All Laptops & portable PCs Feeds

HP 2133 Mini-Note

James de Vile — 1210756212

Asus has a lot to answer for.

Its original Eee PC sub-notebook, announced just under a year ago, has leapt off shelves - watched with great interest by a growing number of notebook manufacturers.

One year of development on, we're starting to see these manufacturers' attempts to match the Eee PC's portability, low price point and general loveableness come to fruition.

A few such notebooks have passed largely unnoticed, but none since the original Eee have been greeted with quite such excitement as HP's offering; the Mini-Note.

Not just for kids

The company insists that the Mini-Note has been designed primarily for education, and though we'll accept that as a starting point, we struggle to believe that every design decision was made so that little Eric could do all his homework on the bus and still have room in his bag for his lunch box.

Take the curvaceous magnesium alloy shell, the near full-sized keyboard or the stunning high-resolution glossy screen.

The rock-solid build quality means it’s quite a lot heavier than its rivals – not particularly schoolchild friendly - and aesthetically, it’s a far cry from the creaky white plastic Eee PCs gracing the shelves of Toys R Us or the One Laptop Per Child association’s toy-like XO-1.

It begs to be kept wrapped in microfibre cloth, protected from wayward compasses and pencil sharpeners that may compromise its beauty. Its looks beg comparison with the Macbook Air, and remind us of the form factor we all hoped for from Apple. It’s simply too exquisite – too adult – to have been built for the classroom.

Slow for the UK

In order to bring the product to market as soon as possible, HP has opted to use VIA’s single-core C7-M processor; a processor family as sluggish as it is dated.

The UK seems to have been dealt a poor hand with the Mini-Note; while US buyers can choose from a number of customised editions, our choice is simply ‘Linux’ or ‘Windows Vista’.

For us Brits, there’s very little reason to opt for the latter; the processor is the same paltry 1.2Ghz chip as the Linux version, with no sign of the 1.6Ghz model in the UK.

Slow processor

It’s a huge shame, as while the extra memory and larger six-cell battery of the higher-end UK model does go some way to making up the speed differential, the ‘upgrade’ to Windows Vista is hardly worth paying for.

Vistaon the Mini-Note is like putting Pavarotti behind the wheel of a two-seat convertible; he'll get from A to B, but the extra bloat means he's not the best man for the job.

But that's the thing - it does get from A to B. Having read preliminary reports, we were expecting performance under Vista to be simply ludicrous, with Vista’s interface rendered pixel by pixel.

Downgrade to Windows XP

In reality, in everyday web browsing, working with Microsoft Office 2007 and playing videos, it’s no slower than a low-end Celeron notebook for the same price.

In the US, HP is offering a 'downgrade to Windows XP' option - we presume the word 'downgrade' is only used to keep Microsoft happy, as for all intents and purposes you'll be giving your Mini-Note a new lease of life by switching to Microsoft's older, wiser operating system.

That said, those looking for a real-world example of the Mini-Note’s abilities under Windows Vista will find comfort in the following: What was originally thought to be a suicide mission ended in tremendous satisfaction after we installed Adobe Lightroom and successfully developed a batch of five 8Mbit Canon RAW images with negligible wait time between adjustments.

Great screen

Photographers looking for a mobile digital darkroom should take note; the high resolution screen makes mobile Photoshopping a reality, and with the inclusion of an SD card slot, powered USB socket and a 120GB hard drive as standard, there’s a huge amount more scope for backing up and storing batches of images on the move than with the EeePC’s 20GB SSD.

Similarly, if you’re looking for a sub-notebook in order to do any kind of writing, the search ends here.

While the EeePC had us screwing our hands into claw shapes to type, the Mini-Note’s ‘borderless’ keyboard is a dream to type on. There’s simply no compromise when typing; it feels more natural than many full-size notebooks, with concave keys guiding your fingertips as you glide over them, providing just the right amount of feedback with minimal travel.

And if you need to get that finished document to where it has to go quickly, there’s a very welcome ExpressCard 54 slot on the side of the Mini-Note, just waiting for a 3G wireless internet card.

Not good for video

As a portable media player, however, the Mini-Note falls flat. The 1.2Ghz processor struggles to play full-screen video at anything beneath ‘high performance’ mode, which reduces battery life considerably.

