Dell Inspiron 9200

A large and stylish notebook that's comfortable to use

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Price: £1649

Manufacturer: Dell

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Verdict

Pros: High-resolution widescreen display; comfortable to use

Cons: Performance; single-layer DVD writer

Verdict: Large and stylish, but lacking in some areas

Rory Reid, Personal Computer World 01 Mar 2005

Dell's Inspiron 9200 is the follow-up to the 9100 desktop replacement notebook reviewed last month. The most obvious change is a new look; the system is housed in an eye-catching silver chassis, complemented by a black keyboard and white trim.

While its external appearance is an improvement, the 9200 seems to have taken a step backwards inside. Our review sample was equipped with 1GB of Ram, but instead of the 3.4GHz desktop Pentium 4 processor seen in some versions of the 9100, this machine has a 2GHz mobile Pentium M.

Understandably, this gives it slightly slower performance than many of the desktop replacement notebooks we've seen previously. The machine delivered a Sysmark 2004 rating of 158, on a par with what we'd expect given its specification, but this isn't a patch on the scores achieved in our desktop replacement group test in the February issue.

The Inspiron 9200 makes up for its average core performance with an ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 in the graphics department. This isn't as fast as the top-end graphics cards available in full-sized PCs, but it is more than capable of running the latest games without much compromise in detail or speed. As a result, it came in with a 3Dmark05 score of 785.

The mobile processor does help to deliver a long battery life in comparison to some of the other systems we looked at. The Inspiron 9200 lasted just over two hours in our intensive Labs tests, but should last even longer with everyday office tasks such as word processing.

One of the 9200's most compelling features is its 17in widescreen display. Its native 1,920 x 1,200 resolution is ideal for viewing multiple documents side by side in the accompanying Microsoft Works 7 or for watching DVD movies.

That said, while the screen is clear and bright, our early review sample had noticeable speckling on images with sections of light tones that looked like noise distortion. The system includes both analogue VGA and DVI outputs to connect it to an external monitor.

The Inspiron was one of the most comfortable notebooks we've used for a while. The keyboard is outstanding with an excellent tactile response. The mouse touchpad is less impressive, lacking a dedicated scrolling function, but the keyboard's cursor buttons are a fairly good size and well positioned for use when scrolling through a document.

The Inspiron 9200 also surprised us by remaining cool, even during prolonged use. Desktop replacement notebooks normally generate a considerable amount of heat, but you're unlikely to notice much heat dissipation when running standard applications.

Our review sample was equipped with a Secure Digital (SD) card reader on the right side of the unit, along with a mini Firewire port and audio sockets for a mic and headphones.

Unfortunately the 9200 doesn't support any other form of memory card as standard, so if your digital camera or mobile phone doesn't use this format, you'll have to rely on one of the four USB2 ports to transfer your data. The integrated DVD-rewriter supports plus and minus disc formats but can't write to dual-layer media.

On the whole, the Inspiron 9200 is an attractive and well-specified system that seems to be lost somewhere between being a desktop replacement and an ultraportable. It's not small enough for easy transportation, but it can't compete with similarly sized rivals when it comes to raw power.

If you don't need extreme performance but still want a notebook that can comfortably run most applications, the Inspiron is worth a look.

Contact:
www.dell.co.uk

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