Samsung NP-R60FY05

Performance from this feature set isn't what you'd call disastrous at 0.88 in our 2D benchmarks, but it can't match the Sony's 0.93, and battery life isn't as good either. In our light-use tests, the 44Wh standard battery lasted 2hrs 58mins, an hour short of the four hours achieved by the Sony. Under intense conditions, it was even less impressive, lasting 1hr 11mins, while the Sony kept going a full hour-and-a-half more.

But while the Sony steals a march in a few areas, notably with its sprightlier performance, better battery life and more capacious hard drive, the Samsung still makes a strong case for itself.

The R60 Plus' performance isn't far behind that of the Sony, the 120GB hard drive is still perfectly ample and, most importantly, its keyboard and display are far superior.

Factor in the significantly more powerful ATi graphics chipset, and as an all-round budget notebook the Samsung does enough to get our vote over the Sony.

Author: Jonathan Bray