Dell Inspiron 3500 C400GT

Dell's Inspiron 3500 series notebooks have always been popular thanks to good design and aggressive pricing. The c400GT continues this tradition as the latest addition to the Celeron-based branch of the family, replacing the c366GT as the most powerful entry-level Inspiron.

The 400MHz Celeron and its 128Kb of cache are supplemented with 64Mb of SDRAM, and a SODIMM socket is available to add more. The standard configuration rounds off with a 6.4Gb UltraDMA hard disk, but you can specify a 10Gb drive (at an extra £137) when you buy. If you want an internal modem allow for an extra £95.

The 3500s are reasonably slim machines finished in satin black with a slightly angular styling, which gives them a certain presence. The case is 40mm thick but only about 23mm of this is the actual body, so when the machine is open it looks thin and feels comfortable to type on because the palmrest isn't too high.

Dell got its notebook keyboard right some time ago and has wisely stuck with it since: it's a spacious, comfortable keypad with a firm, quiet action and big keys where they count. This sense of quality stretches to the rest of the case; the mouldings are of a decent thickness ensuring the machine is inflexible and solid. The lid surface doesn't sag too much under pressure, so it should provide a reasonable degree of protection for the screen underneath when the notebook is being moved around.

Although the build is robust this hasn't had an adverse effect on the weight - with its DVD-ROM drive installed, the Inspiron is still relatively light at just over 3kg. The fact that it's a modular machine makes it lighter, of course, but the floppy drive adds only 250g to the total.

The modular design holds no surprises, with a pair of bays in the front edge of the case for the battery and for your selection of drive, respectively. The drive bay can be used for the floppy module or the two-speed Toshiba DVD-ROM or, if required, an optional second battery pack. The hard disk is tucked away behind the battery and is easily removable once you've taken out a single security screw. The drive's electronics are completely covered to shield against static damage during handling.

Unlike some notebook manufacturers, Dell includes an adaptor cable for running the floppy drive externally from the parallel port as standard. Better still, it also bundles a PC Card MPEG-2 decoder by Margi that you can slip into the bottom Zoomed Video-compliant slot for hardware-assisted motion video playback. The card comes with a cable bearing left and right audio outputs and both composite and S-video outputs, so you can watch films on your TV set using the notebook as a DVD player. This would certainly be easier than dragging a desktop system unit over to the TV for the same purpose. Home cinema enthusiasts should note that there's no digital AC-3 audio output, so surround sound is off the menu.

A NeoMagic MagicWave 3DX sound processor and the usual pair of integrated speakers handle inboard audio. These do a tolerable job for everyday use but you'll want something external if you're playing films on the DVD-ROM. The other half of the NeoMagic MagicMedia 256AV chipset runs the graphics and manages to coax 24-bit XGA out of its 2.5Mb integrated local memory. The TFT screen has a 14.1in diagonal and is easily readable as a result, but it could have done with a bit more in the way of backlighting.

Battery life is unexceptional by Dell's own standards at around two and a half hours. Nevertheless, this figure is still acceptable and is typical of many other portables.