The Dell Inspiron XPS is a business laptop that appears to have it all. It features a powerful processor, a large display screen and a variety of connectivity options. Dell also has a reputation of building durable laptops that can handle the wear and tear of constant travel. The company provides excellent customer service if any problems arise while you are using its products. Even though this computing device may seem to have it all, there is much this business laptop is lacking, and several tools and characteristics damper this device's quality.

The design of the Inspiron XPS is unique compared to many business laptops. The large 15.6-inch display screen sits about an inch from the back end of the laptop. This unique hinge design gives the computer a bit of an awkward feel. Despite its design flaws, this laptop is also a little on the larger side. It weighs 5.96 pounds and is 1.3 inches thick at the front of the computer and 1.5 inches thick farther in the back.

The large display screen is a standout feature on this business laptop. The 15.6-inch screen is large enough to view multimedia and to create presentations or work with images. This computing device features a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, but you can configure the device to full HD, 1920 x 1080 resolution.

Other areas of concern with this business laptop include the fact that the unit always seems to be hot despite the constantly blowing cooling fan. That would be fine if this business laptop's sole home was sitting on a desk in an office. However, the very nature of a business laptop is to go on the road and sit on your legs. A unit that's too hot to touch is not a good companion.

Having said all that, the actual components running the show inside this business laptop's guts are outstanding. Its Core i5 processor runs at 2.66 GHz with an NVIDIA GeForce graphics card; it doesn't get much better than that for a machine whose primary function is running business-oriented software. As you would imagine, Microsoft Office runs flawlessly on this computer.

We like the fact that this business laptop comes standard with a 500GB hard drive. That may be the most outstanding feature of this model. It allows you to throw everything you want on it. Business files, videos, music, games and more all fit comfortably in this spacious hard drive.

This business laptop has good connectivity options; two USB hubs, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, an SD Card reader, a DVD drive, an HDMI port and an eSATA jack surround the Inspiron XPS’s chassis. One omission worth noting is the lack of a VGA port. Dell stated that it's phasing out VGA by 2015, but we didn't expect it to go away so quickly.

There are a couple of upgradable options on the XPS. You have the choice to upgrade the DVD optical drive to a Blu-ray player. Also configurable on this model is a backlit keyboard plus a number of other niceties that allow you to tailor your Inspiron to your specific needs.