Introduction

The market for small affordable laptops has exploded in 2008, called netbooks and coming with screen sizes from 7” up to 10” these products have taken the industry by storm, shipping a total of close to 15 million units in 2008. It’s no surprise than to see many companies jump onboard and bring out their version of the Netbook.

Today we have the brand new Packard Bell Dot notebook in for test. Packard Bell might ring a bell with our European readers as this company has been around for quite a while, longer than most of our readers I would dare to say.

Very few brands can claim to have witnessed, let alone contributed, to the three major revolutions – radio, TV and PC – in home entertainment of the past 80 years. Packard Bell is one of the rare ones. The brand was born in 1926. In the 1920s and 1930s when radio was all the rage, Packard Bell emerged as a popular brand of console radios with a reputation for elegant design. The first Packard Bell television sets were launched in 1948, just as the TV revolution was sweeping the world.

In 1986, Packard Bell began designing and marketing personal computers to a previously untapped market segment: home users. Our goal was to design affordable, high-quality, easy-to-use computers, and market them through traditional retail channels.

As simple as this may seem today, the idea was revolutionary at the time. Packard Bell pioneered the use of the PC in the home, transforming an unfriendly but useful office tool into a friendly, indispensable feature of today's modern home

Their focus has always been a favourite for novice and beginner home users and the Dot netbook is part of this family; they combine proven hardware setups with ready to use software installations to make sure even those with little knowledge of PCs will get the most out of them.



The .dot is a 8.9” netbook which puts in the middle of the pack size-wise, depending on where you live the Dot is offered with different configurations, the entry level model is the most affordable at €399 (can be found cheaper online), the second model adds more battery power, the third model adds 3G integrated network adapter. Naming convention is not very telling though, Dot.be/005, Dot.be/010, Dot3G.be/020. Each step up adds about €50 to the price.

We received the Dot.be/010 with the following specifications:

OS: Windows XP Home

CPU: Intel Atom N270 – 1.6Ghz

Memory: 1Gb

Storage: 160Gb HDD

Memory Card Reader: 5-in-1 (MMC/SD/XD/MS/MS-PRO) + 1SD slot

Graphics : Onboard Intel 945 GSE

Screen : 8.9" LED (1024x600)

Integrated Webcam, Speakers and Microphone

10/100 Lan UTP and 802.11 b/g Wireless

3x USB 2.0 ports, Headset/Microphone jack

Battery: 6 Cell Li-Ion

Weight: 1.16Kg (the 3-cell version weighs 1kg)

Warranty: 2 Years

The specifications of the other hardware is pretty much the same compared to the other netbooks out there, seeing as most are all based on the same Intel Atom platform this is no surprise; good to see a large 160Gb HDD in there, that should give you enough space to store your most used data; connectivity is quite good too with 3xUSB, one VGA output. Onboard memory of 1gb is definitely enough for the included XP OS, the screen has a wide enough resolution at 1024, 600 height is also the standard for these netbooks, good for movies, games, might not be enough for office work and internet browsing (depending on the sites). Packard Bell included an extra memory card slot with 5-in-1 support for the most popular formats. Do note that the Dot has no Bluetooth support, something which might come in handy for some, there are very small USB adapters available out there for less than €10 but you’ll have to sacrifice an USB port to use them.

So hardware specs won’t differentiate these netbooks much, but looks will, let’s take a closer peak at the DOT ->

Dot Close Up

Packard Bell packaged the Dot snugly inside a cardboard box with lots of padding at the side to prevent damage during transportation. Inside the box you’ll find a pouch to put the Dot and carry it around (missing a handle though), a small power brick and “mickey-mouse” power cable. The battery is packaged separately and comes pre-charged, so you can just plug it in and start to work.



The documentation included is very thorough guiding you through the process of setting up your new netbook, there are also guidelines for connecting to your Wifi-router, overall a very detailed manual with beginner friendly screenshots and step by step instructions.


.Dot inside the leather carrying bag


6-cell battery, good for 5200mAh

The black .dot has a piano paint finish and is very shiny; its surface does attract fingerprints so you’ll be wiping them off frequently to keep it all spick and span.



