Which laptop should I buy?: Laptop types

Choosing a laptop can seem like a complicated task, as there are so many models on offer, and a huge range of prices.

Can you get away with something cheap, you might wonder? Or will you have to spend more? Should you focus on the CPU first? The screen, the laptop graphics card, battery life, portability - something else?

• Top laptops: the 20 best laptops in the world

When buying a laptop, though, you should start by focusing on your own needs. How will you want to use the new system? Understand your own requirements and that will automatically give you a much clearer idea of exactly what you're after.

Consider the applications you'll want to run, for instance.

If you really only want to browse the web, send emails, write a simple letter or two, play music and watch DVDs, then just about any laptop (as long as it has a DVD drive) will do the job, and spending £300-£400 or so will give you an acceptable system.

FIRST TIME: The Acer Aspire 5749 is a solidly built, quality laptop, a good system for first-time buyers

• Read our Acer Aspire 5749 review

If you'd like to edit video, though, or run other resource-hungry apps, then you'll need a laptop with a faster CPU, more RAM and storage space. Expect to pay considerably more, perhaps £600 and upwards.

And if you're after a laptop than can handle the latest games, then your system will need even more power and storage, and a dedicated graphics card, the faster the better. Prices may start at £600 or so, but if you're after decent performance then you might have to spend three times that amount, perhaps more.

BANG FOR YOUR BUCK: The Lenovo Z570 offers impressive performance for the money, thanks to its dedicated graphics card.

• Read our Lenovo Z570 review

Think also about how these requirements will affect the portability of your laptop.

If you're planning to edit video or play games on the system, then you'd probably also like a large screen, maybe 17 or 18-inch.

But that makes for a large, heavy laptop, and will shorten your battery life considerably - as will the fast CPU, large amount of RAM, and so on.

• Check out our guide to the best Core i3 laptops

And, unfortunately, powerful laptops tend to be larger and have a shorter battery life, just as a general rule. There are exceptions, if you're willing to pay a lot of money, but otherwise you shouldn't expect a gaming laptop to be something you can carry around and use anywhere, for hours on end - because it's not going to work like that.

CHUNKY POWER: The Asus G74SX has a huge 17.3-inch screen - but weighs a chunky 4.6kg

• Read our Asus G74SX review

Put this all together, then, and the best laptop to buy for you should fall into one of three possible categories.

"Home" systems start with the basic browsing, email and media setup. You can extend them to handle image, audio and video editing tasks if you like, even game playing at a push, but performance won't be great: these laptops are more about value for money.

And while you can take them from room to room, or to school or work if you like, they're not designed to be hugely mobile. Expect to pay £300 to £800.

Ultrabook laptops start with more compact systems, without a DVD drive to save on weight and size, so they're very easy to carry around. Battery life will be good, allowing you to work just about anywhere. And at the high end you'll also have a powerful CPU, lots of RAM and storage space, although this can be very expensive. Expect to pay anywhere from £300 to £2000 and more.

• Check our guide to the best Ultrabook laptops

"Power" laptops meanwhile concentrate on features above all else. You'll have a dedicated graphics card, a 17 or 18-inch display, a Blu-ray drive, and a similar level of CPU, RAM and hard drive power that you'd find in a desktop PC.

So game playing won't be a problem, but these systems will also be heavy, and have a poor battery life. Prices in this category start from around £800, but if performance is vital then you can expect to part with £1,500 - £2,000, perhaps more.

If you want ultra-portability and a very low price then you could look at netbooks as an alternative. They're low-powered, have tiny screens and don't come with DVD drives, but they're also very easy to carry around and can have a battery life of five hours or more. We're more interested in laptops in this article, but if a netbook would better suit your needs then take a look at our reviews.

• Best netbook revealed: the top 15 in the world today

If you're still not quite sure which laptop will suit you, don't worry - it should all become more clear on the next page, when we look at the options available within each category.

Which laptop should I buy?: Power or portable

You should now have a general idea of the sort of laptop you want: either a Home, Ultrabook or Power system. But what does that mean in practice? Focusing on each category in turn will give you a better idea of which laptop to buy.

Power laptops

If you need a system that will do just about everything you can do on a desktop PC (play games, edit video or run other demanding applications), and you don't mind having a heavy laptop with a short battery life as a result, then opt for something in the Power category.

You'll want something with at least an Intel Core i5 processor, maybe a Core i7.

4GB of RAM is a must; a 500GB hard drive is probably a sensible minimum, 1TB better if you can afford it; and opt for a Blu-ray, rather than a DVD drive. Remember, you'll be looking to keep this system for 2 or 3 years, so it's wise to buy more than you think you'll need right now.

A 17 or 18-inch screen will give you plenty of room to work. And if you're looking to play games then you should ignore slow integrated graphics - that's anything with a name that starts "Intel GMA", "VIA" or "SiS"), and opt for a speedy dedicated graphics card instead.

Which means picking a laptop with a Mobility Radeon HD product perhaps, or one of the better GeForce chips. Nvidia's product range is more confusing, but you'll find more details on its site.

Great examples of Power laptops include the Toshiba Qosmio X770, which features an i7 CPU, 17.3-inch 1920x1080-resolution screen, a 1TB hard drive, 8GB of RAM and Nvidia's phenomenal GTX 560M graphics card with 3D support, all for around £1700.

GRAPHICS POWER: The Nvidia GTX 560M gives the X770 enough power for serious mobile gaming

• Read our Toshiba Qosmio X770-107 review

And the fabulous Alienware M18x uses a powerful i7 CPU and AMD's Radeon 6900M graphics card, giving it incredible gaming performance. It weighs a hefty 5.7kg and has an 18.2-inch screen, so you're unlikely to want to carry it around with you too much, but you'll get an incredible gaming experience for your £1850.

AMAZING GAMING: AMD's Radeon 6900M graphics card produces astonishing results

• Read our Alienware M18x review

Ultrabook laptops

If you'll mostly be using your laptop on the move - in the car, on the train, nowhere near any recharging points - then it'll need to be light, something under a couple of kilograms, and with as long a battery life as you can manage.

There are some great Ultrabooks around that offer speedy performance with light frames and small size. Look for something with a screen size of 11 to 13 inches, and you'll see plenty of Ultraportables running new low-power Intel Core i5 and i7 chips. They also use flash memory instead of hard drives. This also helps to save battery, but it actually helps to improve performance too, though it means you get less storage for the same price.

The Asus Zenbook comes in 11- and 13-inch models, with a choice of i7 and i5 processors and 125GB or 256GB of storage.

ART OF ZEN: The stunning Asus Zenbook is slim and fast

• Read our Asus Zenbook UX31 review

These Ultraportable machines are great for working on documents, or for generally basic computing tasks. They can handle some powerful applications thanks to their multi-core processors, but they only offer basic graphics performance, so no hardcore gaming on them.

• Check our guide to the best Ultrabook laptops

If you're not wedded to Windows, than you should absolutely look at the Apple MacBook Air line. They offer excellent battery life, extremely fast performance and are some of the best-made portable laptops around. The 11-inch version starts from £849.

MAC CHOICE: MacBook Airs offer a huge battery life in an extremely light and slim chassis

• Read our Apple MacBook Air 13-inch review

If you want portability without sacrificing features, then check out the Sony VAIO VPC-Z21V9E. It's a thin, light laptop that offers a higher-resolution screen than its contemporaries, as well as a docking stations that adds an optical drive, more ports and even a better graphics card. Of course, you'll pay for these features, to the tune of as much as £2,699.

