Product Reviews

AMD's Turion is a new low-voltage processor that's designed to compete with Intel's Pentium M series for notebooks. Watford's Aries Precision 1151 is the first notebook we have seen from this manufacturer to use this new processor.

The Precision 1151's base is about the same size as a sheet of A4 paper. It weighs just 2kg with its standard battery, so it just squeezes into the ultra-portable notebook category. Its all-black styling is understated yet smart, and it has a soft rubberised lid and metallic black keyboard surround. Despite its size it has room for three USB2 ports around the base, a slot-loading DVD/CD-RW combo drive and a memory card reader with support for MMC, SD and MS cards, as well as a FireWire port on the front. Its 40GB hard disk is not really big enough if you want to install games or store video files, though.

The Precision's small base means

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that some of the keys have a reduced width, but the main keys are large and provide good feedback. The keyboard flexes slightly, however. The recessed touch pad is accurate, so there is little need for an external mouse, and the buttons have a solid click despite their odd hinged design. Although the 12.1" reflective display is quite small, it has a fairly high resolution of 1,280x800 pixels. Fortunately its sharpness and excellent colour distribution make it easy on the eyes. Whites are very bright, but blacks are not as deep as on most reflective displays.

Despite its size, the Precision 1151 is a strong performer. Its Turion MT-34 processor runs at 1.8GHz, and it has 512MB of DDR memory, giving it a respectable performance in our tests. Its Shopper and PCMark04 scores are impressive for an ultra-portable notebook, and it even has some 3D abilities, although its Radeon Express 200M graphics chipset is not powerful enough for modern games. The battery is disappointing, however, lasting less than two hours between charges. A larger 8-cell battery is available for £50 including VAT, which is a worthwhile investment.

This ultra-portable notebook looks good and is well built with an impressive screen and good performance for the price. It's a shame that the standard battery's life is so poor, as the point of an ultra-portable is that it is used on the road. As long as you don't intend to travel, this is a stylish, powerful notebook and a good buy.