Dell Inspiron 8200

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If you demand power and have cash to spare, there really is no need to buy a traditional PC any more, as a suitably equipped notebook like this one from Dell will do just fine.

Inside is Intel's new mobile processor, the Pentium 4-M, which runs at an astonishing 1.7GHz. This is very similar to the desktop version of the Pentium 4, although it consumes less power.

Add nVidia's new graphics chip for notebooks, the GeForce 4 Go with 64Mb of dedicated memory, and you've got a seriously powerful, transportable games machine. Also inside is 256Mb of fast DDR memory and a 40Gb hard disk.

Although a bulky beast weighing 3.7kg, what you lose in portability is gained in features. Dell has made full use of the notebook's mammoth proportions to pack in everything you'd expect from a high-end desktop PC.

The 8200 houses both a combined CD-RW/DVD drive and floppy drive. Situated at the front, the floppy drive can easily be removed and replaced with an Iomega Zip drive, a second hard disk or a second battery such as dell Latitude D830 battery, dell MM165 battery, dell YD626 battery, dell 312-0393 battery, dell Latitude D800 battery, dell Inspiron 8500 battery, dell 8N544 battery, Dell Precision M60 battery, dell Inspiron 8600 battery, dell Inspiron 6400 battery.

The 15in screen displays its best picture at a resolution of 1,600 x 1,200. While some may like this, we found the combination of high resolution on a screen this size to be just a little too much for our eyes. Text was too small to read comfortably and everything seemed a little cramped.

You can run the display at lower resolutions but, although the image is pleasant enough, it appears slightly blurred.

The keyboard is solid and responsive, and the keys are large enough to use for touch-typing. To control the mouse pointer, Dell has integrated both a trackpoint and the more common touchpad. You can disable either or both in the Windows Control Panel.

The Inspiron can be connected to just about anything, as the list of ports is comprehensive. Inside the chassis is a wireless network card which gives you the potential to connect to wireless networks at high speeds. In practice, most of us are unlikely to use it at home but it's a welcome addition nevertheless.

The software package is also impressive, and Dell has added a pre-loaded copy of Microsoft's Office XP Small Business Edition to the additional Windows XP Home Edition operating system.

So far, it's very impressive stuff but there's a price to pay for power: battery life. The Inspiron lasted for one hour 32 minutes in our tests, which is pretty poor for a notebook of this size. In fact, that's 33 minutes less than its predecessor, the 8100.

For many, this won't matter as the 8200 is so bulky you're unlikely to be transporting it away from a power socket for very long, but it is something to be aware of.

The Inspiron is undoubtedly expensive but it offers pretty good value for money considering its features and generous software package. Whether it would make a good purchase depends on whether you need all that speed.

Price: £2,407

Contact: Dell 0870 907 5664

Compaq Presario 1700

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Notebook PCs have traditionally been seen as the preserve of the business user: their high price has more often than not put them out of reach of consumer pockets. But Apple's success with the iBook in home and educational markets has awakened the interest of PC manufacturers in this area, and Compaq's Presario 1700 is squarely aimed at the home user.

First there's the specification - 650Mhz Celeron processor, 64Mb of RAM, 10Gb hard drive and Windows Me, 13.3in 1024 x 768 TFT screen. Then there's the styling - two-tone silver and slate exterior with a shiny Compaq badge - stylish in a friendly, unintimidating sort of way, but without a hint of frivolity. This is a home machine that you wouldn't be embarrassed to take to the office occasionally.

Then, of course, there are the buttons. The trend for additional keys to provide one-touch access to software applications has now spread to notebooks, and you'd be forgiven for assuming the 1700 of the Compaq's moniker is a reference to the quantity of these.

In fact there are only six actual buttons - three either side of the power button. Two of these control the volume, one launches Windows Media Player, one launches your email application and a further two launch your browser and connect to a specific site. The default ones are Compaq's Presario information site and notebook store, but they can be reconfigured.

The top row of the keyboard has 12 function keys and each of these also operates as an application launcher when used in conjunction with a function key on the bottom-left corner of the keypad. Four operate as cassette buttons for media player applications, four operate screen contrast and brightness (though there is no on-screen indication of settings), one is a sleep key, one toggles external monitor display settings, one is user programmable and the last is yet another Compaq web page.

