Advent 7011

When it comes to buying a notebook PC, the choice invariably involves a compromise. Opt for power and plenty of drives and you can lose portability; go for the smallest machine you can find its flexibility limited.

Offering Pentium 4 power, the latest notebook PC from Advent is set firmly in the former category.

The system certainly looks the part. Boasting a chunky silver case, it sports a 15.1in TFT screen, built-in DVD-Rom/CD-RW combination drive, floppy drive, network connector, a mini FireWire and two USB ports.

There's a modem, an infrared port and PS/2, and parallel and serial sockets for use with older peripherals. In addition, the system can take an optional wireless networking module.

If nothing else, the 7011 is well connected - bar one huge omission. Amazingly, despite its size, there are no PC Card slots. This limits future expansion options. A PC Card slot remains one of the favourite ways to add peripherals to notebooks and, consequently, it is a bad omission.

On a happier note, internal specifications are impressive. The Pentium 4 processor blazes along at 2.4GHz and the system ships as standard with 256MB of fast DDR memory.

Main storage is handled by a 30GB hard disk, a good size for a mobile machine.

The processor isn't a specifically designed mobile version and, as such, uses slightly more power and generates quite a bit of heat. However, in tests the machine did not get uncomfortably hot and it's not a system you're likely to be using on your lap for a long time.

Up until recently, graphics have never been a strong point with notebooks. Advent has opted to use the SIS650 chip here, which can share up to 64MB of main memory.

You'll get away with playing a few undemanding games but a modest performance in our tests means that mind-blowing graphics are off the menu.

In use, the screen is sharp and images are clear. They can be fed out to a TV or video recorder via the S-Video connector.

Audio performance is fine but nothing outstanding. A pair of stereo speakers are positioned at the bottom of the screen and channel sound comes from the onboard chip.

No hardware is complete without software and the Advent comes pre-installed with Windows XP Home Edition and Microsoft Works Suite 2002. The latter comprises Word, Works 6, Autoroute 2002, Encarta 2002 and the basic version of Picture It. All in all, it's a great collection to get you started.

The system also comes Nero Burning ROM to take full advantage of the CD-RW capabilities, and PowerDVD for DVD movie playback. Given that this machine comes from PC World, it's no surprise to see Freeserve pre-installed for internet access.

In addition, it's good to see a proper printed manual supplied. It doesn't go into as much detail as we'd like but at least you're not expected to read text from a CD-Rom.

In use, the 7011 feels quick and responsive, although the touchpad is very sensitive. While typing this review, we constantly found the cursor jumping around the screen as our hands hovered over the pad.

The keyboard is comfortable, and large Enter and Shift keys make life that bit easier. At the top of the keyboard there are shortcut buttons for launching web browser and email packages.

Weighing in at 3kg, the 7011 is more suited to going from room to room in a house rather than being used on the move, especially as we averaged battery life of just 1.5 hours under optimum conditions.

The 7011 is well-specified for the price. However, the lack of PC Card slots limits expansion and battery life is unimpressive.

Price: £1,299 (incl. VAT)

Contact: PC World 0870 546 4464
www.pcworld.co.uk

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