At full speed, and provided you don’t do too much in the background, DivX-encoded movies and QuickTime trailers will play with no noticeable frame rate loss, though YouTube videos are very choppy under Vista due to the processor-intensive Flash decoding required.

It’s worth noting that 'downgrading’ the 1.2Ghz Mini-Note to Windows XP clears up a lot of such issues.

Video is sharp and colourful thanks to the gorgeously-high PPI 1280x768 resolution, glossy display, but don’t expect to take advantage of the Mini-Note’s screen resolution with any high definition content – the VIA Chrome9 graphics chipset simply isn’t powerful enough for anything much higher than 480p.

Battery life a concern

In normal desktop tasks, though, it makes a world of difference, even compared to the EeePC 900’s 9” screen; the extra resolution brings its screen real estate close to those twice the size. It’s not as bright as we’d hoped, and while it’s perfectly viewable, the option for one more step of brightness wouldn’t go amiss in lighter environments.

The stereo speakers flanking the panel are equally worthy, making up for a lack of bass with detail-laden volume that never sounds distorted.

Battery life is perhaps our biggest concern with the Mini-Note; with the processor clocked at half speed and the brightness set to 70% using Vista’s power management options, we were rewarded with just over four hours of battery life from the larger –and heavier - six cell battery.

Hot case

This is fine if you’re browsing the web or writing spreadsheets, but you’ll struggle to play a film full-screen with the processor at half speed, and turning up the power means the Mini-Note will be dead before the credits roll.

Our other concern is heat, though this is evidently a design decision; place the Mini-Note on your lap and you’ll soon know about it. Like Apple’s metal-bodied notebooks, the Mini-Note’s shell is used to dissipate heat, and while it’s certainly no worse than Apple’s Macbook Air, it’s still not quite the cool and comfortable little computer we might have imagined.

Final verdict

When the Eee PC came out, we set aside a little portion of our salaries, awaiting the results of a backlash from other manufacturers.

The HP Mini-Note is firm proof that it’s been worth the wait – it’s a radical step up from the Eee PC in build quality, and despite the inflated asking price, there are few who will disagree after seeing it face to face that the extra hasn’t been put to good use.

It’s just an enormous shame that the 1.6Ghz version won’t be released in the UK, as internally, the slower processor puts it far behind the Eee PC’s Intel processor when it comes to video and multi-tasking.

The UK editions are still very capable sub-notebooks, but as upstanding British citizens, we can’t help but feel a little cheated.

Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch 2.5GHz

1210152009

This month, Apple rolled out updates to both the MacBook and MacBook Pro.

Of the two, the new MacBook Pro offers more talking points; the chips have been replaced, not just sped up, and the trackpad now includes all those lovely Multi-touch gesture controls we first saw on the iPhone and, more recently, the MacBook Air.

Latest processor technology

The processors in the MacBook Pro represent the latest mobile version of the Intel Core 2 Duo range. Gone are Intel's Merom chips, which were the first mobile C2D chips when launched back in 2006.

Replacing them are the smaller, faster Penryn chips, which drop energy consumption down to 35W from the Merom's 44W. While the clock speed has not been bumped up all that much, advances to the circuitry bring better battery life and overall performance.

Meanwhile, the price has stayed the same, though admittedly the Apple Remote is now an optional extra (£15), whereas before it was bundled for free.

Inside the latest Macbook Pro

Compared to the slinky MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro seems like quite a chunky laptop, though it's still less than an inch thick and this 15-inch model weighs just 2.5 kilos.

Three MacBook Pros are available: 15-inch 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 15-inch 2.5GHz and a 17-inch 2.5GHz. Plenty of upgrade options are available at the point of sale, and chief among these options is an upgrade to 2.6GHz chips on either the 15-inch or 17-inch models, and of course more memory, some screen options and bigger drives.

The only hardware upgrade you can make after purchase that doesn't void your warranty is to install more RAM.

All MacBook Pros ship with 2GB of memory (667MHz DDR2) and can expand to 4GB. The entry-level 2.4GHz MacBook Pro, still a very fine workhorse, ships with a 200GB hard drive, up from 120GB, and NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics processors with 256MB of video memory.

The 2.5GHz 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pros ship with 512MB of video memory and the same NVIDIA graphics cards.