The keyboard has a positive feel, though if you need to look at keys while you type, the bold white on dark grey letters might cause you eyestrain.

Below the keyboard is a very generous and comfortable wristpad area. This houses left and right mouse buttons as well as a disc pad that can be used to scroll the active window.

The Synaptics touchpad tabbed properties panel provides pretty comprehensive configuration including tap to click, corner tap functions, touch sensitivity and edge motion, which keeps the cursor moving in the required direction when you reach the edge of the touchpad. You can even control this with finger pressure, increasing pressure on the touchpad to increase pointer speed.

A 'Palm Check' function helps eliminate accidental placing of the pointer while you're typing. A slider controls its sensitivity and it actually seems to work very well, preventing accidental repositioning, yet not interfering with genuine attempts to reposition the cursor, select text blocks and so on. In any event you can easily suppress taps from the touchpad icon menu in the system tray. The Synaptics panel also lets you reconfigure the disc pad so you can use it for web navigation or to play a keystroke macro.

Connectivity options include 56K modem, 10/100Mbits/sec Ethernet, two USB ports, S-Video out, a parallel printer port and VGA socket. All of these are rear mounted and the last three are concealed behind a rubber flap. The Ethernet connection will be useful for those situations where you want to transfer work files, or for anyone running a home network.

There's no IrDA port, so you'll have to look to other methods of wireless data transfer.

On the left panel there's a Type II PC Card slot, headphone and mic socket.

Two bays on the right of the machine house the lithium-ion battery such as Compaq EVO N410c Battery, Compaq EVO N600C Battery, Compaq EVO N610C Battery, Compaq EVO N620C Battery, Compaq Presario 1200 Battery, Compaq Presario 1800 Battery, Compaq Presario 700 Battery, Compaq Presario 900 Battery, Compaq Presario 1700 Battery, Compaq Armada E500 Battery and a hot-swappable drive. The review model was fitted with a Panasonic CD-RW, and other options include a DVD, floppy and SuperDisk drives.

Two forward-facing JBL pro-stereo speakers provide marginally better than average notebook sound, though if entertainment is your goal you'll need to resort to headphones or even invest in the optional docking station which has an S/PDIF socket. The 650Mhz Celeron CPU and ATi Rage Mobility graphics accelerator are not, however, a combination that will set the hearts of game players racing.

Rather than shipping the machine with a specific software bundle, Compaq allocates points that you can use to buy software of your choice from a selection of productivity, reference and games titles. With the 10 points allocated to online purchasers you could, for example, put together a bundle including MGI VideoWave III, Corel Print Office 2000, Norton Utilities, Norton Mobile Essentials, Quicken 2000 and Tomb Raider III.

Dell Studio 17 NR73502 notebook PC

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There has always been a gap between Dell’s popular mainstream Inspiron notebook series and its higher end XPS models.

Now it has bridged this gap with the Studio family, incorporating features found in both product lines.

The Studio line-up features 15in and, as on this Studio 17 sample, 17in versions.

These days, choosing a notebook finish is almost as complicated as choosing the paint scheme and interior finish of a new car.

The Studio family comes with a choice of eight colours, including the Graphite Grey of our review model; you also get a choice of four trim colour options.

Depending on your point of view, the pattern on the chassis either looks like a series of water stains or the contour lines on a map.

Still, the finish is impressive, but whether you’ll want to carry it around showing it off to people is another matter, as it weighs a hefty 4.1kg with the power supply.

As with all Dells, you can customise the specification to suit your needs. Our sample came with an Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 processor (there are two other options both with 6MB of L2 cache, namely the 2.5GHz T9300 at £79.99 extra and the 2.6GHz T9500 at a whopping £270 extra).

The T8300 is clocked at 2.4GHz and, with an 800MHz front-side bus (FSB) and 3MB of L2 cache backed by 4GB of 667MHz DDR2 memory, it has plenty of power to do all the everyday tasks you’ll ask of it, as confirmed by its PCmark05 score of 6,014. It also scored a respectable 3,546 in the more demanding PCmark Vantage.

A single 320GB 5,400rpm Western Digital Scorpio hard disk is fitted along with an eight-speed slot-loading DVD burner. Powering the graphics is ATI’s Mobilty Radeon HD3650 with 256MB of dedicated GDDR2 memory clocked at 500MHz, which provides a modicum of games performance.

