Review: HP Compaq nc6400 notebook

With the introduction of the Compaq nc6400, HP has followed other leading vendors by teaming up with Vodafone to offer business users a powerful notebook with wireless broadband no matter where they happen to be.

Weighing in at just over 2kg and built to the usual HP high standards, the Compaq nc6400 is an impressive and well-specified notebook.

The casing is reinforced magnesium, there’s a 14.1in widescreen TFT display, as well as a progressive full-size keyboard, and both a pointing stick and scrolling touchpad mouse.

The model we looked at had an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, clocked at 1.83GHz, plus a generous 1GB of DDR2 memory, upgradeable to 4GB using industry standard SO-Dimm modules.

An 80GB Sata hard disk also comes as standard, plus a combination DVD/CD-RW optical drive, a PC Card slot for expansion and another for SD/MMC memory cards.

What really makes the nc6400 stand out is its array of built-in connectivity options starting with both a modem and wired Ethernet port. Bluetooth is built in, plus an 802.11a/b/g Wifi adapter for connection to a local wireless Lan or Wifi hotspot. A Vodafone 3G wireless broadband interface is tucked away inside with no protruding cards or antennas as on notebooks fitted with a plug-in card.

Although it can be used with other networks, the default Vodafone 3G service offers a maximum download speed of 1.8Mbits/sec using high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) technology. No real setup is required – just phone up to activate the pre-installed Sim card, click on the Vodafone Connection Manager icon and you’re away, surfing the net, sending and receiving email, SMS messages and so on.

On the downside, 3G coverage is patchy outside major cities and where a signal can’t be found, GPRS is used instead, which is slower (about 50Kbits/sec), although it does allow you to get connected almost anywhere without having to subscribe to a hotspot.

Of course, you have to pay for the service and 3G subscription rates apply no matter what speed you connect at. Price plans start at a reasonable £25 ex Vat for 250MB per month, with unlimited plans (effectively limited to 1Gbyte/month fair usage) starting at £45 ex Vat. International roaming use costs extra.

Equally impressive are the security features built into the new HP notebook, including an integral fingerprint scanner and a Smart Card reader. These can be managed using the HP Protect Tools Security Manager software provided along with the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) security chip embedded onto the motherboard, with automated single sign-on another key feature.

With its dual-core processor, the nc6400 is pretty quick – certainly more than fast enough for most business applications. The graphics controller and screen, however, aren’t quite in the same league, with the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 coming in well below average on our 3D benchmarks. We also found the screen a little washed out, although on a business notebook, neither really matters unless you’re a keen game player in your spare time.

Lastly, with a six-cell Li-ion battery, the nc6400 is very portable. In our tests, we managed about five hours between top-ups, although this drops off rapidly when you start to do real work. The AC adapter is small, too, but you’ll need to buy your own case to carry both it and the notebook about.

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