While this system will not be bought as an enthusiast gaming system, we wanted to experiment with some less intensive game engines to record an overview of results.
Left 4 Dead 2 is a cooperative first-person shooter game. It is the sequel to Valve Corporation’s award-winning Left 4 Dead. The game launched on November 17, 2009, for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 in the United States; it launched November 20 in Europe. It builds upon the cooperatively-focused gameplay of the original and uses Valve’s proprietary Source engine, the same game engine used in Left 4 Dead. The game made its world premiere at E3 2009 with a trailer during the Microsoft press event.
In a similar fashion to the original, Left 4 Dead 2 is set during the aftermath of an apocalyptic pandemic, and focuses on four survivors fighting against hordes of the infected. The survivors must fight their way through levels, interspersed with safe houses that act as checkpoints, with the goal of reaching a rescue vehicle at the campaign’s finale.
We tested at 720p with all image quality settings set to relatively low settings with no AA.
Resident Evil 5, known in Japan as Biohazard 5, is a survival horror third-person shooter video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the seventh installment in the Resident Evil survival horror series, and was released on March 5, 2009 in Japan and on March 13, 2009 in North America and Europe for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. A Windows version of the game was released on September 15, 2009 in North America, September 17 in Japan and September 18 in Europe. Resident Evil 5 revolves around Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar as they investigate a terrorist threat in Kijuju, a fictional town in Africa.
Within its first three weeks of release, the game sold over 2 million units worldwide and became the best-selling game of the franchise in the United Kingdom. As of December, 2009, Resident Evil 5 has sold 5.3 million copies worldwide since launch, becoming the best selling Resident Evil game ever made.
We are testing at 720p in DX9 mode with settings on medium/high, AA is off.
While the Intel HD graphics is no powerhouse, it is clear that if you are willing to reduce the IQ and run in DX9 mode, then performance is smooth enough. For casual gaming this machine is perfectly capable, but if you are an enthusiast gamer demanding cutting edge DX11 performance then you need to look elsewhere.
I love it. I am actually comtemplating it for college. I dont need massive battery life, but it seems somewhat of an oversight from Dell to only get 2 hours or so out of it. businessmen on the move might need at least double this a day.
I am glad you didnt score it down too badly though, it does a lot of things right.
My colleague in work has this and his overheats a lot, as our office is very warm. I might fire in an SSD for him next week and see if it helps.
I agree completely with the review. the internals are great and the design is beautiful, but the battery technology just doesnt cut it. for a business orenited machine this is a huge problem. there are a lot of complaints about it on dells forums.
I bought this last month and agree with most of the review. the design is brilliant, but my battery barely lasts 1.45 when watching youtube videos 🙁 I find this unacceptable and I wish I had read reviews before buying. apart from this is great. I hope Version 2 is better.
good review Zardon. seems like a decent all round machine unless you need a lot of battery support during the day. I suppose some business professionals might just need it for a presentation over lunch or something, then its ideal as the size is great.
Typical of Dell really.
Make an adamo style pc for the masses, keep the sexy looks, put a nice keyboard in, good screen, great design, then copy Apple and put the battery inside to keep the shape lovely.
Then cock up the battery life completely ruling it out for the target market. this is the third review on this machine ive read, this is the most detailed and unfortunately id have scored it much lower as the primary function for businessmen is a battery that lasts at least 4 hours. not 2.
I like it a lot, and the entry level one is cheap. shame about the battery, and you cant even buy another for replacement during the day. as you need to take the whole machine apart. what a stupid idea 🙁
ID buy it if I had the money, but a netbook is my limit, ordered a dell 10 inch last week, still hasnt arrived
That is a gorgeous laptop for the price, just a shame they didnt manage to get battery life to 4 hours or so 🙁 2 hours is terrible.
I just ordered one for college work, I dont need long battery life, just 1 hour at lunch, then it will be in mains at night. thanks for detailed review. I got an SSD in mine.