When tested using the built-in benchmark in World in Conflict at the screen’s native resolution (1,440x900), it only gave a maximum frame rate of 16fps (fr ames per second); this was tested with all the details turned on or set to high. Turning some of these off and dropping the resolution will give better frame rates, but it’s no gaming system.

The 17in screen features Dell’s Truelife coating and is very impressive, and to output to other screens there are VGA and HDMI ports. Although it comes with an Intel CPU and chipset, this isn’t a Centrino notebook as the wireless networking isn’t an Intel product – instead, it’s one of Dell’s own 802.11n 1510 mini cards; the Bluetooth module is also a Dell product.

The keyboard feels sturdy, with hardly any flex to the key bed, while the keys themselves are good and responsive. It also has a dedicated numeric typepad. Compared to the keyboard, the touchpad seems undersized, but again it has just the right amount of sensitivity. Above the keyboard is a row of touch-sensitive controls and a Media Center remote control.

A notebook of this size isn’t going to be carried about too much, so we weren’t expecting wonders in our battery tests. But when tested with Mobilemark 2007, the standard six-cell battery like dell Latitude D600 battery, dell Latitude D610 battery, dell 312-0068 battery, dell 6Y270 battery, dell C1295 battery, dell Inspiron 1100 battery, dell Inspiron 5100 battery, dell 6T473 battery, dell Inspiron 630m battery, dell Inspiron 640m battery lasted 125 minutes for the DVD test, 158 minutes for the Productivity test and 178 minutes for the Reader test.

Microsoft Works 9 is included along with Vista Home Premium, and a one-year RTB warranty is provided as standard.

It’s not much good for gaming and its weight will put some people off, but the Studio 17 is well built and benefits from a decent processor.

Apple iBook

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But while the iMac appealed to everyone who wanted a computer, but couldn't stomach the beige blandness of a traditional PC, the iBook looks a touch too childish to slot easily into an office environment. It reminds us of a slimmed-down lunch box, but carrying this computer around the streets, which is what the carrying handle seems to invite, is a bold advert to muggers.

Another thing that might put you off lugging the iBook around with you is the weight - 6.6lb to be precise. This extra weight can be accounted for in part by the iBook's 'spacious' design - the palm rest is incredibly deep, so unless you have very large hands you may find yourself straining across it to get at the keys. There is also acres of space around the 12.1in TFT screen, which might be better filled by a few more viewing inches.

The keyboard is pleasant to use, and pressing two tabs along the top lifts it up completely to reveal the innards of the iBook, with a free space to slot in one of Apple's AirPort wireless networking cards and extra RAM. The capacity to fit up to 128MB of RAM is handy, as it comes with just 32MB as standard. The rest of the spec doesn't really make up for the memory deficit; the 300MHz G3 processor is adequate for most applications but a 3.2GB hard disk drive couldn't be considered generous.

Where Apple may lose out when it comes to cutting-edge specifications, it wins hands down when it comes to ingenious design touches. The iBook is housed in super-tough plastic - the same material is used to make bullet-proof vests, and uses a clever hinge method to keep the lid shut you simply snap it into place rather than using a latch.

A light around the power socket glows amber while the battery like Apple A1175 Battery, Apple A1185 Battery, Apple M9324 Battery, Apple M8403 Battery, Apple M7318 Battery, apple PowerBook G3 Battery, Apple PowerBook G4 Battery, Apple PowerBook G4 15inch Battery, Apple A1012 Battery, Apple M8511 Battery is charging, turning green when it has finished. Battery life is a claimed six hours and if the G3 PowerBook battery life is anything to go by then this is more than just an empty promise, so you'll have plenty of juice to keep the iBook going on your travels. Another neat lighting touch is the LED that pulsates away on the back of the iBook as it slumbers.

External expandability is provided by a single USB port and a 10/100 BaseT Ethernet port, while wireless networking is an option if you add the AirPort card and there's a 56K modem to get you online. As with all of Apple's new range there's no floppy drive, only a 24x CD-ROM drive. Apple says that this is to leave the choice of external storage device to the user, but if you do need extra storage then this will represent an extra cost, too.

