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The channel's Gadget Show took both a MacBook and a Sony Vaio running Windows Vista to Italy, where it used them both to report back on an annual carnival.

So, what conclusions did it draw? Well, for starters, it claimed that Macs are expensive. 'The cheapest Mac laptop you can buy costs £749, the cheapest PC laptop is a miniscule £320,' it says

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on the show's transcript. However, it then goes on to admit that the two specs are not comparable, although the PC would be fine if you just wanted to do some emails and word processing.

The Mac won on style grounds, and the presenters pointed out that many of the new features in Vista on the Sony have been in the Mac operating system for a long time now. Then there was security - another point to the MacBook - and bundled applications, on which the PC won hands down.

Fortunately the Mac fared better when comparing the multimedia capabilities, in which iPhoto and iMovie were both declared the best performers. Indeed, iMovie was described as 'fantastic'.

On balance, then, the Mac came out on top, although whether a PC user would interpret the transcript the same way is open to question.

The Gadget Show airs on Monday evenings at 7.15pm.