The keyboard is loose and rattly and we frequently found that the odd letter hadn't registered. The trackpad works well but is a little small and the buttons too loud. But we liked the wide aspect 1280 x 800 screen. The glossy coating enriches colours, making pictures and movies look good. Lag was also minimal and viewing angles weren't bad either.

This is all good considering the G610 uses Windows XP Media Center Edition. Watching TV and slideshows will prove to be a veritable joy and is enhanced by the speakers which, while not as clear as Toshiba's Harmon Kardons, offer a good dynamic range, punchy bass and get nicely loud.

Unfortunately all of this is hamstrung by the measly 40GB hard disk. A half-hour program takes up almost 2GB - you won't fit much TV on it, even without a library of music and pictures to go with it. Rather than use the internal tuner slot, Altech has bundled the reliable USB 2 Hauppauge Nova-T USB Digital tuner. You'll need a separate aerial to stick into it though. Also note that no MCE remote is included in the price.

Under the bonnet is a 1.8GHz Pentium M T1400 and 1GB of RAM. But the beefy processor still couldn't quite beat the Labs-winning Acer and scored 0.91 in our benchmarks. We didn't run any 3D tests as the Intel integrated graphics simply won't play games, but it's not alone in that respect this month.

Other features include the almost-ubiquitous 1.3 megapixel webcam and a speedy dual-layer DVD writer. Connectivity options are modest with no ports appearing at the front and two USB ports at the back. On the right are VGA and S-Video ports, modem, Gigabit Ethernet, two USB and two audio jacks. On the left is a SD/MMC and MS media card reader, mini FireWire and PC Card slot. Fortunately 802.11a/b/g WLAN is included.

Portability was a mixed bag: at 3.4kg it's second heaviest, but a light use battery life of three hours 16 minutes was very impressive. Under intensive usage it scored a more modest one hour 39 minutes.

The term 'mixed bag' sums up the G610. Some of the features, like MCE, are great while others are lacking (no remote, small hard disk and no recovery options). But it's also cheap and has a good one-year onsite warranty. As such, if budget is your priority it's a good choice, but most people are better off with the Samsung or the Acer.