Dell Inspiron Zino HD

The power supply unit is small enough to hide out of sight behind the Zino HD, and power consumption averaged 40W for most tasks, peaking at 60W when running 3D game Far Cry 2, and dipping to just 2W in sleep mode. The unit emits a low, steady hum while running, but this isn’t obtrusive and won’t spoil your enjoyment when watching films or listening to music.

Wireless keyboard and mouse are supplied with the unit

The Zino HD is supplied with a decent quality wireless keyboard and mouse. There’s no monitor included in the price, although Dell offers a monitor as a build-to-order option with prices starting at £120 for a 20in display with 1600 x 900 resolution.

It’s worth pointing out that there is a basic Zino model that lacks the HDMI port, and is equipped with a 1.6GHz Atom processor, priced at around £250. It’s also interesting to note that there’s not an Intel chip in sight for any of the Zino HD configurations. Prices for the Zino HD start at £279 for a model with a 1.6GHz Athlon 64 processor, 2GB of memory, 320GB hard disk and integrated Radeon HD 3200 graphics.

Our review model had a considerably higher spec, though, coming in at £630 with 1.5GHz dual-core Athlon X2 processor, 4GB of Ram, 1TB 7200rpm Sata hard disk, a discrete ATI Radeon HD 4330 graphics chip with 512MB of video memory and 802.11n wireless networking. That price also includes a combined Blu-ray/DVD±RW drive, which adds a hefty £140 to the total price.

If you settle for a straightforward DVD burner the price drops to a more modest £490. You can also bump the processor speed to a maximum of 1.8GHz, which costs an extra £80. The Zino HD is supplied with the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium, along with a copy of Microsoft Works, PowerDVD Blu-ray software, and 15-month subscription to McAfee Security Centre.