Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Mini Ui 3520

Latecomers to the netbook market Fujitsu Siemens have put their faith in the Amilo Mini to steal a share of what is becoming an increasingly competitive market.

The Amilo Mini certainly isn’t going to win any beauty contests but that isn’t the point of it.

The Amilo Mini has been aimed at the business end of the netbook market rather than the netbook bling end (see Asus S101 or HP Mini 1000).

The Amilo mini is a bit of a slab of a netbook but weighs in at only 1.1kg.

You will be shocked and stunned to discover an Intel Atom N270 under the hood coupled with 1Gb of RAM, a 60Gb Hard disk drive and Windows XP Home.

The screen is 8.9″ providing a resolution of 1024×600 and a surprisingly sharp picture.

Amilo Mini hidden talents

Despite being firmly at the budget end of the netbook price range the Amilo Mini does have a couple of tricks up its sleeve.  Firstly it is available with clip on covers much like the old Nokia Express on phone covers. A number of colours are available as well as a clear cover in which you can insert your own design to truly personalise your machine.

Beside the aesthetic options there is a 4 in 1 card reader and more interestingly a 34mm express card slot.

The final trick up the sleeve of the Amilo Mini is the silent running mode. Not that netbooks are ever noisy and this one is no different but by engaging silent mode the processor speed is downrated which makes it practically silent and also increases battery life.

With the 4 cell pack provided and with judicial use of the silent mode then you can expect to see around four hours battery life.  A 6 cell battery is soon to be available which claims over 8 hours use, bank on more like 6 hours and you won’t be disappointed.

All the usual stuff is there, microphone and headphone jacks, 2 USB ports, VGA out and an RJ45 LAN port.

Wireless connection is via 802.11b/g Wifi or Bluetooth 2.1

When you open the Amilo Mini it doesn’t get any prettier. The thick black screen bezel which houses the webcam and microphone is positively industrial looking and the keyboard is too small to be a realistic prospect for typing more than the odd email.  The trackpad has the buttons either side much like the compaq mini 700. The difference being that compaq used the extra space created to install a fantastic keyboard.

Performance wise, when you have seen one Atom netbook you have pretty much seen them all.  Boot time to XP is a shade over 30 seconds and most regular tasks are well within its capability.

Conclusion

Overall the Amilo Mini has much to commend it at just £230 and whilst there are many better machines around they don’t live at this price point.

If you don’t worry about having the coolest looking machine and don’t plan on doing a lot of typing then the Amilo Mini is certainly one to consider.

Fujitsu Siemens are promising a 120Gb Hard Drive version by the end of the year if storage is a concern.

As the 4 in 1 card reader accepts High Capacity SD cards then you could always add a 16Gb or 32Gb SDHC card to bump up the storage.

Whilst we wouldn’t put the Amilo Mini at the top of our Christmas list it would certainly make a good choice for a second internet machine if you can never get near your PC for children!