The i5 processor is an excellent mid-range option for people who want an everyday laptop for simple gaming and streaming videos. Higher processors like the i7 are better for high-powered programs and heavy usage, but if you're not using your laptop for video editing and constant gaming, you might be wasting your money on a larger processor that's not completely being optimised. Many of our customers find that the i5 processor is more than suitable for older laptops with shorter battery lives as it doesn't drain the power as much, and as long as you're not planning on using multiple powerful programs at once, we often find the i5 to be one of the more dependable processors.

Whether the i5 processor is outdated or not will all depend on what generation you choose. There are 14 generations of the i5 core and Intel has no plans to release any more, but the latter generations are still very good CPUs and won't become outdated for a long while. However, the earlier generations (between 1 and 5) began being released in 2009, so it makes sense that they might be becoming outdated 15 years later. With that being said, we still find the i5 generations 6 to 14 to be great for a number of applications. However, we will note that some modern games and applications require you to have higher processors to use them on your laptop. If you have a particular game or program you know you'll want to use, make sure you check its specification to see whether you can use it with an i5 processor.

The average lifespan of a laptop tends to be between three and five years, and the same can be said for Dell laptops. However, the longevity of your laptop all depends on how you use it, as battery health tends to deteriorate between 300 and 500 charge cycles. If you're using your laptop with lots of applications running in the background all the time, the battery's health is bound to deteriorate quicker than if you were to only use it for web searches and streaming. To prevent your Dell laptop from reducing its lifespan too prematurely, there are a few things you can do to prevent it. For example, keep your laptop's screen brightness low and consider if there are any applications you can close while focusing on something else.