Advent Roma review

Advent's Roma is strikingly affordable. Despite its 15.6in screen and notebook credentials, it's cheaper than some netbooks. Inevitably, though, that's been achieved by choosing price over quality in several areas.

Take the processor, for example: the Roma's 2.2GHz Celeron 900 is a particularly weak CPUs. Although it's partnered with an unexpected 3GB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM, it still left the system scoring just 0.78 in our benchmarks.

3D performance is worse, thanks to a bargain-basement Intel 4500M integrated GPU. It does support DirectX 10, but with a score of just 5fps in Crysis at low detail it's effectively useless for anything but older classics.

A tiny 2,200mAh battery completes the deal: in our tests, it supplied just 58 minutes of heavy use and could muster only 1hr 51mins when idle.

Yet despite this unapologetic penny-pinching, the Roma has its attractions. The casing is sturdy, and while it won't win any style awards it won't embarrass you either.

Although the TFT isn't as richly colourful as those you'll find on premium laptops, it's bright and sharp enough for office and internet apps. There's even an HDMI port, so you can hook up a better screen if you choose. The speakers are louder than many, although they sound flat and will distort if you push them too far.

When you start to type on the Roma the keys feel spongy, and the keytops are set close together, so it's easy to hit the wrong letter. But once you get used to that, it's solid and usable, with decent-sized keys laid out sensibly. The touchpad is nothing special, but nor is it too small or fiddly.

And considering the price, the reasonably sized 250GB hard disk and full Home Premium edition of Vista are pleasant surprises.

To be sure, this is still a budget laptop: performance-wise, it won't set the pulse racing, and with its underwhelming screen and poor battery life it certainly can't claim to be a general-purpose contender. But with a full-sized keyboard, big screen and DVD writer, for some roles it could be an appealing alternative to a netbook.

Author: Sasha Muller