Benchmarks

Cinebench

 

The Cinebench 1 CPU score is 1676, while the X CPU score is 3132. Multiprocessor speed-up is 1.87. Not many surprises here.

3Dmark 06



As expected, Intel's X3100 buries the 3Dmark 06 score. Just 457 marks, but this isn't a gaming rig, so this score really doesn't matter that much. However, the CPU score matters, and 1380 is not bad for a low-end notebook.

Sandra



Although Intel's T2370 1.73GHz CPU is not a high-end solution, it's still a much better choice than a similarly clocked dual core AMD. We tested an Athlon 64 X2 TK53 (1.7GHz) powered notebook last year, here, and the T2370 on the Amilo outperforms it by 16% in Drystone and 13% in Whetstone tests. Basically, the T2370 is powerful enough to cope with most applications you're likely to use on a notebook.

 

Conclusion

 

The Amilo Li2727 is a workhorse, a grunt. There's no fancy design details or features, but it gets the job done. We think we were a bit too harsh in some aspects, so let's get one thing straight: in the end there's really not much to complain about.

It looks nice, the keyboard and touchpad are good, albeit the touchpand could use a scroll bar. The build quality is good, it's got a dual core CPU, enough memory to cope with Vista's cravings and a spacious 250GB HDD. Its performance is not stellar, but it's more than adequate. The dual-core Pentium T2370 is clocked at 1.73GHz, has 1MB L2 cache and uses a 533MHz bus. The memory is also runs at 533MHz and the 5400rpm HDD is quite fast and quiet.

There's no Webcam, card reader, Firewire, ExpressCard, fingerprint reader and other fancy stuff. However, most people don't really need these features, anyway (we don't). Thanks to its spartan design, FSC managed to keep the price down and that's where the Amilo Li2727 really stands out from the crowd.

At €550 you'd be hard pressed to find better value for money. Most similarly priced machines come with half the storage of the Amilo, less memory and even with a single core CPU in some cases. What's more, FSC offers an even cheaper SKU, powered by a T2310 at 1.46GHz, with 2GB of RAM and a 160GB HDD. It's priced at just €479 and that's quite a bargain. You also get a 2-year warranty, but that's nothing unusual nowadays.

To sum up, it's a relatively fresh, no thrills brand name notebook with a great price/performance ratio. Good for students, the proletariat and companies. The Amilo Li2727 is hands down the best bang per buck we've seen in a long time and with a little help from its friend, "the Price Tag," it proudly earns our Top Value award.