AT A COST: Sony proves you can have both performance and portability - if you're willing to pay for it

• Read our Sony Vaio VPC-Z21V9E review

Home laptops

You probably don't need a tiny laptop, of course. Or one with the power of a desktop. You just want something basic, which offers good value for money, and that means you're better off with a system from the Home category.

If you need to do little more than run Windows, visit your favourite websites and send emails, then you can get by with something very basic . An Intel Core i3 will offer all the performance you need when paired with 4GB of RAM and a big enough hard drive for you documents – 250GB or so.

So, for instance, the Sony VAIO VPCEH2F1E won't break any performance records, but it has a bright and clear screen, along with welcome extras such as 802.11n Wi-Fi. The battery life is average at around 3 hours, and it's a really good deal at around £450.

GREAT VALUE: The Sony VAIO VPCEH2F1 offers great features for the price

• Read our Sony VAIO VPCEH2F1E review

For around the same price, you can find some other really well-specced machines. Samsung's RV520 offers good performance from an Intel Core i3 processor, but packs in 6GB of RAM, so will be great for those who like to edit their HD movies on their laptop. The screen isn't quite as nice as some out there, but for around £450, you get no small amount of muscle.

PLENTY OF RAM: The Samung RV520 can multitask with the best of them

• Read our Samsing RV520 review

If you want something that won't take up the whole sofa when you're using it, the 14-inch Dell Insprion 14z is a great-looking, speedy laptop that offers really superb battery life, and though it's a little more at £579.99, it's absolutely worth every penny.

RUBY RED:The Dell Insprion 14z offers excellent battery life and good looks

• Dell Inspiron 14z

There's no need to feel you're somehow being short-changed by opting for a basic Home laptop, then. This is a highly competitive market, and there are plenty of powerful systems to be had at absolute bargain prices.

General tips

You should now have a better idea about which laptop to buy, then, but there are just a few more general tips you can follow to ensure the purchase goes smoothly.

Think about how you'll need to use your laptop over the next two or three years, for instance, then decide how much you can afford to spend to achieve all that. You won't then get tempted to pay out "just" another £50 or £100 more, and if you have a set budget then it'll be easier to go shopping later: you can just ignore everything that's too expensive.

Then keep an eye on our laptop reviews and ratings, where you'll find the best laptop reviews which will quickly point you at the models you must take seriously, and the ones you really shouldn't.

When you find a likely candidate machine, try to locate one - or a similar model from the same range, at least - in a local PC store before you buy. This will let you try out the screen, test the keyboard, the track pad, maybe hear the sound quality of the speakers, all the vitally important elements that you really can't understand from a spec sheet alone.

And when it's time to buy, always use a credit card, if at all possible. Hopefully the laptop will arrive, on time and in fully working order, but if there are any issues then the Consumer Credit Act may mean the credit card company is equally liable, so giving you another way to recoup costs in the event of any problems.

Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky has defended the Windows desktop, as the company looks ahead to a vital year for the grand old Operating System.

Speaking to TechRadar last week, Sinofsky outlined one of the key new Windows changes: the transition to work on ARM chips.

Windows on ARM (WOA) is a huge departure for Microsoft – it has previously focused on Intel's x86 platform – but the transition to new chips will not see a move away from the now familiar Windows desktop.

Touchtop?

In a blog post, Sinofsky outlined just why the Windows desktop would not be sacrificed any time soon, insisting that it was a compromise too far as touchscreen devices become widespread.

"Some have suggested we might remove the desktop from WOA in an effort to be pure, to break from the past, or to be more simplistic or expeditious in our approach," he blogged.

"To us, giving up something useful that has little cost to customers was a compromise that we didn't want to see in the evolution of PCs.

"The presence of different models is part of every platform. Whether it is to support a transition to a future programming model, to support different programming models on one platform, or to support different ways of working, the presence of multiple models represents a flexible solution that provides a true no-compromise experience on any platform."

Considering the considerable interest in Windows tablets there is clearly still a desire for a desktop, and Microsoft is aware that familiar user interfaces are as much about serving up what a consumer expects as clinging on to the past.

TechRadar's hands on: Windows 8 review discusses the difficulties in balancing a traditional desktop and the touch-friendly modern Metro UI that runs over the top of it.

And even if that transition is still a little clumsy, it seems that ditching the desktop would be a step too far for many - including the team at Microsoft.

Windows 8 on ARM: the full details

Windows 8 for ARM tablets will come out at the same time as Windows 8 for x86 PCs, if everything goes according to plan.

Microsoft has released full details on Windows on ARM today. It will have the Windows desktop, with familiar apps like Explorer, Internet Explorer and the Windows Live apps, plus Office – but everything else will be Metro.

And no, you won't be able to install it on an Android tablet.

What's WOA?

Microsoft is revealing the technical details of Windows on ARM – which it calls WOA for short – today.

TechRadar talked to Windows chief Steven Sinofsky about what WOA can do, when and how you can get it and which apps it will and won't run.

"Windows on Arm, WOA, is a new member of the Windows family that is built on the foundation of Windows," Sinofsky told us. "It has a high degree of commonality, a very significant amount of shared code with Windows 8. It's going to be developed for, sold and supported as part of our overall Windows ecosystem."

But he didn't want us to think about WOA systems as just PC with a different chip. "We created WOA so that it would enable a new class of PCs with unique capabilities and form factors. It's a new level of device." Think of it as a new weapon for Microsoft in the tablet battle. "It's up-levelling our ability to meet the consumer demand for a device that is reliable and performant over time. The canonical example is the reset and refresh feature and the difference between that and a clean install."

THE BOSS: We spoke to the head of Windows, Steven Sinofsky, ahead of the Windows 8 on ARM announcement

By that, he's talking about the end of 'Windows rot'; a WOA PC won't gradually fill up with cruft and get bloated and sluggish the way older versions of Windows are prone to. A WOA PC will stay snappy and responsive thanks to apps not being able to run in the background. If it gets cluttered with too many apps you don't want, you can reset it to get rid of them without losing your pictures and files.

There's no more hunting for the specific version of a driver that your PC needs on badly organised support sites. "All the updates, whether for firmware, drivers or apps, will only come through the Windows Update or Microsoft update infrastructure and the Store.

And, of course, it will have long battery life in a thin and light design with strong security and powerful applications. It's Windows, reimagined the way Microsoft thinks you always wanted it to be.

Metro, desktop and Office

WOA is very much still Windows. Microsoft is finally confirming something that we've suspected but that has been unclear since Microsoft's BUILD conference last year. Yes, Windows on ARM still has the Windows desktop. And yes, Office 15 will run on it, in the desktop rather than Metro. But there will be no third-party desktop apps for ARM

"All Metro-style apps will run on WOA just like you would expect," Sinofsky confirmed; "it's the same experience". Those are apps written in HTML5, VB, C# and XAML – and in C++ if developers prefer. That's the language most x86 Windows programs are written in, though you can't just turn an existing x86 Windows app into a Metro app (which would be a bad idea for a lot of different reasons).

"You can reuse all your code from existing apps if you want, so long as you only call WinRT APIs. If your app is going through the store and uses the WinRT APIs then it too can work on WOA and we'll provide the tools to cross compile that."

WOA will come with what Microsoft has previously been calling the next wave of Windows Live apps for Metro, hardware accelerated for speed (the way IE9 and IE10 are), already installed.

