If you need a machine with a 17in display that will play your movies, download your photos, store your music, play games and has connectivity that will work both on the road and in your living room, the Pavilion dv9018TX will do a good job.

HP has done a nice job at creating a good all-round user experience with the Entertainment PC range and this machine is no exception. The performance is much better than the dv2000 family we've looked at earlier but the battery life could do with a boost.

With the nc8430 you get what you pay for. While it may cost a little more than some other dual core machines, it offers great performance across both desktop tasks and gaming, and has all the features you'd expect to find in a high-end business unit.

A well-rounded mix of features and performance makes the LifeBook A6010 a good candidate for basic business and personal use.

The Lenovo N100 performs well, with its 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 1GB of RAM offering more than enough power for day to day desktop tasks.

Outstanding battery life and solid performance make this an excellent choice for mobile professionals. If you don’t want to play games, this is an ideal machine.

For the price tag, you're looking at a notebook that will carry you into the future. It's light enough to travel with, powerful enough for most tasks and seems sturdy enough to take a few knocks.

While it's a master of none, this versatile machine will handle just about anything the average user can throw at it.

Though it's not the fastest notebook you can buy and its battery life was dissapointing, the media center functionality and the price of this unit makes it a worthy purchase.

While it looks excellent, the T1 didn't quite perform to expectations, and unless design is of a primary concern to you, there are better deals elsewhere.

Apple's entry-level laptop is a well-designed winner.

The Dell Latitude D620 performs well, looks great and has a long battery life that will suit demanding business users.