Introduction
Umax is probably better known for its Scanner offerings, so it was with some trepidation that I waited for the Umax Actionbook Notebook PC. But I decided to keep an open mind and review what was tangible not was necessarily expected.

Umax supplied Windows 98 pre-installed and with the original Windows 98 CD, Manual and Licence. The CD was one of the new hologram types. Very little documentation is supplied with the Actionbook; one receives a warranty card, a 6-page set-up guide in English, German and Japanese. A full manual is supplied on CD.

The Manual written with a product called V-Book is easy to read and simple to find the section you may need. I'm not suggesting you read this manual but when you need it then use it and enjoy. Strangely though the CD does not autostart so one needs to run the manual application through Windows Explorer.

First Impressions
Opening the Actionbook box the first thing that hits you is a big positive, a carry case is supplied! This could be a saving of anything from £25.00 upwards.

Once the Actionbook was unravelled from it's plastic protection and placed on the table something else hits you. Its outer case is two tone silver and black, and looks quite nice.

The Actionbook is of a standard layout with the keyboard set towards the screen giving a comfortable hand rest either side of the touchpad and mouse buttons. The keyboard is firm and does not flex when typing as many other notebook keyboards do. For some reason the 'insert' and 'delete' keys did not work at all, and tech support could not help with this problem!

Unfortunately we experienced a problem with the sound on the Actionbook, as it seems the wrong drivers were installed and the CD contained Via Drivers and not ESS drivers as required for the hardware installed. A call to Umax tech support was made and after being held in a queue for two minutes we were informed that we must download the drivers from the Umax website. This we did and the sound returned. I was impressed with the Technical support, it was professional and helpful. However I was less than impressed that the wrong drivers are supplied on the CD. Any inexperienced user would have either had to return the unit, get a friend to help or tied up the tech support line for far too long. A shame that a little lack of attention to detail could cause a great loss in confidence with Umax and its products.

The overall look and feel of the Actionbook is pleasing; not too heavy and has a feel of quality. I have to say that my first impressions were that this is an excellent notebook PC spoilt only by the lack of correct drivers supplied. Lets hope Umax sort this little problem out before they spoil a great chance of infiltrating the notebook marketplace.

Features
The Actionbook comes with all the standard ports one would expect plus the addition of an extra feature, which is a super-vhs output. Two keys set above the keyboard detect the Internet browser and email client you have installed and will launch them when pressed. I could not find out how this was achieved and certainly no programming facility is obvious to change the function of these two keys. The feature is nice but how often one would use it rather than the mouse I don't know.

The Intel Pentium PIII-500 Mhz processor and 64MB Ram make this system perform well. But I found that when sitting with the Actionbook on my lap the underside became very warm, to the point that I had to move it to the coffee table after an hour of use.

The Actionbook battery lasted for 1 hour 28 minutes while using Microsoft Word only. Very little disk access took place apart from the occasional autosave, but this was the same usage as I gave the HP Omnibook.

This Actionbook, unlike the HP Omnibook, comes with an infrared port, which I tested with my Nokia Mobile phone. In today's mobile age I feel the infrared port is essential.

Strangely Umax have decided to put the CD-Rom Drive and floppy drive on the opposite sides of the system to most other manufacturers. This presented me with only a feeling of slight discomfort but I soon felt at ease using the PCMCIA slot on the right side and the CD on the left.

Performance
The Actionbook 850T performance was excellent, helped by the generous offering of 64Mb SDRAM, and Intel Pentium III 500 mobile processor, catapult's the Actionbook 850T to a higher platform, with a BAPco SYSmark 2000 score of 97 sets it apart in a class of it's own.

Final Analysis
The Actionbook is a sensible weight, it looks cool in its two-tone black and silver outfit and it has all the features I would want for a roving office. The Actionbook 850T scores well in the performance stakes, and if performance is what you are looking for from a notebook then look no further the Actionbook 850T is your natural choice. However, once this review was complete UMAX indeed confirmed the Actionbook 850T was priced at £1399.00 plus VAT. This we believe was a genuine mistake as the notebook did arrive at the last minute to meet our deadline.

*Special Editors Note*
The UMAX Actionbook that we were supposed to have received was the UMAX 345T, however UMAX and we did not establish this until after the completion of the entire review, while awaiting specification confirmation from the manufacturers. We have accepted UMAX's explanation and believe it to be true. Under the circumstances we have only supplied the HP Omnibook specification.

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