The Penryn chips can carry a larger L2 cache, circuitry that speeds access to commonly used data, and this has changed. It has dropped to 3MB (from 4MB) on the entry-level 2.4GHz MacBook Pro, while being raised to 6MB on the other two models.

Why the drop occurred is a mystery to us, but the usual benchmark tester in the Mac community seems sure that the drop hasn't affected performance too badly. We didn't review the 2.4GHz MacBook Pro.

Stunning display

The brushed-aluminium finish, optical drive, port allocation, wireless standard (802.11n), and most other specs remain the same. The display options, in contrast, are wider than they have been before. Glossy screens are optional on all the MacBook Pros at no extra cost.

The reflectiveness of these screens is less of an issue than it is on the iMac range, because the glare is easier to reposition with a laptop. We think the colour range is better with the glossies, but we recommend that you visit a store to see both display in action before buying.

The 15-inch MacBook Pros have been available with the more eco-friendly, lower-powered LED backlit screen since the last MacBook Pro update eight months ago, but now the 17-inch models get this option too, though you need to pay extra for it.

Replacing the standard LCD backlit screens (1,680x1,050 pixels) with the 17-inch LED screen (1,920x1,200 pixels)will cost you £60, which seems reasonable to us.

Considering the low price, we recommend getting the LED option if you go for a 17-inch model. The battery life you'll save is the deal-maker, while you can feel warm and fuzzy about having a screen that's also mercury and arsenic-free. LED screens also dim and light very quickly.

Multi-touch magic

The other hardware upgrade of note is the trackpad. Since the advent of Multi-touch gesture commands on the iPhone and iPod touch, it was only a matter of time before the same level of natural command arrived in the Mac laptops.

The MacBook Air was the first Mac to bring in pinch, swipe and rotate gesture commands in addition to the drag and two-finger scroll commands from early pads. Five minutes after firing up iPhoto and playing around with photos, you'll be a natural. The two-finger expand zoom function is incredibly useful.

During web browsing you can use finger gestures to shift a page and move forward between pages, to scroll up and down, to zoom in and out, and to drag elements around. Fantastic. We know that other manufacturers have experimented with this technology, but none has nailed it as well as Apple.

Leopard was launched between this and the last MacBook Pro update. As with the new Apple Keyboard, the Macbook Pro's offering has changed to better serve the new OS.

This beautiful sprung keyboard, which is a work of art in itself, now comes with Exposé, Dashboard, and media-browsing shortcut keys overlaying some of the function keys. All very welcome additions.

Performance boost

The jump up in speed is fantastic. You can feel the greater L2 cache and faster chips kick in right out of the gate, and the MacBook Pro sprints through video and graphics work, thanks to that doubling of video RAM.

We experienced a near 20% increase in our Photoshop radial blur test over last year's 2.2GHz MacBook Pro. Our multiple CPU Cinebench 10 rendering test returned a 5,444 score compared to 4,931 for last year. These are jumps in performance that you can really feel.

Xbench, a benchmarking application that takes a snapshot of general system specs, averaged a score of 122.5. This figure is more than twice the performance of the MacBook Air (49.68), and approaching the latest 2.4GHz 20-inch iMac (146).

These results are not bad at all for a mobile workstation.

Should you wait for updates?

The MacBook Pro feels very responsive in day-to-day use. With a medium-sized photo library imported in, iPhoto opens and browses practically without a pause. Selecting, pinching and rotating images is near-instant, too.

The same is true across all of the iLife apps, and Photoshop is also beautifully swift. Battery life during normal use was 4 hours 34 minutes, and 3 hours 2 minutes during a flat-out DVD playback burn.

A question we often get asked is whether now is the right time to buy a Mac, or whether it's worth waiting for more power down the line. It took eight months for this update to arrive.

The Penryn chips started shipping in January 2008 and at the time of writing had yet to be updated with faster Front Side Bus, the next logical step that would prompt an upgrade.

Considering that Apple typically updates its Macs three months after better chips become available, and given that the old excuse of waiting for Leopard is no longer relevant, we recommend buying now.

The fact of the matter is, the sooner you are able to start enjoying your Apple laptop the better.

Toshiba Satellite P200-1K9

Tech staff — 1210000500

The Toshiba Satellite P200-1K9 (£899 inc. VAT) is a capable multimedia laptop.

