In a world filled with gorgeous Sony, Apple and even Dell laptops, a sober, matte black machine aimed at consumers has to be truly special to turn heads. The IdeaPad Y430 is a well-built Centrino 2 machine that lacks nothing in the way of features, speed...

The rest of the Y430's hardware is a solid trade between performance and practicality. The hard disk is a 250GB Western Digital device, while the optical drive is a DVD rewriter. There's also 802.11a/g/n wireless networking, gigabit ethernet and �€" usefu

Designed to sit between the low-end Inspiron and high-end XPS families, it comes in 15in and 17in flavours and its target audience could be pretty much anyone: few laptops are as customisable as this.

Seven colour options are available for the lid alone, from the surprisingly tasteful orange on our review model, to the visually painful lime green. There are even four options for the trim surrounding the screen, although these are sensibly limited to th...

Despite some odd feature choices, this is an affordable powerhouse of a laptop. A great value mid-range Centrino 2 laptop, as long as you're not worried about battery life.

But, although it's a native component of Centrino 2, it's going to be some time before WiMax makes its way into mainstream laptops. However the M51 does have 802.11n, so it's compatible with the long-range routers on p62

NEC's contribution to the ultraportable market is tougher than most, but it still struggles against the competition

The figures don't quite tell the whole story, however. We first encountered the S9100 in a meeting at a local Starbucks, and just picking it up was almost enough to make us choke on our frappé. Like Lenovo's ThinkPad X300, the Versa S9100 is a little more

The 13.3in addition to Dell's recently redesigned Vostro range is an unmitigated success

Visually, the emphasis across the range is firmly on clean lines and uncomplicated design. The lid is finished in a glossy black, with specks of silver sparkling under the surface, while a petite Dell logo nestles in its centre. The acres of matt-black pl...

If it's a Blu-ray equipped desktop replacement you're after, the 8920G is a fine choice.

is unremarkable �€" the Asus idled for more than three hours and managed 1hr 37mins under heavy usage �€" but it's not bad for such a huge laptop. Gaming performance is similarly modest; the Nvidia GeForce 9500M GS averaged 12fps in Crysis at 1280 x 1024

Intel has been banging on about Centrino 2 lately, so it was good to finally get a chance to test the claims courtesy of a spanking new mid-range Centrino 2 M51 Va courtesy of ASUS.

We test desktop PCs and notebooks with our own, custom-built, real-world benchmarks. We split the results into four categories: Office, 2D Graphics, Encoding and Multitasking, with the Overall score being a straight average of the four

It's the most expensive laptop we've looked at yet. David Hollingworth ponders if you get the right amount of bang for your buck.

This might seem like excessive bling, but if you've ever peered at your keyboard in a dark room trying to find the B key to bandage yourself in a game, and grenned yourself to death instead with the G key, for instance, this is pretty neat. Neater still i...

A stylish all-in-one media centre that effortlessly handles all tasks thrown at it. But it's disgracefully priced.

Another piece of good news comes with the addition of two TV tuners integrated into the chassis (you only require a single aerial to feed both). So now it's easy to record one TV programme in Vista Media Center while you're watching another

Classy looks and light weight make for a fine ultraportable, but it's got some tough competition.

Lavish touches extend beyond the lid: the hinge between screen and base is classy silver, while the trackpad and ridge along the edge of the base are finished in brushed metal