Dells Inspiron 11z Netbook: Superior Performance, Lousy Touchpad
The Dell Inspiron 11z is an attempt to rectify the biggest drawback of current netbooks--low processing power--by using Intels ultralow-voltage Celeron and Pentium CPUs. The 11z--which starts at $379--is available with either the single-core Celeron 743 or, as with our test unit, the dual-core Pentium SU4100. Both CPUs run at 1.3GHz with an 800MHz bus. Besides two cores, the Pentium SU4100 has 64-bit support. Oh, and it adds $75 to the price.
Choosing 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium--which our test system came with--will cost you $30 more over the default Vista Home Basic operating system. And if you want any color other than "Obsidian Black," that will run you $40 more. Boost the RAM from 2GB to 4GB and choose a larger hard drive, and you can easily turn this under- $400 netbook into a nearly $700 companion device to your main system. In addition to the dual-core CPU, our test system had the 250GB drive upgrade but not the 4GB RAM option, a mix making for a fairly pricey netbook.
The Inspiron 11z earned 63 on WorldBench 6, a tie for the best netbook score weve seen yet. Nevertheless, the units limited RAM, lack of an optical drive, and small size will make it simply a light travel buddy or "companion PC" for most users. Its not all about the CPU power, after all. The screen resolution is 1366 by 768 with LED backlighting, which is a step up from many netbooks this size. It really helps alleviate that "can see the whole drop-down menu" problem that so many of these devices have. Color and contrast are pretty good, though the lighting is a little bit uneven--its noticeably darker along the top edge.
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