Laptop Details

Dell has used the ultra-low voltage Celeron 723 and the GS45 chipset on its new netbook, the Inspiron 11z. The Celeron processor when paired with X4500 integrated graphics has a definite advantage over the Atom processors common in netbooks.

Dell Inspiron 11z Specifications
Operating system: Windows Vista Home Premium (SP1, 32-bit)
Processor: Intel Celeron 723 (1.2GHz, 800MHz FSB, 1MB Cache)
Chipset: Intel GS45 + ISH9M chipset
Display: 11.6" WXGA LED-backlit display at 1366x768
Graphics: Intel X4500 Integrated Graphics
Memory: 2GB DDR2-800 SDRAM (1 Slot)
Weight: 3.05lbs

Build and Design
The Dell Inspiron 11z comes with a plain, black screen cover and chassis. The machine looks neat and elegant with no superfluous features inside. The build quality seems average, but the chassis still feels durable. Dell has placed the user-accessible components just under the keyboard. You can easily upgrade or replace components by removing the keyboard.

Screen and Speakers
The Inspiron 11z has a 11.6 inch screen with 1366x768 pixels. The LED backlit display is great with good color reproduction. Horizontal viewing angles are excellent, but vertical viewing angles aren’t very good. Display has good viewing brightness, but outdoor viewing can still be limited.
The speakers sound reasonably well. Peak volumes are good for watching a movie or listening to music.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The Inspiron 11z has a nearly full-size keyboard which is very comfortable to type on. The all-in-one touchpad comes with multitouch controls, but unfortunately it doesn’t work well. While this is a problem that can be solved by using an external mouse, it takes away from the portability of the netbook.

Ports and Features
There are three USB ports, audio jacks, an SDHC card slot, HDMI and LAN connector. Dell supplies a very good power adapter with this netbook. While it will last longer than the average netbook adapters, it is pretty big.

Performance
The Dell Inspiron 11 has a Celeron processor, which is better than the Atom processors found on most netbooks. Performance is strictly OK for most tasks around the house. You can surf the net, process MS Office documents and watch videos.

Battery Life
The Inspiron 11z has a 3-cell battery. At 3.5 hours, the battery life is average.

Pros:
Integrated X4500 graphics with HDMI out
Good screen
Nice keyboard

Cons:
Bad touchpad
Weak performance from the Celeron 723

Toshiba has unveiled a new hard drive that is big in capacity but small in size. The new Toshiba MKxx33GSG hard drives can hold up to 320GB of data and spin at 5400rpm. These are not the highest capacity hard drives out there but they are better than the 160GB and 250GB hard drives usually found in netbooks. The new hard drives measure just 1.8 inches and can easily fit inside an iPod or a super-thin netbook. They are also available in 250GB and 160GB versions.

Manufacturers are trying hard to make devices thinner and lighter. In fact, 1.8 inch hard drives are ideal for use in netbooks less than one inch in thickness and at 5400rpm, the new hard drives are faster than the 4200rpm drives common in netbooks.
A cheaper model, the MK1235GSL, is also available. It can hold 120GB and spins at 4200rpm.

Im not exactly sure what is the big hype over the new cinema displays Apple has just let loose (oh I forgot they are Apple branded), but either way youre probably wondering if they are right for you (if you have deep pockets).

Well I would normally give you an entire review on the thing but seeing that Engadget has done the job for me Ill just point out some flaws and strong points.

Using the new displays myself I find them quite entertaining and useful. The LED back light is crisp and although it has a high gloss screen the back light takes out most of the glare in well lighted rooms. The only major problem is the inclusion of one port in the display.

The only port you get is a Mini DisplayPort port and if you want anything else you gotta be willing to spend $30 for an adapter for VGA, DVI or S-Video. Not only that but I find no options for HDMI. Come on Apple show a little love to high def. And last but not least no auxiliary port. Some how Im not 100% sure it is worth the money but if you have the extra cash lying around, heck go for it.

READ FULL REVIEW

Crucial has lately entered the laptop Solid State Drive (SSD) bazaar and established unbelievable response at this years Consumer Electronics exhibit. Crucial is lashing home the truth that flash-based storeroom devices that really hold up well under strenuous working scenario, with things like boosted performance and lesser power consumption being runner-up. Read on to reveal if you should mull over if you should make-own one of the Crucial Solid state drives in this drenched market.

It seems to be that solid state drive producers arent driving the extra mile when it comes to building the SSD as cool runner as possible. For investing almost half the amount of your laptop on one, they might incorporate a fancy hologram label across the top with "SSD" in big brave letters. The Crucial SSD is no poles apart, making all hunkies scratch their heads when they glance at the wrapping the drive revealed in, and the drive in itself. It really seems like the very thing that you would take off the shelf in the dollar store. Performance is exceptional in all categories. Average sprinting speeds are the most excellent we have witnessed from an SSD and when pooled with its low seek times; it serves for some motivating situations when running games.

