PACKARD BELL EASYNOTE M3 325

VERDICT: Packard Bell has provided AMD's new 64-bit processor in a large chassis, adding a widescreen display and four speakers

At the end of last year AMD released the first 64-bit Windows desktop and laptop processors onto the market, and many laptop manufacturers are now supplying machines with this chip. These new processors, such as the AMD Athlon 64 3200+ chip used in Packard Bell's EasyNote M3 325 (£1799 inc. VAT), run existing 32-bit applications normally, but they are also ready to handle 64-bit computing on arrival.

SCREENTEST
Packard Bell's M-series chassis is built for the desktop replacement market, and is aimed specifically at multimedia home users. There's no denying it's a large laptop, but this affords a few extra features. The M3 325 uses a large 15.4-inch panel with a widescreen resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels (WXGA). That's not particularly high for the size, but it produces text that's easy to read and the wide format is good for watching movies. Our review panel showed no obvious defects and had good brightness.

The large chassis also allows for six USB 2.0 ports. Two are mounted on the right side of the case for easy access.

We were unsure what to expect in terms of performance from the AMD Athlon 64 3200+ CPU, since our previous test results of AMD 64bit chips have varied widely. The Packard Bell M3 325 achieved a MobileMark 2002 score of 153, - in the range of Intel's fastest Pentium desktop chips. It's backed up by 512MB of DDR SDRAM and a 60GB Fujitsu hard drive.

The graphics solution is an ATi Mobilty Radeon 9000, a discrete graphics adapter with 64MB on board. This gave a 3D test score of 7517. It has enough performance to play most existing games very well, but the latest 3D titles are beyond its reach. It's a shame this home widescreen machine doesn't have the top-spec 9600 graphics card with DirectX 9 support.

EXTRA PORTS
Despite its home multimedia intentions, this laptop's widescreen display and moderate resolution also make it a good office machine for typing and spreadsheets. The cheap keyboards fitted to many multimedia laptops - under the assumption that users will only want to watch movies and play games - usually prevent this. Although the unit fitted here doesn't feel high in quality, it's comfortable to type and a good match for a combined work/entertainment role.

Large deskbound laptops often have legacy connection ports, but this machine has omitted the older parallel, serial, infrared and PS/2 ports. It is fitted, however, with mini-FireWire, Ethernet, modem, external monitor and S-Video ports. Also a single Type II PC Card slot and a 4-in-1 memory card reader and for those with lots of data to burn there's a Toshiba DVD-R/RW optical drive.

We think the Packard Bell M3 325 is an ideal design for someone who combines work/entertainment on the one machine, plays games occasionally and prefers a large screen over mobility. In a perfect world, a better graphics card like the ATi 9600 in Packard Bell's Intel-powered M7 version of this chassis would make an outstanding gamers' machine. Until it does, it has to settle for 'competent all-rounder'.

PRICE: £1531/£1799 (EX/INC. VAT)
PROCESSOR: AMD ATHLON 64 3200+
MEMORY: 512MB DDR SDRAM
HARD DRIVE: FUJITSU 60GB
SCREEN SIZE AND TYPE: 15.4-INCH TFT
DISPLAY RESOLUTION: 1280 X 800 PIXELS
GRAPHICS CARD: ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9000
DIMENSIONS: 352 292 X 49MM
WEIGHT: 4KG
PC CARDS (TYPE II/III): 1/0
WIRELESS LAN: 802.11B
ETHERNET: YES
MODEM: YES
USB PORTS: 6 X USB 2.0
FIREWIRE: 1
STANDARD WARRANTY: 1YR RTB
WARRANTY UPGRADE: THROUGH DSG
CONTACT: 01628 512456 WWW.PACKARDBELL.CO.UK  

RATINGS AND TEST RESULTS

BATTERY LIFE: 208 MINS
MOBILEMARK 2002: 1153
3DMARK 2001: 7517

VALUE FOR MONEY: 7
PERFORMANCE: 7
FEATURES: 7
MOBILITY: 8
BUILD QUALITY: 4
OVERALL: 7