Compaq Armada M300

At first glance it would be easy to confuse the Armada M300 with the M700 (reviewed issue 62, p170) but the two machines are in fact quite different. For a start, the M300 is cheaper, with Compaq quoting a typical purchase price of £1,599 as opposed to £1,996, and it's based on a 333MHz Pentium II rather than the 366MHz chip in the M700.

The M300 is also a true subnotebook, with a slim 23mm case and a reduced footprint permitting no internal floppy or CD-ROM drive, rather than the M700's multipurpose drive bay approach. This is what makes the M300 so light, with a standalone weight of 1.5kg, rising to a mere 2.05kg if you add in the floppy drive module and small power supply unit.

The Armada may be slender, but it isn't flimsy, thanks to a strong body assembly and a magnesium alloy lid to protect the screen from damage. The design is generally practical, with no flimsy port covers and no weak connections, and Compaq keeps the fully shielded hard disk safely in place with a screw. Finally, the cleverly hinged battery pack, which runs the entire length of the back of the case and folds down to act as a tilt-stand to improve the typing angle, is firmly fixed by a pair of sliding catches.

Compaq doesn't include a CD-ROM drive as standard with its subnotebooks. Instead, for £185 you can buy a docking base that includes a 24-speed CD, but at least this is a potentially useful accessory; it has all the ports you're likely to need, its own integral stereo speakers - which aren't actually anything to write home about - and a pair of multipurpose bays at the front. Alternatively, £265 will buy you the four-speed DVD-ROM version of the docking station. The other bay in the docking station can be used for options such as an LS-120, a second battery or a second hard disk, but the bay doesn't accept the floppy drive module supplied with the notebook itself.

The notebook has a single Type II PC Card slot (there are none on the docking base) and also comes with an internal V.90 fax modem as standard, so you don't have to use the slot for comms. Memory expansion above the standard 64Mb is via a SODIMM socket, which is easily accessible under the keyboard. Unfortunately the socket is already in use, so upgrading will mean replacing the existing module.

The screen has an unusual 11.3in diagonal, which makes its default SVGA resolution look bigger and that bit more readable than the usual 10.4in panels we find in subnotebooks. In addition, the screen is fairly well lit. The 4Mb of video memory for the ATi Rage Pro LT graphics chipset means that you can get 24-bit colour XGA on an external monitor if you should ever need it.

I also liked the keyboard, which had a quiet, firm action, a long spacebar, reasonably large Enter and Backspace keys and no non-standard function doubling. Another point in the M300's favour is that, unlike the M700, it has a trackpad rather than a trackpoint, which I, for one, prefer. The keyboard can be elevated to a more comfortable typing position by folding the hinged battery under the case.

On the downside, the Armada's battery life was less than ideal, only running for around 90 minutes in continuous light use. This isn't very long if you're trying to get any serious work done. In fact, battery life is the Armada's main weak spot, especially when compared to the three hours produced by the Toshiba PortÚgÚ 3110CT (reviewed issue 62, p173).

Partly as a result of its 333MHz Pentium II processor, the Armada M300 isn't a particularly powerful machine; however, it did come up to our expectations in terms of its class. You could even get it going that bit faster if you boosted the RAM up to 128Mb at the outset. Although speed has never really been the overriding consideration for those people who opt for a subnotebook, the appearance of Pentium III portables will inevitably increase the stakes for all notebook manufacturers, and the less powerful ones will be the first to start looking tired.