Sony VAIO VGN-TZ31MN in Laptops

The TZ31 can also beat Apple's sub-four-hour battery life twice over, with an hour to spare (a highly impressive 8hrs 10mins), and is equally portable and stylish - all this for just over £100 more.

However, it's more difficult to justify the VAIO over Lenovo's X300. Its advantages are the lower price, larger hard disk and greater battery life: the X300 offers around six hours to the VAIO's eight.

And its £1,700 price puts it in another bracket entirely. But the X300 serves equally well as a desktop replacement as it does a mobile device, something which the TZ31 is far too small and lacking in power to do.

Nevertheless, the VAIO TZ31 occupies a happy medium between the bare minimalism of the Apple and the usability of the Lenovo, while easily winning on battery life and value for money - as long as you also have a desktop to use for more intensive tasks.

Author: Matthew Sparkes