While Lenovo's ThinkPad range is aimed at business users, its cheaper N-series is a better choice for small businesses and users on a budget. The 3000 N500 is a great example of this design philosophy.

The 15.4-inch screen is a joy to use, and crisp enough for regular office work, and colours are reproduced with impressive clarity. As with its rivals here, it uses a Super-TFT coating, so shows reflections and fingerprints in direct sunlight.

Graphics are handled by the same integrated Intel GMA4500HD GPU as a lot of other laptops, but it proved more powerful when it came to handling 3D-intensive tasks. The latest games are still out of reach, but this is the first budget laptop we've seen that can comfortably run Windows Vista with its translucent Aero effect turned on.

Strong build

The N500 falls behind its rivals when it comes to style, being finished in simple black and silver plastics. Build quality is excellent throughout, however, with resilient materials that wouldn't look out of place on a £600 laptop.

Along with the robust chassis, the thick screen surround offers plenty of protection, making this a laptop you can use on the daily commute without worrying about it breaking. We also found the chassis remained cool to the touch.

The keyboard uses the same patented design as Lenovo's ThinkPad range – which is renowned for excellent usability – and offers arguably the best usability we've seen at this price point. The keys move quietly and precisely, and the ergonomics are faultless.

It may lack the Intel Core 2 Duo processor found in the Advent 5611, but the N500's Pentium Dual-Core chip runs at 2.16GHz and it was one of the quickest machines for daily use.

It boots up rapidly, and has no trouble running multiple applications simultaneously, proving you really don't need the most expensive components to get impressive performance out of a laptop. Battery life, at 205 minutes, is also impressive.

802.11n

802.11n Wi-Fi connectivity is a bonus for those wanting to connect to networks at high speeds and you'll also be able to hook up an external monitor or HDTV, thanks to the provision of VGA and HDMI ports.

The 250GB hard drive is the most capacious in the group, and you'll also find a DVD rewriter in place. Four USB ports make it easy to add peripherals, and a media card reader rounds off the specification.

Overall, the Lenovo 3000 N500 is a fantastic all-rounder. Quality matches that of laptops costing twice as much and, despite the use of a budget Intel Pentium Dual-Core processor, performance also proved outstanding.