No, the green IT area is spartan, quiet, and there’s really not a lot going on. Fujitsu Siemens has the best-populated stand, showing off its zero-watt PCs and low-energy servers. IBM has an area devoted to energy optimisation (again in servers); Sun has something similar, backed up by a static display of a low-energy vehicle it sponsors but isn’t related to anything very much; and Hitachi has what you’d be hard pushed to describe as a stand since it didn’t seem to be showing anything at all when I was there.

And that’s pretty much it, really. It all seemed uncomfortably as if lip service is being paid to green IT, but very little else.

In other halls – especially the Future Parc dedicated to research – there were plenty of solar cells in evidence but it’s telling that few of these are currently in commercial products. One of the rare commercial uses of solar panels I did see was from a company called Sunload, which was showing off a really rather cool set of bags, luggage and foldaway devices using flexible solar panels. Bags with solar cells in the lid flaps are pretty much the best way I’ve seen so far to make use of solar energy in everyday life. The products aren’t distributed in the UK but I’ll be trying to coax some stuff out of them to look at anyway.

And, of course, there was the biodegradable flash drive, which while not likely to cause the world to stop turning on its axis – and also not really biodegradable – was at least innovative.

But it’s a bit of a poor show, all things considered.

Jumping killer whales and pico blues

Sanyo’s HD2000 pistol-grip camcorder has a special trick – it can record 1080p video at 60fps, and can even reach 600fps for those Planet Earth-style animal action shots if you don’t mind sub-YouTube resolutions. Its video quality may not quite reach excellence but its all-in-one ability to take good video and stills makes it a strong choice at a good price.

Another strong choice, but at a more premium price, was the superb LaCie 324 monitor. The 24in panel displays 92% of the NTSC gamut, and during our tests it had cooing crowds gathered around it as the ultimate endorsement. Bringing images alive in a way standard monitors just can’t match, it earned a deserved recommendation for professionals.

Unfortunately, Dell’s first pico-projector, the M109S, was a bit of a dud in comparison, with focus issues, poor performance in all but the darkest rooms and fiddly controls driving our reviews editor to despair during testing. The format is in its infancy but it’ll have to get better before we dive in.

The bargain PC and the psychic mouse

Novatech sent us the ION, a PC with a difference: a full system with a 17in widescreen TFT, keyboard and mouse for an incredible £234 plus VAT - almost cheap enough to squeeze into our £250 challenge. True, it’s Atom-based so it won’t do everything, but it’s hard to find fault in a system that offers so much for so little.

By contrast, Fujitsu sent us a mouse with an RRP of £299. The culprit is the PalmSecure technology inside it, which uses infra-red to read the unique pattern of the veins in your palm. It’s undoubtedly fascinating to use, and it’s claimed to be more secure than fingerprint technology, but Fujitsu will need to improve the accompanying software before we’d consider breaking the bank fro a palm reader.

On the laptop side of things we saw Lenovo’s ThinkPad W500, a professional machine that occupies a unique niche with its high-resolution screen and ISV workstation certification. It’s impressive, but we’re not convinced it’s quite worth the price.

Best of the rest

We also saw Belkin’s Powerline AV Starter Kit, which finally managed to add some style to a market that’s traditionally been function-over-form. The Xerox Phaser 6280 failed to impress our business reviewer, D-Link’s DGS-1248T ’eco-switch’ fared a little better, but the Vivotek IP7142 IP camera topped them both by being more capable of withstanding the British weather than the rest of us managed this week.

The monstrous NEC MultiSync LCD3090WQXi was set up in the Labs for all of eight seconds before a drooling crowd had gathered to marvel at its stunning colour reproduction and ginormous 30in, 2,560 x 1,600 H-IPS panel. Yes, it’s a £1,400 investment, but if you compare it to the main professional-level competition we reckon it actually looks like quite a bargain.

Continuing the professional theme was the Epson Stylus Photo R2880, the flagship of its A3 range. Remarkably quiet in use, extremely simple to use and maintain, and using not one but three separate black inks (surely Light Light Black is just Grey?) it’s a photographer’s dream. Even at £357 plus VAT it’s a quality investment for any semi-pro.