"We'll have apps from Microsoft for things like mail and calendaring and contacts and photos and storage, hardware accelerated HTML5 and a whole bunch of media formats and document formats - that all support hardware acceleration, that support offloading of computation to integrated chipsets for H264 and things like that. And all of those are included as part of WOA."

Plus you get touch-centric versions of Office (with the notable exception of Outlook), and the desktop you need to run it on, on every WOA PC.

"The other kind of app that's included for WOA are the Office 15 apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. These are all desktop apps. They're new versions that are completely compatible. They're not subset applications, they have the same file format - all of that stuff. With that of course, you also get the Windows desktop itself; for working with files, for control panel for working with devices and peripherals, Explorer, desktop Internet Explorer - all of that is part of the WOA product."

OFFICE: Office will be part of the native suite running on the Windows 8 desktop

Given that the Microsoft Metro apps include document viewers, getting desktop Office apps is a good thing; you'll use them when you need to work with a document in detail, not just glance through it.

He didn't give us any details about the user interface for Office on WOA but Microsoft has put a lot of effort into making them work well on a tablet, Sinofsky said. The Office apps "have been retuned very significantly to support touch and to support the low power requirements of running on the WOA hardware."

That's a good reason why there won't be desktop apps on WOA from any other software vendors, just Microsoft.

The machine learning Microsoft has used to make the desktop and apps like Explorer work well with touch in the Developer Preview, even when you're dealing with a tiny button, is beyond the scope of many developers - so user interfaces in existing Windows programs would be a bad fit for WOA. Just recompiling an app would give you a program that would probably run slowly, use a lot of battery life, be hard to use and wouldn't use new WinRT features like unified search and share.

Expert users or developers can't get around the restrictions. "There's not a side-loading of x86-compatible code or anything like that. There's no other way to get compiled code on the product other than through the Store."

Not allowing third-party desktop apps makes sense but it certainly has implications. Microsoft wouldn't confirm it, but we believe this means no browser plugins for desktop IE on WOA. There's no official word on Media Center for WOA either.

So to sum up the app situation. "You have Metro style apps that can come from third parties and from Microsoft, you have the desktop and you have all the features that are intrinsic to Windows, and you have Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote apps."

WOA tablets: who and when?

WOA tablets: who and when?

Several traditional PC makers – who also make Android tablets – have confirmed that they will make ARM tablets running Windows, but there are also persistent rumours that Nokia and other phone makers will also create Windows tablets.

Sinofsky didn't confirm any manufacturers but he did tell us WOA will "be supported by a new set of partners that expand the overall ecosystem". That could just be QUALCOMM, NVidia and Ti of course; the companies that are making the different ARM platforms.

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview is only for x86 PCs. That's not because WOA is behind the x86 version; it's because there isn't any WOA hardware. "These WOA PCs are all still under development, they're still being made. But our collective goal is that PC makers will ship them the same time as PCs that are shipped for Windows 8 on x86 and 64."

Developers and peripheral makers will get to see WOA first, on prototype hardware. "Over the next weeks and months following the Consumer Preview, a limited number of test PCs are going to be made available to developer and hardware partners in a closed, invitation-only program." Don't get excited: "They're already spoken for," Sinofsky warned us. And don't feel left out.

WINDOWS 8 ON ARM: From the original demos - the desktop

"There are no actual PCs yet. These are the PCs much like the ones we've been showing in demos. They are hardware prototypes. They're running all the same guts, just as debug boards. They're not the form factors that consumers will see, they don't have the industrial design. They're not thin and light. They have no battery sometimes!"

WOA PCs: only for WOA

"All the PC manufacturers are obviously super-hard at work on building these brand new devices that from the ground up are designed to be great - and exclusively for WOA," Sinofsky emphasized.

That means you can't take a WOA tablet and install Linux on it, and you can't put WOA on an existing ARM tablet. "It is not this level playing field across ARM devices," he pointed out to TechRadar; "Each one is unique. It's why you don't install Android on your iPhone."

Microsoft has done a lot of work to rebuild Windows for ARM and that's specifically for the hardware WOA PC makers are choosing.

"All of this is going to lead to a new generation of integrated end-to-end products. Hardware, firmware, the WOA software; it's all built from the ground up to work together, with a new level of collaboration between Microsoft, the ARM licensees, PC makers and developers of components and peripherals.

The work was across a really broad array of subsystems in Windows; some of them have been re-architected for low power and new kinds of devices, others are brand new support for things that haven't been there before."

But the way Microsoft is supporting ARM is also going to make life a lot easier for tablet manufacturers who've had to do a great deal of integration work putting Android onto their ARM tablets. Despite the range of hardware, there's only one version of WOA, because the Windows Hardware Abstraction Layer takes care of differences, and that could conceivably put tablet prices down.

"These PCs that we're building together are built on the hardware platforms from NVidia, QUALCOMM and Ti but they all share a common WOA OS foundation. The neat thing is all of them are running the same Windows binary," Sinofsky told us enthusiastically.

"It's a different approach that we've taken where we're working across different ARM hardware but the same Windows binaries are on each of them. We actually added more features to the HAL to work across different ARM buses, as we call them. What we're doing working across multiple ARM platforms is unprecedented."

Best of Windows, best of ARM

This is the 'best of both worlds' approach that we've predicted Microsoft would take with ARM and Windows 8. It's a tablet with tablet apps (although we expect to see slider and ultraportable form factors too and Sinofsky repeatedly said 'PC' rather than 'tablet'). But it's also a PC with the power of Windows and Office – just without many of the disadvantages.

If you want the whole of both worlds (good and bad), cross your fingers for the work Intel is doing to create low power SoC PCs. "We're doing a lot of work with Intel on this release too," Sinofsky reminded us.

"Especially when we talk about a lot of the power saving features, remember that Intel is making their System on a Chip stuff as well and everything we're talking about applies to those Intel chips." That would give you an ultra-low power system that gets the always-on Connected Standby feature and could run all your old Windows apps too, although those apps could weigh the system down and don't get all the advantages of WinRT.

The question is how many people want that 'belt and braces' approach and that's more Intel's problem than Microsoft's. With Windows on ARM, Microsoft is betting that the tablet market is going to be big, especially for tablets with long battery life and the advantages of a PC – like running Office.

Microsoft has finally lifted the lid on Windows 8 on ARM, saying that it doesn't want ARM-based devices to be simply referred to as standard Windows systems with a different processor.

Instead, Windows 8 on ARM (known at Microsoft as WOA) will give rise to a whole new type of PC according to the software giant.

There are also some startling revelations about the Windows 8 ARM desktop, which you can read more about here.

In a Mary Branscombe interview for TechRadar, Windows head Steven Sinofsky about the announcement. "Windows on ARM, WOA, is a new member of the Windows family that is built on the foundation of Windows," Sinofsky told us.

"It has a high degree of commonality, a very significant amount of shared code with Windows 8. It's going to be developed for, sold and supported as part of our overall Windows ecosystem."

"We created WOA so that it would enable a new class of PCs with unique capabilities and form factors. It's a new level of device."

"It's up-levelling our ability to meet the consumer demand for a device that is reliable and performant over time. The canonical example is the reset and refresh feature and the difference between that and a clean install."

Read the full TechRadar interview with Steven Sinofsky.

According to The Verge, Windows is about to lose something precious: the Start Orb, better known as the Start button.

We're already familiar with the new, touch-optimised, orb-free Windows 8 Metro interface, but it looks like the Orb's getting booted from the traditional desktop too.

