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Weighing in at just 1.65kg, the Nfinity is about as heavy as the Samsung Series 5, the only other 14in Ultrabook we’ve seen, although the Series 5 managed to squeeze in an optical drive without gaining extra weight, unlike the Nfinity 2367, which doesn’t have one.
Novatech has unsurprisingly made sacrifices in other areas in order to reach such a low price, most notably with the build materials. Whereas most Ultrabooks are built completely from aluminium, only the Nfinity 2367’s lid is covered in metal, the rest of the chassis is moulded from plastic.
Connectivity has taken a hit, too. Although the Nfinity has three USB ports, none of them support the faster USB3 standard. It does have a full-size Ethernet port, a multiformat card reader and a combination audio jack, though.
Sadly, typing wasn’t a particularly pleasant experience, mainly because of the huge amount of flex in the keyboard tray, and the flex is noticeable even when applying a minimal amount of pressure. We were also irritated by the half-height Enter key, which frequently produced spelling errors instead of line breaks. The keys themselves are fairly bouncy and are sensibly spaced apart, so it’s a shame that its poor build quality lets it down. It has a decently sized touchpad that feels responsive enough in everyday use, but its plastic construction feels a little cheap and there’s no native support for multi-touch gestures.
We were also unimpressed by its 14in screen. Its 1,366×768 resolution is typical for a display of this size, but the viewing angles are simply appalling, providing a very thin margin between accurate and washed out colours. Even when we sat in the correct position, images were definitely lacking contrast. A glossy finish meant light reflections were a problem too, and there wasn’t a huge amount of screen tilt.
Performance from its low-voltage Intel Core i3-2367M processor is average at best. It’s a dual-core chip running at 1.4GHz, but because it doesn’t have Turbo Boost to increase its clock speed, performance stays consistent even if it isn’t running at its maximum thermal capacity. It scored 29 overall in our multimedia benchmarks, so you’ll be able to run most everyday applications, but more intensive tasks will slow it down.
Intel also provides the graphics power, courtesy of the GPU integrated into the i3-2367M CPU. We had no trouble using it to play high definition video at 720p on the laptop or 1080p on an external display over HDMI, but we had no luck trying to play games. Our Dirt 3 test crawled along with an average frame rate of just 13.1fps, so you’ll have to stick to older titles to get playable results.
Of course, the advantage with this setup is increased battery life. The Nfinity lasted seven hours in our light-use test, which means you should be able to get through a full working day without having to reach for a charger.
Even factoring in the price of an operating System, which isn’t included in the basic configuration, (the price quoted here includes Windows 7 Home) the Nfinity is incredibly cheap for an Ultrabook. It’s available in a range of different specifications, so there should be something to suit your needs if you need more memory or storage space than our review unit had. However, the screen resolution and connectivity stay the same regardless of the model you choose. The Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook and Samsung Series 5 13in are its closest competitors, and these both cost around £100 more, but in terms of construction, image quality and usability, we think it’s a premium worth paying.
