It's an accepted fact that most Microsoft Office users only ever use about 20 percent of the suite's capabilities, often because they don't have the time to learn about all of the goodies it contains. Excel, with its complicated interface and feature overload is notorious for baffling even experienced users. However, many of its features are very useful in their own right.

Our pick of the low-cost office suites has had a much-needed overhaul, and now battles Microsoft in terms of features, not just price.

Not pretty, but a technically competent and comprehensive upgrade to the best free office suite around.

The Web Excel PT-3830 is an 802.11b wireless access point, four-port switch and DSL router all-in-one. It's a good package if you want to share your DSL modem with a small network, but everything about the PT-3830 is definitely no-frills. Closer examination, however, reveals a highly configurable device.

Since the launch of PC Authority magazine 30 issues ago, we have placed an emphasis on the concept of computing in the real world. This means that all the PC hardware that passes through our Labs is t

Another PCI device to come supplied with a detachable antenna, it can be adjusted into one of three locking positions: parallel to the backplane, 45 degrees away from the card, or perpendicular to the backplane.

Reasonably priced for a $99 dual-band wireless 802.11b/g PCMCIA, it's physically identical in size to the Level OneWPC-0300 device.

Benchmarking PCs is a tricky business. You need to ensure that you stress the systems, but also that the results you get will be relevant in the real world. Previously we have relied heavily on BAPCo's SYSmark2002 for simulating home and office use, with programs such as Excel, Word, Outlook, and web content through Adobe Premiere and Macromedia Dreamweaver. However, due to SYSmark's history of instability as well as the sheer length of time it takes to complete a run, we have put it on the backburner in favour of PCMark04 for this Labs.

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Built around the same notebook housing as the Emagen Zephyra XT, this attractive high shine lid is one of the better looking notebook covers we've seen, making this product appear out of its price range.

Absolutely blitzing the field for performance, no other notebook this month could get anywhere near the PowerNote 258SA from Digital Star, despite many trying. Pushing out an absolutely massive 4216 marks, this powerhouse left a 640 mark gap between it and its closest contender, the Toshiba Satellite A30.

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A suite with some nice features but slow startup times made us disappointed with ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite 2009

The notebooks were subjected to several benchmarks to give an objective evaluation of their speeds, performance and applicability.

The future, they say, is based on the Internet and mobile computing.

Impressive print quality, a good turn of speed and decent features, but it simply costs too much to own.

Microsoft vs. Google in the online office battleground.

Although heavily kitted out with an ATI Mobility RADEON 9700 featuring 128MB of dedicated video memory, 1.5GHz Pentium M and half a gigabyte of PC2700 DDR, the Zephyra XT finished in the lower half for overall placement.

The m505 is also the only device in the Labs to feature vibrating alarm alerts.