Hewlett-Packard Compaq nx9105 review

This year has seen some of the best notebook prices ever.

Just last month we tested six notebooks that cost less than £850 including VAT ('Price Crash!', Shopper August 2004). Now Hewlett-Packard has gone one better: a notebook that costs almost £100 less despite including advanced features such as a widescreen display and a dedicated 3D graphics processor.

The HP Compaq nx9105 isn't small. At around 29x36x5cm and 3.65kg you'll need a decent-sized bag to carry it, but there is a good reason for this bulk: inside is a widescreen display with a resolution of 1,280x800 pixels. This doesn't particularly benefit office work, but it's great for watching DVDs.

The widescreen display isn't the only remarkable thing about the nx9105. Most of the budget notebooks we reviewed last month used integrated graphics hardware to create 3D graphics, but the nx9105 includes an nVidia GeForce4 420 Go graphics processor with 32MB of dedicated memory. This powered it to a 3DMark2001 SE score of 4,360 - more than any of last month's notebooks, and enough to run Far Cry.

Many budget notebooks include only 256MB of RAM, but HP has laudably built in 512MB. Coupled with an AMD Athlon XP-M 3000+ processor, this provides plenty of computing power, as demonstrated by a respectable SYSmark2004 score of 104. The hard disk is also impressive. None of the notebooks we tested last month had more than 40GB of hard disk space, but HP has included 60GB.

There are also many extra features included with the nx9105. Built-in 54Mbit/s wireless networking makes it easy to connect to the internet on the move and Bluetooth lets you connect to devices such as mobile phones. The DVD/CD-RW combo drive allows you to back up your data at work and watch DVD videos at home, and a multiformat card reader means you can transfer photos from a digital camera effortlessly.

The nx9105 excelled in our MobileMark battery life test, taking over three hours to run out of power. This result is over an hour longer than the best of last month's budget notebooks.

There are problems associated with such a large notebook, though. The typing position is less than ideal - your wrists rest on top of the notebook itself, which can make you ache after a while.

The HP nx9105 is perfect for those who want a well-priced notebook for use around the home or office. Its size means it's not really suitable for travelling, but it provides plenty of power and excellent features at a bargain price.