OcUK Professional W540 UltraNote 14″ LED Ultra Book Review

The OCUK Ultra Book left me with mixed feelings for the first day or so, at least when I was using it at home. I found the resolution was a little too low for my liking and that I’ve become accustomed to a 1920 x 1080 minimum, but also found that typing on the keyboard resulted in too many typos and missing key strokes, giving at least one or two errors per sentence. Yet I quickly became accustomed to the layout of the keyboard, the feel of the keys and the fast action that the low set keys provide.

I don’t want to mark the system down for its resolution, as if this resolution was too low for you then you should simply buy a system with a higher resolution, it’s that simple. Yet the lower resolution isn’t without its benefits and the reduced processing required to fill the screen is a nice saver for battery life, it means the HD 4000 GPU core has an easier job and it also helps keep the cost down a little as a higher resolution screen will cost you more.

The design doesn’t leap out as anything spectacular, but it’s very clean, very smart and highly presentable, certainly nothing to be ashamed off should you be sitting using it in public and the lack of any brands or logos on the chassis give it a sleek and minimalist appearance overall. The plastics used in the casing are well made, feel well put together and there are no noticeable loose section or squeaky joints to be found.

The system isn’t cheap and while for the same kind of money you can get some pretty impressive specifications from a portable computer, notebook, laptop or what ever term you prefer, you will often find that the performance comes at a cost somewhere else in the system specifications. Yes you can get something with a bigger CPU or GPU, but for the same money you wouldn’t also get the incredible battery life that an ultra book offers, you also likely won’t get something so lightweight, slim or portable and it all really boils down to what you need your system for. If your going to be plugged into the wall and using it in one building, there is no point. If you need something to stick in your bag, take on the road with you, carry around a lot, with long gaps between charging, then there really is no better choice than an ultra book.

eTeknix says: “Overclockers have proved they can make great systems many times before and their ultra books are just another extension of this great range. This is easily one of the best out there at this time for this kind of money, you’ll be hard pushed to find anything better in terms of performance for anything close to this price.”

Pros

• Clean design
• Lightweight
• Impressive battery life
• Still packs impressive performance (for a ultra book of this price)
• Good quality SSD and memory modules

Cons

• Some may find the design bland
• Resolution is too low for graphics editing

Thank you Overclockers for providing us with this sample.