Verdict: The best mobile choice, with excellent battery life, and a great widescreen TFT performance

Dell might not be the first company you consider for a multimedia/gaming laptop, but as the world's largest PC builder, its mammoth buying power allows it to price this laptop aggressively - just remember to use the E-Value code.

On paper, the Inspiron 8600 looks like a bargain, but it's unlikely to inspire awe and wonder. It's grey and ever so conventional, looking more like an executive's laptop than a gaming machine. But start playing with it and you'll soon be converted. It's got everything: a DVD burner, superb 15.4in widescreen TFT and, thanks to the ATi Radeon 9600 Pro graphics, it's a cracking performer in 3D games too.

Good as the 3D benchmark score was - 26.3fps in Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory with settings of 1,280 x 1,024, 2x AA and 4x AF - it doesn't tell the whole story. The pleasure is far more to do with the high-quality speakers and the quick response time of the TFT, which uses UltraSharp technology to make games and DVDs look fantastic.

The native resolution of 1,900 x 1,200 is amazing too, as you can view several windows side by side at the same time, or zoom in really close on a digital photo without losing clarity. Don't worry if you find the system text too small, as you can always increase Windows' dpi setting using the Advanced tab in Display Properties. This makes most system text and all icons larger.

The keyboard can't match the screen for quality, with a distinct lack of feedback, but it's pleasant enough to type on and well designed, and there are large keys where you need them.

Another big plus is the choice of a nipple or a touchpad to navigate around the screen, with both being useful on occasion. We also appreciate the volume up and down buttons, plus the mute button (always useful if you're caught playing Leisure Suit Larry in a public area), and some people might take advantage of the buttons mounted to the right of the keyboard for controlling CD and DVD playback.

It's full of nice touches, but Dell could have been more generous with the ports. The two USB 2 connectors will be quickly filled, with MP3 players,webcams, memory keys, and anything and everything else clamouring for attention, leaving the parallel and serial ports largely redundant. The fact that a serial port is still in place is one sign of Dell's traditional leaning towards the business sector. At least there's a FireWire port on the left-hand side though, and it's kept company by an infrared port.

As this is a Centrino laptop 802.11b WiFi is provided as standard. Sadly though, there are no memory card readers, such as SD/MMC, Memory Stick, SmartMedia and CompactFlash, so quickly transferring photos or music from a digital camera or MP3 player to and from the Inspiron will be more of a hassle than it should be.

As we've come to expect, there's a DVD writer in place, capable of writing to DVD+R and +RW, but not DVD-R or -RW. The Pentium-M processor isn't the best choice for some tasks due to its relatively low frequency (1.7GHz). However, the CPU isn't a total sloth, as the Inspiron did speed past the Athlon XP 2500+ powered Acer in our VirtualDub video encoding test.

The payback for the not-so-great CPU performance is superb battery life. The Inspiron lasted for almost five hours under light use, compared to around two hours for its main rivals in this group test. There's another benefit to the choice of Pentium-M processor too: the Inspiron is near silent. Because it's the only processor designed from the ground up for laptops, it doesn't produce as much excess heat, so the cooling system isn't as elaborate or as noisy.

When you consider the Inspiron 8600's surprisingly low 3.3kg weight and comparatively svelte dimensions, it's by far the best choice for anyone wanting power on the move.

• Cases - 21st November 2008
• Motherboards - 24th October 2008
• Gaming Headsets - 26th September 2008
• Dream PCs - 24th September 2008
• Headphones - 12th September 2008
• Media PC components - 22nd August 2008
• PSUs - 14th July 2008

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