The eMachines brand is Acer's entry-level range, offering similar styling to its Aspire laptops, but using cheaper materials and components. As such, the eMachines E520-571G16Mi (£299 inc. VAT) may look familiar to existing Acer owners, but is a truly affordable option.

As with the other machines in this group, you'll find a 15.4-inch Super-TFT display. It's bright enough to use in most conditions, although it does suffer from reflections in direct sunlight. Although most colours are reproduced faithfully, blacks appear a little washed out. Crisp image quality makes it fine for everyday use, however.

Graphics are handled by an integrated Intel GPU– the same solution found in the Toshiba. You won't be able to play the latest games, but it does offer smoother performance than the Asus and HP when watching movies and editing photographs.

Function over form

The design of the chassis puts function firmly ahead of form, with plain dark-grey plastics used throughout. That said, it provides sturdy build quality and you won't have any trouble using it daily.

The keyboard lets it down, however, and lacks the quality of other machines here. There's nothing wrong in terms of usability – the keys are of a reasonable size and respond accurately – but the board flexes considerably under pressure. Typing also proved to be a noisy experience.

The touchpad is made of the same plastic as the rest of the chassis, but features a dimpled finish to help distinguish it. We found it worked well, and it is also slightly indented to prevent your thumbs from accidentally moving the cursor when you are typing.

A 2GHz Intel Celeron processor is at the heart of this machine, along with 1024MB of memory – as with the HP and Toshiba. We found it started up more smoothly than the Asus, although it still struggled when multi-tasking with several applications.

Excellent battery

Battery life was the best in the group, and offers comfortably more than three hours between charges. Weighing in at 2.6kg, this is a machine that you can realistically use regularly on the daily commute.

It's also the most restricted in the group, however, when it comes to ports. The two USB ports are located within millimetres of each other, so you may struggle to connect two peripherals simultaneously. Like the Toshiba, there's no memory card reader, but Bluetooth allows wireless connections to digital devices. There's also a tri-format DVD rewriter.

If all you need is a cheap laptop for the daily commute, putting battery life above features, then the eMachines E520- 571G16Mi may be worth a look. Just don't expect high quality, as it's obvious where compromises have been made.