hardware.earthweb.com/computers/article.php/3333501
By Eric Grevstad March 30, 2004 A Heavyweight ContenderWith its Pentium 4/3.4 processor and 512MB of DDR400 memory (upgrading to 1GB would add $400), not to mention a 60GB, 7,200-rpm Hitachi Travelstar hard disk with 8MB buffer, the Inspiron XPS also blazes through less graphically oriented benchmarks and applications. To put it another way, the unit doesn't run away from slower-clock-speed Pentium 4/3.0 or Athlon 64 3200+ desktops we've tested, but nor does it tempt us to pay the colossal $1,000 premium for upgrading to the Extreme Edition CPU. The laptop bad boy earned an overall score of 289 in BAPCo's SysMark 2002, with a 187 in Office Productivity balanced by a spectacular 447 in Internet Content Creation (the last a sucker for P4's with Hyper-Threading). Its PCMark04 score was 4,980, with subscores of 5,023 (CPU), 4,623 (memory), 3,587 (hard disk), and 2,625 (graphics, running in 1,600 by 1,200 mode). If its performance places the Dell firmly above the e-mail-on-the-plane class of portables, so does its bulk -- the chassis which the XPS it shares with the Inspiron 9100 measures a stately 10.8 by 14.1 by 2.0 inches, and the laptop tipped our postage scale at just under 9.9 pounds. Its AC adapter adds a portly 2.4 pounds to the backpack. Our test system was about as well connected as it's possible for a portable to be, with both 802.11b/g and Bluetooth wireless adapters as well as a back panel bristling with ports: four USB 2.0 ports, one with a power connector for AC-adapter-free external devices; Gigabit Ethernet; 56Kbps modem; and VGA, S-Video, and DVI outputs. Microphone and headphone jacks and a FireWire port are on the left side, next to the PC Card slot and NEC ND-5100A 4X DVD+RW drive (which doubles as a 24/10/24X CD-RW burner).  Almost a Media CenterThe Inspiron XPS has a comfortable keyboard, though as a rule we're not wild about notebooks with half-sized Insert, Delete, Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn keys arrayed in the top right corner instead of full-sized ones running down the right edge; convenient audio volume and mute buttons are above the main keyboard, with DVD or CD play/pause, stop, and next/previous track buttons at the right. Sound quality is a little thin but not bad even at loud volumes, though the subwoofer -- a tiny third speaker built into the bottom-mounted battery pack -- won't be mistaken for a desktop 2.1 sound system. A cooling fan occasionally kicks in, but isn't noisy enough to be annoying. Speaking of the lithium-ion battery, we regularly managed just under two hours' unplugged operation -- 115-plus minutes for word processing and spreadsheet sessions, 100 or 105 minutes with more demanding multimedia and gaming use, although we found all but the top two of the eight screen brightness settings too dim. Your pointing-device preference awaits, with both an IBM ThinkPad-style pointing stick embedded in mid-keyboard and an Alps touchpad below it; the two cursor controllers offer two pairs of mouse buttons, mounted above and below the touchpad. We would have liked to see a scroll wheel, however. Dell's software bundle includes Sonic's MyDVD and RecordNow authoring programs along with CyberLink's PowerDVD player and trial versions of Jasc Software's Paint Shop Pro 8 and Paint Shop Photo Album for image editing and organizing. An interesting utility dubbed Dell Media Experience delivers an attractive, big-screen facsimile of Windows XP Media Center Edition, not for personal video recording (there's no TV tuner on board) but for browsing and enjoying digital music tracks as well as audio CDs and DVDs.  Bottom line? The Inspiron XPS is both a worthy and relatively affordable newcomer to the narrow ranks of game-freak, show-off laptops, though even its impressive ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 will get dusted by somebody who brings a Shuttle small-form-factor desktop with faster, full-sized graphics card to the fragfest. Sure, 90 out of 100 shoppers seeking a powerful, general-purpose, desktop-replacement notebook will be better served by its close relation the Inspiron 9100, settling for a 3.2GHz or 3.0GHz processor and maybe one of the lower-resolution versions of the wide-aspect-ratio screen, just as only three out of 100 shoppers will want to splurge on the P4 Extreme Edition CPU instead of our test unit's normal Northwood. But, like Jack Black's character in School of Rock, the XPS serves society by rocking. We salute it. Pros:
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