Advent Milano

[sl7023]

Hi, just joined the forum.

Recently bought an Advent Milano - based primarily on price (£219 at PC World) and on how it looks. This is my third netbook, having previously owned an original 7" Asus eee PC, then an Acer Aspire One - both of which use customised Linux distros. I mainly use the netbook to enable me to log-in to my office network (via Citrix) when I'm away on business - without the need to lug a full sized laptop around. Whilst it was interesting to play around with Linux (I ended up trying a number of different versions, particularly on the AAO), I really needed something that was easy to work with and with which I was familiar. Hence the Milano and good old XP !

Anyway, impressions thus far are very largely favourable. I have reinstalled a retail copy of XP, along with Office Professional 2007, Thunderbird for e-mail and Firefox. Machine runs flawlessly, although I wouldn't like to multitask on it. However, for what I need it for, it's great and certainly a vast improvement in performance terms over my previous two netbooks. I initially thought about installing more RAM, but that looks like a "case open" job and whilst I'm reasonably comfortable with that, experience thus far suggests it's probably not necessary.

Downsides ? The keyboard isn't great - feels like it's not close enough to the chassis, particularly in the middle, so it rattles a bit ! Space between the keys themselves is fine though - I'll maybe try removing it and put a few little bits of blutack between the underside of the keyboard and chassis.

Other than that, nothing. At £219, it represents brilliant value for money - I doubt alternatives from more prestige brands will perform any better. Plus, with the attractive graphics on the lid and area surrounding the keyboard, it looks more expensive than it was. And, it appears to have wireless N connectivity, although since my wireless router at home is only 802.11g, I haven't been able to test this out - wireless connectivity is as good as my Toshiba "proper" laptop, as well as my iPod Touch (yes, bit of a geek-fest I know !!)

Finally, reviews/articles/comments on the Milano seem to be almost non-existent. Even the Tech Guys website only mentions it in the context that the manual will be "available soon". Trying to locate drivers when I re-installed XP therefore required a bit of detective work, although managed fine !

I'd be pleased to hear from anyone else who's using this cracking little machine and letting me know how you're getting on with it.

Cheers

[sl7023]

Quick update - recently installed Windows 7 on the Milano. No problems whatsoever - running very smoothly indeed.

Anyone out there bought one ??? I'm beginning to feel lonely !