We're not completely sure what the thinking is behind the names of Advent's new budget laptops. First there was the Roma 1000, then the Roma 3000, then the Milano and now the Verona. We can only assume that the next model to arrive will be the 'Pollo Ad Astra'. Until then, let's take a look at this budget, 13.3-inch, ultra-low-voltage laptop. Here we review the £330 model with an Intel Celeron 743 CPU. A model with an Intel Pentium SU2700 CPU is available for £400.
Easy on the eye
Budget laptops usually tend to look rather bland, but, like the 15.6-inch Roma models and the 10.2-inch Milano netbook we reviewed recently, the Verona is rather pleasant to look at. The chassis is well-proportioned, with a profile that tapers from a very thin front edge to a 32mm-thick rear end. Its 1.6kg weight compares favourably with that of other 13.3-inch, ULV laptops we've looked at.
Both the lid and keyboard surround are made from light grey plastic, with a darker pattern of swirls, while the rest of the case is black plastic. All in all, the Verona isn't a bad-looking laptop, particularly considering its price.
Flawed keyboard
The chassis provides plenty of room for a full-size keyboard. The Verona has a low-profile keyboard with wide, flat keys. It's comfortable enough to use, but we didn't care for the wobbly key tops, or the excessive travel. Neither are major hindrances, but we've used better keyboards, even at this price.
More worrying was the amount of flex on the keyboard's right side, and its top edge seemed to have come loose from its fixings. Pressing the row of function keys caused the keyboard to snap back into place, but it popped back up immediately. We'll assume it's a one-off quality-control oversight in the case of our review model, but check this carefully if you decide to buy a Verona.
The large multi-touch trackpad is moulded into the wrist rest and, although it works well, its shiny finish means it suffers from the usual stickiness with sweaty fingertips. We also found the buttons to be on the stiff side, and, after a short while, they became something of a chore to use.
Netbook-like performance
Since it's powered by a single-core ULV Intel Celeron 743 processor, we had pretty low expectations for the Verona in our performance benchmark tests. Its PCMark05 score of 1,864 isn't much higher than that of some Atom-powered netbooks we've reviewed, and, while Windows 7 feels snappy enough (helped by 3GB of RAM), applications become rather slow to respond when more than a few are running at once.
A 3DMark06 score of 680 is also on the low side for the Intel GMA 4500MHD GPU, but that relatively puny Celeron processor is undoubtedly partly to blame. This means that any kind of 3D gaming is out of the question, but we were also surprised to see the Verona struggling with high-definition video -- 720p QuickTime video is less than smooth and HD YouTube clips are very jerky.
Unfortunately, this heavily diluted performance doesn't help much with battery life. The Verona's battery only managed to last for 1 hour and 45 minutes in Battery Eater's intensive Classic text, and just over 3 hours and 15 minutes in the less stressful Reader's test. That equates to around 2 hours of typical use, which should be enough for the daily commute.
Conclusion
Although the specification suggests otherwise, the Advent Verona isn't capable of much more than an Atom-powered netbook, but, if you just need a lightweight laptop with a big screen, it's not a bad deal. Better battery life and an improved keyboard would make it more tempting, but neither is a deal-breaker at this price.
Edited by Charles Kloet
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User reviews2
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Kazzie Weller 11 December 2010
Bad: 90% of the actual laptop.
Comment: I Purchased this Laptop in January..I was looking for something small, with good battery life.. Its lucky I took out a Protection plan with it, As within the first 9 months, It had already been back for repair 3 times. The reasons for repair:
- Screen Faults
- Keyboard Issues
As I type this.. the laptop itself is actually needing repair again. As not the Fan has broken..
The Keyboard.
The keyboard is TERRIBLE. There is no option but to type slow due to the lack of response from it.. For Example.
This sentenceisbeing typed witout me me going back to check it over.. it misses space bars, lettrs ot,
Just to clarify, My partner has also had the same problem on this laptop. as did a friend... so no it no my typing...
Another frustrating feature is when you put the caps lock on.. It pauses for a few seconds...
The Screen.
On 3 occasions, the screen has completely dies on me, starting the laptop up to a white screen and nothing more.. On another occasion about a week after I got it.. I have 3 lines running portrait down the screen, with dead pixels...
Hardware..
Not I have hardly anything on this laptop.. And it Crashes and struggles to run the simplest of tasks (before you say It has been checked for any viruses, and its clean)
Yeh I like Theme Hospital.. Sue me :P But this laptop struggles to run it.. crashing regularly.
Internet (Youtube) Running a youtube Video? yeh good luck.. Takes an age to load a video, slow frame rate, Streaming slow. More like a picture show..
I have tried running Firefox, IE (eww) and Google Chrome.. and every program has the same issues.
I dare to even open iTunes or WMP (being honest I uninstalled WMP ages ago because it just wouldn't work) The laptop takes on average 5 mins to load up iTunes... and is then very iresponsive or delayed in everything it does once open.
The blue touch buttons above the keyboard.. Don't even bother.. they dont register that you touch them until at least 30 seconds after... Thats IF they even work.
Battery Life..
Advertised at 3 Hours plus... I'm lucky to get an hour.
Overall... This laptop is the worst laptop / PC I have ever ever purchased. And I have ad enough with it. all these problems within 1 year? Terrible product. you should be ashamed Advent...
If your considering buying this laptop.. my advise is don't.. A Gameboy is more worth the money, and do you know what.. Could better run everything.
In the words of Comic Book Guy..
WORST LAPTOP EVER.
RJG18 17 March 2010
Good: Looks great, ultra-slim, good price.
Bad: Very flawed keyboard- loose, wobley, keys clatter around
Comment: For the price, this laptop looks great. Stylish, nice colours, and very slim. It tapers to a point on the front edge, making it look even slimmer than it is (giving it an almost MacBook Air profile from the front).
Although performance is closer to a Netbook and a fully spec'd laptop, it copes with Windows 7 adequately.
Now for the bad stuff. As pointed out in the main review, the keyboard is poor, bordering in 'defective'. All the keys wobble around on their fixings when pressed, so that if you don't hit them in the dead-centre they bend alarmingly to the side. This makes the whole keyboard feel cheap and makes typing anything of any length unpleasant. Also, again as pointed out in the main review, there is something wrong with the right hand side of the keyboard (not a one off quality control issue). The right hand side (and only the right) of the keyboard flexes and bends. When you press the keys over this side, whole keyboard bends into the space underneath then springs back. On the extreme right (cursor keys, Enter, etc) this is accompanied by the right hand side of the kayboard feeling like it is becoming 'stuck' under the edge of the housing, before bending back into place with an audible "click".
Overall, for the price this laptop is fine as a "big netbook" for web surfing, but not suitable for anything serious, and the keyboard would deter anyone from attempting to actually type anything of any length.
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