AJP D800P

Let's not beat around the bush: the AJP D800P is a monstrous notebook weighing a massive 6.2kg. There's a good reason for the weight, as the specification of this device puts many desktop PCs to shame. It is built on Intel's 865PE chipset, which is designed for desktops, and has loads of features including support for dual-channel DDR memory.

Intriguingly, AJP has chosen to install a pair of Hitachi Travelstar hard drives in a Raid 0 striped array. You get a total of 80GB of fast storage (74.5GB formatted capacity) hanging off a Promise controller chip. There is no doubt that inside this hefty chassis you effectively have a desktop PC crammed into a (relatively) small space, as we simply aren't used to seeing Raid in a notebook.

This chassis is so large it has a list of options, although our review model was relatively spartan and had a couple of empty bays. On the right-hand side there's a bay that can hold either an MP3 player with carry case, headphones and 32MB memory card for £116 (£99 ex VAT) or the 6-in-1 card reader at £81 (£69 ex VAT). You can swap one unit for another as the bay is modular. On the front are media player control buttons complete with an LCD display, while on the left is the second empty drive bay behind the Toshiba SD-R6112 combo drive. This is a two-speed DVD-R drive, 24-speed CD-R and 16-speed CD-RW unit. Frankly, this model doesn't need a second optical drive and it would add yet more weight to an already heavy notebook.

Also on the left is the floppy drive, two Type II PC Card slots, the infra-red lens and three mini jacks for headphones, microphone and line in. Then we have the ports on the back. There are four USB2 ports, the power connector, S-Video output, DVI-I, Serial, Firewire, Parallel, PS/2, Gigabit RTL8169/8110 Lan and the Smartlink 56K modem port. The D800P also has onboard Bluetooth and an 802.11b mini PCI card is optional at £81 (£69 ex VAT). This seems reasonable to us, as you are unlikely to use this notebook away from a desk, so it's no hardship to plug in an Ethernet cable.

You may have blinked at the news that the D800P has DVI-I output, rather than the more usual VGA, but this notebook uses the ATI Mobility M10 chip, correctly known as Mobility Radeon 9600. This is a serious piece of DirectX 9 hardware, which scored a huge 10,575 marks in 3Dmark 2001 and had a decent frame rate in Unreal 2003. There is no doubt this notebook is up to the task of playing the very latest games. Performance in Sysmark 2002 was also impressive with a score of 270, but we would expect little else from a desktop chipset, 3.2GHz Pentium 4 processor, 1GB PC2700 memory and a fast hard drive Raid array.

This is a very good PC, but it's not a good notebook. First there's the weight, and then there's the battery life of 56 minutes which isn't very good.

We also disliked the keyboard. It flexes under reasonable pressure and the number pad on the right is in the way of the Enter key. The screen is huge at 16.1in and runs at a resolution of 1,280 x 1,024 and, though it is reasonable bright and clear, it doesn't have the same wow-factor achieved by other high-end notebooks.

But the biggest problem we have is the price. £1,900 is a lot of money for a notebook you can hardly use on the move, especially as it only comes with the bare minimum of software (WinDVD 4 and Nero), and a basic return to base warranty.

Contact: AJP 020 8208 9755
www.ajp.co.uk

Specifications:

• Pentium 4 3.2GHz with HT
• 1GB DDR PC2700 SD-Ram
• 2 40GB Hitachi Travelstar hard drives
• Toshiba 2x DVD-R/16x CD-RW/8x DVD-Rom
• Intel 865PE + ICH5 chipset
• ATI Mobility M10 128MB dedicated DDR memory
• 16.1in TFT 1,280 x 1,024
• Windows XP Pro SP1
• 5.35kg
• 360 x 299 x 54mm (w x h x d)
• 3-yr RTB warranty, first year parts and labour, 2yrs labour only