There's no doubt that many people would like to see the back of it - we've had comments of the "OMG LOL YOU HAVE TO PRESS START TO SHUT DOWN YOUR PC BUY APPLE BUY APPLE BUY APPLE" variety since it was introduced in 1733, and there's no doubt that Metro looks much more modern and friendly than the ageing Windows UI.

But in the whoosh of Microsoft throwing out the bathwater, some people think they can hear the waaah of a baby.

Stopping Starting something

The rumours, I'm sure, are right: Microsoft has been making Windows 8's interface more Metro-y for some time, and killing off the Start button makes sense from that perspective.

The thing is, though, Microsoft isn't killing it: it's hiding it. When you move the mouse to the bottom corner the Orb magically appears again. You'll still be able to access the Orb from the Start key on your keyboard, too.

If we were living in a time of great pixel shortages, where gangs of graphics card manufacturers fought in the streets over packets of stolen pixels, hiding the Start Orb might be a great advantage.

However, we aren't, and as a result all that's really going on is that Microsoft appears to be making the classic Windows desktop a little bit more confusing, choosing to hide a key part of the user interface. Maybe once we get our hands on the Consumer Preview we'll think the new way is fantastic, but right now it looks like a step backwards in user-friendliness for no real benefit.

• Windows 8 beta: new features to expect

According to Windows boss Steven Sinofsky, "people 'in the know' who valued efficiency were moving away from the Start menu, and pinning their frequently used programs to the taskbar so that they could access them instantly in one click."

Program pinning is handy, but you can't pin everything to the taskbar or things start getting silly - and if you're in legacy mode rather than Metro mode, surely you want Windows to work like Windows always has?

Sinofsky says that the old Start menu is bad because it provides access to lots of programs and features people don't use very often, but for some of us that's exactly the point: we *like* having something that provides access to the things we don't use very often.

I'm imagining Sinofsky as a crazed vivisectionist here, cutting up cats and gluing their heads onto horses to make the cats better at showjumping.

Maybe, like cats and horses, Metro and classic Windows are best kept separate. Anyone fancy FrankenWindows?

802.11ac: next-gen Wi-Fi

If you thought Wi-Fi couldn't get much faster than 802.11n, think again.

802.11ac, dubbed 5G Wi-Fi, promises ridiculously fast wireless connections, better range, improved reliability, improved power consumption and a free horse. (OK, we're lying about the horse.)

802.11ac is the latest evolution of Wi-Fi, and it should be particularly good for gaming and HD video streaming.

So how does it work, does it live up to the hype, and how long will you have to wait before you can get your hands on it? Let's find out.

Your 802.11ac speed could break the gigabit barrier

The fastest current 802.11n Wi-Fi connections max out at around 150Mbps with one antenna, 300Mbps with two and 450Mbps with three antennas. 802.11ac connections will be roughly three times faster - so that's 450Mbps, 900Mbps and 1.3Gbps respectively. Netgear, brilliantly, illustrates this with two pictures of motorways: the first picture, showing "Today's Wi-Fi", is normal, but the one labelled "3x speed with 802.11ac" is really blurry.

Your 802.11ac speed won't break the gigabit barrier

As with previous Wi-Fi standards, the speeds quoted on the box and in the promotional materials are theoretical maximums, not the speeds you'll actually get: so far devices with potential top speeds of 1.3Gbps have topped out at around 800Mbps. That's still blisteringly fast, of course, but there's still a gap between advertised speeds and real world ones. 802.11ac connection speeds will be reduced by numerous factors: network overhead, which is the chatter your hardware needs to keep the connection going; interference, congestion and physical obstacles; distance; the number of simultaneous connections; and whether the router is running in compatibility mode so that older wireless kit can still connect.

802.11ac video and gaming

Because 802.11ac has bandwidth to spare, it should be great for HD video streaming and for gaming. According to Netgear [PDF], you can say bye-bye to buffering: "802.11ac will significantly enhance the user experience by improving the playback quality to any point throughout the house. With 802.11ac, for the first time wireless will provide similar performance as wired Gigabit connections."

802.11ac routers use more antennas

To improve range and reliability, 802.11ac routers can use more antennas than existing 802.11n kit: your next router may have as many as eight antennas inside it.

802.11ac routers will use "beamforming" technology

Wi-Fi is omnidirectional, but 802.11ac routers will be able to use directional transmission and reception technology dubbed "beamforming". The router will be able to identify the rough location of the device it's talking to and strengthen the appropriate antenna(s) accordingly. The idea is to reduce interference.

802.11ac Wi-Fi uses the 5GHz frequency band

Older wireless kit uses the 2.4GHz frequency band, which is fairly crowded: your kit is potentially sharing radio frequency with next door's baby monitor, your cordless phone and even your microwave. Like high performance 802.11n kit, 802.11ac routers will use the less cluttered 5GHz band where there's considerably more room for data transmission. 802.11ac hardware will use two kinds of channels in that range: 80GHz ones and 160GHz ones.

802.11ac routers will be backwards compatible

You won't need to throw out all your old wireless-capable kit as 802.11ac routers will be backwards compatible with your existing Wi-Fi kit. For example, at this year's CES Buffalo demonstrated an 802.11ac router that operated on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency bands and that promised to play nice with 802.11a, b, g and n hardware.

The 802.11ac release date is now, sort of

As with 802.11n, hardware is coming out before the 802.11ac standard is actually finalised. That's going to happen later this year, but manufacturers are readying their products now and they'll be everywhere by the summer, with minor software updates addressing any changes that might happen to the standard before it's finalised. We'd expect 802.11ac prices to be steep initially, as they were with the first 802.11n kit, but those prices should start to fall almost immediately.

Apple's putting 802.11ac into everything

Apple's a key early adopter of wireless technology - it helped popularise Wi-Fi in the first place and was quick off the mark with 802.11n support. According to AppleInsider it's going to be quick off the mark with 802.11ac too, sticking the technology into "new AirPort base stations, Time Capsule, Apple TV, notebooks and potentially its mobile devices."

802.11ac hasn't skipped lots of letters

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the body in charge of the 802.11 standard, isn't skipping lots of letters: while major WiFi standards have jumped from 802.11n to 802.11ac, the IEEE didn't just skip 802.11o, p, q and so on. Successive versions of the 802.11 standard can also denote amendments to existing standards, so for example 802.11i introduced improved security and 802.11j introduced extensions for Japanese networks.

Sky has announced a brand new internet TV service, aimed at selling its premium content to those people who do not currently want a satellite service but have a broadband connection and are happy to pay.

In a key move, Sky will offer movies at first, and then expand to sport and entertainment, with the UK launch set for 'the first half of this year'.

The offering will be available across numerous devices, including PCs and Macs, but also tablets, mobile phones, games consoles and connected TVs.

Shackles

It is not the first time Sky has broken free from the shackles of satellite broadcasting, but this scheme is designed to move beyond what was attempted on Sky Player and provide anyone with a broadband connection (and a suitable device) simple pay-monthly or pay-as-you-go offerings.

The obvious target to this move is Netflix, which has launched in the UK and made it clear that it is hoping to hoover up movies lovers from the likes of Sky, although the likes of BT Vision, Lovefilm and the forthcoming Google TV and YouView will be watchful.

"This exciting new service will offer some of Sky's most popular content through a wide range of broadband connected devices," said Sky chief executive Jeremy Darroch.

Growth

"Alongside the continued growth of our satellite platform, this will be a new way for us to reach out to consumers who love great content, but may not want the full Sky service," he added

"Bringing a distinctive, new choice to the marketplace will help us meet the needs and demands of an ever wider range of consumers.

