Dell Inspiron 11z review

Intel's Atom processor has grabbed all the headlines over the past 18 months, but the firm's range of CULV processors has quietly made waves too: many budget ultraportables now sport these low-power chips.

Dell's Inspiron 11z is the latest to pack one, and it's easy to see why they're so attractive. With a result of 0.68 in our benchmarks, processors such as the dual-core 1.3GHz Pentium SU4100 featured here boast not only a 50% performance advantage over the most powerful Atom CPUs, but in combination with a high-capacity battery they can also challenge netbooks on battery life.

The six-cell battery installed in our review system is the key here. It boasts a capacity of 4,800mAh, and in our real-world tests it helped the Dell Inspiron 11z last an impressive length of time away from the mains.

It carried on going for a massive eight hours under light use and achieved nearly three-and-a-half hours in our more demanding heavy-use tests. It's a result that's right up there with the best laptops we've seen, and certainly puts the Inspiron on a par with netbooks.

While the A-Listed netbook, Samsung's N110, kept going for even longer - 11 hours - it has a smaller screen to keep lit.

The N110 also has a lesser specification. Breaking free of the netbook tag means Dell can shake off the other restrictions, and it takes advantage by including 2GB of RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium and a 320GB hard disk with this configuration: use the E-Value code "Reviews-NRM1101" to take advantage (note this may not be live until next week); using Dell's configurator the price is closer to £420 exc VAT.

The only obvious omission, as we'd expect in an ultraportable at this price, is an optical drive. You can buy an external Dell DVD writer for £60 exc VAT, but that's no match for the integrated writer included with ViewSonic's ViewBook Pro.

We're pleased to see 802.11n wireless, but gamers won't be too impressed by the choice of Intel's GMA 4500MHD graphics chipset. This rules out all but the most basic of games.

The Inspiron's chassis also disappoints. The glossy lid and grey wristrest look fine, but poor build quality abounds: the base creaks and twists when handled, and applying light pressure to the rear of the flexible screen results in noticeable ripples on the Windows desktop.