New Dell notebook is performance in a small package

Tidy, economical and versatile, Chris Leggett takes the new Dell notebook laptop for a spin and likes what he sees.

 Do you want portability but don’t want to compromise on specs? Dell’s XPS ultraportables are among the most slender notebook PCs out there.It is not as thin as the MacBook Air Holy Grail, but the XPS 14Z is only 23mm thick with a width of 335mm and a depth of 234mm. While it is not heavy by notebook standards at approximately 2kg, there is a surprising heft to it for a machine of its proportions.This actually ensures that the 14Z is rather comfortable to use. Admirably, it also manages to cram a 14-inch HD WLED widescreen display (1366 x 768) into a form factor that typically only supports 13-inch displays, thanks to its super-thin bezels.It is an attractive notebook with a metallic-silver finish, although the cheap-looking plastic keys of the keyboard let the overall appearance down somewhat. Being of such humble proportions, there aren’t a great deal of inputs available but most of the important bases are covered.There are two USB ports (one 3.0 and one 2.0), an HDMI-out port (1.4), a Mini DisplayPort and a seven-in-one card reader. This is, of course, on top of the standard ethernet port, speaker and headphone jacks. There’s a slot-loading disc drive, but it is only a DVD drive, so taking Blu-ray media on the road is out of the question in this instance.The 14Z’s Intel i7-2640M processor ensures that it is up to scratch for the bulk of use that you would typically associate with a notebook computer. It is exceptionally zippy when it comes to general browsing, word processing and most day-to-day tasks. Coupled with its NVIDIA GeForce 520M 1GB graphics card, it is even capable of running some contemporary games (such as The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim) at recommended settings. On the other hand, the 14Z can run Battlefield 3 at its minimum settings, but falls short of the recommended specs. Clearly, this is no powerhouse gaming rig and should not be approached as such by those hoping to max out more demanding games.There’s a button on the right side of the notebook that, when pressed, indicates the machine’s current battery life by activating the appropriate number of five LED lights. Handily, you can check the 14Z’s battery levels in this fashion whether it is switched on or not.Speaking of battery life, the XPS 14Z’s battery performed admirably in my experience. It is hardly a reliable metric, but the on-board Windows battery indicator suggests you will get roughly four hours’ worth of use on a full charge. However, running it through the Battery Eater benchmarking tool reveals a less than desirable battery life of only roughly 1.5 hours when subjected to intense usage. Consider these two indicators to roughly approximate best-case/worse-case scenarios.Essentially, the Dell XPS 14Z delivers where it counts as an all-rounder notebook, presenting a fair amount of performance in a relatively small package.WEBSITE: www.dell.co.nzPRICE: From $1499 (the unit tested retails for $2199)PROCESSOR: Intel Core i7-2640M CPURAM: 8GBHARD DRIVE: Up to 750GB SATA or 256GB solid state [Picture source]