Hannspree Hannsbook review

We never expected to see Hannspree entering the netbook market, but, by golly, that's what it's gone and done. If you can track the Hannsbook down, you'll find that it offers a 10.1-inch screen, a 160GB hard drive and an Intel Atom CPU for around £250.

Shine explosion

The Hannsbook scores highly when it comes to portability. All netbooks are designed to be portable, but this model is especially suited to being hurled into a rucksack and toted around on your daily adventures. That's because it measures a lean 265 by 31 by 230mm and weighs only 1.3kg.

This netbook also looks pretty darn stylish. Our review sample sported a tasteful, cherry-coloured lid, with a chrome finish around the edge. Inside, it looks equally classy. It's black all over, and Hannspree has gone mental with the glossy coating, making for an interior so shiny we can only describe it as a 'shinesplosion'.

Crucially, however, there's no glossy coating on the Hannsbook's 10.1-inch, 1,024x600-pixel display. This means that, when you're using this machine, you won't be bothered by annoying screen reflections caused by the sun and other light sources. Indeed, this display is very bright, so seeing what you're doing shouldn't be a problem.

The Hannsbook's interior is shiny, but, pleasingly, the screen is free from a reflective glossy coating

The Hannsbook's keyboard is pretty large, and Hannspree hasn't opted for a crazy, space-saving layout, which is always good to see. The trackpad is on the small side, although its smooth plastic surface is more responsive than we expected.

Around the edges of the Hannsbook, you'll find a VGA output, multi-format card reader, three USB ports, an Ethernet jack and two 3.5mm sockets for headphones and a mic. There's also a 1.3-megapixel webcam built into the top of the display's frame. 

This netbook ships with Windows 7 Starter. A 160GB hard drive takes care of storage. That's slightly weedy, with many competing netbooks offering 250GB of storage for a similar price.

Blandorama

On the inside, the Hannsbook is pretty much standard fare. A 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 CPU runs the show, backed up by 1GB of RAM. That hardware bagged the Hannsbook a score of 811 when we ran the PCMark05 CPU benchmark test.

In terms of the spectrum of laptop performance, that score is absolutely rubbish. As netbooks go, though, it's just slightly sub-par. You probably won't notice any difference in performance between this and another standard netbook during use -- they're all pretty much designed to handle Web browsing, emailing and not a great deal else.

The Hannsbook's battery life is impressive. When we ran Battery Eater's Classic test, which runs the CPU at full tilt until the battery dies, the netbook held out for 4 hours and 57 minutes. You can expect to get longer battery life with less intensive use.

Conclusion

The Hannspree Hannsbook is a perfectly decent netbook. It doesn't offer any unusual features, and, in terms of hardware, it couldn't be more typical if it tried. Still, it offers a usable trackpad, a good design and impressive battery life.

If you like the style of this netbook but fancy a higher-resolution display, take a gander at the Dell Mini 1012.

Edited by Charles Kloet