Someone recently told me he regretted the growth in popularity of notebook computers - he missed the days when you became the centre of attention when you pulled out a notebook computer when flying business class.
'Now, when you take out your notebook, the guy in the next seat looks over and says: 'Oh, you've got last month's model',' he said.
Well, for my disheartened friend and anybody else who feels the need to show off with the newest and fastest piece of equipment in the aircraft, I have good news: the Dell Inspiron 3000 is here.
With a 266MHz Pentium processor with MMX, 32 MB of memory, 3.2 Gb hard drive and 33.7 centimetre active-matrix display, the 3000 is guaranteed at least to make you feel superior, even if its nondescript black casing does not turn heads.
I often have wondered what exactly was the point of an overly loaded-up notebook PC. Does anybody really do high-performance computing on the road? Surely, most heavy work is done at your desk in the office, then loaded on to a mobile PC for a presentation or review later.
However, because notebooks are being used increasingly as replacement machines on desktops, I can see a definite market for the 3000. This computer stacks up well against most PCs - notebook or desktop models.