Dell Inspiron 8500

The first thing you notice about the Dell Inspiron 8500 is its unusual dimensions. Not only is this machine big, but it's wide too. With a 15.4in-wide screen and an impressive native resolution of 1,920 x 1,200, we're talking serious Desktop real estate.

Of course, size isn't everything, and luckily the 8500's screen is also a superb TFT. The viewing angles are good, the contrast is even and the icons and text remain clear and detailed at the maximum resolution. If you have a penchant for running several apps at once, you'll find the ability to have two or three windows open on screen a godsend for productivity. DVD fans will also appreciate the extra screen width, although the screen's quality ends up highlighting artefacts - you'll get better results if you hook up the S-Video out to a TV.

You'd naturally expect the screen's wow factor to be carried on through the rest of the design and, when closed, the lid appears resplendent in a metallic Venice Blue finish, but on closer inspection you find it's made from plastic. It's also susceptible to scratches, so you'll need a padded transit bag. Build quality is, for the price, adequate at best, although there's reasonable protection for both the screen and hard disk.

However, despite its plastic surroundings, the keyboard is sensibly arranged with full-sized Return and Backspace keys. It isn't too rattly in use either, although it flexes a little towards the right. The shortcut buttons for volume and transport controls are also handy, but, again, don't feel solid in the flimsy plastic casing. As with all the high-end Inspirons, you get both a touchpad and trackpoint, which is useful with such a high-resolution screen. Its sheer size means things can get fiddly with a pointing device you're not used to.

This certainly fits in with Dell's tradition of including every feature possible, and the same can be said for the huge range of ports and connectivity on offer. With 10/100 Ethernet, WLAN, infrared, FireWire and two USB 2 ports, you won't be cut off from the outside world. Even those with parallel or serial equipment are catered for. A DVD burner would have been a nice finale, but short of a floppy drive there isn't a lot else missing, and the easily removed modular DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive is reasonable. The only other criticism is that we'd expect more USB 2 ports for the money, especially when Acer's TravelMate 800 (see issue 103, p58) comes with four.

Unlike the Acer, however, the Dell offers 802.11g WLAN support, which is notably lacking on Centrino machines. In fact, there isn't a hint of Centrino technology, which is slightly disappointing when the Pentium-M has proved itself to be a fantastic performer. Instead, you get a 2.4GHz Pentium 4-M, although Dell claims this is because it offers superior 3D performance.

We can't argue with that, not when the 8500 comes with the latest 64MB GeForce4 4200 Go graphics and knocks up an incredible 9,319 in 3DMark2001 SE in 32-bit XGA. This is the fastest 3D performance we've seen from a notebook and, while it doesn't support DirectX 9, it will keep those looking for gaming thrills satisfied for a while.

The overall 2D score of 1.11 is also respectable, even if it falls behind the Centrino-based Acer TravelMate 800's score of 1.46. It's certainly fast enough for most office apps, such as the bundled Microsoft Works 7.

Not surprisingly, though, it's battery life that suffers from the processor, with our intensive test yielding a result of just 73 minutes from the hefty 6,486mAH lithium ion cell. Our DVD test was even more disappointing, lasting only 97 minutes, barely enough to watch a short film, although our light-use test lasted for a slightly more usable two hours, 45 minutes.