Hi-grade’s sub-£500 offering, the Notino W5600, appears strangely behind the times compared with some of its competitors.

On the outside, the notebook’s silver and black body seems a little brutish and old-fashioned next to some of the sleeker curves on display elsewhere. The squared-off design isn’t just a cosmetic issue, it actually has an impact on the way you use the machine too, since resting your wrists on the sharp edges as you type can become uncomfortable after a while.

The tiny touchpad and equally undersized left and right mouse buttons didn’t help make the Notino any easier to work with.

Inside, meanwhile, a relatively underpowered selection of components conspired to drag the Notino’s performance right down. In our tests, the W5600 virtually flatlined in everything other than the battery tests, where it performed moderately well.

While none of the PCs here are particularly suitable for the latest games, the Hi-Grade takes underwhelming graphical performance to new lows, since it has virtually no hardware support for 3D.

All of the sockets you’ll need for basic operations are present, with four USB sockets and ports for networking and connecting an external monitor.

Like most of the other PCs here, a multi-format DVD writer is included, as well as software for creating discs. A full suite of office software is included in the shape of Open Office, which sounds good. But, in fact, this can be downloaded free.

The 15.4in display was crisp with good contrast. A mediocre performance and comparatively slim selection of extras, however, makes the W5600 a bit of a weakling by comparison.

This article is part of a group test of budget notebooks.
The table can be read via our Pdf download.
Others are:
Acer Aspire 5101 AWLMi
Asus A6Rp-AP026H
Fujitsu Siemens Amilio Pi 1505
MSI Megabook M670
Toshiba Satellite Pro A120