The trend these days isn’t so much about business applications as it as multimedia entertainment-geared laptop computers. Dell has jumped all over this growing phenomenon with the announcement of the new Inspiron 9400. Expect a more than ample 17-inch display (1920×1200 pixels) to watch all your favorite multimedia content, powered by the beefy nVidia 256MB GeForce Go 7800 graphics card. With anti-glare and TrueLife, this is said to provide a “cinema-like” DVD viewing experience.

Connectivity is far from being any kind of issue with this monster. The Inspiron 9400 features a removable 5-in-1 media card reader, FireWire, six (yes, six) USB ports, analog monitor connection (VGA), DVI connection, ExpressCard slot, and Gigabit Ethernet. You can even direct boot to videos, music, or photo slideshows with the Dell MediaDirect button. Battery life comes in the way of a 6-cell Lithium-ion unit for about 3 hours of use. Other features include 1GB DDR2 RAM, 8x DVD burner, Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, and your choice of either a 60- or 80GB HDD.

Don’t expect the Dell Inspiron 9400 to be a cheap buy though, priced at £1449 or about 2600 American greenbacks.