Multivision Solus 1015

This space-saving desktop replacement is great value for money.

Price: £703.83

Manufacturer: Multivision

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Verdict

Pros:

CD-RW/DVD-Rom combo drive; good price.

Cons:
Single, tinny speaker; awkward touchpad.

Verdict:
A great value notebook but you'll probably want separate speakers and mouse.

Emilie Martin, Personal Computer World 09 Mar 2004

Since Intel launched its Centrino mobile technology platform earlier this year, our labs have been overrun with ultraportable notebooks, so it makes a change to take a look at this desktop replacement system from Multivision. Weighing in at a hefty 3.7kg, this model really isn't the kind of notebook you'd want to be carting round and lacks the wireless connectivity features of other models designed to be used on the hoof. Having said that, you will find an infra-red port at the rear of the unit, which is handy if you want to synchronise data to your PDA or get an Internet connection using a mobile phone.

The Multivision has an attractive £703.83 price tag but this does mean that you're not going to get top-of-the-range components. Inside the matt-black chassis, the Solus features an Athlon Mobile 2000+ processor, with only 256MB of Ram and a fairly small 20GB hard disk. Graphics processing is powered by a Radeon Mobility 9000 chip with 32MB of dedicated memory, which performed relatively well in our 3D graphics tests, scoring 6,992 in 3Dmark 2001 and clocking up 43.4fps (frames per second) in Unreal Tournament. It also put in a respectable show in our system performance tests, with an overall score of 140 in Sysmark, 189 for Internet content creation tests and 104 for office productivity.

For a notebook that hasn't been designed with mobility in mind, the Multivision proved its battery has staying power, lasting two hours and seven minutes before it ran out of juice.

The 15in LCD screen gives a fairly clear picture, although the viewing angles aren't fantastic. But if you're not going to be using this notebook to give presentations on the move this isn't a big deal, so at this price we can forgive this shortcoming.

On the left-hand side of the unit you'll find two USB2 ports and one Firewire port to hook up peripherals, along with a PC Card slot and headphone and microphone mini-jack sockets. Over on the right side of the case is a modem socket and a CD-RW/DVD-Rom combo drive. Meanwhile, round the back you'll find a parallel port for older printers, a VGA socket if you want to connect up a monitor, an S-Video-out socket and Ethernet port.

There are just two hot keys, one located on either side of the power button below the screen hinge and one just above the keypad. One gives access to the Internet, while the other launches email. The Multivision's single speaker is located to the left of these and gives a tinny sound, so we'd recommend hooking up a decent set of speakers. There's no manual volume control so you have to rely on the on-screen controls offered by Windows Media Player or whatever application you're using to listen to CDs or watch DVDs.

The keypad is not the most robust we've seen and has some give to it when you apply pressure, particularly the keys in the centre. On the whole though, it is sensibly laid out, although the location of the Insert key right next to the space bar is a disaster waiting to happen.

For some reason, Multivision decided to kit out this notebook with a semicircular touchpad, which looks funky but is a pain when you try to get into the bottom corners of the screen. It's also not very big, so navigating can be a fiddly business. On the plus side, though, it's very responsive with two large mouse buttons and a scroll button around the edge.

If you're short of space and don't want to buy a full-sized PC system, or if you're looking for a space-efficient second machine and don't need a powerful computer, the Multivision is excellent value for money.

Contact: Multivision 0870 220 2822
www.multivision.co.uk

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