Review: PC Specialist UltraNote II

Introduction and design

The UltraNote II is a 15-inch mid-range laptop from PC Specialist, a British system builder that has been producing mobile and desktop PCs for what seems like forever.

An analogy that could sum up the UltraNote II is that it's the unremarkable middle kid of laptop designs. Neither the cheapest, nor the most dear; not exactly powerful, but not particularly underpowered either. Almost every aspect of it fits squarely between expensive, high-end systems and cheap mobile computers.

The analogy can be extended to its design too. At 2.2kg it's not especially light, but not ridiculously heavy, and its 25mm chassis is neither chunky nor portable. The black and dark grey plastic chassis doesn't look bad at all. It has an executive-style gunmetal grey lid, although it's fairly bland, with no real distinguishing features – not even a company logo or branding.

This middle ground is exactly what PC Specialist is targeting, at least with the configuration I received. The UltraNote II is for people who are willing to pay for a laptop that's not merely sufficient, but gets the job done well, at least when it comes to basic computing tasks. There's a range of options, starting at £387 inc VAT for a low-end model, but the unit sent to us was configured with a few select upgrades that bumped the price up to £516 inc VAT.

A 2.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i3-4110M processor runs the show, with a generous 8GB of DDR3 memory. Graphics are powered by Intel's HD4600, a chip that lacks the sheer gaming grunt of the Iris range, but still functions reasonably well. The 15.6-inch screen was upgraded from the base 1,366 x 768 option to a 1,920 x 1,080 IPS display. It has a matte finish too, which is great news if you're one of the many folk who loathes the reflectivity of glossy displays.

Tough choices

There's no option of discrete Nvidia or AMD graphics for added gaming oomph. For that, you'll want to look at PC Specialists' Cosmos II range. But you can choose a smaller display if you like, since there's a 14-inch version of the UltraNote II. Preference of screen size is like Pepsi or Coke, a purely personal choice, and I always choose portability over added screen real estate, but equally, some people are more comfortable with the extra desktop space.

PC Specialist didn't bother with an SSD in this review sample, but if I was buying this laptop, I would have paid a bit extra to include one. If you're not aware of developments in the technology industry over the last few years, SSDs are a replacement storage technology for traditional hard disks. They make a huge difference to the overall performance of a computer, since they feed data to the system much quicker than a hard disk. Applications load faster, and Windows boots quicker.

The storage section of the UltraNote II's configuration page is chock full of options, with larger hard disks, hybrid disks, and a range of full-sized SSDs from Intel, Samsung and Kingston, with capacities up to 960GB. You can also add an SSD to its mSATA slot, to be used in conjunction with a hard disk. I picked out a 128GB Plextor PX-128M5M, which adds less than £50 to the final price.

Connectivity and benchmarks

A DVD writer is built in, along with two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports. Separate line-out and microphone analogue audio outputs are also present, with a 9-in1 card reader. This is all standard for 15-inch laptops, although it's nice to see a generous array of USB ports.

Along with a Gigabit Ethernet port, the basic wireless networking option is an Intel wireless adapter that only provides 2.4GHz 802.11n, but you can opt for a better variant that supports 5GHz as well, and 802.11ac.

Windows 8.1 comes as standard, or you can have Windows 7 if you'd prefer. A £79 saving is possible if you can transfer a license from another computer or fancy giving Linux a go.

If any single part of the UltraNote II summed up how I feel about the entire laptop, it would be the trackpad, which is fine, but feels fairly generic. A simple mid-sized area with two buttons at the bottom, it won't win a prize for design, but equally it won't cause problems for its users.

And the same applies to the keyboard. It's tough to find any laptop these days that doesn't have an isolated-style keyboard, and PC Specialist has (sensibly) adhered to this trend on the UltraNote II. Typing on it is generally fine, and won't lead to frustration.

Performance

I wasn't expecting record-breaking performance from the UltraNote II, given that the Core i3-4110M isn't especially powerful, although its 2.6GHz clock speed is more than reasonable.

The first test I ran was Cinebench 15. In both the CPU and OpenGL tests, results were to within a few per cent of the Asus UX301LA, a slightly more exciting, much more portable and particularly pricier Ultrabook. A CPU score of 248 puts the UltraNote II in a low-to-mid range category of laptops, but far from the very bottom of the pile, and the same is true of the OpenGL score of 22.6, which indicates poor performance in games from the last few years, but it'll definitely run older titles.

3DMark scores weren't great. In Fire Strike, the most taxing of all the tests, the UltraNote II managed 571 points. This is considerably less than the 693 points achieved by the Asus UX301LA and its more powerful Intel Iris GT2 graphics.

A big difference between particularly thin-and-light laptops such as Ultrabooks and the PC Specialist UltraNote II is the power consumption of the chipset and processor. To even be called an Ultrabook, Intel stipulates a minimum battery life. To achieve this, the processor has to consume as little power as possible. The U-series of Intel Core processors, as used in the UX301LA, draw less than half the power (15W) of the Core i3-4110M (37W).

So it's to be expected that the UltraNote II falls down slightly on battery life. Three hours 58 minutes in PCMark 8's battery life test isn't great, although it's far from the worst result I've ever seen.

Verdict

We liked

The UltraNote II offers excellent value for money for anyone who wants a laptop that's more than competent at most tasks. It's not a specialised gaming PC, design workstation or ultra-portable computer, but it's powerful enough to be used for general tasks without slowing down.

While it's still a few millimetres and grams away from the svelte design of Ultrabooks, it's still far thinner and lighter than the heaviest 15-inch laptops.

And the overall appearance, with a combination of different shades of dark grey, is likely to appeal to anyone who prefers laptops with an executive, no-nonsense design.

We disliked

Graphics performance is a little on the low side, since the UltraNote II is outperformed by smaller, more portable laptops.

The CPU isn't exactly frugal either, drawing a considerable amount of power that chomps through the battery faster than I'd like. However the overall battery life is still passable.

Finally, while the appearance will appeal to some, to others, it may seem quite boring, an overall criticism that applies to many aspects of the UltraNote II. Pay more, and you'll get a laptop that's not just thinner and faster, but has more personality too.

Final verdict

The performance results, price tag and general feel of the UltraNote II point to one obvious conclusion. You could spend a lot more, and get something much more powerful, with a longer lasting battery and a far nicer design. Or you could spend slightly less, and end up with a far worse computer in every way.



Sure, it's not terribly exciting, but what you do get with the UltraNote II is more than just alright. It gets the job done, and does so at a reasonable price.

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