"This new product launch will build on our early leadership in multi-platform distribution. It will allow us to make our expertise and investment in content and technology work even harder, extending our options for continued growth."

The pricing has not yet been revealed but will no doubt be made clear closer to launch, with the arrival set for the first half of this year.

We might all be flailing wildly at our laptops to open documents soon as at least two prototype Asus laptops exist that incorporate Microsoft Kinect sensors.

The Daily was lucky enough to snag some time with what a Microsoft insider confirmed were two official Microsoft prototypes running Windows 8.

The gesture control sensors sit where the webcam would normally be (in the centre of the panel above the screen), with what looked to The Daily like LEDs beneath the display.

The Daily Flail

Unfortunately the Murdoch-owned iPad newspaper didn't manage to grab any pictures nor use the gesture control, but it does seem to confirm that we'll see Kinect functionality baked into portable hardware at some point in the near future.

Kinect is already compatible with Windows, with the necessary hardware being released in February 2012 after developers were given access to the SDK late last year.

The motion-sensing peripherals have been a massive success for Microsoft on the Xbox 360, bagging well over 10 million sales and a T3 Gadget of the Year award to boot.

IBM has teamed up with HTC to try and bring Android handsets to the business sector, which is currently dominated by Apple and Blackberry devices.

A series of smart business applications have been developed by IBM to run on HTC smartphones and tablets – although theoretically they should be relatively easy to port to other devices if IBM eyes the bigger Android prize.

Targeting the enterprise market is a new direction for HTC, which has only recently begun to shift some focus to the area, as they look to grow and hit 100-million devices globally.

Make sure you take your tablets

Due to the iPad's huge success in the workplace as well as for sofa browsing, increased focus is being put on Android tablets by manufacturers and developers to gain a slice of the enterprise pie.

HTC will be looking at new Android tablet and smartphone devices, using its partnership with IBM to extend appeal to the business market.

HTC will allow businesses to create their own applications, with help from third party developers, for their HTC devices to compliment the range of business tools which will already appear on the devices.

This will provide a more personalised business experience and allow the tablet to be tailored to suit a company's needs. This level of customisation is something the iPad cannot offer and could see HTC succeed in the enterprise market.

We look forward to seeing what new tablets HTC produced and what the IBM applications offer up. Would you consider an Android phone or tablet for your business?

Windows 8 personalisation

When the Windows 8 beta arrives at the end of February, it will have some widely requested features for killing Metro apps without going to the Task Manager, for navigating using a mouse rather than touch and for doing more with gestures.

You'll also be able to change that overpowering green background. But Windows 8 director of communications Chris Flores points out to TechRadar that you wouldn't want a photograph as the background of the Metro-style Start screen.

Not only would a photo not stretch and scale as you add more tiles and groups and zoom in and out of the Start screen, it would also be covered up so much by the tiles that you'd never see it.

Instead what you can do is pick from (at the moment) eight different styles, from swirls and curlicues to lines and squares, and choose the shade you want from a scrollbar colour picker.

EIGHT STYLES: In current builds of Windows 8 you can choose eight different styles of background, and a range of colours

The background colour you pick is also used as the accent colour for selections in the Metro interface, for the settings panes and anywhere else you've been seeing the original Metro green.

MATCHED SHADES: When you pick oxblood red you don't get it everywhere; the preview shows the toning shades you'll get for panes and selections

There's good news for mouse users, as there are now a lore more ways to control the interface without touching the screen. Use your scrollwheel to swipe sideways through the Start screen to get to the tiles you want.

And if you want to zoom out so you can move or rename groups of tiles, drag a tile a long way across the screen, or just get to the far end of your tiles in a hurry, you can click in the lower right hand corner of the screen to activate the same 'semantic zoom' as pinching with your fingers on a touch screen.

SEMANTIC ZOOM: Click the icon to zoom out and see your tiles as tiny tiles in groups

You don't have to remember that because there's an icon for it at the end of the scroll bar, and there are hints for what clicking the mouse in most of the other corners does too.

PICK APPS: Use the scrollwheel of your mouse to flip through the apps you can switch to

Clicking lower left on the Windows flag swaps you back to the Windows desktop if that's open and you can now click in the top right corner to open the charm bar; that works far better because you don't have to move the mouse all the way to the left, click and then race over to the right hand side of the screen to choose the icon you want.

Move your mouse into the upper left corner when a Metro-style app is on screen – full-screen or snapped to the left side – and you'll get a thumbnail of the next app on the Windows stack. Spin the scrollwheel to step through the thumbnails and click when you get to the one you want to switch to.

That's easier than the swipe in/swipe out/swipe in dance you have to do to pick an app that's not the next one in order when you're controlling the interface with your fingers (if you drag back towards the side of the screen before the thumbnail for the next app enlarges to fill the window, Windows 8 knows you don't want it and offers the following thumbnail, but the gesture requires precise movements.

There's also a minor change to the way the charm bar appears. When you put your finger on the single pixel strip at the right side of the screen, if you don't make a clear swipe gesture then the charm bar icons appear floating transparently on screen rather than on the usual black charm bar background. That way if you didn't mean to open the charm bar, they're not as intrusive.

If you don't touch them again, they disappear quickly; if you tap an icon, the charm bar draws in fully and the pane you tapped for opens. The same thing happens when you have your mouse on the right of the screen; it's much harder to open the charm bar accidentally.

There's a new gesture for killing Metro apps without going to the Task Manager; they're not using resources unless you can see them, but you don't want an app you're done with cluttering up the stack of thumbnails and apps you have to work your way through every time you switch what's on screen.

KILLING SWIPE: Drag down from the top bezel and the current Metro app shrinks down, ready for you to throw away by swiping to the bottom

When you have a Metro app running, drag your finger down from the top bezel of the screen; as your finger gets halfway down the screen the app switches to show a thumbnail so you know you're selecting it. Drag your finger all the way from top to bottom - which you can do in one smooth swipe – and the app closes altogether. That works much the same way to kill a Metro app with the mouse. Put the changes together and Metro is a lot easier to work with, especially for mouse and keyboard users.

And if you're wondering how many apps will be available for Metro when the beta comes out. Flores isn't giving any numbers, but he did reveal that it took only a day to turn the HTML5 version of Cut The Rope into a full Metro app.

TRANSPARENT CHARM: Swipe or click hesitantly and the charms float over the Start screen, ready to disappear if you turn out not to want them

Best free laptops: deals and models compared

More and more these days, when you head to buy a mobile phone on contract you're bombarded with offers for free gifts if you sign up for a longer contract or pay more each month.

Getting a free laptop is one of the most common of these offers, and is among the most tempting. Even lesser powerful laptops are more than capable of getting you onto the internet these days, even if they're only really equipped for a bit of Facebook browsing when it comes to specs - you won't find hardcore gamer machines here.

However, as long as you know that HD video is about the limit of these machines, you can grab yourself a useful free laptop at the same time as your phone, all in one bundle. We've rounded up some of the free laptops you can pick up below.

Compaq Presario CQ57

The HP Compaq Presario CQ57-302EA features a dual-core AMD processor at 1.3GHz to run Windows 7 Home Premium, with 4GB of RAM ensuring that you won't have any trouble multitasking.

The 320GB hard drive offers enough space for light home use, while the 15.6-inch, 1366 x 768 screen should offer plenty of space for web browsing.

