Hi-Grade Notino PS1000 review

Gallery

Verdict:

Games performance lets down this otherwise reasonable laptop.

Review Date: 21 Apr 2005

Price when reviewed: inc VAT

Reviewed By: IAN BETTERIDGE and JULIAN PROKAZA

Our Rating 4 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

The Hi-Grade Notino PS1000 has proportions more in line with a desktop replacement laptop than one designed for use on the move.

It's about the same size as the AJP but, at 3kg, it's a little bit heavier. The Notino feels well made but the case has an odd moulded look, with an abundance of odd, deeply bevelled edges. We didn't like them. You might.

In our performance test, the Notino's Pentium M740 processor beat the M750 used in the AJP, albeit by a small amount. It also uses DDR2 (newly supported by Sonoma) rather than DDR1 RAM.

A 60GB hard disk rounds off the Notino's basic specification, along with a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive. You also get three USB 2 ports, a mini-FireWire port and an SD/MMC/Memory Card slot, which is as about as handy a selection as you could wish for on a laptop.

The Notino's 15in screen isn't widescreen - you get a taller screen more suited to desktop work - but it's not that high a resolution either, at just 1024x768. This is a bit of a swindle on a screen of this size, and it limits the number of windows you can keep open and usable on the Windows Desktop. The screen is crisp and clear, but viewing angles aren't great; moving one person's-width to either side renders its image indistinct.

Notino's 2D score is very impressive and gives a good idea of what Sonoma machines are capable of. The Doom 3 test result is far less exciting, particularly as the Notino has an identical graphics chip to the better-performing AJP. Battery life is good, lasting an hour and 39 minutes in our test, which means at least three hours of normal usage.

Overall, the Notino is good value for money, but it was pipped to the post by the AJP. JP

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