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One of the most immediately noticeable things about Dell’s Inspiron 11z is its huge battery which props up the laptop at an angle. This not only makes it chunkier than other ultraportables we’ve seen, it also acts as a stand at the rear. Some may find this more comfortable, but we found the keyboard was too angled for comfortable use. This is a shame since the keys themselves are large and they give plenty of feedback when pressed. The huge battery did last a lengthy seven hours and 39 minutes in our tests, but other laptops have the same or better battery life with smaller batteries. The Inspiron isn’t too heavy to carry around – it weighs just 1.5kg. Unlike some other CULV ultraportables we’ve seen, it feels very sturdy and rigid. The base does get a little warm, but not uncomfortably so. The touchpad is a bit small, but it’s accurate and supports multitouch gestures. Unfortunately these are too easy to trigger inadvertently. The buttons are incorporated into the lower left and right hand corners of the pad, but they feel very stiff and hard to press. There’s 2GB of RAM fitted, which should be enough for most tasks, but this isn’t particularly generous. The Pentium Dual Core SU4100 processor fared reasonably well in our benchmarks with an overall score of 39, but the integrated Intel graphics chip isn’t up to playing the latest 3D games. Note the lack of a VGA port: if you want to connect a second monitor, you’ll have to use HDMI. We’re used to seeing high-quality displays on Dell laptops, which makes the 11z’s average screen all the more disappointing. It’s an 11.6in widescreen with an LED backlight, but it has tight viewing angles. Contrast is good, but brightness isn’t up to the level of other ultraportables, especially ViewSonic’s ViewBook Pro which we’ll be publishing our review on tomorrow.
We were impressed with the Inspiron’s long battery life and comfortable keyboard, but its stiff-buttoned touchpad and chunky battery limits its appeal. If you can live with these flaws, it’s a good choice but we’d rather have a more thoughtfully designed laptop.
