Dell Inspiron 11z

Review by Julian Prokaza on Thu 03 December 2009

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Summary

Guide price: £439 (starts at £349)
Rating: 3 out of 6
Good: Stylish, slimline design; great screen and keyboard; good battery life with optional 6-cell battery
Bad: Big battery not very well integrated into the design; truly terrible trackpad.
Verdict: The Dell Inspiron 11z is a great-value ULV ultraportable that gets almost everything right at this price. Unfortunately, the trackpad couldn't be more wrong and it really ruins the whole deal, so buy a USB mouse if you're still interesting in buying.
Manufacturer: Dell

Review

We’ve reviewed a few Intel ULV-powered laptops of late, but none have really been the low-cost ultraportables that these cheap, highly energy efficient processors are supposed to deliver — the Advent Altro, MSI Wind X600 and ASUS UX30 all cost £600 or more.

So, this made us all the more excited to get our hands on the Dell Inspiron 11z. The range starts at a very reasonable £349 for a model with an Intel Celeron ULV processor (as used in the Advent Altro), but we looked at slightly more expensive model with an upgraded dual-core Pentium ULV processor and a bigger battery. Even so, this specification still only comes in at £439, which is far more in keeping with the idea of ‘low cost’ than those other ULV laptops.

‘Thin and light’ is the term that’s often bandied about when talking about ULV-powered ultraportables and while the Inspiron 11z isn’t in the same league as the MacBook Air, it’s still pretty portable. The case is less than an inch deep at its thickest point and the laptop only weighs 1.39kg — light enough to carry around all day with little effort.

The high-capacity battery fitted to our model did spoil the slim profile, though — the cylinder that contains the extra cells pokes from the Inspiron 11z’s underside, and creates an awkward shape for slipping into the padded sleeve of a laptop bag. It also adds a little to the weight, but you may consider the trade-off worth it considering the better battery life it brings.

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