The market for rugged laptops is select and Dell has done an impressive job with the Latitude XFR 6420 by focusing on what’s important.

Build quality is excellent and extra features show real attention to detail. The XFR looks ready for anything. The tough, plastic composite chassis is together with plenty of screws and any point of the laptop likely to come into contact with the ground is shrouded in tough rubber. There’s even a built-in handle that enables you to carry the entire 4.5kg machine like a briefcase.

There was no flex around the chassis at all. The entire machine is harder than a coffin nail and all the ports are hidden by dust covers that mean mud, dirt, water, sand or any other muck won’t get inside and play havoc with the connections.

Dell hasn’t put a Super-TFT coating over the 14.1-inch screen, meaning you’ll be able to see what you’re doing when using the XFR outside. There are no reflections and the display itself is very bright. However, colours look whitened and washed out, which is noticeable when you’re watching videos or looking at pictures.

The XFR is not intended as a multimedia machine, though, so the lack of a rich colour palette is forgivable.

Limited keyboard

Unfortunately, we can’t say the same about the keyboard. Any laptop needs to have a decent keyboard and the compact, moulded keys on the Dell are miss-hit all too easily. There’s no numeric keypad or backlight so using the keyboard for numbers and spreadsheets will be difficult and using it in the dark is nearly impossible.

There are only three hotkeys, one for raising volume, one for lowering it and one for muting altogether. This might be irritating for people used to plenty of shortcuts and quick navigation, but the XFR has retained the touchscreen functionality of earlier models.

Because the machine is so sturdy, using the touchscreen is easy because the lid doesn’t wobble on its hinges when you touch it. Windows 7 is still too fiddly and small to navigate through folders, but for simple tasks it works very well.

On the inside, the Latitude is just as tough. An Intel Core i7 processor runs at 2.7GHz, which is faster than some gaming laptops. The 4GB RAM is easily capable of multitasking between several programs without faltering and only the 120GB hard drive feels below par.

TechRadar Labs

Battery Eater ’05: 145 minutes
Cinebench: 11478
3DMark 2007: 5939

Like the screen, there are limitations when it comes to graphics. A paltry Intel integrated graphics chip means demanding visual applications like video editing, gaming or graphical programming and designing will stretch this laptop further than it can reach.

Again, this is a case of Dell focusing on what’s necessary and stripping back the rest. This is one of the most impressive rugged laptops we’ve seen and if you can get past the keyboard, it’ll stick with you through thick and thin.

Although billed as a business laptop, Acer’s Aspire 5830T also suits as a family laptop, or simply an entertainment machine.

One of Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge processors runs the show, and is comfortably powerful enough to handle various applications at the same time. We played with complex editing software, surfed the web and enjoyed some 1980s pop music, all at once, with no slowdown.

The lack of a dedicated GPU means you won’t be able to play the latest games but you can play around with photos and even our home movies using software such as Adobe Photoshop Elements and Corel VideoStudio Pro, while high-definition movies play smoothly and look fantastic. The built-in speakers do a surprisingly decent job, too.

The 15.6-inch widescreen display is great for both work and play. It’s reasonably bright and pleasingly vibrant, which brings your photos and videos to life. The only downside is the glossy Super-TFT finish, which is highly reflective.

Still, if you plan on taking this laptop out and about, you won’t have too much trouble packing its slender chassis into a bag. At 2.5kg, it’s also light enough to carry around without cracking your spine.

We did notice some flex around the edges, but the lid is solid enough to protect the laptop on the move. You can work on battery power for four to five hours if you limit yourself to basic office tasks, but battery life drops to just under three hours when watching a movie.

TechRadar Labs

Battery Eater ’05: 165 minutes
Cinebench: 7464
3DMark 2006: 4176

Comfortable keyboard

Typists are well served by the isolation-style keyboard, with keys poking out through individual holes to separate them out. This is great news for touch-typists, as you’re less likely to hit the wrong key by mistake. With the exception of the dinky arrow keys, the board is well sized and even finds room for a separate numeric keypad.

The touchpad is a little too compact, but is smooth, responsive and the touch-sensitive scrollbar is useful for jumping through documents and web pages.

A generous 640GB hard drive gives you plenty of space for carrying your files and software, as well as a huge media collection. You can store hundreds of thousands of songs and photos, or hundreds of full-length movies.

