If possible, test-drive a potential purchase, even if you end up buying the machine online. That way, you can check build quality to see if those flaps and flanges are up to the rigours of life on the road. Many are not. Screens, too, are a matter of taste, with the highest-resolution widescreen machines offering stunning video playback, but native text that is set up squintingly small.
Your biggest dilemmas will be choosing the right-sized laptop and trading off performance for portability. At one end of the scale, powerful desktop replacements are ideal for the home, but at a back-breaking 4kg, useless on the move. Lightning-fast components belie the adage that notebooks are slow, but battery life is often paltry.
“Ultraportables”, on the other hand, are shiny silicon sandwiches designed to complement, rather than replace, a desktop computer. Performance is adequate for business applications and web access, but you won’t be editing your next Cannes entry on one. Somewhere between the extremes of portability and power lies the laptop that suits you. The challenge is to find it.
POWER NOTEBOOKS
FILM BUFF’S FAVOURITE
Hi-Grade Notino C7000S-2000
4 stars
£1,208 from www.higrade.com
This blockbuster notebook, with the Windows XP Media Center operating system, is designed for entertainment. Whether you’re watching DVDs or tuning in to the football on the plug-in digital TV tuner (optional, £75), it is a million miles from humdrum. The hardware is easily powerful enough for video editing, the 80GB hard drive is ample for storing PVR recordings and it has a DVD burner for archiving, too. Considering how well suited it is both to hi-fi and Hollywood, the Notino has a surprisingly good keyboard and trackpad, with programmable keys for short cuts.
DESIGNER’S MUSE
Apple PowerBook G4 15in
5 stars
£1,400 from www.apple-shop.co.uk
Apple’s top-end 15in machine has plenty of bite to bolster the sleek aesthetic, and is thankfully shorn of the irritating flaps that beset many laptops. The new Mac Tiger operating system offers day-to-day simplicity and real flexibility, making the latest PowerBook a potent choice, with a newly upgraded screen resolution and a sensational light-sensitive, backlit keyboard. The processor isn’t as powerful, on paper, as some Windows machines here, but the numbers can be deceptive, and at least Macs are virus-free. With an impressive graphics card, picture and video editing is a doddle, and an 80GB hard disk and a DVD burner complete the picture. It may weigh in at 2.5kg, but the PowerBook is a delight to use and comes wireless-ready. Only the knowledge that a new range is expected next year, and a reliance on Mac software, should deter you from a connoisseur’s choice.
MEDIA-LOVER’S HUB
Toshiba Qosmio F20-137
4 stars
Typically £1,299, or £1,220 from www.shop.bt.com
At a hernia-inducing 3.3kg, the F20 stretches the boundaries of portability, but for multi-location entertainment and beefy performance, the Qosmio can’t be beaten. The screen is bright enough to warrant sunscreen — ideal for watching Spooks on the built-in TV tuner (analogue, sadly) — and the Windows Media Center is great for organising digital favourites. The speakers are significantly better than normally tinny notebook speakers, adding to the feeling that you are carrying a portable TV with a built-in brain. With 1GB of Ram on board and a tiptop processor, you can even get stuck into fast-and-furious shoot-’em-ups, although this will shorten the battery life to about two hours. This is the ideal companion for anyone with two homes and a passion for digital entertainment.
OUT AND ABOUT
SUITED AND BOOTED
Sony Vaio VGN-FS315B
5 stars
Typically £799, or £752 from www.digiuk.com
Few manufacturers combine form and function quite as well as Sony, and the versatile Vaio laptop range continues in this tradition. It has enough coffee-shop wow factor to keep style-lovers happy, and the build quality remains admirable, as does uncommonly sensible hardware that helps maintain the balance between performance and price. This Vaio is designed for working — rather than gaming or video editing — and can handle the rigours of the working week, with a full-sized keyboard, Centrino-based wireless connectivity, 2.5 hours’ battery life and a capacious 80GB hard drive, not to mention a DVD burner. This beast is a triumph for out-of-office poseurs, and although 2.9kg is a burden, the price is not. Even better, the 15.4in widescreen makes it worth the effort.
CAMPUS COMPANION
Acer TravelMate 2403WXCi
4 stars
£542 from www.shopacer.co.uk
At less than 2.4kg, the TravelMate may not be quite as pocketable as a set of York Notes, but it can comfortably be carried around campus, and built-in WiFi, for web access in the library, is impressive at this price. Comparatively lowly hardware, led by Intel’s lower-tier Celeron M processor, ensures 3-D games won’t distract from studies, but the 40GB hard drive should accommodate most MP3 collections, and there is enough power for web surfing, dissertations or editing photos. With a life of up to four hours, the battery should last through the most arduous lectures, and although the sharp, bright 14.1in widescreen has reasonable viewing angles, they aren’t so oblique as to render notes (or flirty instant messages) readable to everyone in the lecture hall. With a rugged feel and a solid keyboard, the TravelMate has first-class pedigree. Stewart Mitchell
SURVEYOR’S MATE
Rock Hardbook
4 stars
£1,018 from www.rockdirect.co.uk
The new Hardbook (also seen in the main picture) can cope with professional life on the construction site, thanks to a magnesium-alloy casing that Rock claims is 20 times stronger than most plastic portables. You can stand on this bulky 3.2kg beast without breaking the screen, and 100ml liquid-spill protection will appeal to those who have killed a keyboard with a coffee catastrophe. Whereas many rugged laptops cost an MoD budget, yet provide too much brawn and not enough brain, the Hardbook offers good value. Designed for the outdoors, it has an impressive battery life of about four hours, and although this machine won’t set land-speed records, the 1.4GHz Celeron processor and 512MB of Ram charge through most chores briskly — and it won’t down tools if dropped. Stewart Mitchell
ULTRAPORTABLES
