Colourful and light as a feather at only 1.6kg (266x205x45mm), Averatec’s 1050 (£949) sets new standards among the ultra-mobile laptop. In fact, we’re pretty sure that it’s impossible to find the design as well as the features in this price category from other manufacturers. Sporting a dark burgundy lid, the keyboard and interior come in pure white. Whether or not this colouring will suit depends entirely on your personal taste - we didn’t like it because we felt the white gave the laptop a low-cost and almost childish appearance (it ain’t no Sony - Ed!).

The small and light design is the 1050’s best feature. This little dynamo packs in a 10.6-inch WXGA (1280x768-pixel) widescreen display - which is easy on the eyes at 240cd/m2 - and a decent range of connectivity options you’d expect from a modern laptop. As standard there’s 802.11b/g wireless LAN, analogue video-out, 4-pin FireWire and two USB ports, and even a 4-in-1 (MMC, SD Card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro) memory card reader. A DVD/CD-RW drive also ships as standard, but there’s no Bluetooth or 3G.

Despite diminutive dimensions, the 1050’s keyboard is relatively large. Though not quite full-size, it allows you to type relatively comfortably and punch numbers into Excel with ease. The cursor and punctuation keys have been shrunk though, which may cause inconvenience if you use them frequently on a daily basis. Stereo speakers reside above the keyboard and there’s a Type II PC Card slot above the optical drive.

Colour-coded headphone and microphone jacks are also present, and the dedicated Wi-Fi power switch makes accessing hotspots and managing secure connections a snap. A 10/100 Ethernet NIC and V.92 modem round of the connection options. The laptop doesn’t offer much in the way of extra buttons, save for a lone button above the keyboard that launches Windows Media Player - we wish you could reprogram that button with the application of your choice. The system also ships with the pared-down Microsoft’s Works 8.0 productivity suite and CyberLink’s PowerDVD 5.0 for help with disc playback.

It comes as no surprise that Averatec’s 1050 is light on muscle, but it’s more than up to the job for managing e-mails, browsing the Web, running an office suite and carrying out other regular day-to-day duties. Processing power comes courtesy of Intel’s single-core 1.1GHz Pentium M ULV 733 (optional 1GHz Celeron M ULV 373), along with 512MB system memory, 80GB (5400rpm) HDD and Intel’s Extreme Graphics 2 (courtesy of the 855GME chipset). The upside to this modest setup is a runtime of up to 5 hours - perfect for road warriors and students on the move! Navigation is catered for by a responsive trackpad and two noisy mouse buttons.

Averatec’s smallest mobile offering is cheaper than most competing products by quite a margin. It also comes with a higher resolution screen and bigger keyboard than most, and its weight is hard to beat. It’s as quick as it needs to be for general computing tasks, but power users may crave dual-core processing power, built-in Bluetooth and better configuration options. If you’re looking for an extremely portable, well-built and good-value machine, you won’t do better at this price. But if styling and raw power are critical, a little more financial outlay will get you a better mobile workstation.

You may also want to consider Averatec’s 3715 (review coming in the next few days), which is heavier at 1.89kg and runs an AMD Mobile Sempron 3000+ processor. The 3715 matches the 1050 across the board in terms of features, except the faster (and hotter) processor, DL DVD burner (so you can play and burn DVDs) and 12.1-inch WXGA LCD (1024x768 pixels). It costs from £699.

Corporate buyers will also be pleased to know that Averatec now only sells climate-neutral laptops in Europe. The CO2 emissions generated by any Averatec laptop over three years use will be ‘neutralised’ by Averatec through the purchase of guarantees of origin from hydroelectric power projects. This move is part of Averatec’s ongoing commitment to protecting the environment and drive towards achieving a zero impact on the climate.

It has been set up in partnership with Sustainable Partner GmbH, whom says that it has produced a highly comprehensive study on climate neutral laptops. The climate neutral laptop initiative follows Averatec’s ‘successful’ CO2 campaign launched last year where for each laptop purchased Averatec pays for the neutralisation of one tonne of CO2 emissions as part of the ClimatePartner initiative. [6.5]

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BIOS, Apr 06, 06 | Print | Send | Comments (0) | Posted In Laptop