The Dell Inspiron 11z that we tested had a 6-cell battery and 250 GB hard drive. As usual with Dell, various configurations come in at various prices. You will need to add £30 if you want the 6-cell battery. It’s available on Dell’s site. You'll be able to configure the model according to your desires and budget.

In spite of a configuration that puts it pretty much in the entry-level ultra range, the price and dimensions of the Dell Inspiron 11z put it closer to the netbook category. With an 11.6 inch screen and above average dual-core processor, the Inspiron 11z has some interesting advantages.

Handling, design and build: a nice finish, overall quite comfortable

The Dell Inspiron 11z is a nice machine, well finished with quality plastics. We’re not unconditionally impressed however. The glossy black coating around the screen attracts dust and finger marks. Thankfully the rest is matte, with the exception of the touchpad area which is glossy grey. No particular problem here and the lid of the screen is in the same white plastic. Lighter colours don’t show up marks so easily.


The keyboard is excellent. It’s nice and comfortable to use with well-proportioned flat keys (16 x 16 mm). Typing is supple and quiet.

The multi-touch touchpad is really wide. While the glide is very nice, thanks to the matte coating, you can’t say the same for the precision, which leaves a lot to be desired. You end up losing time which is a shame.

The webcam image would be fine if it wasn’t so dark. The shot here was however taken in daylight. While the room isn’t the brightest, it does show the limits of the camera when there isn’t a great deal of light. Obviously at night, it becomes pretty much unusable. Fluidity is good.

In terms of noise, this Dell stays fairly quiet when handling office docs. The fan does however kick right in with heavier use. It then gets a good bit louder, though it remains acceptable.

Connectivity is standard with 3 USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI, an RJ45, a mic, a headphone and a 3-in-1 card reader.

Underneath, nothing! All you can do is take out the battery. You need to take the machine apart to get at any of the other components.

Memory card reader, headphones, microphone, 2 USBs, power supply, antitheft	Touchpad
The charger	RJ45, HDMI, USB

Processing: much better than your average netbook
Windows 7 index: 3,2. Details: CPU 4.0 - Memory 5.5 - Graphics 3.2 – Gaming graphics 3.2 – Main hard drive 5.6.

The Intel Pentium ULV SU4100 dual core gives a bit of oomph to the Dell Inspiron 11z. At ease in multi-tasking, it’s perfect for handling office documents. Photo work and video editing/encoding are also possible as long as you’re patient. The machine scores 44 on our index, compared to 100 for our reference machine, the Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Xi3650 (equipped with an Intel Core 2 Duo T9400). While The Dell 11z is twice as slow, it’s nevertheless twice as fast as the average netbook.

Playing HD 1080p films (Blu-Ray equivalent) won’t be a problem on this machine, with the processor able to handle this on its own. That said we do advise you to use the hardware accelleration offered by the graphics chip, which will take most of the load off the CPU. For that, you need software like PowerDVD or Media Player Classic Home Cinema (with the right codecs).

3D gaming: old games only

In comparison to the standard laptops in our survey, a built-in graphics solution like the GMA 4500MHD that equips this model only merits a single star. Opposite our netbooks however, it scores 3. The difference between the two classes is becoming less and less visible and the Dell Inspiron 11z is right on the border of the netbook and notebook worlds. We’re soon going to reassess our product survey rating system to clarify this.
What you need to remember is that built-in graphics solutions are absolutely not designed for gaming. In practice here, you’re limited to older 3D games or 2D titles.

Audio: mediocre as usual

No surprises here, the audio is once again poor on this netbook: lack of bass, dry aggressive sound. Only the headphones out is ok. You can also get the audio from the HDMI socket, which thankfully allows the full Blu-Ray experience to come through.

Mobility, battery life: a good score in spite of the screen size

The Dell Inspiron 11z has a better battery life than we expected. In spite of the dual core processor, our model went 4h13 when playing video (brightness at 100 Cd/m², Wi-Fi disactivated and headphones plugged in). This is very close to the Samsung N510 (4h06) for example. This is surely because of the 6 cell battery we had on our model.

While it gives decent battery life, the 6 cell does stick out from the back of the machine.