Editor's Note

We've posted a massive group test of 51 CPUs on the PC Authority Web site this week. It's the definitive guide to the AMD vs Intel battle, with a chart showing the best value chips on the market.

We've also been up to our necks in phones, including stories about the BlackBerry Bold, Nokia E71, and the Nokia 6220 Classic, which is good enough to replace your digital camera.

Mobile email is hotting up - just today there was news of cheaper data, and now with iPhone access to Microsoft Exchange email accounts, it's getting easier to have your email with you wherever you go.

Enjoy the weekend.

- William Maher

Top Stories This Week

• Old School Ultraportables: the Good, the Bad & the Ugly
• Debunking Microsoft's latest Vista campaign
• Asus Eee Box - Australian pricing revealed
• Virgin to carry the iPhone
• First Look: Nokia 6220 Classic, classy photos
• Fake wood made from recycled ink cartridges
• Dell Studio Hybrid: can the desktop PC ever be sexy?
• Nokia E71 says hello to the Blackberry Bold/iPhone
• Smartphone faceoff: Blackberry Bold takes on the competition
• AMD Vs Intel: 51-CPU megatest

Most Read This Week

• Nasa opens up space image library
• TVU Player
• Toshiba reveals plans for mini-book
• Amazon payment systems take on PayPal
• XP vs. VISTA
• Comcast communicated by blog
• Facebook libel costs £22,000
• Web's Best 50 Free Downloads
• Naked DSL Buyer's Guide
• Free TV Player

News

Top 10 Downloads

1. TVU Player
2. Free TV Player
3. Adobe Flash Player 9.0.124
4. Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3
5. Adobe Flash Player 9.0.28
6. Microsoft Windows XP SP 3 CD
7. AVG Antivirus 7.5 (Free)
8. Ad-Aware 2008 Free
9. AVG Anti-Virus Free 8.0.138
10. DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer

Reviews

First Look: Nokia 6220 Classic, classy photos by William Maher | July 30, 2008 Nokia turns out a camera phone we'd be happy to ditch our digital camera for. Check out the pics, and our first impressions.		First Look – Head to Head : Sony Active Series headphones MDR – AS30G vs. MDR A520J by Daniel Long | July 30, 2008 Sony’s new Active series of headphones are designed to stay on your noggin, but that all depends on how well you wear them. We put our eardrums on the line, so you didn’t have to....
Intel Pentium Dual-Core & Celeron Dual-Core by David Fearon , Dave Bayon , Darien Graham-Smith , Mike Jennings | July 29, 2008 A range of cut-down Core 2 Duo processors that are fine for everyday tasks.		Intel Core 2 Quad & Core 2 Extreme by David Fearon , David Bayon , Darien Graham-Smith , Mike Jennings | July 29, 2008
Intel Core 2 Duo by David Fearon , Darien Graham-Smith , Mike Jennings | July 29, 2008 A diverse family including some stellar CPUs and numerous also-rans.		AMD Sempron by David Fearon , David Bayon , Darien Graham-Smith , Mike Jennings | July 29, 2008 A cheap, lightweight choice for single-core applications, but you get the performance you pay for.
AMD Phenom X4 by David Fearon , David Bayon , Darien Graham-Smith , Mike Jennings | July 29, 2008 A smartly engineered processor, but for today’s applications it’s lacking in bang per buck.		AMD Athlon X2 by David Fearon , David Bayon , Darien Graham-Smith , Mike Jennings | July 29, 2008 An old standard, but one that still provides decent performance at a great price.

Group Tests

There may be two main CPU manufacturers, but picking the right processor is anything but simple. We put 51 CPUs through their paces

Features

Can’t decide between an Eee and a Wind? A Mini note or an Aspire One? Believe it or not, there’s a bunch of old school smaller laptops that may do the job for less money. We took a look at 7 old school ultraportables.