Iridium AVPC

A Round of Applause Please

In today’s Far East-dominated PC market, offerings from UK manufacturers have to be applauded and this new laptop form Warwick-based manufacturer Iridium should give resellers a reason to start clapping.

Part of 11-year old mobile manufacturing group Rock, Iridium is one of the largest and most experienced manufacturers currently working in the UK.

Pedigree aside, the company has developed a reputation for producing reasonably low-cost notebooks, LCD monitors and projectors, which it sells through its UK network of resellers and distributors.

The product under the CTS spotlight this week is the group’s Starbook 760 – a sleek, well-designed and powerful notebook loaded with the market-building Intel Centrino technology.

Way to go

Notebooks and related mobile technology may be ten a penny in the builder and dealer channel, but they are also its lifeblood. Recent reports in CTS’s sister title MicroScope illustrate that many in the industry are using the mobile and notebook sectors as the basis for reinvigorating their push into the small business and hone use channel, particularly when it comes to the scope for upselling around Centrino-friendly technologies such as wireless networking.

The Starbook 760 is a design-conscious, thin (27mm) and lightweight (3.1Kg) notebook designed to cater for those working on the move, as well as those looking for a top-of-the-range multimedia entertainment system.

So the question is, does the Starbook live up to the hype? CTS’ answer, after a thorough run-through on a particularly hellish train trip around Manchester and the Welsh borders, is a resounding ‘yes’.

Make an impression

First impressions are important in this sector, and this is an area where the Starbook 760 really delivers. Our model came in a matt steel finish with the sleek Iridium logo embossed on the front – it manages to be both eye-catching and tasteful without being over the top.

In terms of performance, the Starbook is packed with features - as well as that Centrino technology, it has an Intel M processor, Speedstep and a Montara-GM Chipset. It packs a decent 1MB L2 cache, has a 15.4in high-definition WXGA TFT screen, 1GB of DDR RAM and up to 80GB hard disk drive software.

Other features include 802.11b Wi-Fi capability, five speaker systems, an internal 56k modem, a DVD/CD-RW drive, Microsoft Windows XP, Ability Office 2002, Panda AV software and, of course, a carry case.

The system is usable, responsive and so packed with features ad add-ons that even CTS’s seven-hour train journey sped past in a blur.

Like all notebooks, at times we found the keyboard difficult to use and the response a little ‘springy’, but these are minor quibbles with what we believe to be an excellent product.

It delivers both for business use and entertainment – an area where the Microsoft multimedia technology is really given the space to shine through.

To summarise, the Starbook 760 manages to combine design-conscious desirability with top class functionality and simple ease of use. Resellers selling into the home user or business markets should be able to shift a shed-load.