It may not be particularly portable, but has improved gaming power.

Fantastic usability

The 3.5kg chassis is the large and heavy, due to its 17-inch screen. The 131-minute battery life provides basic mobility for short journeys and use around the home.

The glossy design adds style, but is more prone to damage than tougher matt finishes.

Usability is outstanding, as the large chassis allows an equally spacious keyboard. All keys have a smooth typing action and long-term use is comfortable.

A separate pad of numeric keys is also included for gaming and data input.

Great HD video playback

The screen is bright and vibrant. Photos, videos and games look stunning and the extra screen space is ideal for watching DVDs from your sofa. An infrared remote control is included to improve accessibility.

While many laptops provide poor audio quality, Toshiba has fitted a set of stereo speakers from audio specialist Harman Kardon.

Sound quality is certainly improved over its rivals, but still fails to match the use of dedicated external speakers.

Where the Toshiba excels is its gaming performance. The high-definition (HD) compatible ATi graphics card provides smooth playback of HD videos and the latest games run with ease.

Photo and video-editing power is also flawless.

Impressive memory

Home and office performance is also. The Intel Core 2 Duo is backed by an impressive 3072MB of memory.

This lets you smoothly and effortlessly run multiple high-performance applications side-by-side without a drop in performance.

Storage space is capacious. The 240GB hard drive will easily hold a whole family's files and the built-in DVD rewriter lets you create your own CDs and DVDs. There is also a 6-in-1 card reader.

Well-connected

Connectivity is equally comprehensive. While most rivals have four USB ports or less, the Toshiba has six.

This makes it easy to have a range of peripherals simultaneously connected. An HDMI-out port is also fitted for connecting the laptop to external HDTVs.

While its weight and battery mean it isn't the best choice for travellers, it's hard to fault the Toshiba for home gaming and multimedia use.

Its style, usability and high performance are impressive for such a low price and the Satellite P200-1K9 is easy to recommend.

Sony VAIO VGN-FZ38M

Tech staff — 1209914040

Sony's VAIO range is one of the world's best known laptop brands.

The VAIO VGN-FZ38M (£849 inc. VAT) is a stylish and impressively specified laptop ideal for most home users. Performance is a mixed bag, however, and this may deter more power-hungry users.

Sony's high quality build

The 2.6kg chassis is slim, lightweight and resilient enough for travel use. Its stylish design looks just as good in the home as the office.

While the 171-minute battery life provides strong mobility, it is bettered by many of its rivals.

The Sony's keyboard is of a high-quality and great during constant use, and always comfortable.

That said, while the keys are large and respond well, the firm typing action may be too hard for some users.

More of a multimedia laptop

Despite one of the best specifications we've seen at this price, performance fails to deliver.

It has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and outstanding 4096MB of memory, but performance was disappointing. There's enough power for all basic home use however.

Graphics performance is far better. The dedicated nVidia GPU provides mainstream 3D power, and lets you easily edit photos and even high-definition video.

The latest games can also be played, but you'll need to use lower resolution and detail settings to enjoy the best performance.

Equipped with Blu-ray

A key selling point at this price is the Sony's Blu-ray drive, as it allows you to watch the latest high-definition movies.

The screen's 1280 x 800 pixel (WXGA) resolution is too low for Full HD playback, but an HDMI-out port is included for connecting to external HDTVs.

That's not to say the 15.4-inch screen is poor. It's sharp, bright and colourful and ideal for viewing photos and standard-definition videos.

The viewing angle is fairly limited, so it's best viewed straight on when sitting at a desk, but comfortable use when out of the office is also possible.

Storage options

The 200GB hard drive is also notable and will easily hold an entire family's files, as well as allow you to download and store HD video from the internet.

For backing up your data, the Blu-ray drive also lets you write to recordable CDs and DVDs.

A benefit for the first-time buyer is the extensive software package Sony includes in the price.

Market-leading, entry-level tools for photo and video editing, CD/DVD creation, internet security and home-office tasks are provided, among others.

A great family machine

In nearly all ways, the Sony VAIO VGN-FZ38M is an excellent laptop at a great price.

Only the poor performance is a problem, but for most home users this is a great family laptop with everything you'll need to get started.

