With a stylish design, excellent specification and a comprehensive features list, the Asus M51SE (£599 inc. VAT) is an ideal laptop for family use.

It has a 15.4-inch Super-TFT screen which is great for working with documents or browsing the web, with bright images and large text.

It's not so good when editing photographs, as colours can appear washed out and over-exposed, even with brightness settings turned down.

Gaming capabilities

This laptop is in a minority, as it features an ATi graphics card. It's a dedicated solution, so you'll be able to play games, but you'll have to turn down detail or resolution settings in order to run the latest titles.

The M51SE has an attractive design with a patterned finish to the glossy silver and black plastics that resembles HP's Imprint design.

We found the keyboard impressive, with big, firmly attached keys that proved responsive and easy to type at speed on.

Tough laptop

Unlike many of its 15.4-inch rivals, the M51SE has a dedicated numeric keypad to the right of the main board. It means some of the keys on the left-hand side are slightly smaller than average, but we found it didn't affect usability.

The large touchpad was responsive and easy to use, although the glossy finish offers slightly too much resistance when sliding your fingers across it.

The chassis is reasonably tough, although some of the plastics at the top of the screen surround could be more robust.

Superb storage

Power comes from a 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 3072MB of memory, so you'll be able to use this machine for most tasks without it slowing.

Storage space is impressive, with a 320GB hard drive offering more than enough room for your photos, music and video files.

Only a disappointing battery life really lets this laptop down – with the machine lasting for less than three hours during our tests.

Feature-packed

The Asus is packed with features, including the fastest current Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections.

You'll find a tri-format DVD rewriter featuring LightScribe technology, and a fingerprint scanner lets users log into their accounts at the swipe of a finger.

A 3-in-1 media card reader lets you easily transfer yourfiles between your digital camera or Pocket PC, and there's also an eSATA port, so you'll be able to back up files quickly to an external hard drive.

Those wanting to connect an external display are well catered for, with VGA and DVI ports offering both analogue and digital connections, respectively.

Bundles for your cash

At this price, the Asus M51SE represents great value for money.

It offers excellent performance, style, comfort and features, and its all-round abilities make it an ideal laptop for home use.