Dell is good at watching a segment of the market mature before launching its own killer response. In the recent past it was the Axim series of PDAs. Now the company has launched a fast notebook cousin of the desktop XPS system, aimed squarely at taking the top spot in the gaming laptop market.

Just like its desktop cousin, the Inspiron XPS Gen 2 comes with a fast processor, lots of memory and an impressive features list. Our review unit came with the fastest Intel Pentium M currently available - the 770 (2.13GHz) - but it is also available with the slower Pentium M 760 (2GHz) processor which saves you £141 over the 770. Backing up the processor is an Intel i915PM chipset and 1GB of PC-4200 DDR2 memory running in Dual Channel configuration.

As the XPS sports a Centrino badge there is an Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG adapter installed, which supports 802.11b/g wi-fi standards. You also get integrated Bluetooth, Gigabit Ethernet and a V90 modem. Storage is provided by a fast Fujitsu MHU2100AT, 100GB hard drive and there's also a dual layer DVD burner installed, as well as an SD card reader.

As befits its gaming roots, the XPS looks like no other Dell notebook in appearance. Gone are the austere black and greys of the rest of the range; the XPS comes in a black and silver finish, with the lid finished in black and silver and a metallic ribbed centre section which incorporates the Dell logo. There are two XPS logos cut out of either side of the lid which are (shock, horror) back-lit by LEDs; straight out the box these are set to Dell blue, of course, but the colour can be changed by the user. For lovers of lights with everything the XPS will not disappoint, since not only are the logos back-lit but there are two lights on the front of the system and each of the two side heat grilles is back-lit too.

Any gaming system is only as good as the graphics sub-system and Dell hasn't spared any expense with the XPS, as it uses the nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra Go chipset. This has its core running at 450MHz and 256MB of GDDR3 memory speeding along at 532MHz (effective 1,064MHz). What that all means in real life is a staggering 3DMark 03 score of 11,198 and a 3DMark05 score of 4,899. At 1,024 by 768 resolution we got a Half Life 2 frame rate of 92.8fps (without any Anti Aliasing or Anisotropic Filtering) and pushing the resolution up to 1,600 by 1,200 it gives a more than impressive 67.9fps. You also get VGA, DVI/I and S-Video Out ports.

The screen is a stunner; 17 inches of widescreen display which has a high contrast coating, giving games and movies an extra edge. It has a native resolution of 1,920 by 1,200 pixels. To give you an idea what that means, to get the same resolution in a desktop display you would have to look at 23-inch or larger displays.

As you might expect, the Inspiron XPS Gen 2 is a big beast, measuring 394 x 288 x 42.2mm (W x D x H) but unlike some of its competitors you can carry it, although weighing in at 3.9kg you won't want to carry it too far. Battery life is fairly good for a system that will spend most of its time plugged into the mains. Our worst case scenario test (no power saving features turned on) came back with a battery life of 1 hour and 22 minutes, so you should expect around 2 hours if you use it normally.

It may be expensive, but with the Inspiron XPS Gen 2, Dell has quite simply created the best gaming laptop currently available.