Product Reviews

Just as Bill Gates told us that 640KB would be enough for anyone, two years ago ATi assured us there was no market for a mobile 3D graphics chip. Who would want them? Notebooks are meant for business after all, and nobody wants to waste money needlessly. Since then, Nvidia has marched into the market and turned things upside down - ATi responded with the Radeon Mobility 7500, but the Radeon Mobility 9000 goes one step further.

If you ever thought that notebooks couldn't cope with games then think again - ATi's new mobile graphics chip is stunning. The DirectX 8-optimised Nature test in 3DMark2001 SE ran consistently at 30fps and above in 32-bit XGA, and the end score of 6,891 blows every other mobile graphics chip out of the water. Even pushing the resolution up to 1,600 x 1,200 left the Inspiron unphased - still returning an easily playable score of 3,755.

It's not just the new graphics chip that Dell has introduced us to - there's also Intel's latest 2.2GHz Pentium 4-M in the driving seat. With 512MB of PC2100 DDR memory for company, this is one of the fastest notebooks out there. An overall PC Pro 2D benchmark score of 0.93 is testament to this, and while not

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as quick as 2.4AGHz desktop Pentium 4-based notebooks such as the AJP 8880 (see Reviews, issue 96, p110), it's fast enough for everything and has the added bonus of great power management.

What's more, with two front-loading media bays, you can easily swap the floppy drive for the supplied second battery. Although this adds an extra 200g to the weight, it also significantly increases the battery life. With both batteries in place the Inspiron lasted for 210 minutes in our intensive test and a very impressive 300 minutes under light use. This roughly halves with just a single battery.

We've already covered the Inspiron 8000-series chassis a number of times, most recently in our last Power notebooks group test (see Labs, issue 95, p54). However, it's still worth mentioning the fantastic enhanced UXGA screen, which provides a crystal clear picture with superb viewing angles. Not only that, but the ATi Radeon Mobility 9000 also enhances 2D at lower resolutions with its ratiometric expansion technology (see ATi Radeon Mobility 9000), and the result is a much crisper picture, especially with regards to text.

There's no wireless functionality as standard, but with two PC Card slots it's easy to add, and Dell is offering a Wireless LAN upgrade for an extra £100. A one-year European collect-and-return warranty is provided as standard, but this can be increased to three years of on-site cover for an extra £199.

A few omissions are to be expected, though, especially at the amazing price of £1,749. This is fantastic value considering the new technology on offer, which even includes a whopping 60GB hard disk. If you want the ultimate desktop replacement then this is it. Just quote Dell's e-Value code - 200-I73REV - when ordering and it's all yours.