Dell Inspiron 9100

We have seen a fair few notebooks in past months that are powerful enough to compete with their desktop counterparts. Dell's Inspiron 9100 uses a selection of cutting-edge hardware that puts many desk-bound computers to shame.

The processor is Intel's Pentium 4, running at 3.2GHz, with an impressive 1Gb of memory to boot. None of this memory is shared with the new ATI Mobilty Radeon 9700, that has 128Mb of its own memory with which to play 3D games quite competently with. The 60Gb hard disk is also good for a notebook. Needless to say, as a result, the 9100 did very well in our Labs tests.

The 15.4in widescreen display can cope with resolutions up to 1920 x 1200, which is fantastic for a notebook. This means text, icons and images are very clear and easy to read.

It's not only the screen that's clear - unlike most notebooks, the sound quality is quite good. This is thanks to a subwoofer built into the battery pack, which creates better bass effects when playing DVD movies and games. However, battery life wasn't that impressive - only 80 mins on full usage. This is due to the amount of power-hungry hardware that the notebook uses. Another trade-off for implementing all this hardware is the notebook's size. The 9100 is almost 6cm thick and weighs a whopping 4.2kg.

However, because of its dimensions, the notebook has space for a multitude of ports, including four USB 2 sockets, both analogue and digital monitor outputs, TV-out and mini FireWire. There's also a recordable DVD plus drive, which can be 'hot-swapped' for a floppy disk drive or a second hard disk. The 9100 also has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections.

The software bundle is very generous and includes some demo versions of software that you can buy through Dell. Internet security is covered by the Dell Security Centre, which includes anti-virus, privacy protection and firewall products from McAfee.

Contact: Dell 0870 152 4699
www.dell.co.uk