Which 17-inch monster laptop?

Round-up reviews let you compare four related products and find out which one is best for you

Last updated: 11 May 2005

So you want a 17-inch monster of a laptop and you're prepared to pay for the privilege. Which of the top giant-screened machines should you choose?

For home cinema duties, the Qosmio comes bundled with a huge range of AV cables that let you record live TV and play it back later. It's not a laptop in any conventional sense of the term, though -- you'll break your back lugging it around town.

For graphic designers, video producers and musicians, a natural choice is the 17-inch Apple PowerBook. Its gorgeous widescreen display, FireWire 800 ports and slimline chassis make it perfectly suited to an afternoon scriptwriting on the beach at Cannes.

For gamers, the Dell Inspiron or XPS are both hardcore Half-Life-ready machines. The XPS pushes good taste to the limits with its neon blue backlights and obscene boy-racer styling.

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	Toshiba Qosmio G10-100	Apple PowerBook G4 (17-inch, SuperDrive)	Dell XPS Gen 2 for Home	Dell Inspiron 9300
Review date	13 May 05	16 Mar 05	18 Mar 05	4 May 05
Editors' rating	6.0	7.3	8.3	7.8
Price range	£1,600	£1,850	£1,500
Review summary	It's difficult to understand exactly who the G10-100 is aimed at. Toshiba has packed some great AV features into the Qosmio, but it's hard to ignore the reality that this notebook is simply not something you could practically carry around with you Read full review	The foxy Apple 17-inch PowerBook delivers the performance and the features most users will need Read full review	Powered by a top-shelf processor and graphics engine, the Dell XPS Gen 2 is one of the fastest and slimmest gaming machines we've ever seen Read full review	The Dell Inspiron 9300 packs advanced multimedia features and blazing performance for gaming and home or business applications. It's fast, furious and hard as nails Read full review
User rating	5.0		8.0
Clock speed	1.7 GHz	1.67 GHz	2 GHz	2.13 GHz
Processor type	Pentium M	PowerPC G4	Pentium M	Pentium M
Processor manufacturer	Intel	Motorola	Intel	Intel
RAM installed	512 MB	512 MB	512 MB	256 MB
Hard drive size	80 GB	100 GB	60 GB	40 GB
Display diagonal size	17 in.	17 in.	17 in.	17 in.
Dimensions (W x H x D)	404x284x43mm	391x25x259mm	394x43x287mm	394x41x287mm
Weight	4.4 kg	3.1 kg	4.9 kg	4.3 kg
Estimated battery life (mfr)	1.7 hours	4.5 hours	n/a	3.4 hours
CD / DVD type	n/a	DVD±RW	CD-RW/DVD	DVD-ROM
	Full specification	Full specification	Full specification	Full specification