Kohjinsha SC3-VB review

If you've always wanted a Tablet PC that could fit in your hand, then the Kohjinsha is just that. It somehow manages to squeeze a 7in touchscreen into a chassis weighing just 790g.

The build quality is far from lightweight and it might not be pretty - the black and sliver two-tone design looks cheap and dated - but the all-important swivel hinge feels solid and the chassis is rigid in all the right places.

Switch it on, though, and things swiftly start to go downhill. Microsoft's Vista Business might be better suited to tablet duties than XP, but it isn't the ideal companion for Intel's Z520 processor. Its lowly 1.3GHz clockspeed means operation is sluggish at best; a result of 0.23 in our application benchmarks is almost half that of other, far cheaper, netbooks.

Battery life is limp, too. Thanks to its small three-cell battery, the Kohjinsha couldn't even manage three hours of light use. Start to use it in anger, and you can expect battery life to dwindle to little more than an hour.

And, while it might look cute, it isn't very usable. The keyboard is tiny, with a cramped layout and small keys slowing typing to an absolute crawl. The touchscreen is nippy and responsive, which comes as some consolation, but even then the tiny screen means that some on-screen elements are too small to easily manipulate with a finger.

As netbooks have grown in size, they've lost some of their original appeal as truly pint-sized portables. Kohjinsha's SC3-VB goes some way towards redressing the balance but, at £618 exc VAT, it's a netbook with delusions of grandeur.

Author: Sasha Muller