Scan 3XS Graphite LH145 review

The only real flaw of the LH145 is its mediocre screen quality. Our colour calibrator showed it was displaying just 57.3 per cent of the sRGB colour gamut, which is a little below average for a laptop of this price. This meant that colours weren’t particularly deep or vibrant in our solid colour image tests, and our solid blacks also revealed that the lower half of the display was brighter than the top half. We could just about get a uniform colour across the screen by tilting the display backwards slightly, but the screen quickly darkened again if we angled it too widely.

The screen’s high black levels didn’t help matters, as our colour calibrator measured a black level of 0.78cd/m2. This is higher than normal for a laptop and it undoubtedly contributed to how grey our blacks appeared onscreen.

Contrast levels weren’t great either, but despite recording a rather average contrast level of 304:1, we were able to see a high level of detail in nearly all of our high contrast test photos. Areas of deep shadow were well-illuminated, if a little grey for our liking, and colours didn’t look too washed out overall.

At least you should be able to get a good day’s work out of the LH145, as it lasted a huge 9 hours and 25 minutes in our light use battery test with the screen set to half brightness. This is great for a laptop under £600, and it’s almost twice as long as the equally powerful PC Specialist Cosmos II HD.

The Scan 3XS Graphite LH145 may not have the greatest screen, but we think it’s a small price to pay considering it’s just as slim and powerful as several more expensive Ultrabooks. It doesn’t have the same graphics capabilities as the similarly-priced PC Specialist Cosmos II HD, but if you want a capable laptop that you can rely on while on the move, the LH145 is a great choice.