Dell's mainstream Inspiron 1100 notebook is ideal for those who need a fast and long-lasting laptop on the cheap.
Dell's mainstream Inspiron 1100 is the cheapest notebook in the newly redesigned Inspiron family, but it's by no means the runt. In ZDNet Labs' tests, the system displayed the fastest performance and the longest battery life among its Celeron- based competitors. The sub-AU$2,000 price is also impressive. Of course, you can't expect everything from a laptop this cheap. The Inspiron 1100 lacks perks, such as integrated wireless. But all things considered, the Inspiron 1100 is one of the best mainstream notebooks on the market.
You can't mistake the Inspiron 1100's lineage: it sports the same "Venice blue and moonlight silver" case as all new Inspirons, including the 600m and the 8500. In fact, the Inspiron 1100 shares its case design with the more expensive Inspiron 5100, which carries more cutting-edge components than the 1100.
With a 14.1-inch screen, the Inspiron 1100's case measures 32.7 by 27.4 by 4.3cm and weighs 3.36kg, average for a mainstream notebook. There's also an optional 15-inch display that jacks up size and weight slightly. You won't want to travel a lot with either one, but taking them on occasional jaunts won't do you in, either.
Large cases such as this often house two internal secondary storage drives, such as a floppy and a CD-RW. But the Inspiron 1100 offers just one fixed (that is, not swappable) secondary drive; you'll have to choose from CD, DVD, CD-RW, and DVD/CD-RW drives when you order. In the growing trend toward kissing floppies good-bye, Dell offers an external USB floppy drive only for an additional AU$61.60. The Inspiron 1100's extra weight lies in its huge 14.8V, 6,450mAh battery. As ZDNet Labs' battery tests show, the cell keeps this system running for four hours, despite its power-draining, desktop Celeron processor. But we're not wild about the loud fan that's needed to cool down this hot processor.
The Inspiron 1100's ample case allows room for a wide and firm keyboard, a spacious touchpad, and two big mouse buttons. There's also plenty of space for ports and slots, although the budget-minded Inspiron 1100 includes just the bare minimum. A 56K modem port sits on the right edge, and Ethernet, VGA, S-Video-out, and two USB 2.0 ports are spread out across the back edge. The left edge offers headphone and microphone ports, plus one Type II PC Card slot. The front edge features two speakers that a produce more vibrant sound than that of most mainstream notebooks.
The Inspiron 1100's base configuration gives average users just about everything they need for work or play, including a 2GHz desktop Celeron processor; 256MB of fast 266MHz DDR SDRAM; a 14.1-inch screen with a native 1,024x768 (XGA) resolution; a CD drive; and a 20GB, 4,200rpm hard drive. For various prices, you can choose higher-end specs such as a 2.4GHz desktop Pentium 4 CPU; up to 1GB of memory; a DVD, CD-RW, or DVD/CD-RW combo drive; a 40GB, 5,400rpm hard drive; and a 15-inch XGA display. All configurations come with the same graphics chip: a 64BM Intel 845G. Our evaluation system shipped with a 2GHz Celeron processor, 256MB of RAM, a 30GB hard drive, a DVD drive, and a 14.1-inch screen.
While we applaud this overall spec selection, we can't overlook one conspicuous absence: internal wireless networking (Wi-Fi). Most of Dell's new Inspirons, such as the 5100, include two dual-band, 802.11a/b antennae and mini-PCI Wi-Fi cards. However, the Inspiron 1100 lacks both the antennae and the mini-PCI cards. The only way to get Wi-Fi is to add it via a Type II PC Card--and use up your only available card slot. This setup means one more removable part to worry about and gives you only half the signal strength from the PC Card's single antenna.
Bundled software is understandably limited in this value-conscious system. The Inspiron 1100 ships with one of two operating system choices: Windows XP Home or Windows XP Pro. The system comes standard with the WordPerfect Productivity Pack and Intuit's Quicken 2002 New User Edition, but you can order it with more full-featured office suites, such as Microsoft Works or Microsoft Office XP--for extra cash, of course. The software bundle includes Dell's Jukebox, MovieStudio, and PictureStudio apps for editing music, movies, and images.
With its powerful 14.8V, 6,450mAh battery, the Inspiron 1100 had little trouble clobbering the competition in battery life. The Inspiron 1100's four-hour score is the longest battery life we've seen in a Celeron-based system, and it even bested a couple of Pentium M systems--the new battery-life champs. With the Dell Inspiron 1100, you'll be able to work unplugged without eyeing the power meter every 15 minutes.
Dell Inspiron 1100
Company: Dell Australia
Price: AU$1,898
Distributor: Dell
Phone: 1800 812 393
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