Battery capacity has proven to be a serious barrier to true mobile computing. Tim Dean looks at how the technology is evolving.

Absolutely blitzing the competition, Altech takes out our highly coveted Labs Winner Award, just beating IBM to the top spot. Heavy on both the features and quality, this unit was one of only three units in the roundup to feature a 17in TFT display, with the others, the Pluscorp INTEQ V26 and Apple iMac, falling by the wayside on price, hardware spec and performance.

Microsoft expects .NET to take the development platform crown from rival J2EE, relegating the current leader to academia and other niche markets in favour of what it sees as the 'easier' alternative.

Full commercial app, worth £15

In the words of Amy Winehouse: they tried to make us buy this Kodak, but we said ‘no, no, no’

Acer's latest Aspire has the familiar Acer look we've come to expect in recent months but with a few nice tweaks.

Wrapped in an attractive silver chassis, this sexy looking notebook is easy on the eye, and features all of the latest gadgets. The left-hand side of the machine features the usual legacy parallel and DB9 monitor out for use with an external monitor, although both are hidden beneath a rubber cover so as not to ruin the smooth clean lines of this housing.

Target Technology files suit over use of silver alloy material.

The Web Powers attempt to look futuristic, with its silver and pastel-blue colour scheme doesnt quite pay off, and it ends up looking a little tacky and cheap instead.

The look of the HP Compaq NC6000_106 is pure business with its black casing and silver trim. It's also one of the heavier laptops at 2.9kg.

Slightly less sturdy than previous Dell models we have seen, the D500 is finished in attractive silver bezel housing, the keyboard is comfortable to use and offers all the functionality of standard-sized desktop keyboards.

In an unusual combination of styles, DigitalStar has used a silver Cooler Master Centurion full size ATX case, but coupled this with a black optical drive and floppy disk drive. If you're finicky about that sort of thing, there are additional face plates available that attach to the front to keep the colours consistent.

This pre-production notebook was shipped to us in a professional looking silver lockable briefcase. We were expecting to see top secret government papers rather than a slimline ultra low voltage (ULV) notebook.

We see plenty of red, green, blue and even the occasional black or silver PCB in the Labs, but it's not often we see a purple one.

The QDI 5968L is another system decked out in clear Perspex and solid silver panels. Side panels allow for easy access, although the large handle mounted on the top of the chassis does nothing but inhibit peripheral installation and replacement.

Four new colours for tiny music player.

The Todaytech M120W, even though it's based on an OEM housing, is all style with its glossy royal blue top, and the silver surrounds on the palm rest and screen.

The iSTAR ID-17VSSBK is bright, sharp and clear and is housed in an attractive two tone glossy black and silver bezel which would match both the minimalist home or work environment.

Filled with a good feature-set such as an S-Video input and high brightness and contrast, the Daewoo L17Cs looked great on paper. In ‘person’ it looked quite snappy, with a silver and black finish, high neck and all the OSD buttons and controls arrayed up the right-hand side.

Looking quite a lot like what I imagined the son of Apple's Titanium and Powerbook lines of notebooks would turn out, the AStone notebook features both the Titanium's solid matte silver magnesium-alloy body with the Powerbook's white limned styling. From the very outset this makes the AStone one visually appealing notebook.