Product Reviews

Intel's second-generation Centrino platform, often known by its codename Sonoma, brought the PCI Express graphics connector to notebooks. Even so, notebooks have a disadvantage compared to desktop PCs. Adding a new graphics card to your desktop PC is easy, but doing the same to a notebook is generally impossible.

A notebook PC's graphics chip is usually soldered to the motherboard, so you can't remove it. This has a second disadvantage, as manufacturers must wait for new motherboards before they can use the latest graphics chips. To avoid this problem, manufacturers recently agreed on the Mobile PCI Express Module, or MXM, standard for notebook graphics cards.

The Voyager C520 is the first notebook we've reviewed that uses MXM. Inside is an nVidia GeForce 6200 processor mounted on an MXM type II card. Although it's not designed for users to upgrade, you should be able to replace it with another type II MXM card in the future, as long as you're careful and handy with a screwdriver.

The Voyager is large, with a 15.4" widescreen display. Its chassis looks thin, but a bulge on its underside accommodates

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the graphics card. Despite the notebook's deep feet, the air vent barely clears the desk and seems to struggle. Placing the Voyager on a flat surface causes the fan's pitch to rise, reminding us of a blocked vacuum cleaner.

The crisp screen has wide viewing angles but isn't bright enough at any setting. It's quite resistant to flex and has a sturdy catch and hinges, but it's easily discoloured by pressure from behind the panel.

The keyboard has a conventional layout and feels very well made. The key travel is long and there's plenty of feedback. Instead of two touch pad buttons the Voyager has a single bar, which we found too narrow and stiffly sprung.

Both the top and base of the Voyager's chassis get warm during use, and the area around the graphics card became particularly toasty during benchmark testing. Fan noise became quite noticeable when the computer was working hard. Heat, and the Voyager's 3kg weight, make it uncomfortable to use on the lap, and with just over two hours of battery life it's unsuitable for regular mobile use.

The C520's performance in our other benchmarks was not exceptional. It scored a solid 76 in the video-encoding part of the Shopper application benchmarks, but average results elsewhere led to a middling overall score. Its PCMark04 and 3DMark03 results were run-of-the-mill. It managed only 1.7 frames per second in our Doom 3 test, so many modern games are beyond it.

As it stands, Evesham's entrant in our £750 Notebook Labs test on page 134 offers more power for less money. The company intends to offer an upgrade to a 128MB nVidia GeForce 6600 for £60 including VAT, but we can't recommend this notebook with the specification we tested.