There's no doubt that the Inspiron 700m represents a welcome makeover to Dell's consumer notebook line. This 4.1-pound notebook's classy silver and white finish gives it a more modern aesthetic than previous Inspirons, while the glossy 12.1-inch display is great for watching DVDs on the built-in DVD+RW drive. Other refreshing multimedia-friendly touches include FireWire and headphone jacks right up front, a Secure Digital slot, and S-Video output.

This machine's most distinguishing characteristic is its beautiful 12.1-inch widescreen display. The LCDs on most laptops usually have a matte finish, which gives them a dull, lifeless appearance, but the 700m's polished display puts it in the same league as Sony's TR5AP. While you won't be able to play Far Cry at breakneck speeds, you will be rewarded with a solid multimedia experience, especially if you're big on DVDs. Unfortunately, the 700m is susceptible to glare, especially when working on applications in a well-lit room.

The 700m has plenty of substance to go with the flash. Built around Intel's 1.8-GHz Pentium M processor, this Dell is one of the fastest ultraportables yet. In fact, its MobileMark score of 191 is nearly on par with machines that weigh a pound more. This proved to be more than enough power for typing out a few e-mails and surfing the Web while listening to a few MP3s.

Just as impressive is how long this system lasts on a charge. The 8-cell battery lasted through a screening of Pirates of the Caribbean (2 hours and 20 minutes) and still had 25 percent of its juice left. Dell cheats a little bit by placing the battery on the notebook's backside, so the 700m tends to jut out more in the rear than your average laptop. Still, the 700m is small enough to toss in your bag without taking up much space.

While the 700m has a lot to be proud of on the video front, it slacks a bit in the audio department. This Inspiron delivered tinny sound, so you may want to think about investing in a pair of external speakers. We also would have liked a built-in volume knob to adjust the volume manually (although you can use an Fn key combination) or a front-mounted control panel for playing CDs without having to fully power up our system.

Unlike a lot of other ultraportables, typing on the 700m feels natural, with two decent-sized Shift keys for touch-typists and a fair amount of travel. The touchpad is also spacious, given the notebook's size. While the two clickable buttons are both very responsive, we did notice that the left button was slightly lower than the right one, which we're assuming is just a defect on our machine.

We salute Dell for including a built-in memory card reader on this Inspiron. This nifty feature lets you view pictures by plugging in a Secure Digital card. Meanwhile, digital camcorder and iPod owners will like the front-mounted FireWire port, which makes it easy to upload video or audio. The only real connectivity weakness is that the two USB 2.0 ports are stacked on top of one another, so you may have trouble plugging in, say, a thicker USB memory key and a printer USB cable at the same time.

The Inspiron 700m is by no means the slimmest ultraportable. But it's fast, easy on the eyes, comfortable to type on, and lasts a long time between charges. At $2,176, this mini-notebook delivers a lot of multimedia bang for your buck.

View the quick specs for this product Dell Inspiron 700m >>