Apricot Picobook Pro review

Apricot used to be a familiar name in the computer market. Once owned by Mitsubishi, it's now an independent UK-based company that sees its future in 'ultra mobile personal computers'.

This one immediately struck us as a bit clunky compared to the likes of Samsung's NC10 and even the cheaper Acer Aspire One. Those huge companies have spent a lot more time and money honing their portables. The Apricot has a rather odd bulge where the cover of the memory slot sits, protruding around half a centimetre from the bottom of the chassis. This looks a bit of an afterthought, and makes resting the machine on your lap slightly uncomfortable. The build quality of the case gives the impression that it would withstand less rough and tumble than rivals, which is worrying in a laptop designed to be carried everywhere, and the keyboard isn't one of the best.

This could all be forgivable if the specification made up for it, but it doesn't. The Apricot is the only netbook here not to use Intel's 1.6GHz Atom processor, opting instead for a VIA Chrome9 HC3. It's a poor choice, making the Picobook one of the most sluggish netbooks around.

The hard disk is also underspecified at just 60GB, smaller than any other on test (the Asus and Dell have less storage, but in the form of a faster and more resilient solid state drive). Battery life is also poor: although on a par with the Acer Aspire One and some others, it fell a considerable way short of the Asus Eee PC, which lasted more than three times longer in our tests.

Saving the best until last, we can at least report that, at just a shade over 1kg, the Apricot is the lightest netbook here, a benefit not to be sniffed at. But the others aren't exactly bricks anyway, and the Picobook's poor performance limits its usefulness, even if it is easy to carry. Pricing it on a par with the Samsung NC10, a far better option in almost every respect, makes no sense. Let's hope Apricot can do better with its next machine.