Everex StepNote NC1500 laptop

Everex StepNote NC1500 laptop
Budget laptop falls short of mainstream competition
PROS Inexpensive; sturdy build for a budget notebook; big wide-screen display; energy-efficient
CONS Weak, low-end Via CPU; short battery life
SPECS 1.5GHz Via C7-M; 512MB DDR2; 60GB hard drive; double -layer OVDtRW; ISA-inch TFT; Windows XP Home Edition

THE EVEREX STEPNOTE NC1500 is billed as the world's most energy-efficient notebook. It comes in under $500 thanks to its off-btand CPU but its poor performance and meager battery life mean you should invest a little more in an Intel or AMD based budget laptop.
At 5.6 pounds, the $498 StepNote is some what heavy for carrying around every day. Still, the case is thin, and the notebook doesn't look or feel poorly built like some other budget models we've seen. Its roomy screen a 15.4-inch wide-screen display has a standard 1,280x800 resolution, which is fine for watching DVD movies and surfing the Web. Ethernet and modem jacks, a VGA output, and built-in 802.11b/gWi-Fi. In addition.You get a DVD burner and a decent-size hard drive (60GB), albeit of the slower4,200 rpm variety.The secret to the Step-Note's low price and energy efficiency is its 1.5GHz Via C7-M processor.
In our tests the notebook performed basic office and Web-surfing tasks with little noticeable stuttering, but when com pared with other laptops running low-end processors, it fared poorty. Also, be cause the StepNote has an S3 UniChrome Pro graphics chip, which shares 64MB of the main system memory, it couldn't handle even basic gaming. Although the StepNote doesn't draw much current when plugged in, its tiny, three-cell battery didn't last long off-plug. We squeezed out a mere 1 hour and 44 minutes of juice.