Overview
As the Centrino 2 Processor was released a few months back, it would seems that laptop manufacturers are starting to build new laptops with this processor as standard. With claims that it will provide unrivalled super-fast performance and seamless wireless connectivity, Advent’s entry laptop into this market is a budget styles offering. But does the new processor boost this range of laptops, or does it leave a lot to be desired? Lets find out
Review
Style
Coming in a glossy black design that many manufactures seem to be crazy about at the moment, to me it leaves a lot to be desired about let alone lusting over. After two days of heavy use finger marks will start appearing in places you never thought you touched (at least you do not get a restraining order).
But it seems that Advent have lost the plot a tad when they were creating this, as for example the lid has a lot of grey concentric rings (strange) and the sides and bottom of the chassis don’t match up because they have been decked out in standard matt black plastic. It’s like a designer started work on it, got paralytic on Sainsbury's super strength larger and went back to the design board after waking up without the faintest idea what he did the other day.
Unfortunately it does not finish there, open this laptop up and you are greeted with plain glossy black for the screen surround, matt black with gouged concentric rings around the keyboard, and a silver coloured plastic highlighting the edge of the bottom half. It could be with all these things jumping out at you that this laptop seems a bit cluttered even though this laptop does not have any media centre buttons or other similar clutter such as fingerprint readers etc.
As for the keyboard, with its large, flat keys, with small gaps between rows, and a very slight slope towards the front of each row you feel somewhat uneasy with the lack of consistency. When I shook off the initial ‘abbreviated’ feeling I was pushed back into it as each key rocks a huge amount when pressed anywhere except its centre. So feeling like I might starting singing ‘Oh Danny Boy’ while I was typing away I soon gave up the attempt and instead headed off for a strong coffee and a fry up to help me feel a bit better.
Once the coffee and fry up took effect I went back to the laptop to look at the mouse pad and true to form it was again an usual combination. The mouse buttons however are a different story having being formed of a single plastic bar, which only seem to work when you press at the extreme edge in order to get the usual clicking noise, or push down with all your might like your pushing one of those annoying pins into your wall with your thumb at the centre.
Well off to the more positives, coming with a 15.4 inch screen, this is a rather standard affair but with a 1,280 x 800 resolution and an image quality that rivals that of other larger screens this laptop it will definitely bring a smile to you face when watching a DVD.
Finally I have decided to making this point in this section as it has to do with the screen, this laptop comes with a HDMI port, yes you heard me right a HDMI port which is quite surprising for a laptop of this range. So hooking this laptop up to your television is not a problem.
Under the bonnet
As it was noted in the beginning this laptop comes with the latest Centrino 2 processor, and on this model it runs at 2GHz. Not bad for a budget laptop model and having 2GB of RAM this laptop will run Vista with the minimal of fuss although Vista itself will eat most of your RAM as soon as you see the flashy logo, leaving you with enough available RAM as to run most Office applications whilst leaving anything 3D/Design wise in the stalls.
Hard Drive wise, this comes with 250GB, which is plenty if you're wishing to store all those office files and a few MP3’s even with a shed load of programs installed onto this machine.
Gaming wise is definitely a no no, if the above spec did not convince you then the graphics card will, with it being an Intel GMA 4500MHD this will not be able to handle the demands of the next generation of games coming out on the market, although a few golden oldies will probably be ok.
Otherwise its a rather standard affair, with Realtek HD audio, 3 x USB, 10/100 Ethernet although the wireless card on this model is a 802.11abg + draft-n WLAN which means it supports the latest wireless technology so if you have a router that has draft-n on it you will be able to surf further away from the router itself.
The Gaj-It Verdict
Design 6/10
Usability: 7/10
Features: 7/10
Value: 7/10
We Say
This laptop might be a Marmite situation, either you love the design or hate it, but go into the store before you think about buying this laptop and see if you like the design. Otherwise this is a no no for anything apart from Office work, which should handle the day to day tasks with ease.
Technical Specs
- Processor – 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350
- 2GB RAM
- 250 GB
- Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
- 1,280 x 800 15.4in TFT
- Realtek HD audio
- Intel GMA 4500MHD
- HDMI & VGA
- 802.11abg + draft-n WLAN
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