Labs£300 laptops
Lining up all of this month's laptops, few people would pick out the Fujitsu Siemens as the winner. Spend a little hands-on time with the Amilo Pi 2515, though, and we defy you not to like it. Plonk it on a desk and it looks like a standard, generic budget laptop. The silver lid is adorned with a simple sticker and a glossy black stripe. That's it - no flashy paint job, no orange highlights, just a plain functional chassis. But, in many ways, the Amilo's lack of fuss is refreshing. Actually use it, and its qualities become self-evident. The keyboard is well laid out and every key has lots of travel and a positive action. Same goes for the trackpad; it doesn't look special, but works
Build-wise the Fujitsu isn't the best here. Wrestle with the base and you'll find a bit of flex, and the lid, although pleasingly stiff, bent enough for us to press it into contact with the rear of the panel. Take some time to look at the display, though, and you'll be rewarded with vibrant, accurate colours, great contrast and ample brightness. It may share its 1,280 x 800 native resolution with most of the other laptops here, but when it comes to image quality it effortlessly trounces the opposition. The speakers go about their job ably enough, too, although they understandably lack a little bass. The specification may not be the best, with 2GB of memory and an Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 running at 1.66GHz, but it still scored a fine 0.83 in our benchmarks. The Intel GMA X3100 graphics managed 5.5fps in our Crysis benchmark - the same as Dell's Inspiron 1525. The Pi 2515 isn't fancy, but it fulfils the remit of a budget laptop with aplomb. For just £340, you get fine performance, a superb screen, great ergonomics and good speakers. The only issue is its availability; due to a factory fire at one of Fujitsu Siemens' battery suppliers, they won't be making any more Pi 2515s. Grab one while you can. |
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