The software bundle includes Mac OS 8.6, AppleWorks, Outlook Express, Netscape and IE5, World Book Encyclopedia, QuickTime 4, a couple of games and fax software.

Dell Inspiron 9100

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We have seen a fair few notebooks in past months that are powerful enough to compete with their desktop counterparts. Dell's Inspiron 9100 uses a selection of cutting-edge hardware that puts many desk-bound computers to shame.

The processor is Intel's Pentium 4, running at 3.2GHz, with an impressive 1Gb of memory to boot. None of this memory is shared with the new ATI Mobilty Radeon 9700, that has 128Mb of its own memory with which to play 3D games quite competently with. The 60Gb hard disk is also good for a notebook. Needless to say, as a result, the 9100 did very well in our Labs tests.

The 15.4in widescreen display can cope with resolutions up to 1920 x 1200, which is fantastic for a notebook. This means text, icons and images are very clear and easy to read.

It's not only the screen that's clear - unlike most notebooks, the sound quality is quite good. This is thanks to a subwoofer built into the battery pack such as dell Y9943 battery, dell RC107 battery, dell Latitude D620 battery, dell 312-0386 battery, dell PC764 battery, dell TD175 battery, dell Precision M65 battery, dell DF230 battery, dell Latitude D531 battery, dell Latitude D820 battery, which creates better bass effects when playing DVD movies and games. However, battery life wasn't that impressive - only 80 mins on full usage. This is due to the amount of power-hungry hardware that the notebook uses. Another trade-off for implementing all this hardware is the notebook's size. The 9100 is almost 6cm thick and weighs a whopping 4.2kg.

However, because of its dimensions, the notebook has space for a multitude of ports, including four USB 2 sockets, both analogue and digital monitor outputs, TV-out and mini FireWire. There's also a recordable DVD plus drive, which can be 'hot-swapped' for a floppy disk drive or a second hard disk. The 9100 also has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections.

The software bundle is very generous and includes some demo versions of software that you can buy through Dell. Internet security is covered by the Dell Security Centre, which includes anti-virus, privacy protection and firewall products from McAfee.

Acer Travelmate 3000

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With a footprint smaller than the full-size edition of PCW and weighing just 1.45kg, the Acer Travelmate 3000 is designed with portability in mind.

Despite the compact size, there's a 12.1in widescreen display along with a reasonably-sized keyboard. You'll notice some flexibility to the keyboard when typing, but it's the cramped touchpad that's the biggest let-down, making it tricky to move the cursor around the screen quickly.

There are various versions of the Travelmate 3000 series; this being the 3004WTMi model. Its core components are impressive, with a 2GHz Intel Pentium M processor, 1GB of DDR2 memory and a 100GB hard disk.

It took just one hour and 40 minutes to drain the battery in our tests, but you may well get more than two hours using power saving settings. A second smaller battery like Acer UM08B73 battery, Acer UM08B71 battery, Acer UM08A31 battery, Acer Aspire One Battery, Acer UM08A73 battery, Acer BTP-43D1 Battery, Acer TravelMate 220 Battery, Acer BTP-58A1 Battery, acer BTP-60A1 Battery is supplied that runs for just over an hour, but you can't hot-swap the two.

An external dual-layer DVD writer compensates for the lack of a built-in optical disc drive and connects to the notebook's single Firewire port. Wireless options come in the form of infrared, Bluetooth and 802.11b/g,and the four-in-one memory card reader is a useful inclusion.

The Travelmate's price tag and small size make it seem like the ideal travelling companion, but we expected to see longer battery life. Acer tries to combat this by including two batteries, but it's not an ideal solution.

Dell Inspiron 3700Dell Inspiron 3700

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Thinner and lighter than Dell's Inspiron 7500 (PCW, December 1999), the 3700 is designed to appeal to less power-hungry users, or to those who need to compute on the move. Depending on the configuration you choose, it weighs in at between 2.8kg and 3kg, keeping it a full kilogram below the 7500 at either end of the scale. There's a range of processor options, all Celerons, starting with the 400MHz and topping off with the model we tested, running at 466MHz.

