The Excel G736 notebook from Protac is a desktop replacement, and as well as better-than-normal notebook specifications it also comes with the other traditional trapping of a desktop replacement notebook: it's big, it's chunky, and it's heavy.

Fortunately it's got the requisite grunt inside to back these large dimensions up. Running a 3.2GHz desktop Pentium 4 processor and 512MB of DDR SDRAM, the Excel G736 has plenty of performance where applications and productivity is concerned. Its PCmark04 score is slightly better than that of the Dell Inspiron 9100 on page 50, but is remarkably right up there with the scores attained by the desktop PC systems in our Labs on page 82. That's quite an achievement.

The notebook's 128MB DDR ATI Mobility RADEON 9600 graphics couldn't match that of the Dell though in 3Dmark2001 SE. But, the large 15in display and graphics combo is capable of a sharp and decent 1,400 x 1,050 resolution; however the TFT coating lends the panel a milky sheen which dissipates only mildly with the brightness setting on full.

Other good specifications of note are a DVD/CD-RW Combo drive, plus a generous 60GB hard drive. This notebook also comes with four USB 2.0 ports, a mini-FireWire port and an S-Video output. A funky addition is a row of buttons along the front edge of the notebook. These allow access to the optical drive with play/pause, skip, volume and power controls, without the need to power on the whole notebook. It's not the first time we've seen this implemented, but it is a nice little feature.

The only other notable with the Excel G736 is that as a desktop replacement with desktop hardware inside is that the notebook runs hot, and when relying on batteries not for long. It's similar to the Dell in this regard, however the Dell has much improved thermal operation.