For a business laptop there are surprisingly few other features. Four USB ports can be used to connect peripherals, including a speedy USB 3.0 port that can charge portable devices even when the laptop is hibernating. You also have VGA and HDMI ports for attaching a monitor or projector, for presentations or showing off your pics and movies.

While the Aspire 5830T offers nothing remarkable compared to other mid-price professional laptops, it also has very few flaws to speak of. If you need a machine to keep you productive and entertained on the go, there are much worse options.

Asus’ attempt at an ultraportable laptop might not have made the same splash in the technology world as Apple, Sony or Dell, but the U36J has a couple of good features that make it a likeable alternative, and the perfect accompaniment to the daily commute or a weekend away.

Outwardly, the U36J is an unassuming, black rectangle. In fact, the chassis is similar to that of the Sony VAIO C Series. We don’t mind the matt-black executive look, but it will put off anyone who likes a bit more colour sitting on their desk.

The 13.3-inch screen is bright and crisp, although the thick black bezel and ugly protruding hinges are slightly distracting.

Fortunately, Asus has become quite adept at giving their laptops great usability and the U36J is no exception. The isolation-style keyboard is superb, with plenty of space between keys, meaning we rarely hit the wrong keys when touch-typing. Because this is such a slim laptop, the keys are tucked in close to the chassis and there’s little travel when typing.

The touchpad has the same smooth plastic surface as the palmrests and works well. Asus has included a fingerprint scanner between the mouse buttons.

Staying power

Performance-wise, the U36J gave us some impressive results that make its low price tag even more appealing. The Intel Core i5 M460 CPU delivers 2.53GHz of speed bolstered by the 4GB of memory.

This kind of spec is great for general performance, but the integrated GPU means no heavy gaming on this laptop. But you should be able to run some older titles and do light photo editing.

TechRadar Labs

Battery Eater ’05: 226 minutes
Cinebench: 8611
3DMark 2006: 3516

In terms of software, the U36J comes pre-loaded with around 15 native Asus applications. Although there is no optical drive, there are three USB ports, one of which is the faster USB 3.0 connection. Both an HDMI and VGA port mean you can attach a second monitor or HDTV to the U36J and an Ethernet port means you don’t have to settle for the 802.11n Wi-Fi connection. There is also an SD/MS Card slot for expanding the memory.

Two of the biggest positives we drew from the U36J though are the battery life and the price. During our intensive tests, the Asus recorded a strong score of 226 minutes, but we think that with sensible everyday usage you should easily be able to get over four hours out of this laptop and probably more if you use the included battery management software.

We’d expect to pay around £800–£900 for this type of machine, seeing as the Sony C Series and MacBook Air are both nudging a thousand pounds. Instead, you can get it for only £700.

Overall then, while this is certainly not the best ultraportable you can buy, it is the best value for money. So if your cash is tight this month, we’d recommend giving the U36J the once over at your local computer store before buying something pricier.

Overview

Although it’s easy to dismiss 3D as a gimmick that might disappear in a couple of years, there’s no denying its current popularity. As a result, we’ve seen plenty of 3D-compatible laptops in recent times, such as Sony’s ridiculously enormous VAIO F-Series and the HP Envy 17 3D.

Some 3D laptops were heavier than a baby elephant, while some of the earlier models made us so nauseous that we almost threw up and passed out.

One of the best reasons to buy an Nvidia 3D Vision laptop is the huge variety of supported games. All of the AAA titles such as Battlefield, Portal and Fifa now come 3D-ready, and we have to admit that the extra dimension really does immerse you in the game. There’s nothing like squinting down the barrel of a shotgun as a screaming Nazi hurtles out of the screen at you.

Toshiba’s Qosmio X770-107 is clearly intended for 3D gaming, with its red-and-black rough-edge design. Thankfully it’s a lot more subtle than the likes of Alienware’s laptops, with their glowing headlights and angular spacecraft bodies, and it’s also a bit lighter than most gaming laptops.

However, the bulky 3.7kg body is still best left on a desk at home. Only Captain America would use this as an everyday travel companion.

The Toshiba Qosmio X770-107′s chassis is reasonably solid, although the palm rests and edges do flex under pressure.