Our review model arrived with 128MB of RAM, although this is upgradable at the time of purchase to 512MB, using two 256MB DIMMs. The excellent 14.1in active matrix LCD has a good viewing angle and is sharp and comfortable on the eye. It's driven by an ATi Rage Mobility -M1 2X chip, which can simultaneously send its output to a second monitor and span the desktop across both screens for an enlarged working area. Sound, meanwhile, is handled by the ESS Maestro-2E chip, which supports Sensaura's Positional 3D, and drives its output to the side-mounted stereo speakers.

The thing that sets this machine apart from the usual Dell fare is the styling. It is gently curved, and has a woven finish to the wrist areas.

Dell's URL is stamped just below the keyboard and the unit is available in two colours: storm grey or Tahoe blue. The keyboard is excellent - it feels fairly slack and is comfortable to type on for extended periods.

The touch pad is also smooth and responsive, but if it's not your thing then you'll be pleased to see the supplementary pointing nib in the middle of the keyboard. Each device has its own set of buttons, and pressing both the left and right buttons on either set turns your chosen pointing method into the equivalent of a scroll-wheeled mouse, moving the contents of your active window up and down.

Dell is fast getting itself a reputation for building highly-versatile machines, and the 3700 does nothing to diminish this. A front-mounted media bay gives you a choice of drives, including floppy, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, Zip, LS-120 or extra hard drives. It can also house a second battery such as Dell 8M815 battery, Dell 851UY battery, dell 75UYF battery, Dell BAT-I3700 battery, dell 5081P battery, Dell Inspiron 3700 battery, Dell Precision M40 battery, Dell Precision M50 battery, dell Inspiron 700m battery, dell Inspiron 710m battery for extended use away from power points, or be emptied altogether and protected by the bundled cover for the ultimate in portability.

Softex Bay Manager has been pre-installed to enable hot-swapping, and should you find yourself in need of more than one drive at a time, Dell has thoughtfully included a cable for using the floppy drive as an external unit.

The stacked PC Card slots support two Type I/II or one Type III card.

One of these can be filled by the bundled Margi DVD-to-Go card that lets you watch DVD movies on a standard television. This supplements the integrated S-Video out port.

There are also a number of other innovations, such as Dell's exclusive ExpressCharge, which cuts the lithium ion battery's charging time in half - with no detrimental effect on its operational life. In normal use patterns, battery life is staked at around three hours.

What we didn't like was the absence of a flap covering the rear ports.

Dell explained that this was because it often snapped off but we feel it smacks of cost cutting. Dell aims this machine at 'travelling professionals, consumers and students who want an ideal combination of performance, mobility, convenience, style, quality and affordability', and with specs like this, and the 3700's modular, versatile design, it looks like it has hit the mark.

Acer Aspire 5101 AWLMi

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Its battery life could be improved a little, but Acer’s Aspire 5101 AWLMi is a neatly designed laptop that provides respectable performance and a decent set of features. And, at £469, it even manages to come in a little under our £500 price limit.

First impressions were good – the Aspire 5101 is a solidly built machine, and its attractive silvery-grey design and black trim certainly doesn’t betray its low cost. The 15.4in widescreen display is bright and clear and will work well with DVDs, as well as ordinary business applications.

Like many laptops at the moment the screen has a rather glossy, reflective coating, which is good for DVD playback but can be a bit distracting at times. Some people might prefer the standard matte finish of the screen on the Toshiba Satellite, although that’s really just a personal preference.

This is the only laptop in this group to include the Media Center Edition of Windows XP, so it’s a good choice if you’re looking for a laptop that will be part of your entertainment system at home, or to keep you amused while you’re on the road. It doesn’t come with a TV tuner, though.

We were also pleased with the built-in webcam that sits on the top edge of the screen – a handy feature for anyone who wants to try out video-chat using Skype, for example. It’s certainly good value for a machine in this price range.

There are a few oddly labelled buttons on the top row of the keyboard, along with an unusual silver button sitting right between the two buttons on the trackpad. The buttons on the keyboard are programmable so that you can use them to launch your own choice of programs, while the silver button on the trackpad is a four-way scrolling device. These are useful little extras, although they’re not clearly explained by Acer’s slim manual, so it may take you a little while to figure out how they all work.

The rest of the machine’s design is fairly straightforward. It’s based on an AMD Turion processor running at 2GHz, which provides solid and consistent performance in most of our benchmark tests. As a result, the Aspire should be more than adequate for handling office software, as well as a bit of multimedia work, such as digital photography or video editing.

