Even if the flexible, paper-thin screen is the undisputed killer app of display technology, it will never get out of the lab if its tied to present-day battery technology. Batteries have, its true, im

The days when laptops occasionally explode due to their lithium batteries breaking down could soon be over thanks to a new invention which shuts down the explosive reaction.

Handheld PC

With solid-state media still expensive and offering limited capacity, MP3 players with hard disks seem like the perfect solution.

Back in February 2002 (PC Authority issue 51 page 42) we ran a comprehensive round up of the latest PDAs in the market, but its amazing what difference a few months make. Toshibas entry to the market, the e570, won the Quality Award, but was pipped at the post by the Palm m125, which won the value award with its extremely competitive price.

The first thing you notice about the Kyocera Samurai 2100DG is the shape of the camera.

The DAV310 from A-MAX Technology circumvents this limitation by being able to play MP3 tracks straight off a CD - just like your PC can.

A seemingly new entrant to the PDA market, the Siemens SX45 is a Pocket PC PDA that may appear familiar to users or owners of the Cassiopeia range. That's because the SX45 is based on the Cassiopeia e-125 PDA.

In appearance the Olympus Camedia is rather ordinary, mirroring closely what is standard fare in the conventional SLR field, and perhaps even a little dated. This however belies the superior performance that the Olympus put in this month, which impressed the Labs team enough to award it with the Labs Award for Quality.

Fastest Notebook

The first time PC Authority got to take a look at a Twinhead notebook system (the Slimnote VX, Labs tested issue 20, p59) was back in July's test of budget notebook computers.

Receiving this model last month, we knew we were seeing innovation in action with the introduction of OLED technology and the ultra wide and bright 2.2-inch display. OLED allows for less power consumption while providing a noticeably brighter and clearer display than other technologies – perfect for direct sunlight and angular viewing.

Apple’s MacBook Pro is a design masterpiece, even if its brilliance is marred by a few annoying niggles.

Small, sleek, easy to use and capable of producing excellent results, no matter where you are.

The usual Bose feel-good glow and (mostly) great sound too – but at a price

Selecting a winner from the 11 cameras in the lab was not an easy task. While there was a $1300 variation between the cheapest and the dearest, the difference in quality and features was not as obvious. For example the Samsung D701i, which was the cheapest of the cameras, had more features than some of the cameras that were several hundred dollars dearer. The only problem was a question of reliability because the first unit to arrive at the Labs was inoperable.

The Optio 550 is the first Pentax camera we’ve reviewed in the Labs. It’s the cheapest 5-megapixel device here and, despite the slim dimensions, crams in a 5x optical zoom.

The 5-megapixel DSC-V1 offers a great combination of features and performance in a relatively small body. While it’s smaller than its prime competitors – the Canon G5 and the Nikon 5400 – there are even smaller models in this month’s company.

The 20-30GB Nomad Jukebox Zen NX is Creative's latest hard disk-based MP3/WMA player; an evolution of predecessor, the Zen. The model we reviewed was a 20GB unit, which equates to around 667 hours of 64Kbps WMA encoding, or 333 hours of 128Kbps MP3 encoding.

Sony, HP and Handspring had better take note – Palm has just rewritten the PDA rules. Just in time for Christmas, Palm has unleashed a stylish, lightweight and fully featured PDA that blasts the sub-$700 opposition away – by hundreds of dollars.