The Acer Aspire Gemstone 5920G (602G25Hn) is a solid performer with plenty of power beneath its hood. It should suit everybody with the exception of hardcore gamers.

If you can fork out the cash and don’t mind the design, then the Sony Vaio VGN-FW17GU is a well-performing unit that features a Blu-ray burner.

For the modern user on the move the Fujitsu LifeBook S6520 offers surprisingly good processing power and a brilliant battery life in a lightweight package that is easy to use. The only downside is the high price, for which we’d normally expect a better variety of expansion options.

The Toshiba Tecra A10's excellent CPU is wasted thanks to a puny 1GB of RAM. If you want a decent machine with a sub-$1500 price tag, then this is a device worth considering — as long as you upgrade the memory.

Although the Toshiba Satellite Pro P300 (PSPCDA-00L00D) is a fast system with Toshiba's noteworthy Sleep and Charge USB ports and plenty of hard drive space, the unattractive design and lack of features when compared to similarly priced units mean that you're better off looking elsewhere.

Sony's VAIO FZ17G is a great multimedia notebook which offers a HDMI output and couples it with solid performance and a nice array of features.

If you’re looking for a desktop replacement with processing power, plenty of storage, an excellent screen and great connectivity options then the Dell Studio 17 (1735) is a hard product to beat.

If you can't fork out the extra $500 for the fully featured ASUS F8Va and still want decent performance in an attractive design then the BenQ Joybook S42-PE01 is worth looking at. It might not have all the bells and whistles, but for this price point it certainly has a lot.

This is a value-priced power notebook that's well geared towards multimedia use.

The Sony VAIO VGN-FE45G/W doesn't offer great battery life, but is very comfortable to use and has enough power under the hood to deal with everyday use and more.

The VAIO VGN-CR13G is a reasonably solid, if unspectacular, notebook that features a lovely design and reasonable specifications. A decent choice if you are after an all-purpose machine.