We have all got used to the offer of a free laptop if you sign up for what seems like a life-long contract with a mobile operator. However, laptops have been pushed aside as the tech to be seen with and now everyone is seeking out that perfect little netbook accessory.

Virgin Media is taking advantage of this trend and jumping into the mini-laptop market with its branded offerings. Essentially, sign up to a lengthy contract and get the Virgin Media Freedom Mini-Laptop for free. But the question is, is it worth your signature?

First off, while it may say Virgin Media on the front, this is clearly a rebranded netbook, spookily similar to the Zoostorm Freedom Netbook in both looks and name. But whether it is a young pretender or not doesn’t take away from the sleek style of the machine.

Available in either black or Virgin’s signature red, the outside is smooth, shiny and thankfully free of unnecessary badges. On opening it up we were again pleased aesthetically by its fully flush glossy 10.1in screen accompanied by a reasonable sized, albeit slightly cheap looking, keyboard.

Overall, the feel of the netbook is pretty solid. It came with a rather brash but useful neoprene cover to give extra piece of mind when on the move and this is made even easier by the tiny weight figure of 1.1Kg with battery. However, we’d probably dispense with the garish included sticks, but that’s just us.

The TFT LCD screen quality offers standard 1,024 x 600 resolution and while quality is generally fine, on full white backgrounds a mottling grain effect was apparent. However, it at least does not suffer from glare as some netbooks and laptops can. A tiny 0.3 megapixel webcam is also built-in into the bezel.

As we previously mentioned, the keyboard feels a little on the cheap side when it comes to the plastic and the keys were a tad sticky, feeling like they were getting wedged down somewhat. The keys are mostly laid out well, bar the right hand shift key, which was just far too small. As a result it was often missed and led to many mistakes when capitalising or punctuating.

The track pad has a rather unusual texture, which although off-putting at times, does stop the finger sticking, which helps keeps cursor movement smooth. The two buttons beneath the trackpad are also long and thin, making them just too small for us to hit comfortably.

The Freedom has two USB ports, sensibly laid out on opposite sides of the keyboard so they won’t interfere with each other. Microphone and headphone sockets run along the left-hand side. It also has a memory card slot supporting SD, MMC or MS cards, standard VGA output and a Kingston lock port for that extra bit of security. 10/100 Ethernet is included as its 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi. The inclusion of ‘n’ is impressive for a netbook, but probably a prerequisite for Virgin considering their 50Mb/sec broadband bundle – anything less and the wireless wouldn’t be able to cope. Bluetooth however is absent.

There are no surprises on the specifications front, powered as it is by a very standard 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 backed up with 1GB of RAM powered trusty old Windows XP.

There is 160GB of storage from a conventional hard disk. All pretty standard, but entirely usable stuff here, and the benchmark score of 0.39 reflected this. In use with were happy with the speedy power up and shut down times and after installing applications we were speedily back to the desktop.

Microsoft Works Suite comes pre-installed in the system, which is no Microsoft Word, but it is good to have tools installed so you can get down to work straight away without the hassle of installation.

The base of the machine does heat up quite quickly as expected but never reaches an uncomfortable level and the fan placed subtly on the back makes next to no noise.

The major let down of this Virgin netbook though was the battery life. The joy of a netbook over a laptop is supposed to be a longer lasting battery for when you are out on the move. However the three cell battery lasted just under three hours and 45 minutes in our light use tests, while heavy use didn’t even give us two hours.

The final problem is how you go about getting the machine. It is free from Virgin Media if you sign up to one of its 24 month contracts, which sounds pretty good. Prices start at £31 per month including 10Mbps broadband and landline phone. However if you add it up it means the cheapest possible price for a deal that includes the mini-laptop is £744. At least it comes with a packaged dongle for mobile web access.

Overall, we’d have to say what when you take this machine out of the box it looks sleek and above average, but this impression falls down when you get down to using it.

The only way we would suggest getting this is if you are already planning on getting a Virgin Media package, or indeed already have one – existing customers can also apply.

However, if you want machine for regular use that’s more than a distinctly average, we say go out and spend the money yourself.

Author: Jennifer Scott

Virgin Media Freedom Mini-Laptop review