Dell Inspiron 14z

Full Review

Unlike bulky Inspiron 14 and Inspiron 15 laptops, the Dell Inspiron 14z is a slightly different animal. It's stylish, and with a 14-inch glossy screen, it's a featherweight at 2.1-kg with a standard six-cell battery (similar to the 14-inch MSI CX420 laptop)--that's pretty good. Not only that, but its battery lasted 2 hours 12 minutes on BatteryEater's benchmark--that's a whopping 42 minutes more than the second best Studio 15 Artist Edition which lasted 92 minutes. This translates to over 5 hours of battery life while, say, browsing the Web over Wi-Fi, where most others will give you close to only three and a half hours at best.

Part of the reason for the Inspiron 14z's exceptional battery life is its ultra-low voltage Intel Core 2 Duo 1.4-GHz processor.

Part of the reason for the Inspiron 14z's exceptional battery life is its ultra-low voltage Intel Core 2 Duo 1.4-GHz processor. Therefore, processing power is compromised for enhanced battery life on the Inspiron 14z. But you get 4GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, and an ATI Radeon HD 4330 graphics card. WorldBench 6 score is low at 66, but its 3D Mark 06 score is second only to the Studio 15's unmatched HD 4570. Game benchmarks ran well on the Inspiron 14Z, and you can certainly game on it. Watching DVD movies and HD 720p videos was smooth, but its slow processor couldn't play 1080p files without stutter. Onboard audio is clear but low, even at full volume.

It has all the standard connectivity ports, along with Gigabit Ethernet, Draft-N Wi-Fi and HDMI. Like the Studio 15 Artist Edition and Ideapad Y450, the Inspiron 14z's keyboard and touchpad are a treat to work on. Overall, this is a very good bet for people who want a light mainstream laptop with excellent battery life, without many compromises on performances.

Bottom Line

The Dell Inspiron 14z marries mainstream performance with very good battery life. It's also very slim and lightweight for a 14-inch laptop, and recommended for anyone who wants a mainstream laptop with promising battery life.

Also check out the brand new Dell Inspiron 14R 14-inch laptop.