Nuggets: Omnibook 6000 does movies with ease

A glance at the specs of Hewlett-Packard's Omnibook 6000 shows that this high-end notebook is a fully functional beast of a machine.

The 700MHz processor means it's certainly no slouch in the speed stakes, and the 12Gb hard drive, 128Mb RAM and removable six-speed DVD add up to a potential multimedia sensation complete with 14in screen.

There's a choice of two different pointing devices: a nipple-style pointing stick in the middle of the keyboard and a touchpad below. The array of five buttons, which can be setup to shortcut any number of tasks, is a bit daunting but pretty useful. All that's missing is an intellimouse-style scrolling wheel, but that's just a little gripe.

The Omnibook was a pleasure to use, and handled everything we threw at it. The sleep button on our review model, which allows you to suspend/resume operations, was a bit difficult to operate (the brute force and ignorance approach brought success most of the time), but all other features worked fine.

But if there's one single aspect of this machine that will get you to part with the necessary £2469, it will be the Omnibook's sheer entertainment value.

Dim the lights, get out the popcorn, plug in the optional 6x DVD module and you've got yourself a mini cinema. OK, so the built-in speakers are still a bit tinny, but attaching a decent set of headphones or standalone speakers is a cinch. The Omnibook does a great job with movies and will definitely have you drooling over its crisp clear visuals.

HP claims battery life of up to four hours, which is great for portability, but at 2.5Kg you're not likely to forget that you're carrying it.

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