The Vostro 1200 is a good choice at a smart price for the travelling business user with good processing power, Wi-Fi connectivity and battery life, despite being let-down by some design issues.

The Y510-300 is a fairy decent all-purpose notebook suitable for those with a strong budget and an eye for design. With good connectivity and strong hardware performance, just make sure you use the D drive after purchase.

ThinkPad X300 is not a cheap notebook, but it only costs the sum of the components it offers, so you're getting what you pay for. The SSD and 3G features make this a great road warrior, and Lenovo's ThinkPad design leaves us confident it will take a few knocks.

It's not pretty, it's not powerful, but it will take a beating. If you work in a dusty or damp environment, or in an area where knocks and bumps are common place, then a notebook of this calibre is clearly a good option.

A desktop replacement notebook with good speed and some versatile connectivity features that's also comfortable to use.

A well-priced and solid notebook that should suit many business users' needs, despite its lack of high-end features.

It's a shame to have to minus points from this notebook because of the HD-DVD player, but its limited utility is unavoidable. Otherwise it's a powerful and functional desktop replacement with plenty of media features.

Although it comes with a strong variety of connections and good screen performance, the Acer TravelMate 6592 (831G08Mn) is let down by a relatively small hard drive.

This notebook is suitable for anyone who wants an inexpensive dual-core machine for home, school or office use.

The NEC Versa P8310-2402DR is an appealing choice for users who want an attractive and well-performing notebook. While it suffers from usability issues, such as a slightly cramped keyboard and a screen that can be excessively reflective, the benefits largely outweigh the negatives.

A powerful desktop replacement notebook, which doubles as a media centre with a Blu-ray player. It needs some refinement, but as it stands, it's a functional unit for productivity applications and entertainment endeavours.

If you already own a MacBook Pro, there is little reason to upgrade. For the rest of us, Apple's power notebook is a fine machine on the whole.