The Presario CQ57 is available for free with phones such as the Nokia X2, Sony Ericsson Spiro and Motorola WILDER for around £25 per month, or with phones such as the LG Optimus 3D, Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S and Samsung Galaxy Apollo for around £57 per month.

• Browse free laptop deals on the TechRadar phone store

Samsung N145

This netbook features a 1.66GHz Intel Atom processor with 1GB of RAM and runs Windows 7 Starter Edition. The 160GB hard drive can store plenty of documents, while the 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 display is perfect for light browsing.

The Samsung N145 is available free with phones such as the LG Optimus One P500, Samsung Galaxy Europa and HTC Wildfire for around £27 per month, or the HTC Desire S and Orange San Francisco for around £36 per month.

• Browse free laptop deals on the TechRadar phone store

HP Pavilion G6-1202SA

This HP laptop offers a 1.9GHz dual-core AMD processor to power Windows 7 Home Premium, with 4GB of RAM complementing it. HD video can play on the 15.6-inch 1366 x 768 display, while the 640GB of storage is a really impressive amount for this kind of laptop.

The Pavilion G6 is available free on tariffs of around £26 per month with phones such as the BlackBerry Curve 9360, the Alcatel OT-380 and the Nokia C1-01, or on tariffs of around £57 per month with phones such as the HTC Wildfire S, HTC HD7, BlackBerry Bold 9780, and Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S.

• Browse free laptop deals on the TechRadar phone store

Samsung RV515

The Samsung RV515 feature Windows 7 Home Premium powered by a dual-core AMD processor and 4GB of RAM, with a big 500GB hard drive and a 15.6-inch, 1366 x 768 screen, which will be plenty big enough for streaming video and web browsing.

The Samsung RV515 is available free for around £12 per month with phones such as the Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 or Nokia C2-01, or for around £29 per month with phones such as the Samsung Galaxy Mini or Nokia X3 Touch and Type.

• Browse free laptop deals on the TechRadar phone store

Toshiba Satellite Pro C660-1NQ

This 15.6-inch laptop features a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of RAM, a reasonable 320GB hard drive, a screen resolution of 1366 x 768, with Windows 7 Home Premium as the operating system.

The Satellite Pro C660 is available for free from around £27 per month with phones such as the Sony Ericsson Cedar, Nokia C2-01 and Nokia C1-01.

• Browse free laptop deals on the TechRadar phone store

Best free tablets

In some cases, there's a list of alternative freebies to a laptop. If you check out the full list, you'll find that tablets are often available, including the ones below.

Asus Eee Pad Transformer

This 10.1-inch tablet runs Android 3.2 and features a dual-core processor. (Read TechRadar's full Asus Eee Pad Transformer review.)

It's available for free from around £46 with phones such as the Samsung Galaxy Ace or HTC Wildfire S, or at around £57 with phones such as the HTC Sensation XL, Nokia N8 or BlackBerry Bold 9780.

• Browse free tablet deals on the TechRadar phone store

BlackBerry PlayBook

This seven-inch tablet from RIM offers a multitasking QNX-based operating system and a dual-core processor. (Read TechRadar's full BlackBerry PlayBook review.)

It's available for free from around £41 with phones such as the BlackBerry Curve 3G, Samsung Galaxy Ace and HTC Wildfire S.

• Browse free tablet deals on the TechRadar phone store

HTC Flyer

This seven-inch Android tablet features a 1.5GHz single-core processor and can work with a special tablet pen to enable taking quick notes in its custom interface. (Read TechRadar's full HTC Flyer review.)

It's available for free from around £41 per month with phones such as the HTC Wildfire S, BlackBerry Curve 3G and Samsung Galaxy Ace.

• Browse free tablet deals on the TechRadar phone store

Motorola Xoom 2 Media Edition

This 8.2-inch tablet features a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, is extremely thin and light, and comes with Motorola's MotoCast software for streaming media from your home computer. (Read TechRadar's full Motorola Xoom 2 Media Edition review.)

It's available for free on tariffs from around £41 per month with phones such as the BlackBerry Curve 3G, the Samsung Galaxy Ace and the Nokia C1-01.

• Browse free tablet deals on the TechRadar phone store

CES 2012 round-up

It's digital Christmas! For the tech industry, January's Consumer Electronics Show is more exciting than waiting for Santa to come down the chimney: it's when the big names of consumer technology show off their biggest and best products - and by "biggest" we mean "smallest", because this year thin is in.

Tech firms usually boast about power or pixels, but this year they sounded more like supermodels who haven't eaten anything but air for six months.

Take LG, for example: its 55-inch OLED TV wasn't remarkable for its screen size, but for its thinness: it's just 4mm thick, which means it's thinner than any of LG's phones. Marc Chacksfield has an important warning, though: "it's not as light as a phone".

Bang & Olufsen's doing the skinny thing too. Its BeoVision 12-65 "ultra flat" 3D plasma is "very thin indeed", says Kate Solomon, and comes with typically B&O pricing: "it's likely to be high - now take that price you're thinking is high and double it. About that."

Samsung's been at the skinny-TV game too. It's own 55-incher is millimetres-thin and made from a single pane of glass, delivering 2D, 3D, motion sensing and voice recognition, dual-core processing and a whole bunch of apps. Hang on, doesn't that mean it's a PC?

On the subject of PCs, they've been on the Slimfast plan as well, courtesy of Intel, who showed off a whole bunch of Ultrabook laptops and convertible tablets that are just 18mm thick, with even thinner models on the horizon.

Our intrepid correspondent Dan Grabham was particularly impressed by the "incredibly thin convertible Windows 8 Ultrabook-tablet hybrid" the IdeaPad Yoga, which is "like Microsoft's vision for the tablet PC from 2002. Only good."

It's an impressive bit of kit not just for what it is, but for what's coming in its wake: "What's most exciting is that we'll be seeing plenty more devices like this during 2012," Grabham says. "We cannot wait."

Thin phones and cameras

Is there anything else we can slim down? How about smartphones? Motorola's Droid 4 is "the thinnest LTE QWERTY phone in the world", which sounds awfully like band website claims such as "we're the most popular six-piece Welsh language jazz-funk fusion band in Scunthorpe".

Nevertheless, at half-an-inch thick - 7.1mm in proper measurements - it's certainly quite thin, especially if you compare it to things that are thicker.

"This is getting silly now," Gareth Beavis writes about the 6.68mm thick Huawei Ascend P1 S. The P1 claims to be the thinnest smartphone on the market, although "it will be interesting to see how thick that lip at the bottom is, as that's the part that will stop it from being able to tout any records in advertising should it be fatter than the iPhone 4S."

There's another Ascend, the P1, but at 7.69mm that one's so thick Huawei should call it the Ascend Porker, or something.

Anyone else been to fat camp? Yep: here comes Toshiba with "something that has made us genuinely excited". It's a tablet! Huawei should take note: the Toshiba Excite X10 is just 7.7mm thick, and that's for a full tablet, not a wee smartphone.

The Excite X10 isn't just a thin tablet: it'll make your wallet thinner too, because the entry level 16GB version's pegged at a hefty $530.

Fancy a thin camera? There's a new bunch from Olympus, some new Kodaks and some rather nifty all-weather cameras from Fujifilm, while Samsung tells us it's considering "producing a more advanced compact system camera... in order to attract enthusiast photographers".

Last but not least, you're getting thinner too: Kinect is coming to Windows next month. "Prepare to gesture at your PC like a loon", Kate Solomon says.

