Dell has refreshed its Inspiron line: the 6400 and 9400 are out; the 15in 1520, the 14in 1420 and the 17in 1720 are in. We tested the latter two.

All can be bought with different colour lids; white, black, blue, brown, green, red, yellow and pink. There’s little difference between the models beyond size.

All sport 2-megapixel webcams and dual-digital array microphone for web conferencing. Styling is similar with a black base supporting a silver keyboard and trim. The underlying magnesium alloy chassis keeps everything feeling solid. There’s minimal flexing when picking them up or twisting the lids: they’ll survive the occasional bash.

We’re fans of the keyboards which are well weighted, quiet and crisp. We’d be happy typing for extended periods, and the trackpad mouses are good, too.

The 1420 sports a 1440 x 900 LCD while the 1720 has a 1920 x 1200 resolution. Both display a sharp desktop and are well lit. Watching high definition movies on both was a treat, especially on the better-than-full-HD 1720. However, colours were a touch muted on the 1420, with only blues leaping out of the screen. But we saw no problems with ghosting or lag on either. Horizontal viewing angles were acceptable, but vertical ones were mediocre – you need to have your head in the right place to avoid contrast problems.

The 1420’s speakers (located beneath the screen) get quite loud for a notebook and offer a reasonable tonal range, although bass is lacking. The larger 1720’s, are much louder and sound better, but can get muddy at high volume.

Internally, the specs are similar. Both have 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo T7500 processors, 2GHz of RAM and a 160GB hard disk (the 1720 has two of the latter). In our 2D benchmarks, the 1420 scored 1.00 – the same as our ‘speedy’ reference desktop PC of two years ago. The 1720 was 5% faster.

We were disappointed that Dell’s configurator wouldn’t let us improve the integrated 3D graphics. The 1420 has a lowly 8400M chip, while the 1720 has a slightly-better 8600M. Neither managed even 10fps in our lowest-setting, DirectX 10 Call of Juarez test. In our 1024 x 768 Call of Duty 2 test, the 1420 averaged only 15fps – you’ll need to drastically drop details to play anything. The 1720 averaged a more reasonable 34fps.

We’re saddened by these performance scores. The Inspiron 9400, the 1720’s predecessor, was faster. Now, it seems, if you want decent performance from Dell you have to pay the premium for one of its top XPS machines. Scouring Dell’s website showed something similar is happening with its consumer ‘Dimension’ desktop PCs range: you can’t build a powerful one any more. Both our review models are the top of the range; beforehand they would have been lower mid-range.

Expansion is similar on both machines: there are four USB ports, mini FireWire, three audio jacks; VGA and S-Video out, an ExpressCard/54 slot and SD/MMC/MS media card reader. There’s also BlueTooth and 802.11a/b/n WiFi (with hardware on/off switch), but we’re disappointed that only 10/100 Ethernet is supported. Both come with a multimedia remote which, usefully, can be stowed in the ExpressCard slot.

Both notebooks look bulky but the 1420 and 1720 aren’t particularly heavy, weighing 2.8kg and 4kg respectively. Battery life was impressive: both performed our intensive test for around 100mins, but in our light-use test the 1720 lasted a whopping 5hrs 50mins and the 1420 lasted 40mins longer than that (both were tested with the nine-cell battery).Both have a one year onsite warranty.

We’re disappointed that the hardware can only be downgraded ($800 Blu-Ray drive option aside), but there’s no denying that these notebooks aren’t bad value for what you get, and very comfortable to use. Beyond the colour, though, they’re just not very exciting.