Advent 4213 review

The 4213 is the second netbook we've seen from Advent, and we were hoping it would improve on the excellent 4211 (below).

It has an identical Atom N270 processor, along with 1GB of RAM. However, the hard disk is bigger at 160GB, and it has a SIM slot for 3G mobile broadband.

The SIM slot is tucked away behind the battery. Once you've installed your SIM, you'll need to run the bundled Connection Manager software, which isn't very user-friendly. We tried it with a SIM from 3, and found the default connection settings didn't work. However, when we tried it with a Vodafone SIM it worked perfectly. You may need to check your network operator's website for their own 3G connection software.

The built-in 3G modem offers the convenience of mobile broadband, but without a USB dongle. When you consider the 4213's impressive three-and-a-half hours of battery life, this a great netbook for working on the move. It's also cheaper than any other 3G-capable laptop we've seen.

The 4213 has rounded edges and a shiny black lid, but scratches too easily. Opening the lid reveals a rather plain interior. The screen's wide bezel helps makes the lid nice and rigid, with hardly any flex. Unfortunately, the keyboard also has the same amount of space around it, which makes it uncomfortable to type on. What's more, the keys are flat, rather than having rounded tops. This makes it harder to work out if you've hit them cleanly, and can cause unnecessary typing errors. There are some small keys, too; the left Shift and Tab keys are half-width, and the Enter key is half-height. The small touch pad is responsive, and the single see-saw button is large and gives plenty of feedback. The button has indicator lights for hard disk, battery and power status.

The display has a resolution of 1,024x600 and is bright with strong colours. Unfortunately, like many netbooks, it has a grainy finish and uneven backlighting. Full-screen video from the BBC's iPlayer played back smoothly, with no dropped frames. The 4213 scored marginally lower in our benchmarks than the 4211, but the difference was so slight as to be barely noticeable. The 160GB hard disk provides twice the amount of storage usually found on hard disk-based netbooks, and many times that of flash-memory models.

If you plan on typing long documents on a netbook, you'll be better off with the 4211's keyboard. The 4211 is also £65 cheaper, and perfectly adequate for use as a second PC around the home. However, if you'll be working on the move, the 4213's built-in 3G modem and longer battery life make it the better choice.