Acer TravelMate 3012WTMi

When you're on the road, you'll find the Acer's battery life acceptable if not exceptional. The main six-cell battery's life of three hours, 15 minutes under light use is fine for a notebook of this size, and it's possible to eke another 59 minutes out of the smaller battery that's also bundled. Bear in mind, though, that carrying both batteries around raises its total weight to 1.9kg. If you really want great battery life in an ultraportable, take a look at the aforementioned Toughbook, which benefits from an Ultra Low Voltage processor as opposed to the standard Core Duo.

The 3012WTMi is a good laptop for regular travellers who need plenty of power and will benefit from the dual-core processor. Squeezing so much raw grunt into such a small package is a laudable achievement in itself. When you consider the 100GB hard disk, the price is right too. But for all that, it doesn't match the superb Sony VAIO VGN-TX2XP for looks, battery life, light weight or an integrated DVD writer - if it had more battery life and a nicer screen it would have had a greater chance of walking away with an award.

Author: Dave Stevenson