Dell Latitude D830

Tech staff — 1209914040

Dell's corporate Latitude range combines business stability with high-street prices.

The Latitude D830 (£660 inc. VAT) is a highly usable system with a great warranty, but low performance lets it down slightly.

Impressive battery life

The plain black/silver chassis is unobtrusive and ideal for corporate use. While it's quite a large laptop, its 3kg weight is light enough for basic mobility.

The 398-minute battery life is impressive and even outlasts that of the MacBook.

The user interface provides excellent comfort and freedom of choice. The keyboard is large with a near flawless typing action.

Both a touchpad and pointing stick are fitted for onscreen navigation, so users can choose their preferred method of control.

Bright screen

The 15.4-inch screen is bright and sharp, but the use of a standard TFT panel rather than a glossy Super-TFT coating means colours aren't as vibrant as we'd like. It reduces reflections, however, so you can comfortably work outside or under bright lights.

Graphics performance using the integrated Intel GPU is low, but suits basic use. Multimedia presentations can be created with ease and you can edit photos, but anything more than basic gaming is out of the question.

Limited performance

General performance on home or office tasks proved average.

The 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 2048MB of memory let you multi-task in comfort, but far better performance is available from rivals.

Recognising the need for corporate stability and hardware/software compatibility, Dell has installed Windows XP rather than Vista, as it is currently regarded as the more stable operating system. Vista can be installed later if you require its more advanced features.

Storage options are limited. The 120GB hard drive suits basic use, but is rather small at this price point. The dual-format DVD rewriter lets you create CDs and DVDs, but there is no support for media card formats.

Dell's superb warranty

Where the Dell excels is its outstanding warranty.

Three-years of on-site repairs are provided, with service guaranteed for the next business day. This will be a key selling point for home and business users alike and is a great addition at this price.

With its excellent battery life and warranty, the Dell Latitude D830 is a real bargain.

Its average performance and storage won't suit power users, but the fantastic user interface, stable platform and excellent battery life make this a laptop that's hard to ignore.

Lenovo ThinkPad T60p

Tech staff — 1209913800

Lenovo offers its ThinkPad range to business users, with the ThinkPad T60p (£590 inc. VAT) being it's standard entry-level machine for those who need a staple workhorse as opposed to a more sophisticated ultraportable.

Weighing in at 2.6kg, it still has a fair degree of portability, but the use of a 15-inch standard TFT display gives it a reasonably large footprint. This means that while you can carry this laptop with relative ease, it'll take up a good deal of space in your carry case.

A well-built laptop

The screen isn't the brightest we've seen, but images looked crisp and colourful once we turned it to full resolution.

When using it on the train, we found it didn't suffer from screen glare, which is a bonus for a machine you can use on the move.

However, the real benefit of a larger screen is that it allows for a larger keyboard. The keys on the ThinkPad are individually mounted and while they don't feel as robust as the keys on more expensive ThinkPads, they feel reassuringly well attached.

With a smooth typing action and a pointing stick as well as standard touchpad, this laptop is a pleasure to type on.

Strong graphics

The T60p has been in production for close to two years, so it's a stable platform to use. This version uses Windows XP Professional as a base operating system.

The choice of processor, Intel's Core Duo T2400, also shows the system is starting to show its age, as this is a first-generation dual-core processor.

It works well with Windows XP and offered reasonable benchmark results, but it lacks the same long-term performance as the Core 2 Duo processor.

One area where this machine surprisingly excels is in the choice of graphics card. The ATi Mobility FireGL V5200 was originally launched for use by designers, more specifically CAD operations. While it is starting to look dated, as a budget dedicated card it is still capable of handling most 3D tasks.

A pleasure to use

When it comes to extra features, you'll find the standard array of tools on offer. The VGA-out port allows for connection to analogue displays and instead of an ExpressCard slot you'll find the old PC Card connection.

On the right-hand side you'll find a DVD rewriter. With a view to security, there is a biometric fingerprint scanner on the main palm rest, which is linked to a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip.

The Lenovo ThinkPad T60p is a pleasure to use. The keyboard and screen are big and comfortable and the quality of the system more than lives up to expectations.

While the specification isn't cutting-edge, there is enough here for the business user looking for an everyday work machine.

