Labs

Nowhere is the range of this group test more starkly illustrated than in the differences between the tiny Samsung and this bruiser from MSI. Built for entertainment, the ER710 is built around a 17 inch widescreen display. Not so many years ago, we'd have been more than happy with a screen that size on a desktop PC. Given the MSI's hefty proportions, we'd imagine a desktop is where it'll stay: moving it from room to room won't herniate you, but it's not one to slip into your briefcase.

Putting up with this bulk gets you a lot of features. There's no shortage of connections, including HDMI for output to a high definition TV. The extra space enables the ER710 to incorporate a full-size keyboard, with a numeric keypad to the right. The keys have a decent amount

The 17 inch screen itself was bright and evenly lit. Its GlareType coating heightens contrast, making blacks satisfyingly black during DVD playback, but we still preferred the displays on the Toshiba and the HP Compaq laptops.

What really lets down the ER710 is performance. Like all the machines here, it's built around a dual core processor, but this time from AMD rather than Intel, and an older model at that. It's a 64-bit model, designed for enhanced number-crunching when running specially written 64-bit software. But running the 64-bit version of Windows Vista currently risks all sorts of problems with hardware compatibility, so MSI has sensibly chosen to install a standard 32-bit version - which further limits the chip's performance. Even teamed with a healthy 2GB of memory, the AMD Athlon 64 TK-53 turned in a score of just 110% in our general (2D) benchmark, putting it at the bottom of our table. This was one of only four machines able to complete our 3D games test, but it limped in with a sorry 3.6 frames per second.