Maxdata Artist Denver

This notebook may have few distinguishing features, but beneath this nondescript exterior beats a pretty fast 366MHz Pentium II chip. This is backed up by a healthy 64Mb of memory, giving it plenty of power.

While we would never suggest that you should judge a notebook by its cover, it's a shame that Maxdata has failed to make the Artist Denver a little more pleasing to the eye. Instead of opting for a sexy silver skin all over, the German maker has decided to go for an uninspiring two-tone effect, twinning the metallic finish with a covering of rather cheap-looking grey plastic.

Aesthetics aren't the only area where we get the impression that cost savings have been made on this less-than-budget computer. There is only one PC Card slot and the floppy drive is an external model. We weren't able to put this to the test as it didn't arrive in time, but we are assured that one of these will be supplied with each Artist Denver.

We were also less than impressed by the unresponsive trackpad mouse, which took a lot of persuasion before it paid attention to our commands.

The screen looked a bit better at first, though the whole feel of the lid was flimsy. However, we found that the maximum resolution it could handle is 800 x 600 pixels, so you can't fit that much on the display.

But all is not bad news for this notebook - the hard drive is generous enough at 4.5Gb, and you do get a built-in modem and the capacity to hook it up to an office computer network out of the box. The keyboard is responsive, though we did find the layout a little odd and its proximity to the trackpoint can lead to errors as you knock the cursor while typing.

With no 3D graphics or audio hardware, the Artist is not designed for even the lightest of games titles. This is a road warrior's machine, though at 2.36kg it is not the lightest portable computer we've carried around. The software included is generous enough - you get a copy of Microsoft Word 2000 pre-installed, as well as Works and Autoroute Express, so you've got all the titles you need to do general typing, database work and email on the move.

Contact Maxdata 01344 788900