Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
One of our main issues with the Sienna 510 is its suspect build quality.
First, the laptop's flexy lid provides little protection for the screen within. While laptops such as Toshiba's legendary Portégé R600 feature a deliberately flexible lid to absorb pressure, we get the impression the Sienna 510 would simply crack unceremoniously with enough force applied.
Still, the Sienna 510's matt black main chassis is built using firm plastics and provides good protection for the internal components. However, the edges are rough and border on sharp, and the same goes for the edge of the lid – either is enough to scratch you.
This isn't good enough, regardless of the low price, and makes recommending the Sienna 510 especially difficult if young kids will be using it.
Another thing to note is that the Sienna 510's palm rest quickly gets hot during use. It's not uncomfortable exactly, but worth being aware of.
Contrasting the poor build quality is the Sienna 510's surprisingly decent usability. The 15.6-inch screen is great, even if it can't compete with the Lenovo ThinkPad L412.
The 1366 x 768 pixel resolution is standard for the price range, and produces detailed enough images to make reading documents, spreadsheets and browsing the web a pleasure.
Colour vibrancy is also better than expected for the money, but the shiny screen coating is distracting and we'd recommend the similarly priced Medion Akoya P6625 if you want to edit photos or carry out multimedia tasks.
The Sienna 510's chiclet keyboard is also pleasing. We found it rivalled even Sony boards for quality, producing a very concise and snappy action. A dedicated keypad is included and while it's a little crammed in, it will please those who regularly input data.
The rectangular touchpad features a comfortable mottled finish, but like many is easy to brush when typing, which can be frustrating.
Also, while responsive, we found the Sienna 510's click buttons rattled too much for our liking – again showing where build quality corners have been cut by Advent.
Down the left side of the Sienna 510's chassis sits an HDMI port for hooking up to an external display, a Gigabit Ethernet port, a VGA out and one USB 2.0 interface.
The right hosts a further two USB 2.0 ports for your peripheral needs, as well as the Super-Multi DVD drive.
