Battery capacity has proven to be a serious barrier to true mobile computing. Tim Dean looks at how the technology is evolving.

Small enough to fit in your pocket but with enough power to make light work of rusty screws and flat-packed furniture

Hitachi DZ-MV100A

It's a sign of the times when Compaq's Aero 8000 runs Windows CE in a box bigger than a Sharp PC-A250 (reviewed issue 23, p86) running Windows 98. So what's the big idea? Windows CE uses no moving parts, while software in ROM means immediate start-up times, high reliability, and long battery life all highly desirable qualities in a portable.

High-capacity desktop drives have never been so affordable. Darien Graham-Smith puts 23 to the test to find the best

Hitachi’s ingeniously hinged screwdriver is your flexible friend when it comes to awkward screws and looks remarkably like a Halo 3 gun

There is not a huge difference between this and the MV550E. In fact, if you put them side by side you have to look closely to see the difference in looks, which is model number in small print on one side.

Seriously powerful mobile gaming grunt with all the bling, from Dell. Yep, Dell.

A decent machine with plenty of power, but it’s not earth shattering in terms of features and value.

If the CCD is the brain of a digital video camera it is logical that three should be better than one. A single CCD has to deal with all colours together while a 3-CCD system divides the primary red, green and blue (RGB) colours to individual CCDs to give a much more precise and accurate picture. The result is a high quality image that is as good as any of the cameras tested - including the Sony DVD201E, which provided the benchmark for most of the others.

We test and rate 9 of the best portable presentation devices around.