Product ReviewsLaptops
The Inspiron XPS Gen 2 is Dell's first gaming notebook for the UK market. All the models in the Inspiron XPS Gen 2 line-up have nVidia GeForce Go 6800Ultra graphics chipsets, but the model we were sent for review has the faster 2.13GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and a 100GB hard disk. This is a large notebook and its 4.2kg weight places it in the desktop replacement category. Dell has tried to make the XPS appeal to gamers with its striped metallic lid and large XPS lettering. There are LEDs set into the base, which can be changed in the BIOS to glow with any one of 16 different colours. The large base leaves plenty of wrist room for long gaming sessions or typing, and the keys have good travel but rather little feedback. The touch pad is accurate but small, which can make navigating the large screen difficult. The right of the chassis has a single FireWire
The notebook's screen is a strange choice for a gaming notebook. It's a high-contrast reflective LCD, so colours are incredibly vibrant and blacks very deep. This adds a sense of realism to games, especially to the dark and moody atmosphere of Doom 3. However, the panel has a huge resolution of 1,920x1,200 pixels. Games will not need tricks such as anti-aliasing to look their best, but there's little game support for this resolution. The Dell's scores in the Shopper benchmarks and PCMark04 are very strong, if not quite as high as the Pentium 4-based AJP D900T reviewed in our Gaming notebooks Labs test (Shopper June 2005), but the XPS Gen 2 managed a respectable 124 minutes in our battery life test with its lower-voltage Pentium M processor. Its 3D performance is staggering, with massive scores in 3DMark03 and 3DMark05, and 67.7fps in Doom 3, making it perfect for maximum-detail gaming. Dell's XPS Gen 2 is a superb gaming notebook with the best 3D performance we've seen. But with our review model's specification, the notebook is shockingly expensive. We prefer the lower-specified 512MB model, which is £100 cheaper, or the AJP D900T, which has only slightly less gaming performance and is £500 cheaper. By Chris Finnamore SPECIFICATIONS:
Pentium M 2.13GHz, 1GB RAM, 100GB hard disk, nVidia GeForce Go 6800Ultra graphics, DVD+/-RW, 17" 1,920x1,200 widescreen LCD, weighs 4.2kg Sponsored Links
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