From the rarefied heights of Dells Inspiron 8100 (reviewed October 2001, page 71) we take a step back with the Toshiba Tecra 9000. Like the Inspiron 8100 the Tecra is a Pentium III-M CPU, from the Tualatin family of processors, although this is the 933MHz version.

The Portege 3110CT is one of the latest in Toshiba's line of notebooks and continues the tradition of portability established with the first in its line.

After enjoying the Satellite 2800 (reviewed issue 42, p80) so much, the Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600 is a disappointment. This is surprising in that the general belief would be that the more powerful machine would be more appealing to the technically inclined than the Celeron-based Satellite 2800.

Slim, good-looking and affordable – and you can even work outside in sunlight. Just note the niggles.

Widescreen is still one of the flavours of the month for notebooks and plenty of users are opting to banish boring old 4:3 aspect ratio LCD panels to the land of wind and ghosts.

The Toshiba e740 (review on the PC Authority Web site) boasted great features such as Type II CF and SD/MMC card slots, and the optional expansion pack which includes a VGA output and USB port, allowing the connection of a keyboard and a projector. The e750 goes two steps further. You can now send 16-bit colour to a projector at a resolution of 800 x 600, and this WiFi version connects wirelessly to a suitably equipped Toshiba projector. Another WiFi enhancement is support for Voice-over-IP with an enhanced microphone socket so a microphone headset can be used.

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.

Toshiba’s R100 redefined what it meant to be an ultra-portable laptop.

The Toshiba e740 Pocket PC is the third PDA from Toshiba released in the past year, and is targeted at the business user. This does not mean its a bland PDA, as it is the fastest on the market thanks to its 400MHz Intel Xscale processor.

The Toshiba Satellite P30 is a 17-inch behemoth with a price tag to match.

Toshiba's PDA strategy is clear: business users should opt for the larger, more flexible e750 (above), while consumers are catered for by the e350. After all, this has all the features most people need in a sleek package that won't break the bank.

The Toshiba Satellite 5100 attracted by far the most attention around the PC Authority office this month

A stunning way to enjoy HD DVD, but the wonderful design and features come at a price

Toshiba won this month's cat walk competition.

The Portege A200 also has many of the necessary features we would expect in an education notebook, including LAN and modem ports, two USB ports, a DVD-ROM, and 802.11b/g with an wireless on/off switch.

Make no mistake, this is one heavyweight of a notebook. The 3.3kg of the Satellite 2800 accounts for some of this, but otherwise it applies to some of the exceptional features found on this model.

The poor remote and menus outweigh its other merits.

A good, basic notebook that’s specifically designed with the accident-prone user in mind.

Toshiba don't often venture into lower price point notebooks, so we were quite impressed to receive a system from them under $2500, let alone a desktop Pentium 4 3GHz processor, DVD burner and 64MB ATI RADEON 9000 IGP graphics.

When we ran four tablet PCs in December 2002 (Issue 61, page 36) we got plenty of response from readers looking to find out more about them. Over a year on now and tablets have increased dramatically in spec and design although pricing hasn’t reduced as much as we’d expected - possibly since they still haven’t made mass market appeal and sales.