Toshiba’s resident portable computer visionary speaks about hardware design, Vista, and the future of notebook tech.

MSI's MegaBook L61OI lives up to its 'mega' moniker with a large 15.4-inch widescreen TFT, desktop CPU, excellent graphics and pumping audio. The model we looked at was a pre-production prototype notebook and as such was a little shaky and did not come with all the inclusions a final model will have. As a proof of concept, however, the notebook is quite good.

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.

While the build quality of the ASUS A4000L is good and sturdy, this notebook is much larger than the others featured in our roundup.

The Acer has all the bells and whistles you're going to need as a student, or mobile office worker; and then some.

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.

Designed with portability in mind, this notebook is slim, sexy and versatile, enabling basic office usage, DVD playback or even some weekend gaming.

This fully-fledged notebook came into the Labs and quickly earned the reputation as 'The Brick'.

Only 779 grams including an optical drive.

This month's winner, the A510 from Targa well and truly trounced the competitors this month, with the exception of Dell who trailed by only three points.

Taking first place overall, the MegaBook M510C had a bit of a mixed run to the final score tally, managing only fifth place in PCMark04 then unanimously taking out first place with a score nearly breaking 10,000 3DMarks, impressive for a notebook, let alone one under $2500.

Absolutely blitzing the field for performance, no other notebook this month could get anywhere near the PowerNote 258SA from Digital Star, despite many trying. Pushing out an absolutely massive 4216 marks, this powerhouse left a 640 mark gap between it and its closest contender, the Toshiba Satellite A30.

A fantastic specification notebook with all the trimmings you'd expect to find on more expensive notebooks, the Joybook 8100-V13 has a 15.4in widescreen WXGA with native 1280 x 800 resolution. With ATI's Mobility RADEON 9600 graphics, boasting 64MB dedicated video memory, it's great for DVD playback or gaming -- the unit returned 9,502 marks under 3DMark01SE Pro, more than enough to provide comfortable gameplay with a decent number of fps even in recent games. BenQ has gone as far as to include not just a DVD-ROM for DVD movie playback, but an optical DVD writer, capable of 2-speed DVD+R media writing, ideal for both business archiving or for personal backup.

Built around the same notebook housing as the Emagen Zephyra XT, this attractive high shine lid is one of the better looking notebook covers we've seen, making this product appear out of its price range.

Living up to the sub-notebook name, this portable system from IBM represents one of the best instances of miniaturised engineering

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.

This Labs featured in the February 2000 issue, any pricing seen in these reviews were correct at the time of printing. Reality has often not matched the hype of mobile compu

Apple and style are synonymous and the rounded lines and gloss white plastic chassis add to its durability and looks. Its slot-mounting combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW means there are no moving parts to break off in accidents, and serve to provide additional storage space should the comparatively small 30GB hard disk not be enough room for your files.

Dell's reputation at providing reasonably priced capable 'books shines through in the 510M - the cheapest notebook on test this month.