The keyboard is thankfully a lot firmer, with its keys separated out in the popular isolation-style design. You’re less likely to bash the wrong key during frantic action games, and it’s also a great board to touch-type on.

We especially liked the subtle red backlighting, for those late-night gaming sessions.

Above the keyboard is a row of media shortcut keys. These can be used to adjust the volume, play and pause your media, and of course turn the 3D graphics on and off.

Specifications

Setting up the 3D is a simple two-minute task using Nvidia’s software. We were watching 3D movies on the Toshiba Qosmio X770-107 in no time, and simultaneously taking abuse from co-workers over the dorky glasses.

Those glasses are a major repellent, and if you wear spectacles to correct your vision, the two definitely don’t sit together comfortably. The biggest problem is the extra pressure around the bridge of the nose. We felt a migraine coming on after just a few minutes, and had to switch to contact lenses to continue.

Still, if your eyes aren’t knackered like ours, you’ll find the experience a lot more entertaining.

The 3D graphics are a good excuse to play classics such as Battlefield 2 all over again, and we were particularly impressed by driving games, where the 3D made it easier to judge corners and distances.

The Toshiba Qosmio X770-107 will also keep your sprogs quiet, thanks to the plethora of 3D cartoons and movies.

We’ve found that 3D-compatible screens are often rather dim, but this laptop’s 17.3-inch display is a refreshing exception. Not only is it comfortably bright, it’s also pleasingly vibrant. The full HD 1080p resolution means you can enjoy HD movies and the latest games with crystal-clear visuals.

We’re often derogatory about laptop speakers, but the harman/kardon efforts built into the Toshiba Qosmio X770-107 are impressively powerful. The bass is especially strong, and our dubstep samples made the entire chassis vibrate.

Of course, music buffs are going to need a dedicated external pair to hear every note as it was intended, but for the purposes of films and games, you can’t go wrong.

If you have a meaty collection of games and movies, you can carry a huge number around on the 1TB hard drive. The Toshiba Qosmio X770-107 might be a bulky machine, but at least you won’t have to lug an external hard drive around too.

If you’re carrying the laptop around during use, Toshiba’s built-in HDD protection shuts the drive down so it doesn’t get damaged. You also get a built-in Blu-ray drive, while an HDMI port lets you hook up a widescreen TV at home.

Performance

Of course, you can have all the 3D whiz-gimmickry you like, but if the laptop’s specs are rubbish, any game you play is going to be a juddering mess. Thankfully, the Toshiba Qosmio X770-107 packs in some powerful components.

The brain of the operation is an Intel Core i7 2630QM processor, running at 2GHz. This quad-core beauty is one of Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge efforts, and the scores we churned out of Cinebench were mightily impressive.

Toshiba’s Qosmio X770-107 is as powerful as some top-end gaming machines, including Alienware’s M14X and M18X. Backed up by a generous 8GB of memory, you’ll have no trouble running any modern game, or the very best editing software.

You can run your games with the highest possible graphics settings too, thanks to the Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M graphics card. We didn’t notice any frame rate issues, even when playing intensive titles such as Crysis 2. Few other laptops have produced such a confident graphical performance in recent times.

Despite the impressive performance, this laptop is whisper-quiet. Even during the most intensive gun battles, we heard almost no whirring and creaking from the Toshiba Qosmio X770-107′s innards. The chassis also stays relatively cool, apart from the vents on the left side, which gush hot air.

Unfortunately, the Toshiba Qosmio X770-107′s battery dies faster than a lemming in Dover. We didn’t even get an hour into a movie before it gave up. This is a poor effort even for a powerful laptop like this – especially when you consider that the Alienware M18X clung on for a little over an hour. You’ll need to pack the charger if you lug this beast outside.

Cinebench 10: 17063
3D Mark 06: 15114
Battery Eater: 44 mins

Verdict

Whether 3D is here to stay or a mere flash in the pan, there’s no ignoring its popularity. Toshiba’s Qosmio X770-107 is another laptop that caters to the considerable 3D public demand, but does so with style and a considerable amount of grunt.

We liked

The 17.3-inch screen is a great way to take in a movie, either in 2D or 3D, thanks to its sharp 1080p resolution and impressive vibrancy. It’s also a surprisingly bright panel, which is rare for a 3D laptop.

