The Pioneer Dreambook Light 822 is a great all-purpose notebook that will satisfy a wide variety of users.

If you need a device that can take abuse and you're not afraid to pay for it, the Pioneer Dreambook Tough V10 combines adequate processing capabilities and connectivity options with a rugged design. The unit is let down, however, by usability issues such as an inadequate keyboard and the lack of ExpressCard slots.

This mid-sized widescreen has plenty of power and a sizable, speedy hard disk, and it's backed by a three-year warranty.

Pioneer has definitely aimed for the performance market with its DreamBook Light 822 notebook, which is the most powerful notebook we looked at this month. Running an Intel Core Duo T2500 (2GHz) processor and 1GB (2x 512MB) of DDR2 533MHz RAM, the 14in DreamBook pulled off an impressive score of 97 in PC WorldBench 5 and 17,469 in 3DMark 2001 SE. These results place the DreamBook above other notebooks in its price range.

This AMD Turion 64 TL60 based notebook is a powerful machine. The extra 1GB of RAM helps boost its performance, but with all DIMM slots full there's no more room for upgrading and you're essentially looking at the best this notebook can do.

As long as far better products remain on the market at similar prices, buyers should steer clear of the Pioneer DreamBook IL1. It suffers from a slow processor, small touchpad and the screen resolution is stretched in all the settings. The only thing that saves this product from being a complete flop is its phenomenally long battery life.

It's not an entirely practical solution for all types, as for this price you can get a very powerful desktop PC. However, if you're after a system with power and require portability, if not light and easy mobility, then this system has some merit.

This is an interesting and well-constructed notebook from Pioneer.

Lack of warranty and the other cons make this one not worth the price point.

A nice laptop but a little on the heavy side.

An great model but for the price you'd still expect a little more.

It's not the toughest of the tough, but it at least looks like a normal notebook while including some tougher features. Unfortunately you're going to pay a premium for the tough part of this notebook, even if it isn't quite as sturdy as more specialised models from vendors like Panasonic.