Product Reviews

When you think of Dell, it's difficult to ignore the company's cosy relationship with its best buddy Intel. We're talking about a company that resolutely ignored AMD's high-performance and budget-friendly Athlon processor in the wake of a declining industry, while loyally using Intel's official mobile processors in all its notebooks. But now it's time for a shake-up, and Dell has decided to stand its ground. The SmartPC 250N is Dell's first notebook to use a desktop Intel Pentium 4 CPU, promising a full desktop replacement at an affordable price.

But the CPU isn't the only departure for Dell, there's also the system's whole styling. At first glance, you'd be forgiven for thinking the SmartPC wasn't a Dell at all. Unlike the Inspiron and Latitude models, the SmartPC has a mock-aluminium chassis - far removed from the quintessential black of almost all of Dell's PCs and notebooks. This colour scheme, unlike notebooks finished in genuine brushed aluminium, doesn't make the PC look stylish, just a little cheap. The casing itself has a plastic feel, which isn't very reassuring, and it has the air of a budget re-branded system - not something expected from a company of Dell's standing.

The main worry with notebooks that use desktop Pentium 4 processors instead of Pentium 4-Ms is the amount of heat generated. This isn't just because the heat can become uncomfortable with the machine on your lap, but also because of the damage it could cause to the internal components over prolonged use. However, unlike many other desktop CPU-based notebooks, the SmartPC doesn't actually get noticeably hot. For this you can thank the internal cooling, which is evident from a fan on the right-hand side and a heatsink at the back. It seems to work well, and without dramatic noise levels too - the fan cuts in intermittently and, even in a quiet environment, isn't that audible.

But don't fear, the SmartPC isn't going to wipe out the rest of the respected Dell range; it's really aimed at those who don't want to worry about configuring their notebook. Our review system came

The SmartPC 250N comes with all the basic essentials you might need - a perfect example being the Toshiba 8x DVD-ROM and 8x/8x/24x CD-RW combo drive and a copy of Roxio's Easy CD Creator 5 Basic for burning CDs. Because of the size of the chassis, it also has a floppy drive as standard, something many notebook PCs are doing away with.

The SmartPC doesn't have any wireless connectivity. However, there's still a degree of flexibility through the two Type II PC Card slots (that can also take one Type III device) into which you could quite easily install an 802.11b wireless card or Bluetooth adaptor.

Despite ostensibly being a portable system, it's most likely that it will remain in one place and only be carried on rare occasions. This isn't just because of the damage to your pride caused by its cheap styling - it also has quite a large footprint, measuring 326 x 275 x 46mm (W x D x H), and weighs 3.6kg. Trust me, this isn't a notebook you'll want to carry around all day.

With this in mind, however, it has many of the features you'd expect from a desktop PC, such as parallel and serial ports, a VGA-out, one PS/2 port, an S-Video out and two USB ports. In addition to this, it also has both a Conexant-Ambit V.92 modem and a Realtek 10/100BaseTX Ethernet adaptor.

Dell has stuck with a 15.1in TFT display with a native resolution of 1,400 x 1,050, and is powered by an ATi Mobility M6 graphics chip - a combination that provides a thoroughly respectable image. The graphics chip has 32MB of memory, which is more than adequate for 2D applications, but may struggle with the latest games. The 3DMark2001 SE score of 2,427 in 32-bit XGA is good enough for a notebook, but slips into insignificance compared to the 6,819 from Dell's Inspiron 8200 with its ATi Radeon Mobility 9000 graphics chip.

The major reason for choosing a desktop CPU-based notebook like the SmartPC is that they're less expensive, and when you consider just how much you get for your money, the SmartPC does represent good value. The 2.4GHz Pentium 4 will provide good performance (revealed by a superb score of 1.07 in our benchmarks, with only the 2.2GHz specification), and the feature set offers almost everything a home or small business user would want, as well as taking up less room than a desktop. If that's what you want, and not the smallest, lightest and most stylish Japanese import, then Dell's SmartPC 250N certainly fits the bill. Quote the e-Value code 200-i72REV when ordering.