Labs

If philips managed to pack a lot into a small space, we were amazed by PC Nextday's offering. The Zoostorm 6-601 Livestyle PC uses an AOpen case which looks like a black version of Apple's Mac mini: a tiny slab, finished in black brushed metal, the only adornments a strip of blue light and the DVD slot.

Inside, space savings have been achieved using laptop components, as with the Philips, but the processor is an Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 Mobile, which scored a much more creditable 154% in our

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2D test. Like the Philips, it proved unable to run our 3D games test. It also has a hard disk with a capacity of just 160GB, so space could soon get tight for storing MP3s, video clips and other large media files.

With so little room inside, internal upgrades are out of the question. But what concerned us more was the lack of external options. There are just two USB 2 ports, and those are already taken up by the keyboard and mouse. If you want to plug in a digital camera or external hard disk, you'll need to add a USB hub. That won't cost much, but it seriously detracts from the neatness of the package.

Sound is provided by a set of Edifier 2.1 speakers: the subwoofer is a sort of pyramid, with the satellites like a pair of vases. Bass was a bit uncontrolled, and treble lacked bite but managed not to sound too harsh.

The system may be tiny, but the screen is huge, and it proved to be the second best monitor in the group. The Asus MW221U 22-inch widescreen produced a bright, sharp picture with wide viewing angles when connected to the Zoostorm via its DVI input.