Dell Inspiron 9200

From thin and light to a desktop replacement.
Is there anything the Pentium M can’t do?
Dell’s massive Inspiron 9100 impressed APC when we reviewed it last year (APC May 2004, page 46). The 9200 is the follow-up to that hulking unit, and Dell has made a few changes, most noticeably in processor selection. The 9200 now boasts a top-of-the-line 2.1GHz Pentium M processor and 1GB of RAM.
The 3.7kg machine includes an ATI Mobility Radeon 9700, but manages superior benchmarking scores to the Acer Ferrari 3400LMi (above) thanks to the faster processor. The system racked up scores of 12,146 and 3,247 under 3DMark2001 SE and 3DMark2003 Pro respectively, indicating that it can keep up with some modern games (albeit at lower resolutions). This graphics power is being put to use: a 17in screen runs at the massive native resolution of 1,920 x 1,280 pixels and produces a clear, even image.
The machine also proved an absolute rocket in other benchmarks, scoring 20.5 under Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2004 and 23.4 under the Business version, proving that desktop replacements don’t need to have desktop processors.
The review model features a 60GB Hitachi hard disk and an 8x Double Layer, multiformat DVD writer. A row of quick play buttons sits on the front of the shell, accessible even with the lid closed.
The rear panel has VGA, DVI, S-Video and two USB 2.0 ports, with modem and Gigabit Ethernet. The left panel houses the optical drive and two USB 2.0 connectors, and the right has headphone, microphone, FireWire, PC Card and SD interfaces. Bluetooth and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi are included.
Anyone familiar with notebooks would expect such high-powered componentry to add up to poor battery life, but Dell has worked some magic and managed to get the 9200 to run for over three hours under BatteryMark 4.0.1 testing. APCalways tests battery life with the processor running at full bore, networking options turned on and the screen set to its brightest level. If you run the 9200 using its most aggressive power-saving settings, you’ll get over four hours of battery life.
This is a top-performing desktop replacement with good battery life. It’s superior to the bulky Inspiron 9100 as it’s slightly smaller, lighter and runs for longer, but will only appeal to those who want an extremely powerful portable computer.