Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Mini UI 3520 netbook

When it comes to performance, the Amilo's benchmark scores were decent, but nothing to write home about. It's CPU and Memory scores running PCMark05 put it among the fastest machines we've seen, but its hard drive performance was weak compared to the competition.

Our Gimp Gaussian Blur test proved no problem for the Amilo either - its scores was within 0.3 seconds of the fastest so far.

Decent but unexceptional performer

The Amilo offers two running modes: Silent, which throttles the processor and kills the fan, and Normal. However, running our standard battery test, which involves playing an H.264-encoded video on loop showed little difference between the two settings. With throttling turned on, it ran for 139 minutes, while with it disabled it lasted ever so slightly longer, at 145 minutes.

This is an extreme test as it involves setting the screen brightness to the maximum and decoding video is a processor intensive activity. In more real life usage, you could probably expect around four hours from each charge.

Verdict

If you like to keep your expansion options open, then the addition of an ExpressCard slot certainly makes the Amilo worth looking at and the ability to change coloured lids could be a bonus, depending on your personal preference. Its sub-£300 price tag is also quite appealing.

Its downsides, however, are its small display for the machine's overall size, slightly awkward keyboard and touchpad, and sub-par hard drive performance. While it can mostly keep up with the competition, the Amilo doesn't exactly stand out either, making it a decent, if not exactly exciting machine. ®

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