When the netbook is closed there are no status LEDs visible, at the front there are no connectors or input controls.



The right side we have mic-in and headphone jack, 2x USB ports, multi-card readers lot and Kensington lock.



With the 6-cell battery installed the footprint of the .dot increases slightly, it’s also tilting towards the front now.



At the left side we have connector hole for the charger, D-Sub VGA out, 10/100 network port, the third USB port and another memory card slot.



The bottom doesn’t reveal much, there are cooling vents at different strategic locations, you can see the anti-slip rubber feet of the .dot, the battery pack also has two of those. The battery lock/release buttons are the only interactive parts here of interest. The small panel of the top left side gives you access to the 3G module (to put in your SIM card) if you ordered the .Dot3G/20; in this case the contents underneath the panel are missing. There is no immediate access to any of the parts inside, removing the visible screws in the photo above does not allow you to open the .Dot easily; so memory upgrade, HDD swap will definitely void your warranty if you dare to try.



Flipping the netbook we do a size comparison with a joker card, the 8.9” screen allows the .dot to give a good balance between portability and usability.

Flipped Open

Flipping open the .dot doesn’t require any lever to be pulled, the hinge is sufficient stiff for the screen to remain in any position you like to set it. The maximum setting is almost 180° but due to the larger 6-cell battery the screen opens up slightly less extreme. Anywhere between 60°-110° is most comfortable to use:




First thing to notice is that this is a reflective bright LCD screen, so in darker ambient rooms the colors will be more vibrant with rich dark areas. The downside is that in more lit places the screen will have some noticeable reflections from the surroundings. The diminutive size of the screen does minimize this effect noticeably and after using the .dot in several differently lit locations I can’t say it was bothering me; the viewing angle from the sides is ok, but make sure you have it aligned correctly vertically as the colors and contrast will change quickly otherwise.

With the screen open you can now see the first series of access/status LEDs in the bottom right corner:



The second series of access/status LEDs are located right above the F1->F5 function keys and are only visible when the machine is powered on, they blend in nicely with the black finish.




The touchpad mouse control is quite rectangular and takes some time to get used to if you have only used larger laptop touch pads before. The left/right mouse click are placed respectively at the sides of the pad; for prolonged use an external mouse is recommended, but this is of course personal taste and preference.



Above the screen you can find a build-in microphone:



And webcam:



The webcam offers good enough quality for video chats, its intended purpose:



The power button is hidden at the top right corner of the .dot. It lights up blue when pressed:



Here in Belgium we use a keyboard layout a little bit different from the civilized world; it’s a mix of US, FR, NL, DE layouts thrown together to allow special French characters like ç, é, à. It’s a small tweak of the azerty layout used by the French.



Pressing the Blue “FN” key in combination with F7 is one of the first things I do when preparing to type on any laptop/netbook which features a touch pad located in the area where you wrist rests. The FN key also allows you to quickly change speaker volume, screen brightness, switch between internal/external display, but the PC to “sleep” and other quick shortcuts which will come in handy in daily usage. The location of the FuNction key is placed at the right side of the control, excellent choice! The enter key is large enough, the space bar too, the backspace could have been a smidgen larger for me, but still manageable. Overall with the available space Packard Bell did a stand up job delivering a full size keyboard, you won’t be writing any novels on it, but for the occasional chat, forum post and email it’s more than sufficient.

Visual Comparo: Packard Bell .dot vs MSI Wind

The only other netbook I had in house to compare the .dot to was the 10” MSI Wind which was launched in the fall of 2008. The first version came with a 3-cell battery, so it won’t stand much of a chance in battery life against the 6-cell .dot.

Size wise the extra inch on the MSI Wind does give you a noticeably larger screen to look at, especially up close the difference becomes clear, the .dot has larger frame around the LCD.



With both netbooks closed the difference in size is less noticeable:



From the side it becomes clear though that the .dot has a much smaller footprint and will fit in places the MSI Wind can not.