We have to admit, the Nvidia 3D Vision tech works well with certain games, especially driving simulators and trusty FPS games. However, even if you aren’t too bothered about the 3D effects, there’s still plenty for gamers to enjoy here.

You can play any modern title thanks to the Intel Core i7 Sandy Bridge processor, backed up by 8GB of memory, and the dedicated Nvidia GeForce graphics card means those frantic gun battles look amazing. You can also enjoy HD movies via the built-in Blu-ray drive.

We disliked

Not everyone will enjoy the black-and-red design, but it’s less garish than some other gaming laptops. However, like its rivals, you can’t lug the Toshiba Qosmio X770-107 around on a regular basis. The bulky 3.7kg chassis is difficult to fit in a bag and a pain to drag around on public transport, while the battery life sucks.

Final verdict

If you’re looking for a gaming laptop and are sold by the 3D gimmick, the Qosmio offers everything you could possibly need.

Page 1: Overview

Fed up with cheap and not-always-cheerful monitors based on TN panel technology? Then get a load of the new Asus PA238Q.

At around £235, it’s pricier than your average 23-inch TN screen. But, joy of joys, it’s got an IPS panel.

IPS stands for in-plane switching and just so happens to be the finest panel technology known to man or beast. That’s why Apple, for instance, exclusively uses IPS in its iPhones and iPads. It’s simply the best when it comes to colour accuracy and viewing angles.

As it happens, colour accuracy is a big part of the remit for the Asus PA238Q.

It’s pitched as a low-cost screen for graphics professionals. However, Asus is also claiming 6ms response times, which makes for a tantalising all-round package. Could this affordable, colour-accurate screen also be killer for games and at the movies?

Armed with these objective metrics and our own experience, we’re able to deliver the definitive verdict on the Asus PA238Q. So, how does it fare?

Page 2: Verdict

We’ve been desperate for something, anything, other than a TN screen at an affordable price for a while now. Few monitor makers have been willing to deliver. Admittedly, BenQ has given us a couple of cheap screens with VA panels, but the recent BenQ EW2430 was seriously disappointing.

There’s an open goal waiting for Asus to slide home a winner.

On paper, the Asus PA238Q certainly looks like premier league material. Along with that all-important IPS panel, you get an LED backlight and a huge colour gamut that captures 100% of sRGB. Nice. You also get a full complement of inputs, including HDMI, DVI, VGA and even DisplayPort. There’s picture-in-picture support, too.

The Asus PA238Q is a fine physical specimen too.

The stand is fully adjustable in all directions and hewn from the right sort of plastics. It’s sturdy stuff. We also love the minimalist styling vibe. The overall effect is like an IBM laptop from the ThinkPad heyday – no nonsense quality, in other words.

But the real clincher involves image quality.

Asus claims every PA238Q is carefully colour calibrated at the factory and the result is indeed impressive. Rarely, if ever, have we seen a screen with such deft black, white and colour scales out of the box. The viewing angles are impeccable, too.

As for pixel response, we have very good news indeed: this is one of the snappiest IPS panels we’ve ever seen.

We liked

The panel. The backlight. The chassis. The colours. The input options. The price. Frankly, what’s not to like?

All of our previous experience with cut-price VA and IPS panels has lead us to expect some kind of downside, visual nasty or obvious specification faux pas, but not here.

We disliked

It isn’t easy picking holes in this classy screen, but one or two imperfections are visible.

Our review sample had the slightest whiff of backlight bleed on the right-hand edge. And like all IPS screens, there’s a little backlight glow at some angles when viewing very dark tones. But that’s about it.

Final verdict


It’s been a long time coming, but the (very nearly) perfect PC monitor has finally arrived. Buy one.

Obscure Washington outfit Microsoft present us with this, the Wireless Optical Desktop 700.

It’s been fairly inconsistent in the design and quality of its peripherals lately, swinging from the sleek Arc Touch to the almost unusable Windows 7 Touch mouse.

Recommended at £30 but available for a shade over £20, the Wireless Optical Desktop 700 features a well-built keyboard running on AAA batteries and a slightly flimsy mouse running on AAs, each communicating with your PC or laptop via a wireless receiver.

