Dell's Inspiron 8200 Pentium 4-M 2.0GHz certainly has a lot of processing power. How does it stack up against its immediate predecessors?

Dell's direct ordering model allows it to ship new processors the moment they hit the streets. It's therefore little surprise to see them shipping 2.0GHz Pentium 4-M systems almost immediately after Intel announces its new notebook processor. Purchasing a brand new processor, however, always brings with it a severe price hit. We were curious to see how adding the 2.0GHz processor affected system performance compared to other models in the same notebook family, starting from 1.6GHz upwards.

Everything but the sink
Dell offers the the Inspiron 8200 range with a cornucopia of components: 1.6GHz, 1.7GHz, 1.8GHz, or 2.0GHz P4- M processors; between 128MB and 1GB of high-speed DDR memory; either a 20GB, a 30GB, or a 40GB hard drive; and high-performance 5,400rpm drives with 40GB and 60GB capacity. The price range runs from AU$4,300 to about AU$6,300.

The three 15-inch displays available start with the UltraSharp UXGA+ panel, which offers nearly 180 degrees of horizontal and vertical viewing and is perfect for groups huddled around the screen. Text looked incredibly crisp, with vivid and detailed graphics, but you can save quite a lot by getting the more commonplace UXGA or SXGA+ screens instead.

Behind the scenes is the choice of Nvidia's GeForce4 440 Go graphics accelerator with a whopping 64MB of integrated memory or the company's more mainstream GeForce2 Go chip and 32MB of memory. Either way, the Inspiron 8200 is just as good for watching movies as it is for battling onscreen aliens or pitching a presentation. Video playback was sharp, with no blurring or dropped frames, and games had smooth motion and lots of details.

Weight of the world on your shoulders
To tap into all that mobile multimedia potential, you'll have to supersize it; the Inspiron 8200's dimensions--4.6x33x27.5 centimeters --will overwhelm any economy-class airline tray table. All models in the line are the same size. At a base weight of 3.67 kilograms (and rising to a travel weight of 4.07kg with the 400gm AC adapter), the system is on the heavy side.

With two modular bays, flexibility is the key. The Dell has modules for CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, CD-RW, combo DVD/CD-RW, or 250MB Zip drives, as well as a second battery or another hard drive. This multitude of optical drives makes the Inspiron 8200 ideal for mastering, copying, or playing CDs of all varieties.

And speaking of playing CDs, the Inspiron 8200 makes a pretty good boombox, although the sound can get tinny at high volumes, and the pair of cooling fans interrupted frequently. Front and center are handy CD-playback and audio controls, a common feature on consumer desktop replacements that lets you listen to audio CDs without turning on the system. With both S-Video and composite-video connections, the Inspiron 8200 is ready for moviemakers, and it can connect to multiple speakers via the S/PDIF digital-audio output. While the volume controls were easy to use, we would've liked a Mute switch.

Around its periphery, the Inspiron 8200 makes all the right connections. In addition to integrated 10/100Mbps Ethernet and a V.92 modem, the notebook has a built-in Wi-Fi 802.11b radio. About the only thing it lacks is a Bluetooth short-range radio. Included ports run the gamut of old and new: traditional parallel, serial, and PS/2; audio-in and -out; external monitor; FireWire; and a pair of USB ports. The Inspiron 8200 can accommodate two Type II (or one Type III) PC Cards, but unlike most of its peers, this system has no doors on the openings to protect the electronics inside from dust or worse.

Tale of the tape
We put three different configurations of the Inspiron 8200 through its paces at ZDNet Labs, testing applications performance with SysMark2001. The 2GHz P4 model set new high-water marks for a notebook PC with a mobile processor. Its overall SysMark score of 187 was about a 20 percent better than that of units equipped with the same processor. And it was 13 percent better than our current desktop-replacement performance champs, all of which had slightly slower P4-M processors.

With the high-capacity battery in place, the 2GHz Inspiron 8200 lasted for an acceptable 2 hours, 31 minutes, while its 1.8GHz and 1.7GHz counterparts lasted for 2 hours, 41 minutes and 2 hours, 46 minutes, respectively. As you'd expect, the meatier processors drain more power than their weaker siblings, although the difference between them was less than we expected.

Splash of color
Dell takes a half-hearted stab at jazzing up the design of the Inspiron 8200 by including four colorful QuickSnap inserts that fit in between the system's keyboard (which has 19.4mm keys) and the touchpad. There are 18 other colors available online, but truthfully, no snap-on insert will turn this boxy, staid design into an Apple PowerBook or a Sony VAIO notebook. In addition to the touchpad, there's a pointing stick at the center of the keyboard.

With our 2GHz evaluation system selling for AU$6,276.60, the Inspiron 8200 is on the pricey side, but it's worth every penny. Rather than a hotshot jet fighter, think of it as the reliable heavy-duty cargo plane of the notebook world. It flies high and fast but has a wide wingspan. By combining an awesome video system, top performance, and reasonable battery life in a portable computer, the Inspiron 8200 can assist those who want to make multimedia mobile-- anyone interested in lugging it all with them, that is.

Dell Inspiron 8200 Mobile Pentium 4-M 2.0GHz
Company: Dell Australia
Price: AU$6,276.60
Phone: 1800 812 393

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