Review Back in May I reviewed Packard Bell’s dot S2 netbook and was disappointed to find it was little more than a Aspire One 532h rebranded from parent company Acer. I was therefore pleased to see the new EasyNote LM looks totally unlike any of Acer’s 17in Aspires and Timelines.

Packard Bell’s EasyNote LM: nothing like an Acer

Various versions of the EasyNote LM are available. This one is the LM86-GN-005UK, which is the lowest-specified model and has a Core i3 processor, 3GB DDR3 memory, 320GB hard drive and Intel GMA HD graphics.

Part with an extra £100 and you can get your hands on the LM86-JN-009UK – this sticks with the same processor, but adds an extra gigabyte of memory, doubles the hard drive capacity and is more gamer-friendly with a Radeon HD5470. There’s also a Core i5-driven LM86-JN-010UK model, but at the time of writing I couldn’t find this on sale anywhere in the UK.

A fairly restrained wavy lined pattern adorns the lid and wrist rest, but apart from that it’s a pretty bog-standard design. Red, silver, white and black are your colours choices. With plenty of space to stretch out, the low-profile keyboard features decent-sized keys along with a numeric keypad. The keys feel a bit spongy when depressed and it’s not the nicest to type on, but then again I’ve never been a huge fan of low-profile keyboards.

Taking the form of a single rocker-bar, the left and right buttons below the touchpad aren’t great. As with the keys on the keyboard, they feel spongy and could do with a bit more travel. Using two individual buttons instead of a rocker-bar would also be preferable.

Full-size keys, but it’s not the nicest to type on

Packard Bell markets the EasyNote LM as providing ‘a true cinematic experience’, but I wasn’t surprised to find the speakers a little lacking. They’ll fill a small room, but distortion creeps in at high volume and bass is non-existent.