Key feature

As far as this reviewer’s weary fingers are concerned, the best thing about this package is the weighting of the keys.

The mouse, however, is less satisfying underhand. It’s extremely light, which makes it a bit of a nightmare in a gaming scenario. Despite this and some flimsy buttons, the real problem is that it goes to sleep too soon if you haven’t moved it in a while.

We can forgive the Wireless 700′s unsuitability for gaming because that’s not what it’s designed for, but this has an impact on everyday desktop use. It’s an issue that plagues many wireless mice, particularly at the budget end.

The big problem here is the absence of any lights for caps, num and scroll locks. Okay, it’s £30, but no lights? It affects the most fundamental keyboard tasks, and is something that £10 keyboards get right.

It’s easy to get up and running wirelessly and while the mouse doesn’t feel great, we doubt either peripheral will fall apart any time soon.

However, you should only consider this keyboard and mouse if your needs necessitate a wireless setup, and your budget’s locked down to this price point. There are better wired bundles for the same price, and better wireless ones for a bit more.

So PC Specialist, what have we here with the Vortex M59 OC?

An overclocked Core i5 2500K? Why, a system with a CPU specification like that puts you in some pretty illustrious company: there’s Chillblast’s Fusion Rocket for starters.

Chillblast’s overclocked 2500K runs at 4.5 GHz, which is 300MHz slower than this rig, but then it’s also £150 cheaper. There’s also our new favourite Core i5 system, the AT-FX Polaris. Inside that rig lies a 2500K overclocked to 4.8 GHz, matching PC Specialist’s rig. It costs nearly £300 more, but there are several luxurious higher specified components inside to justify that.

The Vortex M59 OC fits neatly in between the two at £899. It’s certainly a smart price point, but how does it compare to these two 2500K-equipped rivals? Would you be better off going for the cheaper or higher specified option, or does this rig offer a happy middle ground?

Well, let’s look at the specs beyond that CPU. First, it’s air cooled by a Titan Fenrir Evo. Approaching the £1,000 point, you might expect to see a water cooling unit, but PC Specialist has managed a big CPU overclock on air cooling, and that’s fine by us; it is a good cooling unit after all. We’ve no grumbles so far.

Next, let’s look at the memory. The Vortex has 4GB of Kingston HyperX 1,600MHz DDR3 RAM occupies this rig, and it performed very well in our memory bandwidth test, posting 20.76 GB/s, which is as quick as we’ve seen from a 4GB kit. That’ll help any CPU-intensive tasks, such as video encoding, as well as loading times.

Chillblast’s Fusion Rocket’s 4GB kit doesn’t have the throughput that these HyperX modules have, whereas up there in the Polaris’s lofty heights, there’s 8GB on offer. It still doesn’t beat the Vortex’s RAM in sheer GB/s, but having double the capacity is useful too. The RAM, like the CPU and cooler, do demonstrate a happy middle ground – so far so good.

This is a gaming rig, and gaming performance is all about graphics cards. Choosing the right card in a densely populated market is important to a system’s overall value, and those crucial frames per second in your favourite games.

PC Specialist’s solution: Nvidia’s GTX 570. In a world of rigs powered by HD 6950s and GTX 580s, the GTX 570 is a rarity. They were quite expensive on launch, just shy of £300 for a Fermi card with largely the same layout as the GTX 480 but without that insatiable thirst for electricity. Just one stream processor away from the GTX 580, the 480 CUDA cores are still capable of high resolution, high frame rates, but a reduced 1.2GB of memory leaves it trailing way behind the GTX 580′s impressive pace.

TechRadar Labs

DX11 tessellation performance
Heaven 2.5 Frames per second: Higher is better
Vortex M59 OC: 28
Fusion Rocket: 21.7

DX10 gaming performance
Just Cause 2 Frames per second: Higher is better
Vortex M59 OC: 60
Fusion Rocket: 40

CPU rendering performance
Cinebench R11.5 Index: Higher is better
Vortex M59 OC: 7.33
Fusion Rocket: 7.80

The price has been slashed since the GTX 570′s release, making it a very appealing – you guessed it – middle ground between the 560 Ti and the full-blown 580. Sitting in this rig, it provides enough grunt to keep frame rates over 40fps at 1080p.

