It did just as well on our Serious Sam tests, with 88 frames per second at 1,024-by-768 and 19 fps at 1,600-by-1,200 resolution. The unit's high gaming scores are due largely to the ATI Radeon 9700, a superb 3D graphics solution that let us test at resolutions of 1,600-by-1,200 and even up to 1,920-by-1,200. As with others in this class, the Inspiron 9100 suffered on our BatteryMark tests, scoring only 2 hours 9 minutes of battery life. The 9100 scored a 25.4 on Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2004, which was just a bit behind both the XPS (25.8) and the zd7000 (26.0). On Business Winstone 2004 it received an 18.1, surpassing the Inspiron XPS (17.1) but coming up short against the HP Pavilion zd7000 (20.3). We were disappointed, however, by the omission of a memory card slot, which should be standard in a multimedia system.ĭuring testing, the 9100 performed very well.
The notebook is rounded out by the standard 100MB Ethernet port, modem, one PC Card slot, and a DVD+RW drive. There is also a FireWire port, as well as DVI, VGA, and S-Video ports. Unfortunately, all of them are in the back we would like to see some on the side for easier access. The 9100 comes with an impressive four USB 2.0 ports. The speakers are appropriately placed just below the screen.
On the side of the keyboard, there are a series of control buttons for the optical drive (Play/Pause, Stop, Rewind, Forward) and above the keyboard, there are volume control and mute buttons. Inside, the 9100 has dual pointing devices (a touch pad and pointing stick) and a full-size keyboard. One of the first things we noticed about the 9100 was that it looks very similar to the Dell Inspiron XPS gaming notebook, and it is almost as heavy, at 9.16 pounds system weight (and 11.53 pounds when you add the AC adapter). That is, as long as a TV tuner is not on your list of must-haves.
Add to that a crisp 15.4-inch wide-screen display, the Dell Experience software (custom-tailored to enhance multimedia tasks), and a competitive price, and you can see why the Inspiron 9100 is a winning multimedia notebook. In line with that mission, the Inspiron 9100 includes top components like the Intel desktop Pentium 4 3.2-GHz processor and 128MB ATI Radeon 9700 graphics card. ĭell has launched what it hopes to be the mobile answer to its multimedia desktop PC. In line with that mission, the Inspiron 9100 includes top components like.
Review: Dell has launched what it hopes to be the mobile answer to its multimedia desktop PC. This high-end multimedia desktop replacement notebook is a winner among its peers. Pros: Superior graphics dual touch pad/pointing stick good bang for the buck Cons: Poor battery life no TV tuner no memory slot Bottom Line: The Dell Inspiron 9100 ranks high on performance, features, and core components, which include the 3.2-GHz desktop Pentium 4, 1GB of RAM, and a powerful ATI Radeon 9700 graphics solution.