Product Reviews

It's not unusual to find notebook PCs that use processors usually reserved for larger, desktop-based systems. This notebook from Advent is such a machine. It is built around a desktop Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz processor with Hyper-Threading. Using a desktop processor usually gives you more power at a lower cost, but at the expense of battery life. Happily, the 7049's excellent battery lasts well over two hours.

The 3.06GHz Pentium 4 processor included here isn't the latest or fastest Pentium 4, but provides plenty of power for even the most demanding tasks such as video editing. It has 512MB of RAM, which is plenty for a notebook at this price, and a respectable 60GB hard disk. The system scored 137 in the SYSmark2004 benchmark, which is significantly higher than the similarly priced Evesham Voyager WS A25 notebook (see What's New, Shopper August 2004).

There's also

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plenty of scope for playing games. The 7049 uses an nVidia GeForce FX Go5300 graphics processor with 64MB of dedicated memory - not cutting-edge, but a cut above the integrated graphics used in cheaper notebooks. The system scored 1,668 in 3DMark03 and 8,911 in 3DMark2001 SE, which is good enough to run the latest games, but we've seen better scores from similarly priced notebooks.

The 7049 weighs a fairly bulky 3.48kg, so you may not want to take it on a long journey. Its battery lasted a commendable 158 minutes in our MobileMark test, though. The wireless network adaptor supports speeds of up to 54Mbit/s, while the 4X DVD writer will allow you to burn home movies to disc or back up large amounts of data. Photographers will like the three-in-one memory card reader.

Unfortunately, these features are let down by a poor chassis. The Advent looks unremarkable inside and out, and the screen is disappointing. We would hope for a higher screen resolution than 1,024x768 in a notebook of this size and at this price.

It's hard to fathom to whom the Advent 7049 would appeal. It's quite powerful but other notebooks are more so. It can play games, but its graphics aren't good enough for a serious gaming notebook. It's got a decent battery, but is too heavy for travellers and it's reasonably priced rather than good value. If you want to spend £1,000 and can sacrifice a little performance the Evesham Voyager WS A25, reviewed last month, is a better buy.