Product Reviews

This is the first notebook we've reviewed from Zepto. Its looks aren't much to get excited about, but it has a good selection of ports and connectors. There are four USB2 ports, two on each side, a memory card reader for digital photographers and a FireWire port that may be useful for those with a digital video camera. The notebook's Expresscard/54 slot provides more scope for expansion, while just above the display there's a built-in webcam.

The display measures 15.4" diagonally and has a resolution of 1,280x800 pixels, which is fine for most tasks. Its picture is decent but far from the best we've seen. It's capable of displaying a fairly bright, clean white, but the backlighting is a little uneven, with darker tones towards the bottom. Graduated colours and greys are smooth, though.

Below the screen is a pair of small speakers, which sound clear but lack volume. Fortunately, the Znote has an integrated mini-jack audio and mini-optical S/PDIF output, so you can connect

The grey keyboard has a slight bulge in the middle and flexes when you type. Its keys have a shallow depth of travel and feel spongy. The touch pad is better, with big responsive buttons. It tracks accurately and is shaped to match the display's widescreen aspect. The pad's surface is almost flush with the surrounding plastic, which looks smart, but your finger can slip off it.

This notebook's Windows performance is respectable, and its Intel Core Duo T2050 processor is more than powerful enough for day-to-day computing. However, if you plan to take on tougher tasks such as video editing, you'll need an upgrade to 1GB of RAM. The integrated Intel graphics chipset couldn't run our Doom 3 test, so it's not suitable for gamers. The battery lasted for a very respectable three hours and six minutes, which is fine for occasional mobile use.

The 60GB hard disk is a little on the small side and will quickly fill up if you're a keen collector of music and video files. Fortunately, the Znote has a DVD writer so you can archive old files to disc. Surprisingly for a budget notebook, it also has Bluetooth, making it easy to connect to a mobile phone for getting online or synchronising data.

The Zepto is a decent notebook with lots of useful features and plenty of ports, but it's let down by its keyboard. If you don't need Bluetooth, Asus's F3F-AP010H (below) is a better choice.