Advent's last netbook, the
4211, caught us a little by surprise. It may have been an
MSI Wind U100 in all but name - it was the same netbook with an Advent logo - but the price was simply fantastic. Where the Wind was launched at around £300, the Advent could be had for £60 less.
Advent's latest effort, the 4312, is something of a different animal, though, with the old MSI Wind chassis discarded in favour of an ECS model. Alas, we're not as impressed.
It's sturdy enough, with a sturdy base and plenty of protection for the screen - wristrest only began to bend or distort after we'd applied plenty of pressure. But the plain black chassis and glossy black lid is both dull and a fingerprint magnet - it's nothing compared to the stylish
Eee PC S101 or the
HP 2133 Mini-Note.
The keyboard is another low point. The 4312's keys sit flush with the chassis and lack the tapered edges that are employed on the Wind and recent Asus Eee PCs. The keys are also a couple of millimetres shorter than those on rival netbooks and this small change makes a big difference to typing, rendering it far less comfortable than the majority of netbooks on the market.
It's also worth mentioning that both Shift keys and the Enter key have been shrunk and the left-hand side function and control buttons have been swapped around, which takes a while to get used to. It's disappointing as there's a good centimetre of empty space either side of the keyboard that could have been put to better use - the keyboard on MSI's Wind and Asus' Eee PCs make far more of the space available to them.
Thankfully, the trackpad is responsive and easy to use, and the single rocker button - which also harbours four status lights - is just as comfortable. There's also the usual allocation of ports and sockets, with three USB ports, an SD/SDHC flash card reader, Ethernet port, VGA output and headphone and microphone sockets spread around the chassis. The power button is located towards the front of the machine although, disappointingly, it's not very responsive.
The screen is average and it lacks the bright and breezy feel of the screen on Asus' netbooks. The Advent's panel is dull and lacks punch; it is still more than adequate for surfing the web, checking emails or basic office tasks, however.
Inside, the Advent becomes a little more interesting. While Intel's Atom N270 1.6GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and wireless internet is
standard fare for a netbook these days - and results in a perfectly adequate score of 0.37 in our 2D benchmarks - a couple of additions, namely the hard disk and improved wireless connectivity, are worthy of note.
There's HSDPA connectivity, for instance, something that's only just begun to creep into netbooks - the only other netbook to boast this feature is the Vodafone variant of
Dell's Inspiron Mini 9 - and on another positive note, the 3G modem here isn't tied to a specific network. Unlike the
Elonex Onetwo3 and the Mini you can plug whatever SIM you like into the 4213.
The inclusion of a 160GB hard disk is also generous. It's double the space available to the A-Listed
Asus Eee PC 1000H and the MSI Wind U100, and more than enough to store a reasonable media collection without resorting to augmenting your storage space with SD cards.
Finally, Battery life is adequate too, although the 3,600mAh battery can't compete with the longevity of other netbooks, such as the Eee PC 1000H and MSI Wind U100, which have 6,600mAh and 4,400mAh batteries respectively. Nevertheless, a score of just under four hours in our light use test and 3hrs 12mins in our more demanding heavy use test is evidence that the Advent can cope with a fair chunk of use away from the mains.
But, while the relatively good battery life, large hard disk and 3G modem are undoubted benefits, they're not enough to save the 4213. The bland chassis and, more importantly, the poor keyboard can't convince us that this is worth almost £60 more than Advent's last foray into such an oversaturated market.
System Specifications
1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB RAM, 160GB hard disk, Intel GMA 950 graphics, 10in 1,024 x 600 TFT, 802.11b/g WLAN, HSDPA, 10/100 Ethernet, Bluetooth 2.0, 0.3mp webcam, 3 x USB, VGA output, SDHC card reader, Windows XP Home Premium, 1yr RTB warranty, 257 x 180 x 39mm (W x D x H), 1.4kg.
Verdict
Built-in HSDPA and a huge hard disk can't save an ugly, uncomfortable addition to the netbook brigade.
Author: Mike Jennings
PC Pro Online