ACI Vision Pro

Despite looking a bit plain, the Vision Pro straddles the knife's edge of size and portability perfectly; it's light enough to carry, but still houses a decent 15in screen and large, easy to use keyboard.

There's a range of shortcut buttons including controls to play a CD without having to boot into Windows. Strangely, these are under the clamshell and not on the front where they would be more useful.

Fortunately, our initial good impression is more than skin deep. The TFT is very good and runs at a resolution of 1,400 x 1,050. The 1.6GHz Pentium M processor is backed up by 512MB of Ram. This produced a healthy Sysmark 2004 score of 114.

The onboard Radeon 9600 graphics aren't bad, scoring 2,502 in 3Dmark 2003. This means you can play games, although low resolutions and no advanced options are likely to be the best option.

The 60GB hard disk is good for a notebook and large enough to store most files when on the move. The DVD combo drive can be used to archive old files should the disk start to look a bit full. We were pleased to see that the disk comes loaded with Microsoft Works 7.

The Vision Pro uses Centrino so there's built-in 802.11b wireless for hooking up to hotspots. With onboard modem and network ports, you won't have trouble getting connected.

The £1,400 price might sound steep, but it's surprisingly good value for a Centrino notebook, especially with the speed of the processor. If you want a powerful notebook that you can transport easily, look no further.

Contact: ACI
www.aciplc.com

Specifications:

• 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M
• 512MB Ram
• 128MB ATI Radeon 9600
• 60GB hard disk
• 15in TFT (1,400 x 1,050)
• 2.7kg
• Windows XP Home
• Microsoft Works 7