Dell today unveiled its new flagship Inspiron notebook, the 9100. Here are our first impressions of this powerhouse desktop replacement.

The Inspiron 9100 weighs a whopping 4.11kg and measures 50.8mm thick, making it one of the biggest Inspiron notebook in Dell's current lineup. Beneath the behemoth chassis, however, lies top-notch components including either a 3.0 or 3.2GHz Pentium 4 chip with Hyper-Threading, ATI Radeon Mobility 9700 graphics chipset and up to 2GB of RAM. According to the computer maker, the new Inspiron is targeted at consumers looking for a powerful notebook that can match the performance of desktop PCs.

Upside: We can't help but notice that the Inspiron 9100 shares an identical design to the Inspiron XPS which was launched recently in the US, with its thick chassis and 15.4-inch screen. Even the specs are similar, with both machines sporting top-of-the-line 128MB ATI graphics chips, DDR400 memory and DVD writers. Dell told ZDNet Australia that it currently doesn't have plans to release an XPS style model outside the US, so the 9100 may be as close as most power users get.

The 9100 boasts an array of three cooling fans that vent on the underside of the notebook. While this isn't something we'd normally note, Dell representatives told ZDNet Australia that this was in place to ensure that the processor should never need to slow down in normal cabled operation, thus ensuring that your multimedia powerhouse remains a powerhouse.

Downside: At over 4kg, the Inspiron 9100 is not a notebook you'd want to shuttle between your home and office. Those into LAN gaming parties may, however, still find the machine manageable compared with desktop PCs, but most people will probably stick to using the Inspiron within the house or office.

Depending on how you configure the 9100, you could pay an awful lot more than for a comparable desktop system, however. While prices start at AU$2,699, if you opt for the speedier processor, 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 and up to 2GB of memory, that figure accelerates upwards very quickly indeed.

Outlook: The Inspiron 9100 is clearly a toned-down version of the XPS gaming notebook in the US. The 9100 is targeted at those who want to upgrade to a desktop replacement notebook, without having to lose the performance superiority of a desktop machine. Based on the given specs, the Inspiron sure looks promising, but can it deliver the goods? Check back for the full review.

ZDNet Australia's Alex Kidman contributed to this report.