Siemens Nixdorf Scenic Mobile 800 review

Siemens Nixdorf has always produced notebooks with an air of individuality and the Scenic Mobile 800 is no exception. While most mobile PCs share a plastic construction, the 800 is made from magnesium, giving it a solid look and feel. The matt silver finish should also turn heads in the airport departure lounge.

The system specification is equal to the styling, with a mobile Pentium II/266 beating at the heart of it. This is backed up by 64Mb of SDRAM and a 5Gb IBM hard disk. Memory is expandable to 256Mb, and 6Gb and 8Gb hard disks are available as options. The graphics chipset is equally high end. The ATi 3D Rage Pro LT is a mobile version of the popular 3D Rage Pro desktop chipset, delivering respectable 2D and 3D performance when equipped with 4Mb of video memory.

The Mobile 800 boasts one of the best TFT screens I've ever seen in a notebook. The colours are rich and vibrant, while the lighting is even across the whole surface of the display. The diagonal viewable area is 14.1in with a resolution of 1,024 x 768. That's about the same size as a 15in CRT monitor, so working for long periods of time won't leave you with a headache.

One feature that really makes the 800 stand out from the crowd is its keyboard. The keytops are large, and the key travel is good with a solid break. Even more impressive is the fact that it's removable. Two clips at the side of the keyboard release it from the base, allowing you to place it on the desk in front of the notebook and position the screen at a more comfortable distance. The keyboard communicates with the notebook via an infrared port. Most infrared keyboards I've tried lose what they gain in convenience through their tendency to miss the odd character when you're typing. Luckily, this example doesn't miss a stroke.

The great features don't end there. Siemens is well aware that data security is of great importance, so the Mobile 800 comes with a chipcard reader situated underneath the keyboard. The system can be configured so that it can't be accessed unless the card is in place, keeping sensitive data out of the wrong hands.

At the front of the unit are two multipurpose bays. If the 800 is running from mains power, both the floppy and CD-ROM drives can be resident at once. If you're using a battery, you'll have to sacrifice one of your bays. You can also use the bays to house another hard disk or an Iomega Zip drive, both of which are available as options.

On the left are two stacked PC Card bus slots, which will house two Type II or one Type III PC Cards. There are PS/2 ports on the right for a keyboard and mouse, along with speaker, line-out and microphone sockets for the ESS ES1869 sound chipset. At the rear, there's a large docking station connector along with single serial and parallel ports. You'll also find a MIDI/ joystick connector, an S-Video output, an infrared port and a USB connector.

The performance lives up to the standard of the rest of the package. There might be one or two faster notebooks out there, but the Mobile 800 is definitely up there with the best.

On the whole, the Scenic Mobile 800 is the most impressive fully-featured notebook I've seen. It's not perfect, however. Positioning the selector buttons on either side of the touchpad isn't a good move as I found my palm resting on the left button a little too often. But this is a small criticism and it's something that I soon adapted to. Ultimately, if you want the most versatile and feature-packed notebook on the market, this is it. But, at just under £4,000, it doesn't come cheap.

Author: Riyad Emeran