Everex StepNote NC1500 Review by LAPTOP Magazine

To start with anything but the price on the Everex StepNote NC1500 would be ridiculous. At only $498, the NC1500 is among the least expensive notebooks available. Everex is touting this system as the world's most energy-efficient notebook. The company is likely referring to the notebook's energy and not that of the users who will need to relearn how to type just to finish a paragraph. As expected, this bargain-basement notebook comes with its share of trade-offs, and unfortunately, they're probably deal-breakers for most.

While not a flashy system, the relatively thin (0.9 inches) NC1500 actually looks better than some higher-end models. At less than 6 pounds, it's fairly portable, too. The lid has a plain matte silver finish with a mirrored plate in the middle. Inside, you'll see the same silver finish on the deck and a black bezel. It's not sexy, but we suspect looks will be a low priority for the sub-$500 audience. Accents are few and far between, with a small speaker on the upper left side of the deck and seven indicator lights on the bottom right.

Ports are minimal with Ethernet and a DVD drive on the left, a mic, headphone, USB 2.0 port, power and modem jacks on the right, and the VGA and two stacked USB ports on the back. For less than $500, we're pleased to see a DVD+/-RW drive. But we wish Everex offered a PC Card slot or memory card slot.

Our biggest gripe with this system is the keyboard. It seems unnecessarily cramped. The main keys are well spaced, but the ancillary keys are shrunk to the point where we made more typos than we can count. The Enter key is an odd L shape, and the rest of the right-hand side of the keyboard is full of tiny keys, making for an odd layout. We also noticed that for no apparent reason, the cursor jumped to a different part of the screen than we were typing on. We suspect that this is due to the trackpad picking up our wrist movements. What's worse is that there's plenty of room (about 1.5 inches) on each side of the deck for a more standard keyboard.

Everex claims we should see a 20 percent increase in battery life over comparable systems because of its 1.5-GHz VIA C7-M processor. This is about the equivalent of an Intel Celeron M370 processor. In reality, we saw good battery performance of 3 hours and 46 minutes with Wi-Fi on and 3:51 with it off. This runtime is about 10 to 15 minutes longer than average for a mainstream notebook and very good for a 3-cell battery. You can also buy a 6-cell battery for $64.98, which should add at least an hour of endurance if you're doing basic tasks.

The StepNote's performance scores, however, were the lowest we've seen in a long time. The system turned in a basement-dwelling 66 on our MobileMark 2005 test and an abysmal 71 on 3DMark03. This translates to slow performance all around, especially when opening and closing resource-intensive programs and surfing the Web. And you can forget about multitasking with this processor. On the other hand, if you just need to check e-mail and do basic office functions, this machine may be fast enough.

Wireless performance was on target at 10.6 and 8.9 Mbps at 15 and 50 feet, respectively, although the individual numbers were all over the board, meaning you'll get spotty throughput overall.

Low performance scores aside, we were pleasantly surprised with the DVD video quality. We enjoyed clear playback, with no lags or dropped frames. Listenin, however, is another story. If you're in a quiet room, you should be fine, but the speaker and sound card are not very powerful.

The software bundle is not bad for a sub-$500 machine. You get CyberLink's suite of apps, including Power DVD 6, Power2Go 4, Power Backup 2.0, Power DVD Copy, and trial versions of Power Producer 3.2, Medi@ Show 3.0, and Norton Internet Security (90 days). The system comes with a one-year standard warranty on parts and labor and toll-free technical support.

If you're a touch typist or someone who has used several computers (and is therefore used to the general way a keyboard is laid out), this system will drive you to drink. But if you just need a second notebook around the house for quickly checking e-mail, getting a recipe, or showing the kids a movie, and you don't want to spend a lot of money, the NC1500 is a decent choice.

Topics

Resource Centers

Everex StepNote NC1500

For $498 the world's most energy-efficient notebook offers good battery life but slow performance and a frustrating typing experience.

Featured Site Sponsors