The Dell Inspiron 13 is great for those hampered by a tight budget, but who still want a competent and power-efficient thin-and-light notebook with a decent design.

The 13.3-inch notebook category has been gaining popularity as it combines the tote-ability of a 12.1-inch ultraportable with a larger screen estate, optical drive and full-sized keyboard. Dell's first venture into this market was with the XPS M1330, which uses a very similar design to the notebook we're looking at today.

Though the new Inspiron 13 aims for the budget segment, we were surprised to find a Core 2 Duo processor in a machine which cost under AU$1,300 (most laptops at this price range use Pentium dual-core chips to save costs) and offers excellent battery life. The only caveat is that the chipset is based on the older Centrino platform instead of the newer Centrino 2. The latter would have offered even more power savings and stronger graphics performance, though it would have also driven up the cost as well.

It may not be able to stand toe-to-toe with entertainment models such as the HP Pavilion dv3000 when it comes to features, or have the stylish looks of the newest Sony portables, but at this cheap price, users with tight purse strings will probably close one eye and take up what the Inspiron 13 has to offer.

Design
It may lack dashing good looks while weighing a hefty 2.2kg (even more than the heavy Pavilion dv3000), but for a budget thin-and-light notebook the Inspiron 13 still maintains a pleasing design. Taking a cue from the more expensive Studio line, this Inspiron's rounded hinge, slot-in optical drive and glossy blue exterior give it a touch of class. With a footprint of 318x238x38.37mm, it doesn't take up too much space in a backpack or messenger bag, either.

Unlike the rest of the Inspiron series, which come in a range of eight shades, this thin-and-light has only a single colour option — Pacific Blue. Fortunately, it doesn't compromise on other features such as multimedia control and a battery meter. Above the full-sized keyboard lies a row of touch-sensitive playback and volume control keys which give the Inspiron 13 some value as an entertainment device. The power cell sports a line of five LED lights which displays the charge level in 20 per cent increments without having to power up the machine.

The touchpad is responsive enough with two scroll zones, and we like the generously sized mouse buttons gracing the bottom of the trackpad.

Features
Though the Inspiron 13 didn't exactly wow us with its feature set, it still gives a lot of mileage for the money. The 13.3-inch widescreen transflective display runs on a native resolution of 1,280x800 pixels. In order to keep the Inspiron affordable, the chipset is based on the older Centrino platform and includes the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) X3100 video card. This card doesn't have the performance of the newer GMA X4500HD found in Centrino 2 laptops, though it is still more than capable when it comes to decoding DVD movies. The integrated X3100 doesn't have its own memory, but instead draws up to 256MB from the system RAM for image-rendering purposes. A VGA port allows hooking up with projectors and monitors, but with no HDMI or S-Video outputs in sight. However, we did not expect these to be present in an entry-level portable.

The integrated DVD writer is the attractive, slot-in variety, and it not only reads and writes to most flavours of DVD and CD (save for the DVD-RAM standard), but is able to take on the smaller 8mm disc format as well. The audio system is nothing to shout about, offering stereo quality sound which is reasonable but not fantastic. At higher volume levels, the output does get a little distorted, but if you need pumping levels then we'd suggest using a set of headphones or external speakers instead.

The Inspiron 13 offers a selection of fairly competent connectivity options under the hood. There is no Bluetooth or modem port available, but an 802.11a/b/g/n wireless radio and wired 10/100 Ethernet port are provided. Two USB 2.0, mini-FireWire and an ExpressCard/54 slot allow linking to external peripherals, while a webcam with integrated microphone provides an avenue for video conferencing. A final touch is the memory card reader that accepts SD/SDHC/MMC, Memory Stick and xD-Picture Card formats.

Performance and Battery Life
For AU$1,299 you get an Inspiron 13 with a Core 2 Duo T8100 processor running at 2.1GHz, 2GB RAM and 160GB hard disk. The Windows Experience Index in the Vista operating system rated the machine at 3.5 — with a score of 5.1 for the processor and 3.5 for the graphics performance.

We ran two benchmarks for this laptop — MobileMark 2007 and 3DMark06. The former reported a score of 146, meaning that most productivity tools should have no issues with this Inspiron. However, with only 588 for the 3DMark06 test, we can confirm that this thin-and-light is no gaming machine.

Where the Inspiron 13 truly shines is in its battery life. Based on MobileMark 2007 battery benchmark, the portable with a six-cell pack ran for an impressive four hours 22 minutes before shutting down. Even on the more demanding DVD playback test this Inspiron managed to last two hours 46 minutes before giving up the ghost. Unless you decide to watch epics such as Pearl Harbor or Titanic, a single charge is all you need for most full-length features. Though the configuration we tested was with a six-cell battery, the system available online comes with a nine-cell by default which means you'll see even longer uptime.

Service and Support
Dell offers a one-year local warranty for its notebooks, which covers both parts and labour. Should there be a problem with the laptop that cannot be resolved via telephone or the online help service, the company will send a technician on-site for diagnosis and repair. Updated drivers and other documentation can be downloaded from Dell's website, with the online DellConnect tool used by service technicians to troubleshoot your system remotely. Users can also purchase additional warranty packages at the point of purchase.