Notebook review: AJP M551G-E

Flip up the lid of the Centrino-branded M551G-E and you immediately get the feeling you’re getting your money’s worth.

The palm rest may be made of plastic, but the silver rim around the keyboard, brushed metallic trackpad (with scroll slider) and glowing blue power light all add an air of luxury.

However, the 1.4GHz Intel Celeron M 360 processor and 512MB of memory reminds us why this notebook is so inexpensive.

Couple this with Intel’s integrated i915GM chipset which shares 128MB of system memory, and you have a notebook that will perform standard Windows tasks easily but lacks graphics horsepower.

The score of 117 in Sysmark was one of the lowest here but things improved with its PCmark rating of 1,390.

However, a score of 190 in 3Dmark and 4.4fps (frames per second) in Far Cry underline that at this price level, state-of-the-art gaming is not on the menu. The 80GB hard disk is a reasonable size, though.

The 15.1in SXGA+ screen can display a maximum resolution of 1,400 x 1,050. It’s crisp and among the best here.

As this notebook uses a low-power processor, we expected battery life to be better: topping two hours, 13 minutes at its best will mean you’ll have to find bag space for the AC adapter if you’re out and about a lot.

Overall build quality is pretty good. A slim eight-speed DVD writer is moulded into the right-hand edge and four USB ports are included.

An integrated webcam peers down from within the lid, a 4-in-1 memory card reader will please digital camera fans and the S/PDIF port will be well received by those looking to work with digital audio. 802.11g Wifi is included, but Bluetooth is an added-cost option.

The 2.7kg weight is consistent with most notebooks here and, at the time of writing, AJP was including a free Vodafone 3G/GPRS Mobile Connect Card.

This article is part of a group test on £699 notebooks. Others are:
Intro and Editor's Choice
Acer Aspire 9503EWSMi 
AJP M551G-E
Elonex Prowire 153
Evesham Voyager A215
Fujitsu Siemens Amilo M 6450G
Hi-Grade Notino C5515-1700
HP Compaq nx6125 (EK157ET)
Mesh Pegasus 3070
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