It may just be marketing, but Dell does get it right with the "Everyday Computing" slogan that it uses for its Inspiron line of notebooks. The company touts that the Inspiron 14z is thin and powerful, and for the most part, we'd agree. This machine has a 14-inch screen, and it handles all the basics very well. It's not quite a desktop-replacement-grade machine, and it won't blow anyone away with high-performance gameplay, but it handles e-mail, Web, music, and DVD playback with ease and style for the price.
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In general, it's a big step up from less-powerful notebooks, which sometimes can't handle many tasks at once. If you want to browse multiple tabs in Internet Explorer or Google Chrome, play YouTube videos, talk on Skype and juggle a few conversations at once, you can do that with the Inspiron 14z. It's portable enough, with an under-5-pound weight, but at 13.6x9.7 inches, it's still a sizable machine, so it might not fit in more modest backpacks or messenger bags.
Our review model, the Inspiron 14z N411z, has a list price of $799. The core components include an Intel second-generation Core i5 processor (specifically, the Core i5-2410M), 6GB of DDR3 RAM, a 640GB hard drive, and a DVD±RW drive. Meanwhile, all models of the 14z have a 1,366x768 screen and rely on Intel's integrated HD Graphics 3000 graphics, which is part of the processor chip. Prices in this laptop family start at $599 for the standard edition, which uses a less-powerful processor than our test system did, as well as less memory and storage.