On first glance, one may mistake the Champ Slim 13160-XP netbook for a notebook. The confusion is excusable as the netbook screen size is a whopping 13.3 inches, a good 2-3 inches higher than the other netbooks that we tested. The netbook is sleek and has a very interesting design, as it tapers on all the sides. One cannot find any ports immediately on the sides.
It comes in a black glossy finished front panel. On opening the netbook, we come across a keypad and body that looks exactly like the Apple Macbook Air, along with a large mouse trackpad. The keyboard has isolated keys which lend themselves to a smooth typing experience. The feedback of the keyboard is quick and typing on it is a pleasure. The arrow keys are smaller than the rest of the keys which was not necessary, atleast for the side arrow keys. The space beside the trackpad gives enough space for both the palms to rest. The mouse click button is a single flat topped one, and you have to press it hard to enable the click which can get very inconvenient.
It has a total of six indicators, of which four are at the top right hand and two are just below the trackpad. a power button is enclosed on the right hand corner. The body is all plastic with the ports located slightly inside on either side of the netbook. It has only two USB ports and one HDMI port alongwith a LAN port, one audio port and a battery port. An SD card slot is located on the right hand side. A notch has to be opened to display the HDMI, USB and audio port on the left hand side of the netbook. Attaching the USB drive can be a bit annoying at times as one has to adjust the position of the netbook to fit the USB drive correctly.
The netbook runs on an Intel Atom N280 processor at 1.66 GHz. Windows XP comes bundled in and the hard disk space totals to 160GB. data transfer speeds of the netbook is noth something to write home about, although the VOB to DivX file conversion was comparitively quick. The audio quality is decent enough with the speakers situated on the rear end beneath the trackpad. However the video quality leaves a lot to be desired.
The netbook emits a beeping sound whenever the power cord is connected to it or disconected from it. On detaching the power cord, the brightness level drops to 51% (provided the brightness is 100 percent when the power cord is attached) to save power.
It is priced at a very economical Rs. 17,500. However, it does not come with a warranty period. For the features it has, the price is very good – this was our Digit Best Buy.