two RAM DIMMs. Furthermore, there is the M.2 slot that supports PCIe x4 NVMe drives and the 2.5″ SATA drive slot that can hold HDDs with up to 2GB of capacity.

Sadly, this laptop doesn’t come equipped with a Thunderbolt connection, in contrast to the HP Omen 15 from last year, but on the bright side, it can double as a DisplayPort output. Additionally, there is an SD card slot if you fancy photography.

As a laptop, this device is not bad – it can provide you with up to 6 hours and 20 minutes of Web browsing and just a little less than 6 hours of Web browsing. So, it is up to you can deal with this device’s shortcomings, or you would pick something like the Legion Y540, or the Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-54).

Pros

  • Low price
  • Good performance, given the hardware
  • Comfortable keyboard
  • Great upgradeability
  • It has an SD card reader


Cons

  • No Thunderbolt support
  • Only 52% of sRGB coverage (BOE T1WD3-NV15N3D (BOE0819))
  • Uses aggressive PWM to adjust screen brightness – our Health-Guard profile fixes that (BOE T1WD3-NV15N3D (BOE0819))
  • 60Hz panel has uneven Luminosity (BOE T1WD3-NV15N3D (BOE0819))

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/dell-g3-15-3590/

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Adama
Adama
2 years ago

Thanks for the review!