The 512MB of Ram is about the minimum you’ll need for multimedia work (or to upgrade to Windows Vista), but the 120GB hard disk provides plenty of room for storing mp3 music or digital video clips.There’s no Firewire port for connecting a DV camcorder, so home video buffs will have to budget for a Firewire upgrade if they plan on doing any video-editing work.

We would also like to have seen slightly better performance from the Aspire’s battery such as Acer TravelMate 2300 Battery, Acer Aspire 1680 Battery, Acer Aspire 1410 Battery, Acer TravelMate 4500 Battery, Acer LCBTP03003 Battery, Acer Aspire 1300 Battery, Acer Extensa 4620 Battery, Acer BTP-APJ1 Battery, Acer BTP-AQJ1 Battery, Acer BTP-ARJ1 Battery. The one hour, 45 minutes battery life in our Mobilemark productivity test isn’t too bad – although it still pales beside the three hours plus of the Toshiba Satellite Pro – but the one hour, 27 minutes of DVD playback time will barely be enough to watch a movie. It’s not going to be much of a games machine, either, as its 3D performance – like that of all these low-cost laptops – is extremely limited.

The limited battery life means that the Aspire 5101 isn’t the best choice for watching DVDs while on the move, but apart from that it’s a well-designed laptop with some good features for the price.

Dell Latitude D620 business notebook

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Dell's Latitude range of corporate notebooks have been a long-term mainstay for many a business person on the move, offering a good balance of performance and battery power such as dell Inspiron 9300 battery, dell Inspiron 9400 battery, dell 310-6321 battery, dell 310-6322 battery, dell D5318 battery, dell G5260 battery, dell G5266 battery, dell Latitude CPi battery, dell Inspiron 8200 battery, dell Inspiron 8000 battery.

Dell has recently refreshed its Latitude series and new D620 sits in the middle of the range.

Our review sample came with an Intel T2500 Core Duo processor clocked at 2.0GHz; Dell currently offers the T2600 (2.16GHz) or T2400 (1.83GHz) as alternatives.

Backing this up is 1GB of PC2-5300 memory, although once again Dell offers other choices.

Clad in its matt silver and black finish, the D620 looks good, but weighing 3kg including the power adaptor it will start to tug on your arms if you carry it around all-day.

The screen is a 14.1in widescreen model and has a native resolution of 1,440 x 900, which provides plenty of desktop space.

This is a business notebook, so graphics performance is never going to be top of the agenda.

Having said that, the integrated Intel GMA950 chipset is perfectly adequate for all the usual business applications you might use.

The keyboard is comfortable to use with the keys having a good, solid feel when typing. Both a trackpoint and trackpad are built in with two mouse keys provided for each.

Disappointingly, the Trackpoint doesn't have a scrolling facility.

In between the two mouse buttons, below the trackpad, is something that's becoming more commonplace on business notebooks of late – a fingerprint reader.

This is joined by an integrated smartcard reader that will be welcome should security be a major concern.

Our review system had a strange, rubber-finished protuberance sticking out of the front. On closer inspection, this turned out to be the extended battery. In most cases, batteries tend to jut out of the rear of the chassis.

This battery includes a useful level meter, which saves you having to boot up the D620 to find out how much juice is left.

Wifi in the form of 802.11a/b/g and Bluetooth are both built in. We also liked the wireless on/off switch that also doubles as a Wifi detector so, once again, you don't have to boot the system up to find out whether there are any local hotspots available.

There's no DVD writer, but the DVD combo drive is able to read DVDs and burn CDs.

The D620 also has an integrated 3G module built into it, something that Dell is planning to roll out across the whole of the Latitude range soon.

But, while the module is there, there are no drivers or software to control it at present – we're told these should be available soon.

In Sysmark 2004 SE, the D620 clocked up a score of 207, while the integrated graphics predictably restricted Far Cry to just 8fps (frames per second) and 632 in 3Dmark05.

The battery life of the D620 is worth noticing. In our tests, it achieved an impressive five hours and 10 minutes in Mobilemark 05's Productivity Test and four hours and 38 minutes in the DVD Playback Test.

For full performance results, check out our Reportlabs site.

If fast graphics performance isn't a concern, and for most business users it won't be, the Latitude D620 from Dell would be a good choice.