Hi-Grade Notino UL-100 netbook computer

Hi-Grade’s Notino UL-100 forsakes the Intel route and instead uses a Via C7-M ULV (ultra-low voltage) processor clocked at 1.6GHz.

This gives the UL-100 reasonable battery life even from the three-cell battery our review sample came with; we managed just over two hours when used reasonably intensively and just under four hours in our reader test.

The keyboard shows a fair degree of flexing while typing and the keys are a little small, but it’s still possible to type quickly on it.

The first thing that strikes you when you open the lid is there doesn’t appear to be any touchpad, just one long chromed mouse button. It is there but since it’s coloured white just like the rest of the notebook it’s easy to stray away from it without realising. Why Hi-Grade didn’t add a small border to the trackpad is a mystery to us.

Something to watch out for is the front-mounted 4-in-1 card reader. This doesn’t allow an SD Card to fit completely inside it, so with half the card remaining outside it’s a recipe for disaster.

Permanent storage is provided by a traditional disk-based 160GB Samsung drive, which should be more than enough for most users.

Like the keyboard, the 10in screen shows a worrying degree of flex and you will want to protect the UL-100 when you carry it around just to be on the safe side. The screen has a native resolution of 1,024x600, with a 1.3-megapixel webcam built into the top bezel.

Apart from the 802.11a/b/g Wifi there is also a 10/100Mbits/sec wired Ethernet port and three USB sockets.

In the face of some stiff competition, it’s hard to recommend this Hi-Grade netbook.