Averatec N3400 Hands-On: Sleek and Affordable

The Averatec N3400 was dropped off in our office today, and while we run it through our usual array of tests, we wanted to give you a sneak peek at this classy $799 ultraportable system.

Specs-wise, the Averatec N3400 has a 2.16-GHz Intel Pentium Dual T3400 processor and 3GB of RAM. A 250GB The storage device that holds your OS, programs, and data.
Learn Morehard drive is a decent size for a notebook as portable as this. The notebook also comes with an external DVD burner that’s coated in a soft black  rubber–quite a contrast to the brushed-aluminum exterior of the N3400 itself.

Of course, the all-metal exterior of the N3400 naturally invites comparisons to the MacBook Air; however, side by side, the Air is almost half as thin as the N3400, which clocks in at a hair under 1 inch thick at its thickest. Otherwise, they’re almost exactly the same depth and width: 12.8 x 9 inches.

The Averatec N3400’s 13-inch display has a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, and while it’s rather glossy, horizontal viewing angles were decent. Interestingly, the lid swings back almost 180 degrees.

Inside, the notebook has a very comfortable keyboard and touchpad. The keys remind us of those on the Acer Aspire AO751h and the Dell Mini 10. They were well spaced, and had just the right amount of grit.

The touchpad on the N3400 has a number of little icons on the top and bottom; they can be used as quick-launch keys to adjust the volume, open e-mail, launch the Web browser, or perform user-defined actions. In order to use the buttons, you first have to press the icon in the upper right-hand corner, which switches the touchpad into “Icon mode.” While in this mode, you can’t use the touchpad as you normally would; you have to switch back to touchpad mode first. All in all, it’s a neat feature, but we’re going to have to play around with it a bit longer in order to see how useful it is.

The single mouse button below the touchpad is decent, but, as always, we prefer discrete left and right buttons.

On the right side of the system (as can be seen in the first photo) two USB ports and a headphone and mic port are towards the front; a VGA and Ethernet port, towards the rear, are hidden by a removable plastic cover, kind of like that on the ASUS Eee PC 1008HA Seashell. It helps the N3400 maintain a slick aesthetic, but is otherwise kind of extraneous. On the other side of the system is a third USB port and a 4-in-1 card reader.

Overall, the Averatec N3400 definitely looks the part of a more expensive notebook at a reasonable price. Look back here early next week to see how it stacks up against other  ultraportables such as the MSI X340 ($599.96) and the Acer Timeline 3810t.