Packard Bell Dot S (DOT-S-018) review

While the new Packard Bell Dot S we were sent for review was a stylish shade of red, it’s the black edition that’s currently got the best price. The black version is still great to look at with a neat patterned lid adding a bit of class to the mini laptop.

Typing on any netbook can be challenging for larger hands, but we found the Dot S to be very capable. The black Chiclet-style keys have a straightforward layout, although some of the punctuation keys are half-sized to make the most-used keys easier to type on. The keys are grouped quite tightly, which led to a few initial spelling mistakes. The touchpad buttons are right on the edge of the chassis, which we found slightly too far away from the keyboard to be comfortable. The touchpad itself is reasonably sized and was quick to respond to input.

The 10.1in LED-backlit screen has a glossy coating which picked up a lot of reflections. The standard 1,024×600 resolution is cramped and means a lot of vertical scrolling when viewing websites, but images were sharp. Colours were mostly accurate and contrast was even, but brightness was average. Viewing angles were decent, with little colour shifting at anything other than extreme angles. The screen tilts right back, but the hinges weren’t particularly stiff.

Although video was acceptable, audio was mediocre. The downward facing speakers were quiet, but sound quality was poor. High-end notes were masked by a thick mid-range: every music track we played sounded muddy.

Like many other netbooks, the Dot S has an Intel Atom N450 processor; performance was predictably average. An overall score of 17 in our multimedia benchmarks is exactly what we’d expect from a netbook, but with only 1GB of memory, it suffered in our multitasking test. Serious web users that like to have many tabs open at once will notice slowdown.

Unusually for an inexpensive netbook, the Dot S comes with a six-cell battery that should help extend the time spent between trips to a plug socket. In our light-use test, it managed over ten and a half hours, which is at the very top end of netbook battery life. It was also whisper quiet during normal use, only becoming audible after the processor was at 100 per cent load. The disadvantage is that the underside became very hot after several hours’ use, although the wrist rest was much cooler.

We like the Dot S a lot. Usability is very good thanks to the sharp screen and decent keyboard, but the disappointing audio means it’s more suited to work than entertainment. Despite this, for working on the move, there are few other netbooks that last as long between charges.