Dell Inspiron 2650

The other aspect of the Pentium 4-M is its ability to conserve power, but a picture is emerging that's not especially favourable in this respect. Our intensive rundown test expired after 84 minutes, which again suggests that the Pentium 4-M doesn't cope as well as the Pentium III-M when it comes to squeezing out the power over a period of vigorous use.

Off the shelf, the Inspiron has a one-year, European collect-and-return warranty. with a fairly leisurely six-day turnaround period. You can bump this up to three years' cover for an extra £145, or you can opt for a more serious three-year international, next-day, on-site warranty instead. This comes in at £199 on top of the basic price of the system.

The choice of home- and business-orientated extended warranties is a convenient way to round the package off and underlines the carefully considered nature of the Inspiron in general. The machine itself is a sound proposition, so long as its size and weight aren't a problem and you don't have a specific requirement for a serial port, TV-out or port replicator. The thing to watch out for is the way the price starts to go up if you begin specifying a few tempting extras, in which case it's better to opt for a more flexible chassis like the Inspiron 8200.

Author: Dominic Bucknall