As well as the huge number of Ultrabooks here at CES 2012, there have also been a fair few tablets too.

But what about this prototype?

It's an Intel Core i-series-based Ultrabook but one where the screen detaches to become a 13.3-inch tablet.

It's made by Compal, a Taiwanese firm more used to manufacturing hardware for other people.

The device currently runs Windows 7, but our representative said that the device is fully touch compatible with Windows 8.

As you can see, the tablet itself is razor-thin.

It's also extremely light - under 800g apparently. You get full notebook-like ports though - there's USB 3.0 and microHDMI as well as an SD card slot.

There are rear-facing and front-facing cameras too.

Unfortunately, as the device is Core rather than Atom-based, the unit does get a little hot.

The keyboard dock also includes more battery capacity.

It's certainly an interesting device and, while we really think it has the wrong Intel processor inside, it's an interesting fusion that would really come alive with Windows 8.

Toshiba has shown off its new glasses-free Qosmio F755 laptop here at CES 2012. It's aimed at gamers who want to add the third dimension to their gameplay, without the need for bulky glasses.

The Toshiba Qosmio F755 is born of the same ilk as other Qosmio's featuring a gargantuan, striking design and bright colours. The F775 has a textured red lid, which looks quite tasteful for a gaming laptop, and opens up to show off a black chassis that feels solid, if a little plasticky.

The whole laptop weighs over 3KG, and is destined to live on a desk, rather than be carried around.

Under the hood is a second generation Intel Core i7 processor, a whopping 8GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce 540M processor, which means there's plenty of power for games, but sits in line with most high-end gaming laptops.

Toshiba was showing off the 3D capabilities using Skyrim, but we were far from impressed. The 3D effect is heavily reliant on the distance of your head, and all too often, that's not in a comfortable position. Toshiba has tried to overcome this, by using the webcam to track your position and optimise the 3D content accordingly, but it didn't work very well.

However, the main complaint with the 3D was that it looked terrible. The effect makes what should be a fantastically smooth and high-resolution game look grainy, lifeless and dull. The visual effect of Skyrim was decimated, and we couldn't even play for more than a few minutes on the stand.

The Toshiba Qosmio F755 will be released later this year.

Amongst the throngs of new Ultrabooks announced at CES 2012, one has been kept a little quieter, but can be seen at the Toshiba stand, and could turn into a leading contender.

Larger 14-inch Ultrabooks have been announced by HP, Samsung and LG offering larger screens but bulkier builds, and with the exception of Samsung, no pay off in improved power, storage or graphics.

The Toshiba is different. It still maintains a waif like design, despite packing in the extra inch of LED real estate. The prototype model is emblazoned with Satellite branding, which usually demotes home consumer use, rather than Portege, which denotes portability.

The build quality is more solid than the existing Toshiba Portege Z830, which uses a honeycomb effect to make it the lightest Ultrabook on the market at just 1.1KG but flexes heavily. This 14-inch version has a brushed metal finish, solid lines, and while we didn't have a set of scales on the stand, is around 1.6KG, clocking in under the Samsung and HP models.

There's precious little information on what's under the hood, and the unit we saw was running an Intel Core i3 processor, but that's certain to change once it's released.

Sticking with the design, the mysterious 14-inch Ultrabook has a full range of connectivity, placed on either side, including Ethernet, which is missing from most models.

There's no word on pricing, availability, spec or even a name for this model yet, but that doesn't stop us from being excited about this great looking Ultrabook.

Best of CES 2012

At one end of the scale, CES is about big, high-end product announcements - the world's biggest TV, the smallest pico projector, hi-fi speakers that cost more than your car.

Or are bigger than your car.

At the other end it's about companies you've never (or barely) heard of trying to catch the tired eye of a wandering blogger with head-mounted displays, portable scanners and USB penknives.

Filter out the noise with our pick of the best gadgets and tech of CES 2012.

1. Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook

You know that it's a low-key CES when laptops are the stars of the show. Of course, the Dell XPS 13 isn't just any old laptop. It's part of the first wave of Intel Ultrabooks, super skinny portables that hope to outdo the MacBook Air (for power, if not skinny styling).

The XPS 13 impresses with a super model waistline that thins from 18mm down to 6mm. But it still manages to incorporate a 13.3-inch (1366 x 768) Gorilla Glass display, Core i5 processor, 128GB SSD and 4GB of RAM. This is the new shape of laptops for 2012. Whether it's another fad remains to be seen.

2. LG 55-inch 3D OLED HD TV

You've gotta hate the TV industry. Whatever HD TV you eventually buy, there's always a newer, smarter, brighter and sleeker model waiting to outdo it.

At least we can see where the technology train is heading. Next stop: LG's 55-inch 3D OLED HD TV.

The 55EM9600 is the world's largest OLED telly. Not only is it superbly bright and clear, but it's almost ridiculously thin. Get a ruler out and you'll see it's a mere 4mm thick, with a 1mm bezel that gives the impression of an edge-to-edge picture.

3. Samsung 'Smart Evolution' kit

Want a future-proof TV? Samsung is claiming that its 2012 Smart TVs will be exactly that thanks to a modular upgrade feature. "Thanks to its proprietary system-on-chip technology, Samsung is the only company that can deliver an evolving TV," says the company.

4. Fujifilm X-Pro1

Fujifilm's first compact system is a triumph. The redesigned sensor on the Fujifilm X-Pro1 uses a new colour filter array, inspired by traditional film cameras. The sensor is powered by a brand new EXR processor and Fujifilm has incorporated the combined electronic and optical viewfinder it first outed on the FinePix X100 model.

5. Acer Iconia Tab A700

If you want to beat the iPad 2 (or any iPad 3 or iPad 2S or iPad 2 HD), then you've got to be bold with your technology. Enter the Acer Iconia Tab A700, a Tegra 3-powered tablet of tomorrow running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

The A700 arguably sets the bar for tablets to come during 2012. It boasts a 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM and a 10.1-inch 1080p touch panel. HDMI, MicroSD and micro USB ports give it flexible connectivity that iPad owners can only dream of.

6. Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga

Why do you need an Ultrabook when you could have the flip-and-fold Windows 8 tablet/laptop that is the clever Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga?

It's effectively four devices in one. You can use it as a standard 13.3-inch notebook or as a slate-style tablet. Flip the keyboard backwards and the screen stands up like a small monitor. Open it out in a triangle shape to use it in 'tent' mode.

As our Dan Grabham points out: "It's like Microsoft's vision for the Tablet PC from 2002. Only good." This sort of flexible design could give Windows 8 devices a real edge over their iOS and Android rivals.

7. Razer 'Project Fiona' gaming tablet

This is how you do a gaming tablet! Razer's eye-catching 'Project Fiona' concept combines a chunky Windows 7 tablet with two fixed analogue game controllers that stick out on either side like jug-ears.

Powered by an Ivy Bridge Core i7 processor, it boasts a 10.1-inch touch display and has been spotted smoothly running Assassin's Creed: Revelations and Skyrim.

We'd love a portable Xbox 360 like this. It would be ideal for couch potato gaming when the wife wants to watch the telly...

8. JVC GY-HMQ10 4K camcorder

Remember when 1080p full HD was the pinnacle of video capture? Not any more. JVC's GY-HMQ10 is the world's first 4K handheld camcorder capable of recording footage at a sky-high resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels. This £5K gadget will go nicely with LG's 84-inch Ultra Definition TV.

