The Excel G736 notebook from Protac is a desktop replacement, and as well as better-than-normal notebook specifications it also comes with the other traditional trapping of a desktop replacement notebook: it's big, it's chunky, and it's heavy.

Electronics giant Samsung has unveiled an ambitious next day replacement service on several of its PC monitors in a move that was initiated by its Australian subsidiary.

If you're after an ultra portable, this isn't the notebook for you. If you're after a large form factored portable desktop replacement, this could be the ticket. This behemoth of a notebook features a 17-inch widescreen display and a footprint to match.

This month the Labs team cast a critical eye over the latest Intel Pentium 4-based desktop replacement notebooks. Traditionally, desktop replacement means fully-featured, premium notebooks with

Your wireless network is more powerful than you imagine. Use this guide to fully understand and utilise it.

A decent multimedia notebook, but it’s not exciting enough for the price.

Not perfect, but the best all-rounder.

Like the Pioneer, the Protac Excel D495 is another locally built giant – at this size we’re wading into desktop replacement territory.

The Pioneer DreamBook Power 900 is a locally built monster – this isn’t a desktop replacement, it’s a desk.

The notebook winner this month was a close call. Two units stood out as being at the top of the multimedia field: the Pioneer D47K and the Acer Aspire 1802WSM. Feature-by-feature they were very closely matched, but we chose the Pioneer for several reasons, one of which was its advanced media capabilities.

If laptops were cars, then the Pioneer Power 470 would be a caravan - a quick scan of the specs reveals that it has almost everything. The 470 model we tested was a 3.06GHz Pentium 4 unit with a large 60GB of drive space and 256MB of DDR.

We find this model hovering in the no-man's-land between desktop replacement and notebook. Its large form factor and huge screen come at the expense of weight, while the wireless and large battery do make it viable for users on the move.

Toshiba has been a long running leader in the notebook field, so its always interesting to see what it has to offer, if only to see what is the current state of play in the market place. Toshiba responded to the call for desktop replacement notebooks by submitting the Satellite Pro 4360 model, a heavy machine tipping the scales at 3.17kg and clad in the familiar Toshiba dark grey.

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A good-looking, ergonomically excellent laptop with a wealth of multimedia capabilities for home users.

Microsoft preparing next version of Windows.

Next operating system 2 to 2.5 years out.

An impressive attempt at a good-value portable PC, but the ergonomics let it down.

Luxurious extras and design make this a highly desirable machine. It’s ideal if space is at a premium at home.