HP Pavilion dv1000

In contrast to Toshiba's Qosmio E10 P-M 735, the Pavilion dv1000 benefits from a widescreen display. Although the unusual resolution of 1,280 x 768 pixels gives an aspect ratio of 15:9 (5:3), 16:9 films will happily fill the screen. With a 14in diagonal, it's still a small panel though, and the narrow viewing angles make it difficult for any more than a couple of people to view at once.

For playing to a larger audience, you'll be better off connecting the notebook to a TV, and to that end HP will be releasing a media fan-out cable as an optional extra. This will add digital and analog audio, plus composite video to the S-Video and D-SUB out. Unlike the Qosmio though, there's no integrated TV tuner, although you could add a USB digital version for about £50.

The 2.47kg weight means it's light enough to take on trips, and we were pleased with the battery life too, which held out for almost five hours under light use. HP's version of instant-on - QuickPlay - managed to keep playing a DVD for two-and-a-half hours, enough to see you through most films.

Booting the dv1000's media player isn't as speedy as the Qosmio, at 12 seconds, but it does play DVDs, audio CDs, MP3 CDs, and even MP3s in the hard disk's Shared Music folder. It's intuitive to operate using the buttons above the keyboard, but media first needs assembling in a playlist, making it fiddly to get going. It will respond to the remote control though, which not only stows away niftily in the PC Card slot, but will also operate WinDVD and Windows Media Player once you're in Windows. This goes some way to make up for the installation of Windows XP Home, rather than Media Center Edition save for recording facilities.

The UK versions will offer a choice of a 1.4GHz Pentium M 738 (£765) or a 1.7GHz Pentium M 735 (£850). Our pre-production unit contained a 1.5GHz Banias Pentium M and 512MB of RAM - more than enough power for its intended use, but the overall 2D speed benchmark of 1.29 shows you can't expect sizzling performance at tougher tasks. Gaming isn't an option either, with Intel's integrated Extreme Graphics 2 providing the minimum of 3D grunt. Hard disk space is a generous 80GB though, and there's a DVD+R/RW writer for backup. All the ports are on the sides of the chassis for easy access, including three USB ports, mini-FireWire, and a 6-in-1 memory card reader. An integrated 56K modem, 10/100 Ethernet and 802.11b/g help keep you connected at home and away.

Ultimately, the portability and widescreen display make this a more flexible notebook than the Qosmio. The instant-on software's ability to access the hard disk also makes it a far more practical feature - it's a shame there's no TV tuner onboard, but you're still getting a lot of notebook for your money, making this the best value entertainment system we've seen so far.

Author: Roger kirkwood