Dell Inspiron 5160

The Dell Inspiron 5160 won't inspire laptop envy. The gray case, a color euphemistically termed Moonlight Silver, has none of the techno feel of a black IBM or the silvery, sinuous lines of, say, a Sony. But if you're looking for a fast, no-frills desktop replacement, this Inspiron will surely satisfy.

The system we tested included a 3.2-GHz Pentium 4, 512MB of RAM, and a nice GeForce FX Go5200 graphics card with 64MB of graphics memory. Although we would have been impressed by the size and specs a few short months ago, in a world of heavy-duty desktop replacements and superslick ultraportables with incredible performance and battery life, the 5160 lands in the center of the bell curve: not bad, not great.

Priced at $1,725, this 9-pound laptop includes a 24X CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive, coupled with Dell's Media Experience software for watching movies and listening to music. There is a Dell 1350 802.11b/g card for wireless connectivity, only two USB 2.0 ports, and S-Video and VGA-out. One PCMCIA slot rounds out the package.

There is really nothing to complain about in terms of usability. The 15-inch screen was average, both when displaying movies and word processing. There are two buttons over the keyboard, one controlling power and the other invoking Dell's automatic support wizard. The keyboard is solid but not very clicky, and the trackpad is about as ordinary as it gets, with two buttons below a trapezoidal pointing surface.

Dell includes a few pieces of software that perk up the drab Windows XP Home desktop, including the Dell Jukebox by Musicmatch, which organizes and plays back MP3s and audio streams in the Media Experience. The Media Experience is a media player for DVDs and video files with a user interface that's legible from 10 feet away. Think of it as a light version of Windows Media Center Edition.

Dell also includes a photo organization system called Picture Studio. These software packages, including Dell's support wizard, add quite a bit of value to an otherwise dull package. The support wizard alone can diagnose any number of PC pet peeves on the fly, and even suggests fixes based on a standard, optimal configuration.

Performance-wise, the Pentium 4 processor gets the job done. The 5160 hit 4146 PCMarks and 6325 3DMarks, which is about standard for Pentium 4 laptops. It ran for 2 hours on one charge, which is what you'd expect from a large desktop replacement with a sharp 15-inch screen.

The 5160 may be plain, but it makes quick work of accessing all of your multimedia. It's a good, if not inspiring, desktop replacement at a reasonable price.