ViewSonic ViewBook Pro review

Viewsonic's ViewBook Pro bears an uncanny resemblance to Toshiba's Portege R600 which costs almost twice as much. Like the Portege, it feels well-made but flexes under pressure more than we'd like. The base can also become very warm.

The ViewBook weighs just under 1.7kg, but the internal DVD writer can be removed, cutting this down to 1.5kg. A blanking plate is included, but ViewSonic plans to sell secondary batteries that will slide into this bay. These could be a necessity if you want to work away from a wall socket for long periods of time since the ViewBook lasted just over four hours in our light-use test - less than we'd expect given the low-power processor.

The ViewBook has only two USB ports, instead of three like most laptops we've seen. There's no memory card reader either, but the ExpressCard/34 slot means you could add these missing features later, although most peripherals, such as 3G modems are now USB-based. The Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor performed well in our benchmarks, although 2GB of RAM is stingy at this price.

Touchpads should require only a soft touch to work, but the ViewBook's touchpad needs firm and constant pressure which makes it unpleasant to use. It even stopped responding intermittently during our tests. In short, it's the worst touchpad we've seen on a laptop in a long time. The keyboard doesn't feels quite as firm as we'd like, but the large keys are pleasant to type on and responsive enough for working for long periods.

Unlike many most new laptops, the 13.3in screen has a 16:10, rather than 16:9, aspect ratio and has a 1,280x800 pixel resolution rather than 1,366x768. In practice, it makes little difference. ViewSonic is better known as a monitor manufacturer, so we weren't surprised to discover that the ViewBook's display had the best image quality of any ultraportable we've seen recently. It's bright with accurate colours, an even backlight and fairly wide viewing angles.

We wanted to like Viewsonic's ViewBook Pro, but its comparatively short battery life and deeply flawed touchpad let it down. Although the ViewBook has its merits, such as its great display, the flaws prevent us from seeing it as a serious contender to more established competition.