The 15.6-inch R520 desktop-replacement laptop is well worth a look if you're seeking a budget machine primarily intended for handling productivity tasks at home. Its graphics capability could be better, but it offers decent overall performance, a ...

Good keyboard ; decent battery life

Images on the screen can look rather washed-out ; weak 3D graphics capability

The Samsung R520 isn't a bad deal if you just want a laptop for running productivity software, but, if you're looking for a machine to use at home, the larger R720 is a much better all-rounder that costs only slightly more

The 16-inch Satellite A500 caters well to those who have a limited budget but still want a machine that will let them watch movies, listen to music and play the odd game. Its screen could do with a higher resolution, but it feels bomb-proof, it's ...

Great keyboard ; decent core specs

Glossy black surface gets dirty quickly ; low-resolution display

There's not a great deal wrong with the Toshiba Satellite A500. It's pretty fast, relatively affordable and very solidly built. Give it a gander if you're looking for a decent multimedia machine with plenty of features

The 14-inch Vaio VPCCW1S1E is an excellent entertainment laptop. It looks stylish, its screen handles movies well, and, as usual with Sony machines, its keyboard is very good. It's no slouch in the performance stakes either, offering enough power to ...

Stylish design ; excellent 3D graphics ; useful pre-boot Web browser

Screen viewing angles are rather tight ; on the heavy side

Mid-range, medium-size entertainment laptops are usually let down by lacklustre 3D graphics performance, but the Sony Vaio VPCCW1S1E has enough power to satisfy all but the most demanding gamer. It's a great multimedia machine, even in pink

The mid-range Inspiron 11z ultra-portable laptop that we were given to review proved a capable machine. Its trackpad was poor, but its ultra-low-voltage processor delivered better performance than that of more expensive ULV laptops, and its 11.6-inch ...

Slim and light ; excellent screen ; long battery life from the optional six-cell battery

Trackpad is made of fail

The Dell Inspiron 11z is a well-made and great-looking ultra-low-voltage ultra-portable laptop with a good specification for the price. Unfortunately, until Dell comes up with a fix for its spectacularly awful trackpad, this is one laptop that's best ...

We defy anyone not to be impressed by the 11.1-inch Vaio VPCX11S1E/B ultra-portable laptop. It offer netbook-esque performance and it's ludicrously expensive, but it's remarkably thin and light, and Sony's made surprisingly few compromises considering ...

Unbelievably thin ; long battery life

Unbelievably expensive ; small trackpad

It may offer the power of an Eee PC for roughly the price of a 15-inch MacBook Pro, but we defy anyone not to be impressed by the technological expertise that went into making the Sony Vaio VPCX11S1E/B. It's not worth the asking price, but that doesn ...

Apple has given its plastic entry-level MacBook laptop a small spec bump and a 'unibody' makeover, making it lighter and sturdier than before. The battery isn't user-replaceable now, but will last longer, whle the trackpad has been upgraded to the ...

Sturdy unibody case looks great ; multi-touch glass trackpad ; excellent battery life

No SD Card slot or FireWire ; pricey compared to the MacBook Pro

It's stingy of Apple omit FireWire and an SD Card slot at this price, but if these are features you won't miss, the MacBook is otherwise a great-value entry-laptop Apple laptop. If they are, you can always find them on the £899 MacBook Pro

The 15.6-inch Roma 3000 sports a particularly good keyboard, and its capable dual-core processor makes it much better suited to multi-tasking than the cheaper Roma 1000. Its battery life is disappointing and we'd prefer it to run the 64-bit version of ...

Good keyboard; reasonably capable dual-core processor

Terrible battery life; awful sound quality; 32-bit version of Windows 7 restricts the available RAM

An improved specification makes the Advent Roma 3000 a better all-rounder than the cheaper Roma 1000, but its weak battery life and lacklustre 3D graphics are disappointing. It's still a solid budget buy, but it's worth checking out other Windows 7 ...

The 15.6-inch Roma 1000 is one of the cheapest Windows 7 laptops that money can currently buy. Considering its low price, it's also tastefully designed, and its keyboard is particularly good. Capable of handling most productivity tasks, it's worth a ...

Very low price; good keyboard

Terrible battery life; awful sound quality

The Advent Roma 1000's slow single-core processor makes it unsuitable for demanding tasks, and its battery life is terrible, but it's fine as a low-cost secondary computer, or even as a main computer if you don't ask too much of it. The Roma 3000 ...

With a stylish design and good all-round specification, the 17.3-inch R720 desktop-replacement laptop represents excellent value for money. Its 3D graphics performance isn't particularly brilliant, but it can still handle older titles, so casual ...

Looks great for such a large laptop ; excellent keyboard

3D graphics performance isn&apos ; t particularly brilliant

There's very little to fault with the Samsung R720. Attractive and packing decent components, it offers excellent value for a desktop-replacement laptop. Its 3D graphics performance is its only real weak spot, but it still offers enough oomph to keep ...

Packing a quad-core Intel Core i7 CPU, the 16-inch G60J gaming laptop rockets along at a speed that puts greased lightning to shame. It's a pity the screen isn't of a higher resolution, but the G60J is hard to fault otherwise, making light work of ...

Outrageously fast ; relatively subtle design ; reasonably portable

Comparatively low-resolution screen ; bendy keyboard ; bezel masks display in the corners

The Asus G60J goes like a rocket and looks surprisingly low-key for a gaming laptop. Its specification is impressive, but it's a pity that the screen is of a relatively low resolution