Dell Smart PC 250N

Not everyone who wants a PC wants a desktop model. Even if you are happy to display 'style disaster in beige' in your home, you may not have the room for the two large boxes most systems consist of.

One solution is a notebook PC but most models sacrifice performance for compactness. Most, but not all.

The Dell Smart PC 250N may look like a notebook PC but given that it weighs 3.6kg and has the dimensions of a glossy coffee table book, it's not the kind you'd want in your hand luggage.

In fact, it's what's known as a 'desktop replacement'; in other words, it offers the same power as a desktop PC but in a much smaller, self-contained package.

Inside the lid is a 15in TFT screen with an odd resolution of 1400 x 1050. This gives the same screen size as some 17in CRT monitors but an actual display area akin to a 21in monitor.

There's also 256MB of DDR memory, built-in CD-RW/DVD-Rom and floppy drives, plus a pair of USB and one FireWire port.

If a notebook is to replace a desktop PC, it needs a beefy processor and the 250N has a 2.2GHz Intel Pentium 4.

This isn't a low-power variant designed for notebook use, it's the real thing and in our tests, its performance wasn't far behind a desktop PC with a similar spec.

Despite the power-hungry processor, the battery lasted for just over three hours but for good reason.

When on battery power, the processor's speed drops roughly by half and while this helps battery life, it also hits performance.

In other words, this is a notebook best left on the mains, unless you're content with Pentium 4 1.1GHz-like performance.

Notebooks usually fall down on graphics and unfortunately that's the case here.

In our performance tests, the 250N was on a par with the mediocre on-board graphics many cheap desktop PCs are saddled with and it wouldn't run some 3D games at all.

Still, with the space you save over a desktop PC, you'll always have room for a games console.

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