14 March 2005 12:12 GMT / By Charlie Brewer
Without the statistics in front of you the ‘EasyNote' H3 315 looks pretty much like a hundred other laptops on the market. Silver on the outside, logo on the top, touch pad to move the pointer. Yawn, seen it, done it!Grope around in the bottom of the bag and remove the fascinating fact sheet and you begin to get an idea of why the thing might weigh a whopping 3.5Kg, making it the heaviest of the current ‘EasyNote' range by 0.65Kg. Beneath the, near-stupefied, exterior lurks a 3.20Ghz Mobile Pentium 4 538 processor. Surrounding this is 512Mb of RAM and an ample 60Gb hard disk. Also consider the 64Mb of dedicated video ram and the GeForce FX5100 graphics chip and you have a computer that will break you back to lug around but will act as the hub for high-speed gaming and multiple application operations perfectly.
The bodywork could do with a little aesthetic refinement although there are no complaints with the PCMCIA slot, 3 USB 2.0, Fire wire and S-video ports strewn down the right and rear sides. The basic software package includes ‘PowerProducer' and ‘PowerCinema', from Cyberlink, designed to further the H3's creative standing with the user. The mouse buttons surrounding the Synaptic's touchpad were not designed by anyone who planned to use the machine, as they are more of a hindrance than a help as they can only be properly clicked at the very centre, where the right and left hand side collide, like the horns of a buffalo.
Verdict
Overall, The H3 315 looks rather average, comes with a rather uninspiring Windows XP package loaded onto it, and is neither excessively expensive, nor overly cheap. Look under the hood and there is a Ferrari engine placed in what would otherwise be a rather dull Ford Escort body. All the pointers indicate the H3 315 to be a laptop that resembles a static trailer, possible to move around, although very unlikely to do so.
Score
Review Recap
- Made by
- Packard
- Price as reviewed
- £750
- The good
- XP Home, DVD+/-RW drive, generous number of ports, fast processor speed
- The bad
- Weight, lack of Wow-factor
- Quick verdict
- The selling point will be the size and speed of the CPU. The fatboy’s not but for carrying but defiantly holds it’s own on performance.
- Score
-
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