Packard Bell Ipower

The Ipower is a very well-featured desktop replacement, using a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 processor, 512MB of memory and a 40GB hard disk.

It's very fast, giving an overall Sysmark score of 199. This isn't the fastest score we've seen in a notebook, but it's quite a powerhouse regardless.

It uses a Geforce 420 Go for graphics, but performance was slightly lower, giving 4,117 in 3Dmark.

We weren't too keen on the style, as its curved body and blue-silver colourings make it look quite dated.

It's also pretty heavy, at 3.5kg, so you wouldn't want to lug this around too often.

The corner where the processor is stored tended to heat up rather quickly and could easily become uncomfortable if sitting on your lap.

The screen is perfectly good quality, reaching up to a 1,024 x 768 maximum world, but those do come at a hefty premium.

Round the back, there are four USB2 ports and a mini-firewire, as well as network, S-Video, serial and parallel ports.

A PC Card slot and modem are housed on the left-hand side, and the right-hand side has an infrared port, PS/2, CD-RW/DVD drive and a four-format memory card reader.

The front houses mic-in, headphone-out and volume control. The keyboard is large and comfortable to type on, and the two-button touchpad is responsive, though it could have been larger.

On the downside, the speakers are a disappointment; you'd expect more from a notebook this size.

Also, battery life was merely average, coming in at just under one and a half hours.

Without these two bad points, this excellent notebook could have easily earned an award.

SPECS

• 2.4GHz Pentium 4 processor
• 512MB of DDR memory
• 40GB hard disk
• Geforce 420 Go graphics chip
• 15in XGA TFT screen
• Windows XP Home
• 3.5kg
• 322 x 285 x 34.5mm (w x d x h).

Packard Bell 01628 512 400
www.packardbell.co.uk