IBM ThinkPad R40e TE04TUK

This machine isn't a stunning performer in 2D either. Don't be fooled by the 1.7GHz clock speed of the Mobile Celeron chip, as the R40e will stutter and splutter in Windows occasionally. Fortunately, if you start to get frustrated by this machine's speed, upping the quota of SDRAM will have an immediate effect - it's easy to do and www.crucial. com/uk was selling suitable 256MB SODIMMs for just £27 at time of going to press.

Alternatively, you could buy a different model in the R40e range - one obvious choice is the TE0CVUK, which includes a 1.8GHz Pentium 4-M, 256MB of RAM and a DVD-ROM. It costs £890 and the only real compromise is a 20GB hard disk. As anyone who's built up a collection of MP3 files or digital photos will know, this can soon run out. This is especially true in the ThinkPad's case, as IBM has siphoned off around 4GB of storage space in a hidden partition to easily restore the notebook to its original state if things go hideously wrong.

But not everyone will have an extra £170 to spend, and we shouldn't forget that the R40e is more than capable of everyday tasks - email, Internet and word processing. If that's what you want from a notebook, then even this most basic version of the R40e won't disappoint.

Author: Tim Danton