Dell Inspiron 9100 review

Dell's Inspiron 9100 is a desktop replacement notebook that makes no claim to being suitable for lugging around.

While just 2.5cm wider than the Elonex Soliton (see page 20), it's thick, measuring 5cm with the lid closed. At 4.4kg it's also one of the heaviest notebooks we've reviewed.

The model we tested has a specification to rival the best desktops. It's the first notebook we've seen to have an ATI Mobility Radeon 9800 graphics chip, and one of the few that enjoys 256MB of video RAM.

The system itself has 1GB of dual-channel memory and is powered by a 3.4GHz Pentium 4. This desktop processor provides plenty of muscle, but lacks the power optimisations of a mobile device. With the other high-end components it drains the battery in just 89 minutes.

Desktop processors produce a lot of heat and, on a notebook, can cause surfaces to become uncomfortably warm. The Inspiron expels hot air from two rear-facing ports, generating considerable fan noise. Users buying this machine for a desktop environment are likely to want a separate keyboard and mouse, particularly as the thick chassis makes the built-in ones uncomfortably high.

This model's widescreen display has a 1,920x1,200 resolution that far exceeds that of most desktops. Having so many pixels in a 15.4" screen means it shows detail extremely well, but the downside is that text can be small. To counter this, Dell configures the system with a 25 per cent larger font size.

The Inspiron has a PC card slot, four USB ports, network and modem ports and FireWire, D-sub and S-video connectors. It's unusual to see a DVI connector on a notebook but it's a sensible feature if you want to make the most of the powerful graphics chip. Home cinema enthusiasts will be disappointed that it isn't complemented by a multiple channel audio output, with just stereo, microphone and headphone jacks.

Performance is mighty. Its score of 135 on the Shopper video encoding test is impressive even for a desktop, and its overall benchmark score of 117 comfortably beats our reference machine. It also managed extraordinary performances in 3DMark03, with 6,600 marks, and PCMark04 with 5,119.

This power means the Inspiron really could take the place of a desktop machine, but it isn't as easy to upgrade. Despite its foldaway convenience, it's heavy and its price is equally hard to shoulder.