While most netbooks are available in any colour as long as it’s white (or black, depending on the manufacturer), Packard Bell is a little more style-conscious and has decided to offer the Dot S2 in an alluring bright red as well. Whatever colour you choose for the outer shell, flipping the lid reveals one of the most stylish gunmetal interiors we’ve seen on a netbook.

This is a portable machine with a mind to keeping you up and running on the road, boasting nearly eight hours of battery life and weighing in at just 1.2kg. It’s a svelte design, too, although the large battery pack does protrude below the base by a few millimetres.

The core specification, as is to be expected from any modern netbook, boasts the ubiquitous Intel Atom N450 running at 1.6GHz, with 1GB of DDR2 RAM backed up by a 5,400rpm 250GB hard drive. This is a capable core that powers the vast majority of 10.1-inch netbooks, and in our performance test as a DAW, the Dot achieved the same score as the MSI, Acer and Asus.

Packard Bell has packaged a copy of Photoshop Elements 7 on the machine; although the Dot is technically capable of running this, the performance is a little slow in practical terms. Even so, given the price, it’s a nice inclusion.

www.packardbell.co.uk

Verdict

The Dot S2 is one of the better-looking netbooks out there, but unfortunately, it’s a case of style over substance in terms of its power.