The UK pound has enjoyed a healthy conversion rate against the US dollar of late, meaning rich pickings for us Brits when shopping stateside.

This isn't contained to just clothes and food either, technology has benefited with the price of computer components falling to previously unheard of prices.

The Advent 7113 notebook computer is one such cheapie, including Vista Home Premium for just £400.

Other notebooks we’ve tested at this price have come with the cheaper and less-featured Vista Home Basic, while the version here includes integrated DVD playback, Windows Media Center and Aero; the fancy-looking 3D interface.

To keep costs down, Intel’s single core Celeron M 1.73GHz processor runs the show. The flipside to its cheapness is that it can’t run as many simultaneous programs as a dual core processor and lacks power-saving that help to increase battery life.

The Advent 7113 is powerful enough, though, to run Vista’s Flip 3D smoothly, which means you can change between programs and folders with a visual depth. The notebook also played back a DVD without any stuttering, something a lot of cheap Vista notebooks fail to do. A large reason for this is the 1GB of memory and a spacious 80GB hard disk.

The widescreen measures 15.4in across and is a little dimmer than more expensive models. The screen also drops points when viewing it side on – contrast and colours fade - but it’s good enough for watching a film.

However, Advent's decision to plump for integrated graphics means it isn’t capable of handling any modern computer games.

Construction is solid, thanks to a chassis made from reasonably thick plastic. We think the silver and black styling is bland but will fool people into thinking it’s a more expensive computer.

The keyboard is well made and the screen’s hinge was especially impressive; it operates smoothly but always remains rigid, leaving a premium aftertaste to it. The 7113 is quiet during basic operation but a cooling fan makes a racket when it goes full pelt.

Two very small speakers positioned just above the keyboard lacked any punch whatsoever. The 3.5mm headphone jack can remedy this and, what’s more, it doubles up as a digital output, allowing this notebook to hook up to a surround-sound amplifier.

A multi-format DVD writer sits on the right side, along with three USB ports dotted around the edges. An S-Video and a VGA output are also fitted for connecting the 7113 to external displays and projectors.

The 7113 has Wifi for browsing the internet wirelessly and a convenient switch at the front to turn it off and save battery life when not in use.

Advent has skimped on a memory card reader and Firewire port, so connecting a digital camcorder is out of the question too. That said, this notebook doesn’t really have the grunt to edit digital video at any great pace.

Battery life was poor lasting just 51 mins during DVD playback but it provides enough juice for an hour and a half’s light Windows and office work.

A Celeron M processor certainly isn’t desirable, but the 7113 is powerful enough to provide good internet, email and word processing work, as well as DVD watching and music listening. The only catch – it's likely to be in short supply, so catch it while you can.

Vista compatible: Yes