NEC Versa S900

By far the best-looking notebook NEC has turned out in recent years, and certainly the most attractive Centrino machine we've seen so far, the S900 has a lot going for it.

Using a Pentium M processor clocked at 1.6GHz and supported by 512MB of memory it gave us 169 in Sysmark, which is the best we've seen from a Centrino chip by nearly 20 points.

NEC has chosen a Mobility Radeon 9000 graphics chip with 32MB of dedicated memory. This gave us a 3Dmark 2001 score of 4,445, which is far lower than we were expecting. Nevertheless, it's a decent score, and should run the majority of today's games.

However, such a power-hungry chip will inevitably have an effect on the notebook's battery life, something that goes against one of the fundamental principles of Centrino technology.

Battery life was very impressive for a Centrino though, lasting for just under an hour and a half.

The 12.1in TFT screen is sharp and very clear - both text and video were very well reproduced. We weren't exactly bowled over by the limited viewing angle, but it's good nonetheless.

We were impressed that NEC could fit a CD-RW/DVD drive into such a small chassis, and were equally enthralled by the three USB2 ports and the mini-Firewire that are scattered around the notebook's sides.

There's also a jog dial volume switch, mic in and headphone out, as well as two PC Card slots.

It also churns out a lot of hot air from the fan to the side keeping the underbelly surprisingly cool.

Contact: NEC
www.nec.co.uk

Specifications:

• 1.6GHz Intel Pentium M processor
• 512MB memory
• 20GB hard disk
• ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 graphics
• 14.1in XGA TFT screen
• Modem
• Lan
• Windows XP Professional
• 282 x 245 x 37 (w x d x h)
• 2.2kg