Belinea b.book 5 review

Mike Jennings Read more October 7, 2009

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£817

Price when reviewed

Belinea has been relatively conservative with its first foray into the burgeoning laptop market, developing a range of competently specified but reasonably priced business laptops. This model, the b.book 5, tops the range, packing a dedicated graphics card and plenty of versatility.

The components that make up the b.book 5 reflect these ambitions. The processor is an Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile T7100 running at 1.8GHz which, even though it won’t set the world alight, is perfectly competent when confronted with most business tasks.

In our benchmarks, it ploughed through Office in a time not far short of our desktop Pentium D 3.2GHz reference machine, with the processor handling multitasking with similar efficiency.

The rest of the b.book’s core specification mirrors this solid, unspectacular start. There’s 1GB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM, which looks a bit mean, but it’s enough to power most everyday office applications without unduly harming performance, and the option to upgrade to 2GB is available. Similarly, the 160GB hard drive is far from generous given the asking price, but is ample for simple business tasks.

There’s a dedicated graphics card, which given the b.book’s target market is a strange addition. If you need a break from dull office tasks, however, don’t expect to be playing the latest games with all their bells and whistles cranked to maximum; the Nvidia GeForce 8400GS M could only run a fairly old game smoothly – Call of Duty 2 – and that was only at the gentlest of settings.

The case is an understated affair that suits the world of business notebooks – a standard chassis with a brushed metal plate bearing Belinea’s logo attached to the lid. Exposed screws surrounding the screen seem mismatched, though, and won’t be to everyone’s taste; they’re supposed to be a design feature, but they make the b.book feel unfinished.

Nestling above the screen is a webcam and microphone and inside is an integrated TPM 1.2 chip, which allows for secure password storage and data encryption.

It may be a modest enclosure to look at, but it’s particularly well appointed with ports and sockets. Four USB ports provide plenty of connectivity, along with Ethernet and mini-FireWire ports and a card reader that accepts SD, MMC and MS cards.

There are decent visual options, with S-Video and DVI-I offering plenty of potential for connecting televisions and projectors. And the requisite audio ports – 3.5mm headphone, microphone and line-in sockets – are all easily accessible on the front of the machine.

The case itself feels robust and well built, although the plastic surface is something of a fingerprint magnet, as is the trackpad which lies flush with the keyboard surround. But while the trackpad looks neat enough, cursor control itself is jumpy, and the double-click mechanism is far too eager.

The integrated scroll bars are also incredibly sensitive, making documents jump around wildly with the merest of touches. A USB mouse will be a wise, if not essential, investment.

Thankfully, the keyboard is far better – not matching the highest standards set by our A List machines – but perfectly usable with no major faults. It also ties in well with the looks of the b.book: quiet and understated yet with an air of sedate class.

The b.book’s major downside is the lack of screen quality. Bright whites have a distinct blue hue, and solid colours are uneven, appearing lighter towards the corners of the screen. While gradients are rendered well, the whole display has a washed-out look when compared with the vibrancy of rival machines.

Our review model came loaded with Windows Vista Business, but Belinea assures us that customers will be greeted with Windows XP Professional when they boot up, with a Vista disc included should they wish to upgrade. Bullguard Antivirus, Power DVD and Nero 7 Essentials are all useful inclusions too.

With an uninspiring chassis and a washed-out screen, the Belinea b.book 5 isn’t the best business laptop on the market today – the machines on our A List see to that, offering faster processors, more RAM and most importantly, vastly superior ergonomics.

As a first entry into a highly competitive market, however, Belinea’s b.book 5 isn’t a complete disappointment, but it’s got a long way to go before it can compete with the best.