The Acer Aspire 1692 WLMi is a story of compromises; a +/-/RAM dual layer burner and gigabit Ethernet are offset by Windows XP Home, only 512MB of RAM and the slowest processor and hard disk of the bunch.

The Samsung M40 plus is a slick and stylish notebook, but unfortunately just doesn’t cut it compared to the others on test here.

The Dell Inspiron 6000 walks into this roundup with a serious disadvantage – packing only an Intel P-M 1.86GHz and an ATI Mobility RADEON X300 it is easily outgunned by the competition.

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

We dubbed the ASUS ‘The Black Box’ because, like its aeronautical namesake, it records everything.

Apple’s 17-inch PowerBook G4 is a thing of beauty, shaming the other 17- inch notebooks with its size, weight and design – perhaps with the exception of the ASUS.

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