PCs and laptops

The Panasonic Toughbook CF-F8 arrived for a preview, departing from its predecessors in that it boasts a widescreen-aspect display. Sasha gave it a battering and determined that it’s the perfect choice “for the serious business traveler who values reliability and longevity above all else”.

Mesh’s latest budget PC, the Titan GT Pro, packed a surprising punch – it scored 1.82 in our benchmarks despite costing just £575 – and was only let down by a fairly old graphics card and a mediocre monitor. Still, Mike reckoned it’s one to look out for if you’re “looking for a desktop system on a stringent budget”.

The netbook swarm continued, with the uninspiring Fujitsu Siemens AMILO Mini Ui 3520 being easily overshadowed by the bright pink LG X110. Our esteemed editor took one look at the garish colour, tucked it under his arm and jealously guarded it for the next few days. He reckons “if you want to buy a 10in netbook on contract it’s currently the best choice”; we can’t argue – he won’t let us touch it.

Best of the rest

Home servers are yet to really catch on, but a select few manufacturers are trying their best. The Tranquil PC SQA-5H Home Server is the first we’ve seen to really concentrate on design, with an Apple-white finish and sensible dimensions. Darien reckons it’s not cheap, but it’s a fine example of the technology for enthusiasts – whether it’ll grab those all-important non-enthusiasts remains to be seen.

Elsewhere, we looked at the Creative HS-1200 headphones, Darien got his nose into Bruce Schneier’s self-titled …on Security tome, while the business team tested the Lantronix SecureLinx Spider IP device and the Axis P3301 IP camera.

Firefox vs iTunes

Surely the most interesting release of the week was from Mozilla. Although its been in development for a few years, Songbird finally saw an official release, with a media player and browser in one. Darien was hopeful it could finally give him an alternative to iTunes: “Since it’s open source, freely extensible and unfettered by corporate interests, Songbird’s future looks bright.” Try it and let us know what you think.

Not just for christmas

Fujitsu stole the headlines with its offer of a free laptop every three years forever, and Jon reckons “if you’re a cheapskate and don’t mind being tied to one brand for the rest of your life it’s got to be worth looking into”. If the best you can get is the Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook S7720, however, you’ll probably be turning them down on their kind offer.

Dell’s Inspiron 1318 is a much more tempting proposition, with a price tag of just £383 exc VAT putting it dangerously close to netbook territory. Sasha was impressed by the ”portable chassis with great ergonomics and fine battery life – a potent combination”, and more than enough to earn it an award. 

Sideshow 2?

Sideshow never caught on, largely because it was rubbish. But the concept of a smaller screen by your main display has merit if it’s actually an extension of your desktop. Samsung’s 2263DX comes with a 7in supplemental screen that clips anywhere on its frame, and you can drag anything you like onto it. It’s certainly a novel twist, and we can see it catching on – but only if the price drops.

The Navigon 1210 doesn’t have the same stumbling block, as it’s a satnav that costs just £85. But far from being a cheap and cheerful bargain, Jon found plenty of advanced features and solid navigation, and called it “a very good deal indeed.”

Another short throw projector arrived in the Labs, and the Acer S1200 proved every bit as good as – if not better than – the BenQ from a few weeks back. A huge 82in picture from just a metre away is phenomenal, and apart form a few focus issues the Acer came through our tests with a Recommended award that was well deserved.

Best of the rest

Toshiba finally entered the crowded netbook market with the NB100-11R but while Tim liked the screen and the light weight, he reckons it’s a missed opportunity for the laptop giant.

Lenovo’s T500 did much better, with Jon delivering a Recommended award, calling it a solid buy “if you don’t mind sacrificing sex appeal for comfort and reassurance”.

And the EasyNote RS65-M-700 had Matt gushing about it being “by far the most attractive Packard Bell laptop we’ve seen”, even if it wasn’t quite enough to gloss over a few other weaknesses.

In the business world, Dell’s PowerEdge T100 pedestal server walked off with a Recommended award, the iQStor iQ2850 iSCSI Storage System came mighty close, while Cyberoam launched its CR250i web filtering utility.