The wooden panels on the Bamboo actually look good, and its guts are also impressive. It's not a laptop for everyone; it's mostly for people who want to make an impression, and anyone who just really loves wood.

Finally, a fully featured ultraportable laptop that won't cost you more than $1500. It's easy to use, has plenty of ports and expansion options and it can last a long time away from an outlet. Sure it's a slow performer, but for sending e-mail, writing documents, viewing pictures and videos, it's ideal. It's almost the perfect laptop.

It's very difficult to criticise the Lenovo ThinkPad X301 without sounding like a nitpicker. This is a fantastic and well-engineered notebook that has plenty of features and looks very attractive. The only substantial issues are the high price tag, the lower than average battery life and the problematic latch.

The U400 is a good size for travellers, has plenty of connectivity and good speed, and it's also well priced, but its battery life is short.

They've finally done it — the Sony VAIO VGN-Z16GN/B is a great mix of power and style for those who can swallow the $2999 price tag. Users will just have to make sure they treat it carefully, especially when dealing with the screen.

Although it isn't a bad unit in its own right, the Fujitsu doesn't shine as well as it should given its budget competitors and high price point. If you're looking for a unit that has a great touch screen, a fast Intel Atom processor and great connectivity, you're probably better off waiting a month until the upgraded 3G model reaches Australia.

It’s good to see that Toshiba has improved this notebook and rectified some of the small performance flaws we noticed in the earlier M800. Overall the upgrade has seen small performance gains primarily in the graphics department. It's a great ultraportable notebook that offers strong performance despite its small size, and it is a joy to use on the go.

While we love the size and weight of this netbook, its keyboard is very hard to type on due to the non-standard key layout.

It runs Windows Vista, has a large hard drive and is basically a full-blown computer that's about twice the size of a smartphone. It's perfect for anyone who is after a small tablet PC for under $1800.

The 1000H is the best Eee PC yet. It's got a larger screen and a larger keyboard than its predecessors, it's faster and it's also got a much larger storage capacity. It's perfect for on-the-go types who want something light and functional to work on.

It's well-suited to road warriors thanks to its light weight and built-in 3G module, but it's still not the perfect laptop. If you're going to go for the R500, opt for a solid-state drive instead of a conventional hard drive.

This Linux version of the Aspire One is easy to use and has a solid-state drive, but the Windows XP version has better memory and storage capacity for only $100 more. Furthermore, Acer will also release versions with built-in 3G modules. It's really a case of waiting for the new versions to arrive, unless the portability and ease of use of this unit catch your fancy.