Dell Inspiron 5150

Mobile application performance
The Inspiron 5150 came in first place in mobile performance in this small test group. It beat the Eurocom D470W Impressa by 40 points and slid past the Alienware Area-51m by 8 points. The Inspiron 5150 is the first system we've tested with a 3.06GHz Mobile Pentium 4. This processor was specifically made for notebooks, and as such, it has better CPU-throttling efficiency when running on batteries than do the desktop chips running in the Alienware Area-51m and the Eurocom D470W. Thus, the Dell Inspiron 5150 easily comes out on top in mobile performance.

Mobile application performance  (Longer bars indicate better performance) BAPCo MobileMark2002 performance rating

Dell Inspiron 5150 192  Alienware Area-51m 184  Eurocom D470W 152

Find out more about how we test notebooks.

SysMark2002 performance
The Inspiron 5150 achieved the highest maximum-performance score we've seen to date. There are three elements that allow the system to achieve such lofty marks. The first is its 3.06GHz Mobile Pentium 4 processor. The second is its fast 333MHz DDR SDRAM. And finally, the system houses the ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 64MB, which is faster than the ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 64MB used in the comparison systems.

Maximum application performance  (Longer bars indicate better performance) BAPCo SysMark2002 rating    SysMark2002 Internet content creation    SysMark2002 office productivity

Dell Inspiron 5150 254  376  171  Eurocom D470W 244  364  164  Alienware Area-51m 241  375  155

To measure maximum notebook application performance, CNET Labs uses BAPCo's SysMark2002, an industry-standard benchmark. Using off-the-shelf applications, SysMark measures a desktop's performance using office-productivity applications (such as Microsoft Office and McAfee VirusScan) and Internet-content-creation applications (such as Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Dreamweaver).

3D graphics performance
The Inspiron 5150 came in second place in 3D performance. With the ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 64MB we expected a higher score. The reason may be that this 3D test relies more on the quantity of system RAM than our other benchmarks do, and the Inspiron 5150 has only half the RAM as the comparison systems. That said, the system still scores high and would disappoint only the most jaded of gamers.

3D graphics performance  (Longer bars indicate better performance) Futuremark's 3DMark2001 SE

Alienware Area-51m 7,502  Dell Inspiron 5150 7,023  Eurocom D470W 6,807

To measure 3D graphics performance, CNET Labs uses Futuremark's 3DMark2001 SE. We use 3DMark to measure desktop replacement notebook performance with the DirectX 8.1 interface at the 32-bit color setting at a resolution of 1,024x768.

Alienware Area-51m
Windows XP Professional; 3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4; 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 64MB; IBM Travelstar 40GN 40GB 5,400rpm

Dell Inspiron 5150
Windows XP Home; 3.06GHz Intel Mobile Pentium 4; 512MB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 64MB; Hitachi DK23EB-40 40GB 5,400rpm

Eurocom D470W
Windows XP Professional; 3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4; 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 64MB; Fujitsu MHS2030AT 30GB 4,200rpm

Thanks in part to its big 14.8V, 6,450mAh battery, the Inspiron 5150 managed a battery life of more than four hours--very impressive. The great battery life is partially attributable to the fact that the processor--a 3.06GHz Mobile Pentium 4--was made specifically with notebooks in mind. As such, it is much more efficient when it comes to conserving power than are the desktop processors found in the two comparison systems. This is a mainstream notebook done right: a mobile system that does not sacrifice battery life for performance.

Battery life  (Longer bars indicate better performance) BAPCo MobileMark2002 battery life in minutes

Dell Inspiron 5150 254  Alienware Area-51m 127  Eurocom D470W 108

To measure mobile application performance and battery life, CNET Labs uses BAPCo's MobileMark2002. MobileMark measures both application performance and battery life concurrently using a number of popular applications (Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2002, Netscape Communicator 6.0, WinZip Computing WinZip 8.0, McAfee VirusScan 5.13, Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1, and Macromedia Flash 5.0).

Find out more about how we test notebooks.

Alienware Area-51m
Windows XP Professional; 3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4; 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 64MB; IBM Travelstar 40GN 40GB 5,400rpm

Dell Inspiron 5150
Windows XP Home; 3.06GHz Intel Mobile Pentium 4; 512MB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 64MB; Hitachi DK23EB-40 40GB 5,400rpm

Eurocom D470W
Windows XP Professional; 3.06GHz Intel Pentium 4; 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 333MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 64MB; Fujitsu MHS2030AT 30GB 4,200rpm

Dell offers an industry-standard one-year warranty with the Inspiron 5150, which includes free parts and labor repairs through return-to-depot service. Toll-free, 24/7 phone support is included in the plan, as well. For various prices of up to approximately $300, the company offers a whole host of extended support options. The options include four years of free service; onsite repairs by a Dell tech representative; accidental-damage protection; and express service, which bumps your tech-support calls to the front of the queue.

Dell's extensive support Web site includes convenient features such as a list of the top 10 FAQs, a hints-and-tips section, and a customer community where you can gab with other users about your tech issues.

To find out more about how this product's warranty really stacks up and what you should look for in terms of service and support, take a look at CNET's hardware warranty explainer.

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