Panasonic Toughbook CF-Y7

1209898129

Panasonic hasn't made too many cosmetic changes to its latest generation of Toughbook, with the bulk of the improvements being made to how effectively the system handles the components and the heat generated.

While the CF-Y7 (£1679 inc. VAT) falls under the Toughbook brand of machines, it's aimed at corporate users, or individuals who may have to use their laptop in a variety of locations, but need battery life and portability over a fully ruggedised design.

Low on power, big on portability

The big change to this version is the use of dual-core processing, with this chassis now being able to sport an Intel Core 2 Duo chip, albeit it the low-voltage variant running at 1.6GHz.

While this isn't the fastest of machines, we found it could handle most processing tasks with ease.

Panasonic has opted to ship this model with Windows XP Professional, but it can be preloaded with any version of Windows at time of purchase. XP is less power intensive and is still the preferred operating system for many businesses.

The entire body of the laptop is made from magnesium alloy, which helps to keep the weight down to a more than portable 1.6kg, while at the same time adding plenty of protection.

It's not fully-ruggedised as there are vents on the side connected to a fan and the USB ports are uncovered, but this is as robust a machine as the average user is likely to need.

Palm rest rewriter

A neat design that you'll only find on Panasonic laptops is the placement of the DVD rewriter in the palm rest, which you open with a small latch. This drive, as with the Wi-Fi connection, can be physically switched off to save on battery life.

In real terms, all this technology comes together to offer the CF-Y7 one of the longest battery times you'll currently find in a laptop.

Rubber strips on either side of the keyboard and small rubber feet on the screen prevent screen rub, so the 14.1-inch screen should stay sharp.

The keyboard spreads the full width of the main body and is incredibly comfortable to use. The touchpad and mouse buttons are in a circular design, which takes time to get accustomed to but they are responsive and well built.

Rugged and fully-featured

The Panasonic Toughbook CF-Y7 is an amazing laptop for any user looking for a lightweight, fully-featured machine for more than simply writing documents.

The semi-rugged design means it can be used in a wide variety of locations and the long-life battery makes it ideal for anyone who needs to work on the move for long periods of the day.

Overall, this is a winning ultraportable.

PC Nextday Zoostorm 4-5734

Tech staff — 1209827640

Proving how affordable laptops have become, the PC Nextday Zoostorm 4-5734 (£879 inc. VAT) packs in the latest mobile technology for some of the best performance around. Even mobility impresses, making this a well-rounded and accessible multimedia system.

The use of a 17-inch screen makes the chassis considerably large, and its 3.3kg weight won't suit frequent travel.

However, you can work around the house or on short journeys and the 204-minute battery life improves portability.

Excellent display

The large chassis allows for a spacious user interface. The keyboard is large and includes a dedicated pad of numeric keys.

However, the keyboard has a hard typing action and the keys need to be struck firmly to register, which restricts speed-typing.

The screen is bright and sharp. Colour reproduction is excellent and brings games, photos and movies to life.

The 1440 x 900-pixel resolution provides a sharp picture and lets you comfortably work with up to four windows at once. The widescreen aspect ratio is also ideal for gaming and watching DVDs.

Get gaming

A Core 2 Duo processor from Intel's latest range of Penryn chips is backed by 4096MB of memory and provides a great performance.

We were able to run several high-powered applications side by side with no noticeable drop in speed.

Graphics are equally strong. The dedicated nVidia graphics card runs the latest 3D games with ease and suits all 3D-intensive tasks. An HDMI-out port also lets you connect to HDTVs.

Comprehensive software

Up to 8.5GB of data per disc can be backed up to DVD using the dual-layer DVD rewriter, and the 4-in-1 card reader supports the most common media card formats. The Zoostorm's 300GB hard drive provides comprehensive storage.

The PC Nextday is also has Windows Vista Ultimate pre-installed. This is the flagship version of Microsoft's latest operating system and carries features such as HD video editing, full drive encryption and Windows Media Centre software.

Basic warranty

What lets the PC Nextday down is its limited warranty.

One year of parts and labour cover is provided, but you are responsible for all delivery fees. There is also no way to extend the base warranty at the time of purchase.

With its combination of multimedia power and the very latest technology, the PC Nextday Zoostorm 4-5734 is a great choice for power-hungry users. Just make sure you bear the limited warranty in mind.