Our only reservation with the Vortex is the lack of an extra that the very best systems have. There’s no SSD, the mobo is mid-range… not big problems, nor a rip-off at all, but the market is that tight.

The Lenovo IdeaPad S205 is a small and light laptop, but in order to keep this machine highly portable, some compromises have been made.

At just 1.4kg and with a dinky 11.6-inch screen, the IdeaPad S205 looks more like a netbook than a laptop. It’s designed to be as portable as possible, and you barely even notice it when the compact body is stashed in your bag.

Thankfully, it’s solidly constructed, with only a slight hint of flex. We certainly weren’t worried about it breaking when we threw it into our backpack and wandered around town.

The plain black design of the interior is nothing special, although we liked the unusual and subtle boxy pattern on the lid. Despite the reduced size, the IdeaPad is still surprisingly chunky.

This is due to the battery, which protrudes from the rear of the machine and pushes it upwards. As a result, this laptop is almost as thick as the 17.3-inch Toshiba Satellite C670D. However, that raised rump means the keyboard is tilted at a more comfortable angle for typing.

Lenovo has managed to fit an isolation-style keyboard on to the compact body, which is perfect for touch-typing thanks to the gaps between the keys.

Some sacrifices have been made – such as the squashed Shift, Tab and Return keys – but the best has been made of the tiny space. However, we did get annoyed at the indented Ctrl key, which we constantly miss-hit when using Windows shortcuts.

The palmrests are understandably slim, so your palms dangle off the bottom when you’re typing. It’s a minor quibble, although the slender palmrests also means the touchpad is pretty small. Still, considering the shrunken chassis, the IdeaPad is surprisingly usable.

Basic performance

However, in our benchmarking tests we found the Lenovo was seriously lacking power, like the much bulkier Toshiba. In fact, the IdeaPad uses the same AMD processor as the Toshiba, and matches its 4GB of memory. The result is very basic performance.

Thankfully, we had no problem running office software, browsing the web and so on. The integrated graphics can also cope with standard-definition movies and you can edit your photos with simple design packages.

However, when we tried watching a high-definition film it came out as a slideshow presentation, displaying a frame every few seconds. Only basic web games such as Bejewelled actually ran at an acceptable framerate. That said, if all you need is a laptop for checking emails, enjoying your family photos and running basic software, and you value portability over performance, this laptop may be the one for you.

Not only is it slim and light, the battery lasts for over three hours when watching movies and for over four hours when browsing the web.

We’re also impressed that Lenovo has crammed 500GB of hard drive space into the tiny chassis.

TechRadar Labs

Battery Eater ’05: 182 minutes
Cinebench: 2193
3DMark 2006: 2232

This is enough space to last most users years, and only the Acer here offers more storage. A 5-in-1 memory card reader can be used for extra space.

To sum up, if you need a budget machine for regular travel, the Lenovo is the best options. However, if you’d prefer a laptop with a bit more power, and are willing to carry something a little chunkier and heavier, the Acer Aspire 5742Z will suit you more.

The Lenovo G770 packs fantastic power and good graphical performance into a solid big-screen laptop which is great for the home. We’d recommend it to anyone looking for a desktop replacement, but movie buffs will be disappointed about the lack of a 1080p screen.

The first thing that strikes you when opening the G770 is the fantastic build quality. There’s an expanse of brushed metal, in which sits a generous isolation-style keyboard with well-cushioned keys. It took us a while to get used to the travel between the keys, but it was comfortable to use for long periods.

Under the hood is a generous amount of power, and enough for anyone who’s looking for a few years of good use. The processor is a Sandy Bridge Intel Core i7 2620M 2.7GHz, which is the same found in the MacBook Pro, which costs £1000 more.

Elsewhere, the AMD Radeon HD 6650M is nearly identical to the MacBook Pro, and there’s more RAM with 6GB packed in. This simply shows that the Lenovo is able to handle anything that’s thrown at it for a few years to come. Editing photos using Photoshop, creating home videos, and dealing with demanding video content are all easily within the G770s capabilities.

If you’re looking to play games, the G770 won’t disappoint either. It’s no true gaming machine, like the Alienware M18x, but it will play most of the latest games. We played Battlefield 2 with no real problems, and it looked great on the 17.3-inch screen, although we did have to turn down the graphics to avoid the frame rate dropping.

