Axioo Neon HNM: Powerful yet Friendly on the Wallet

We heard some good news a while ago: Axioo, the local Indonesian notebook brand, would be among the first to launch mobile Sandy Bridge platforms to the market. Axioo had also participated in the CES 2011 exhibition at Las Vegas on January. Not long after that, we received the Neon HNM from Axioo. This notebook is powered by a quad-core Core i7 platform based on the new Sandy Bridge architecture. The rest of its specification is no less impressive. We eagerly put it to the test to see how it would perform in our benchmarks.

In spite of the known defect on Intel’s series 6 chipset, we decided to continue the regular testing procedures. After all, this known bug would only affect performance after prolonged use, so it’s safe to say that our initial results could at least show you how a Sandy Bridge would perform. Regarding this, we have previously carried out a full test of the Sandy Bridge mobile platform where the Axioo Neon HNM was used as the baseline system. You can read the article here. In this article, we will focus more on the Neon HNM notebook itself.

The Neon HNM is covered with smooth, black piano-finish across most of its surface, most notably on the back of the LCD and on the handrest section. We like the glossy surface because it gives the notebook some attractive looks. On the other hand, the glossy casing is a fingerprint magnet so you’ll have to clean it regularly to keep the notebook shining.

Neon HNM’s 14-inch LCD screen has a native resolution of 1366×768. On the inside, it’s powered by a combination of Intel Core i7 2630M processor and 2 GB or DDR3-RAM. The processor’s integrated Intel GMA 3000M graphics core is put into full use here. According to Intel’s claims, the IGP should be powerful enough for “casual 3D gaming”. It also provides support for DirectX 10.1 features. As for the storage, a relatively large (for a notebook system of its class), 750 GB hard drive gives plenty of storage space. In fact, Neon HNM’s hard drive is, by far, the single largest storage unit that we’ve seen on a notebook.