HCL Me 06 Netbook

HCL's ME is the latest range of netbooks and laptops available by this growing brand, replete with a new colorful campaign and all that jazz. We received their ME 06 netbook for review, and here's taking a look at it.

Design and features
The model we received had a nice deep electric blue finish for the lid and wrist rest, with a dash of pixie dust on the surface to make things more attractive. The keyboard size is much smaller than a full-sized, keyboard - Shift and Enter are also smaller sized. Nothing is cramped but it might be an issue for those who are used to regular keyboards. The weight is light enough just like any other netbook, at 1.6 kgs.

I quite liked the touchpad. It’s responsive, keyboard centric and has an unmarked scrollzone function that works pretty well. It’s black in color with silver buttons, thus providing a contrast to the aesthetic scheme inside. The power button is again silver in color, on the top right hand corner. Overall the ergonomic feel of the keyboard would carry a score of say 4 on 5 - as the tactile feel is good, but button size being smaller makes it require some getting used to. There are blue LED indicators lined up for battery, Bluetooth and Wi-fi.

Now on to the connections: We have 3 USB 2.0, one stereo audio i/o on the left (mic in and headphone out), one D-Sub out and an Ethernet port.( 10/100 ) A memory card reader is present, but there is no HDMI out.

This model does have something that is not so common in netbooks even now, a 3G simcard slot. Unfortunately we do not have access to a 3G card, so we will use the Wi-Fi. The screen is LED backlit, and is 10.1 inches across with a native res of1024 x 600. Included battery is the regular 6 cell Li ion battery.