The MSI Wind features a standard none-reflective LCD:



The Packard Bell .dot reflects noticeably more:



The 3-cell battery of the MSI Wind is good for ~2.5 hours of fun using its most aggressive power saving option, while this is respectable, it rules out any long term usage if you’re away from a power source. I ordered a 9-cell battery from Ebay to remedy this 7200mAh might be slightly overkill, as you’ll see in the photos below:




Long story short, this battery is very heavy, screws up the point of gravity of the MSI Wind completely, makes it much less portable and easy to use. The forward tilt is “usable” but less comfortable than with the 3-cell battery; the only good thing it does is prolonging battery life tremendously; up to ~6 hours is achievable, browsing, watching movies, listing to music.

The Packard Bell .dot with its 6-cell battery and tested with this same usage pattern keeps running for approximately ~4 hours; very respectable. Maximum power saving enabled and only idling or very few activity 5 hours can be squeezed out of the battery but that’s about the limit.

Software Side Of Things

Packard Bell sells the .dot with XP Home preinstalled, there is also a collection of useful software preinstalled like a full version of Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 and Microsoft Works 9. There’s trial install of Office 2007, which might be a bit too CPU intensive for a netbook. Norton Internet Security 2008 is also preinstalled and comes with a 90 days trial period, although this is a very user friendly all-in-one package, there are enough more performant free alternatives out there which cover anti-virus/spyware and firewall functionality. Last software package available is an online backup tool called Carbonite which allows you to store your documents online (you got a 4 month free trial here).

For first time users the most interesting application to run will be Packard Bell’s own help and documentation program which will guide you through getting the most out of your system; not very useful for those who are experienced with the Windows OS and PCs in general, but a godsend if you decide to donate this netbook to a friend or family member who’s not all that much into “PééCéés”.



I took an image of the HDD to a network drive and prepped an USB stick with Windows 7 beta installation files; less than an hour later I had reinstalled the .dot with the latest and greatest from Microsoft:



Running a tweaked Vista (dubbed Windows 7 by Microsoft) on a 1.6Ghz Atom (which has about the raw CPU power of a 1.3ghz Pentium 3) went surprisingly well, when running on external power even Aero was working fluently, on battery Windows 7 automatically turned it off to save power. The advanced power states of Windows 7 came in handy, putting the system in Sleep mode was as good as immediate (it turns of the complete system, but keeps the memory under power to save the current system state, after an hour it will write the memory contents to HDD and go to hibernate), waking up from Sleep was immediate too. While this functionality is also present with XP, the Windows 7 setup just felt snappier, and this on low end hardware!

Conclusive Thoughts

The netbook market is very crowded and setting yourself apart from the other products becomes harder every day. The Packard Bell .dot/10 does a commendable job to deliver a multifunctional product with lots of useful features like integrated webcam, large HDD, wifi, multi-card reader, and this at a competitive price of €399 (€50 cheaper than the listed launch price!). Performance wise this Atom based netbook is fast enough to run the latest Windows 7 beta without flaw and its 1gb onboard memory is sufficient to even do a little bit of multi-tasking.

Upgrade options on the .dot/10 are absent, I couldn’t find an easy way to replace either HDD or Memory so that’s definitely a downside if you’re looking for a netbook which you can upgrade in the future.

The next generation netbook are still a few months (if not more) away, with both Intel and NVIDIA pushing to deliver hardware capable of decoding HD content, higher resolutions screens and hopefully also newer power friendly features, as the current Intel chipset used is not the most power friendly out there. Intel did release a newer Atom CPU which is clocked at 1.66Ghz, no surprise that the 60Mhz speed bump is not making any difference performance wise, so those with a 1.6Ghz Atom can still sleep on both ears.

The Packard Bell dot series with 8.9” screen scores high in the looks department and feature wise is quite complete, only lacking Bluetooth; value wise it doesn’t stand out but is not more expensive than the competition. It will come down to personal preference whether or not this netbook is suited for you or not.



We like to thank Tim from Packard Bell and Corneel from NewsEnginePR for allowing us to test the .dot netbook!

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