Getting the laptop out of the box, it looks like any standard-fare laptop. In use, there seems to be quite a lot of plastic, but that contributes to its 2.9kg weight. Its not the lightest laptop I've seen, but its also not the most expensive. Compared with the more expensive laptop we have on offer, I'm delighted to see the Mail and Internet quick access buttons back. When pressed, they load your preferred email and web-browsing applications, and make booting up in the morning easier and quicker.

We installed Ubuntu 6.06 on the new Linux laptop. Installation went fairly smoothly, with most open-source programmes already installed. Getting the wireless going was a bit of a challenge, however, as the laptop doesn't have an overt wireless switch, the wireless hardware control is on a function key, and looks a bit like a microphone control! Once we'd found that, and installed the linux restricted modules package (you need the madwifi driver, which is in the package) things looked much better.

The laptop only has 256MB of ram, which is enough for general usage but is is not a machine that you want to hammer with lots of memory intensive processes.

For heat dispersion the laptop has two risers, that flip out from the underside. It looks as if it could probably work without them being used, but there is a fan intake in the middle of the base of the laptop, so its better to use them rather than strain the fan.

There is no in-built microphone, so if you want to use VOIP, you need to get a external microphone or handset. There are 2 USB slots on the left side, and 2 on the rear.

My only major criticism would be no PCMCIA slot - you can't add a firewire card etc. The sound quality from the in-built speakers is what you'd expect from a laptop - these are no Bose speakers. The volume level is pretty decent, again what you'd expect from a laptop. The fan is on a temperature controller, so when you are hammering the laptop you can hear it power up. Its not so loud to be really annoying, but it might distract you a little bit as it powers up and down when idle.

Generally if you want a machine to quickly connect to your work VPN, or a nice basic laptop, I'd reccomend this to you. Its not a gaming laptop. But it will handle general office work ok. Just don't open too many programmes consecutivly, as you'll start to see system performance disapeer.