9. MakerBot Replicator

In the future, you won't BUY a new toy, you'll PRINT it. Last year, MakerBot showcased its single-colour 3D printer - the Thing-O-Matic. A year on and the new Replicator model can print 3D objects in two colours.

It uses either acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), which is also used to make Lego bricks, or Polylactic acid, a biodegradable material made from corn. At $1,749 it can make the most expensive plastic whistle you've ever owned. Or replacement Lego bricks...

10. Voice/motion control

With Kinect heading to Windows and Siri presumably destined for an Apple TV, CE companies are keen to add gesture control and voice commands to their next-gen telly boxes. Samsung and LG have both demonstrated the technology at this year's CES. The days of the old IR remote control could be numbered.

So what can we take away from this year's show?

- Ultrabooks are the new netbooks
- Windows 8 tablets might actually be good
- Nobody is talking about Blu-ray any more
- Big OLED tellies are here (but they'll be pricey)
- TVs are getting smarter
- The days of the TV remote control are numbered
- The future of smartphones is quad-core and LTE
- Ryan Seacrest should NEVER host a tech keynote
- The CES glitz might be starting to fade...

LG and Microsoft have inked a patent agreement that covers all of LG's Android tablets and mobile phones, and – oddly – any devices running Chrome OS.

Since LG doesn't have any devices running Chrome OS we're assuming that means there's a Chromebook on its way from the company in the near future.

The new agreement, which builds on a pre-existing deal, sees LG join the throngs of Android manufacturers paying Microsoft for use of its patents, including HTC, Samsung and Acer.

So long and thanks for all the cash

In fact, as Microsoft's corporate VP Horacio Gutierrez gleefully points out, "more than 70 per cent of all Android smartphones sold in the US are now receiving coverage under Microsoft's patent portfolio".

The terms of the deal are under wraps, but it's likely that LG is paying Microsoft a broad licence fee, as well as royalties on each Android (and soon, Chrome OS) device sold.

Microsoft may be finding its approach a little more successful than Apple, whose rigorous protection of its intellectual property has seen it battling competitors in court rooms around the world - and that's a colour that doesn't look good on anybody.

As for the mystery LG Chromebook, we'll have to wait and see what the company has up its sleeve.

Not renowned for their PCs, Korean behemoth LG has released two Intel Ultrabooks here at CES 2012. And these aren't just Ultrabooks, the press release refers to them as Super Ultrabooks.

We're not quite sure why this is, but we'll go along with it. After all, we're in Las Vegas, where everything is supposed to be Super.

There are two models, the Z330 and the Z430 and as you can see the chassis of this model looks very nice indeed – what's more, they're among the slimmest and lightest Ultrabooks on show.

The 13-inch Z330 is the model shown here. LG has gone for the top of the pile with these models (and therefore they will be highly priced) and features the top-line Core i7 processor.

As with many other Ultrabooks, LG says it has managed to get the 13-inch display into a compact 12-inch chassis. Rather than being tapered at one end, the Z330 is 14.7mm thick across the whole chassis – gven that many Ultrabooks are 17-18mm thick, the Z330 really appeals. It's also among the lightest Ultrabooks around 1t 1.21kg.

We also really liked the keyboard on the model we saw, although the trackpad was a bit slippy for our liking.

As you can see, the 13-inch model pictured here has HDMI out and three USB ports - you only get two and a mini HDMI with a lot of the tapered Ultrabooks. There's a drop down bit for the Ethernet port and one USB 3.0 port.

According to LG, the Z330 requires less than 10 seconds to complete booting and has a latest-class SATA3 SSD, too.

The 14-inch Z430 weighs 1.5kg and is equipped with SSD and HDD, meaning storage capacities of up to 500GB. This is similar to the Series 5 from LG's great rival Samsung. But unlike that model, it's not clear if the Z430 can be bought with just SSD, or whether it comes with the two drives as a default.

We sure have seen some Ultrabooks this CES. Samsung has had two major computing launches at CES 2012. Firstly there was the new high-end Series 9 and then there's this – the new Samsung Notebook Series 5 Ultrabook.

Powered by an Intel Core i5 procesor, the Series 5 differentiates itself from many of the other Ultrabooks on offer at the show by packing beefed-up graphics in the form of an AMD Radeon HD chip inside the bigger 14-inch model. It also has something called an 'optical disc drive' – we're pretty scared that disc storage seems like such an outdated concept.

The Series 5 is available in a 13-inch too – it's interesting that the sizes aren't more different - but both size variants have the Intel Core i5-2467M processor and up to 8GB of memory.

The 300nit HD LED SuperBright screen is lovely and bright, and is anti-glare, though this didn't seem to help on the show floor at CES.

So let's talk about the 13-inch model. It's between 14 to 17.6mm thick and weighs a measly 1.38kg – a fairly standard Ultrabook weight.

As is generally the case with Samsung laptops, the keyboard seems great, while the trackpad buttons are definite and well designed.

As well a 128GB SSD or 258GB SSD, there is also an option to go for higher capacity by using a standard hard drive – up to 500GB.

Samsung says the 14-inch can be configured with up to 1TB of storage – an incredible amount.

However, this creates a problem – SSD storage is fast. So the Series 5 includes a tech to boost the speed of the standard drive - ExpressCache by Diskeeper. This uses a small 16GB iSSD to speed up the system. Samsung cites a 20 second boot time and 2 second resume from standby, which is only a little slower than many other Ultrabooks featuring SSDs.

The only area the Series 5 13 disappoints in is battery life – Samsung cites 6.4 hours. This pales in comparison to the 8-9 hours promised by many other Ultrabooks.

The 13" model also has a full-size HDMI port along with one USB 3.0, two USB 2.0, a 4-in-1 multi SD card slot, an Ethernet connection and webcam.

The 14" model offers full-size HDMI, VGA, two USB 3.0, one USB 2.0, a 4-in-1 multi SD card slot, Ethernet and built-in webcam. It's 20.9mm thick and weighs 1.84kg

The humble laptop is having a major makeover, and here at CES 2012 you can't move for super slim and light Ultrabooks, from every manufacturer from Dell to Lenovo.

Samsung announced their Series 5 Ultrabook in Monday's press conference, but it seems they held all the good stuff back for flagship laptop, the Series 9.

The original Series 9 was born before Intel had poured a fraction of their $300m fund into convincing manufacturers that making fast and desirable portables would be good for business, and at CES 2012, Samsung has given it an update.

The original Series 9 was one of the world's thinnest laptops, but Samsung has managed to shave another 4mm from its size-zero body, and the updated 13" model measures just 12.9mm when closed.

The 15" version measures just 15mm, and one certainly gets the impression that Samsung wants to prove a point to the Ultrabook crowd.

Duralumin, the tough alloy used on the original model, has been axed - possibly because it was prone to scratches - and replaced by standard aluminium, which feels much more resilient, and should stand up to contact with other items in your bag.

Inside is a 1.7GHz Intel Core i7 processor, and up to 8GB of RAM, and an SSD hard drive, which really makes a difference in boot times. Samsung boasts that the Series 9 can resume from sleep in just 2 seconds, and when we got hands-on, this claim certainly doesn't seem wide of the mark.

In a surprise move, Samsung has opted for an 1600x1200 matte screen on the Series 9, and there's no option for a glossier, more vibrant Super-TFT option.

For a portable laptop, it makes sense to include a matte panel, to stop annoying reflections when working in direct sunlight, however, this updated model feels more about style than business. The detail is fantastic, the screen bright, but it does lack vibrancy in colour and contrast, which may put off media lovers.