Powerful processor

In our tests the Lenovo fell short of the dizzying heights of the Acer Aspire 5750G, but still out-performed the more expensive HP Envy 14. There was a strong score from the processor, which trounced the likes of the Dell Inspiron 17r and the Samsung R720.

Again there was no 1080p panel provided, which will disappoint movie buffs looking for the best possible picture, but if you already own an HD display such as a TV, then you can connect the G770 via HDMI. We’ve seen better, sharper screens, but it’s adequate for working and enjoying media and photos.

Again, there’s a lack of Blu-ray, but we honestly feel that a future-proof system can do without this as more media moves to the cloud. At 2.9kg, the Lenovo G770 is a true desktop replacement system, and it’s really too large and heavy to consider taking around with you on a daily basis. However, the large screen more than makes up for it and, unlike the HP Envy 14, its weight pays off with a much more comfortable experience.

The Lenovo G770 is a fantastic purchase for anyone looking for a future-proof desktop replacement. It’s packed with power and matches many of its more expensive competitors for speed and performance, without breaking the bank.

TechRadar Labs

Battery Eater ’05: 158 minutes
Cinebench: 11524
3DMark 2006: 7667

We’d like to have seen a Full HD screen in a laptop of this type, and if you’re looking for a future-proof media centre for watching movies, then you might want to look at more expensive alternatives like the Dell XPS 15Z.

However, if you just want to ensure you can carry on using your favourite programs and surfing the web for a few years to come, then this machine will certainly offer a great return on your investment.

Acer is one of the most prolific manufacturers we know, producing everything from huge multimedia powerhouses such as the Aspire Ethos 8951G to stripped-down budget models. The Aspire 5742Z is one of the latter, and another strong entry-level contender.

At this price range, you won’t be getting the latest technology and performance will be limited. However, the 5742Z features an Intel Pentium P6200 processor backed up by a staggering 6GB of memory, much more than we usually see at this price. Only the MSI CR620 and Asus K52F performed better in our tests.

We managed to write this review, stream music over the internet and back up our files all at once, with no slowdown at all. Applications started up quickly and ran smoothly.

However, you only get basic integrated graphics to keep the price low. This means that you’re limited in what you can do with your media. Browsing your photo collection and touching up images with basic editing tools are perfectly possible, and we were impressed that high-definition movies played smoothly. However, don’t expect to be able to edit videos or play anything but basic or elderly games.

Optical drive

You can watch DVDs thanks to the built-in optical drive, although the 5742z’s speakers are far too quiet for enjoying music or movies. We recommend you attach an external pair.

Thankfully, the 15.6-inch screen is fine for enjoying films, with sharp contrast and rich colours. If you want to work on a larger display, VGA and HDMI ports can be used to hook up an external television or monitor.

Of course, you probably want a laptop for work as well as play, right? The Acer is a great option in this respect too, thanks to the firmly constructed keyboard which stretches the full width of the interior. Some may find the perfectly flat keys a little awkward at first if they’re used to bevelled keys, which feature slanted edges.

However, the keys are well sized, with the exception of the arrow keys which are flattened into a single row. You also have a separate numeric keypad to the right. The rest of the laptop is well constructed, although the palmrests do flex when you push on them.

The lid is solid enough to protect the screen against any knocks. We weren’t huge fans of the plain black design, but it doesn’t look particularly bad. The 5742Z simply won’t be winning any beauty awards.

At 2.3kg, it’s a lightweight laptop and would suit the regular commuter. The slim 35mm body slips easily into a bag or rucksack big enough to hold a 15.6-inch laptop, but make sure you pack the charger too.

The battery died before we finished a two-hour film and only lasts half an hour longer if you limit your use to basic office software.

TechRadar Labs

Battery Eater ’05: 113 minutes
Cinebench: 5661
3DMark 2006: 1703

Still, at least you can carry your entire media collection if you take to the road, thanks to the generous 640GB hard drive. This is the largest amount of storage offered by any laptop here, and something we would expect from more expensive mid-range models.

The Aspire 5742Z offers strong value for money, although the poor battery life is a shame. If you want a highly portable laptop, the Lenovo IdeaPad S205 may be more suitable.