While the build quality of the ASUS A4000L is good and sturdy, this notebook is much larger than the others featured in our roundup. It comes with a 15.4in widescreen display and footprint to match, and with a chassis this big it's not surprising that the notebook tips the scales at 3.9kg -- almost twice the weight of the Toshiba, Samsung and TodayTech notebooks.

While not impossible to travel with, you'll find carrying the A4000L to be difficult for prolonged periods of time, even without the power supply. You'll want to keep the power adaptor with you though, as this unit was only able to return 89 minutes of activity with a light reading workload; heavier productivity workloads will reduce this even further. This short period of run time is due largely to the juice required to power the LCD and the non-battery optimised Celeron desktop processor.

Size and weight issues aside, this notebook and desktop replacement comes bundled with a copy of Windows XP Professional, a reasonable software package and a two-year international warranty. This latter is perfect for students and travelers. The notebook's large footprint means there's plenty of room for a full-sized, comfortable and spacious keyboard and touchpad. With some minor modifications we think this could be an ideal notebook for students, but in its present state it is comparatively too large and cumbersome if you're on the run.

Although being the third cheapest notebook on show, and good for those on a budget, there's better value in both the Labs-winning Targa and recommended Dell machines which offer considerably higher value for money.