The touchpad has a scroll section, although this has not been separated from the rest of the touchpad as seen on HP notebooks. The result is that you sometimes scroll by accident. There is also a scroll button between the two selector buttons, which makes you wonder why there is a scroll surface on the touchpad in the first place. Above the keyboard is the power switch, a button for enabling the wireless antenna and two shortcut buttons to launch your Internet browser and email client.

Fujitsu-Siemens has also included a decent software bundle with a copy of Microsoft Works Suite 2004 on DVD, Norman AntiVirus, Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 and Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0.

 

The Amilo A1630 also impressed in terms of performance, although the processor seems to have been clock throttling - the SYSmark 2002 score was a little lower than expected. The PCMark 2004 numbers were better and the 3D benchmarks were very good. In terms of battery life the Amilo A1630 managed two hours and 23 minutes, which is ok from something that is meant to be a desktop replacement machine.

 

Looking at the specifications of the Amilo A1630 you'd be forgiven for thinking that it is a very expensive laptop, but Fujitsu-Siemens has given it a price tag of only £2000. This is a competitive price even compared to a desktop system with similar specifications. The only minor gripe here is the one year collect and return warranty.

The Amilo A1630 is a very good notebook, as long as you can live with its weight and size. Overall specification is solid, but the processor didn't quite perform as well as we expected it to - we suspect that the CPU was clock throttling when it got hot. As well as taking office applications in its stride, the A1630 doubles as a convincing mobile gaming platform. So, if you're after an affordable power laptop that can turn its hand to anything, you could do a lot worse than the Amilo A1630.

Verdict

Although not quite the performance machine it was expected to be, the Amilo A1630 is still a great notebook - it's well featured, can handle anything you throw at it and won't break the bank.

Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo A1630
Rating	90%
Price	£2000
More info	The Fujitsu-Siemens web site

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