Champion W10250 Netbook

“We review everything”, should be our brand positioning, reason being one never knows which new brand might make a difference. Today we have the rather unabashedly named netbook, Champion, for review. The model number being E10202. With such a cool name curiosity obviously brews, so let’s get straight to it.

Design
The design does not strike us as too different; it’s your basic black gloss lid slightly curved at the edges giving the piece a rounded appearance. It's compact due to the 10-inch screen, which is surrounded by a matte black bezel. The internals are not black, rather an aluminum colored finish which extends to the touch pad too, and its associated button.

The keyboard is a little cramped, unlike some of the other models available today. This one has the “Ctrl” and “Fn” button interchanged. Again this can be a source of frustration for some, as one might hit the wrong key and start a whole chain of unwanted events. The connectors are all on the right side, though the audio i/o and memory card readers are on the bottom panel. We got a fully loaded copy of Ubuntu OS, which is nice if one intends to just browse around and use word processors etc.

Tech specs
Operating System                Ubuntu 9.10
Display                                 10.1" LED Backlight WSVGA Screen (1024x600)
Intel CPU & Chipset             1.6 GHz Atom N270, Intel 945GS
Graphics:                              Integrated GMA 950
Memory                                 DDR2 1GB
Storage                                250 GB 2.5” SATA2 HDD 5400rpm
Wi-Fi /Bluetooth                   Yes (Wi-Fi b, g) / Yes
Camera                                1.3M Pixels
Input / Output                      1 x Mini VGA Connector
                                             3 x USB 2.0
                                             1 x LAN RJ-45
                                             2 x Audio Jack (Headphone / Mic-in)
Card Reader:                        MMC/SD (SDHC)
Battery                                 3 cell Li-polymer battery
Dimensions                          259 x 182 x 35 mm
Weight                                 1.19 kg

Benchmarks

Verdict and analysis
This one comes at a price of just Rs. 14,000 and can contend for best value for money netbook. Thus in the benchmarks result table we have compared it to the Acer Emachine which is very cheap in price too. This netbook features the old Atom N270 processor, 250 GB space (not available in the EMachine) and decent CPU performance. The keyboard ergonomics are not suited for fatter fingers, as there is cramping, but then the touchpad comes out as a winner here, it’s quite nice. Looks are more on the ME Too category, but not ugly or tacky in anyway. A major positive is the battery again, it's very healthy with the Battery Eater Pro classic test coming to 5 and half hours. ON regular usage we got 9 hours 50 minutes of usage. Overall it's good for those on a very stringent budget. It can do a lot of basic things, but compromises are there in terms of absolute comfort in use and speed in core CPU tasks.