When you think of design supremacy in the laptop world, you generally do not think Dell; most of the times our minds turn Sony, Apple and most recently HP. But in recent months Dell has been stepping up the design aspect of their laptops especially their Studio and XPS lines.

At the top of this is the Dell XPS Studio 13 which is the latest to make it from Dell’s R&D labs. Hot on the heals of the new Macbook’s and HP dv series, the Dell brings something to the table that most the others is lacking, price performance and a damn sexy look.

DESIGN:

I will be honest, when I first heard about the new XPS Studio 13 systems; I was expecting to be greeted by sub-par design and decent performance. But when I went to Dell’s website and checked the system out for myself I was blown away.

As the name suggests the system comes with a 13.3 inch LCD screen that boasts a 1280x800 pixels (LED backlit is available).

Other specs include a standard Intel Core 2 Duo with a clock speed of 2.4GHz (and as we said standard) as well as 4GB of DDR3 (not DDR2) memory. The RAM can be expanded up to 8GB but be prepared to spend some extra moola for that.

The standard hard drive is 320GB wit 7200rpm as well as a slot load Super Multi DVD optical drive (Blu-Ray options is available on the 16-inch model).

Ports include VGA, HDMI, FireWire, 2x USB 2.0 ports, eSATA, 4-in-1 card reader, 2 audio out ports as well as a microphone port.

Wireless technologies include Next-Gen wireless N Mini Card, Bluetooth 2.0 as well as a port for EVDO cards (Sprint, Verizon etc).

Other features include an NVIDIA GeForce Integrated 9400 graphics, 2.0 megapixel camera (with face recognition software), Window’s Vista Home Premium 64-bit and a beautiful back-lit keyboard.

Everything fits nicely into this system which is very compact and easy to use. The back-lit keyboard provides a beautiful typing experience for those who use their computers in the dark. The touch sensitive media controls work beautifully and so far none of them has malfunctioned.

PERFORMANCE:

Thanks to this computer super fast Core 2 Duo clock speed it has blazing fast performance and couple that with the 7200rpm 320GB hard drive as well as the standard 4GB of DDR3 memory, you get everything you need performance wise. The system is able to do multi-tasking effortlessly. Programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Premier, and many other graphic intense programs run smoothly.

Thanks to the computers integrated NVIDIA GeForce 9400 graphics chipset you get excellent performance on multi-media and good performance on games. As expected this is not a gaming system so you won’t be able to play Crysis on full 60fps, but games like COD4, NFS Undercover as well as Halo all play nicely on medium graphical intensity.

Battery life is good but could be a little better. If the backlit keyboard is running you can expect to get 2:40 minutes from continuous use (this is a 6-cell battery). On power save mode, this increases to 3:20 minutes.

Since we have been testing the system we have not seen any lag in performance no matter what we have thrown at it. The major reason for this is thanks in part to the 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor as well as the 4GB of DDR3 RAM with 1066MHz FBS.

DRAWBACKS:

Design wise, some have raised concerns about the visible screws on the display panel but personally they lend a cool design notch as they are polished and have the resemblance to titanium.

Also we would have wished that the trackpad were multitouch as well as glass. But more importantly the screen resolution is not as good as it could be. We were really hoping we could get a better one but that is minor.

We do notice that the system runs a little hot depending on what programs is running and the environment temperature so we would not advise resting the device on the carpet for extended tournaments of WOW.

Also LED backlit does not come standard and you will have to shell out some dough for that. Other then that we are very satisfied with the design and performance. We couldn’t ask for more.

Our only major concern was the system crash which happened within a few minutes of the computer starting up. After checking out a few forums as well as reviews we found that some of the earlier versions of the XPS Studio 13 were shipped with defective BIOS software which caused the system to crash or give the “blue screen of death.” A quick BIOS update via the Dell.com website as well as a fresh reinstall of Windows (thanks to the included disk) will fix the problems, although we did not have to do that. After spending a few minutes with msconfig we found out that our problem was a software conflict and that was easily rectified.

CONCLUSION:

So you’re probably asking what is the price and is it worth it? Our system clocked in at just a little over $1,300 from Dell.com. But, this system was rather purchased at Best Buy where we got it for $899 (a $400 savings). There were some surprises in the box also which included 15-month subscription to Trend Micro Anti-virus as well as LoJack for one year.

Cost to value ratio, this is a heck of a steal. This system beats out the specs for the Macbook 13-inch. The Macbook 13-inch only comes with 2GB of DDR3 memory which can be expanded to 4GB. The Dell XPS 13 comes with a full 4GB of DDR3 memory and can be expanded to 8GB (like the Macbook Pro). More importantly Apple shoved a mediocre 160GB hard drive into their baseline Mac. This system doubles that and has the same rpms (7200). You also have the option for a wireless card (something the Mac lacks), and last but not least our system came with touch sensitive controls (which the Mac lacks) as well as backlit keyboard (which is only available on the $1599 MacBook 13-inch).

So is this a deal? Heck yes. We can guarantee you will not be disappointed.