HP Pavilion dv6750ea

Tech staff — 1209827400

HP currently sells more laptops world-wide than any other manufacturer.

A large part of this success has been placed on its new-look consumer range, of which the HP Pavilion dv6750ea (£549 inc. VAT) is the latest iteration.

With its high-gloss black lid and silver and black body, this is an attractive laptop. Made from plastic, the case isn't as robust as some rivals, and the screen tends to rock gently during typing, but we certainly found it solid enough for the asking price.

Quality screen

The screen is a 15.4-inch Super-TFT panel that looks stunning in most situations. Images proved sharp and bright, which makes editing photos or simply watching DVDs a pleasure.

In terms of graphics, this laptop has the newest GPU on test, with the nVidia GeForce 8400M GS being a mid-range graphics card that offers decent all-round performance.

When it comes to watching movies, there is a DVD rewriter built into the case and the inclusion of Altec Lansing speakers, located above the keyboard, help to deliver impressive performance.

User-friendly controls

A set of touch-sensitive buttons above the keyboard allow you to control audio and video settings and are easy to control.

There is also a separate button for launching HP's own QuickPlay multimedia application, which can be run independently of the main OS for a much quicker startup.

Weighing in at 2.7kg, this is a semi-lightweight machine that delivered a battery life of over three hours, which is fine for using when out and about.

Comfortable to use

When it comes to usability, this machine offers decent value for money, but we found it grew warm to the touch rather quickly.

The keyboard sits squarely in the middle of the main body and proved very comfortable to use.

The keys are a good size, but while they have a good amount of travel, they don't feel as reassuringly solid when you type as those of the ThinkPad. The same is true of the mouse buttons.

We found they responded well, but they tended to feel a little on the cheap side.

HP adds on some useful extras

When it comes to extras, the inclusion of a webcam is useful, and the inclusion of an HDMI port for connecting to larger screens is still uncommon at this price point.

Less appealing for the home user is the expansion port slot, which only works with HP products and therefore limits the flexibility of the machine.

The HP Pavilion dv6750ea is a good laptop, but not as versatile as we were expecting. While it delivers on performance and power, we felt the overall build quality wasn't quite as robust as we were expecting at this price.

Acer Aspire 7720G-703G25Hn

Tech staff — 1209741300

The Acer Aspire 7720G-703G25Hn (£980 inc. VAT) is the largest machine available in the company's Gemstone range and is aimed at the casual gamer.

With an affordable price tag, you won't find performance to worry the Dell XPS, but most games still run without trouble.

The 17-inch screen was a pleasure to use and the 1920 x 1200-pixel resolution helps to provide more detail. However, bright conditions can cause reflections due to the glossy Super-TFT coating.

Play HD DVDs on your laptop

Helping you to get the most out of the display, you'll find an HD DVD optical drive in place.

This format has been replaced by Blu-ray, but it still offers excellent quality, and HD (High Definition) movies are impressively sharp. Oddly, there's no HDMI port, so you won't be able to output HD content to an external display.

3D performance is provided by a mid-range nVidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics card. It was fine for playing older games and running regular applications, but the latest titles can only be played in reduced resolutions.

The chassis heated up under intensive use but, aside from the fan noise, it was never problematic.

Smooth and strong performance

The Gemstone styling split opinion in our office, but it can't be denied that the beige and glossy black design is distinctive.

The large keyboard is very comfortable, and the big and well-placed keys make it easier to type at speed than most of its rivals. However, we did find that the board bounced under pressure.

A high-end Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 3072MB of memory help the Acer to provide a great performance when it came to everyday tasks.

Running a host of intensive programs had no effect on stability, and the Aspire ran smoothly and responsively at all times. There's only one hard drive but, at 240GB, there is plenty of space for games and media files.

No corners cut by Acer

Despite being one of the cheapest machines here, there are plenty of features.

The latest wireless and fixed networking adapters are in place, making it easy to play games online. Bluetooth is integrated, so files can be transferred wirelessly to other digital devices.

The Acer's four USB ports are situated close together, limiting the amount of peripherals you can connect at the same time. It's not perfect, but there's still a lot to like about this machine.

The speed it deals with everyday applications and its comfortable interface help to make it an ideal desktop replacement, representing good value for money.