Lab

Home laptops

A computer isn't just there for the dull things in life, such as writing letters and checking your bank balance, so why should it sit in a mess of cables in the corner of your home? The laptops in this Labs can do everything a desktop PC can, and they'll do it without cluttering up your home or forcing you from the comfort of your sofa.

We've gathered six high-specification laptops, ranging in price from £700 to £800 including VAT. They can all cope with everyday tasks, while the larger laptops have huge screens to make the most of high-definition video. The lighter ones make great travelling companions, allowing you to surf the web and edit videos and images no matter where you are.

No matter how you want to use your laptop, there's a model for you in this round-up.

Most people don't take their laptops out of their homes, so why choose a laptop PC over a desktop model? For us, the key attraction is that one laptop can have multiple personalities as it travels around the house, from office PC to video player, and still be small enough to be tucked away out of sight when it's not needed. However, this does put pressure on it to be a jack of all trades, which isn't easy for a computer that weighs just a few kilograms.

All six laptops in this round-up rise to this challenge. They're not the cheapest models on the market, but between them they offer astounding performance, masses of disk space, high-definition video playback and plentiful options to connect to other equipment both with and without wires. They all come with high-resolution glossy screens that make photos and videos look rich and vibrant, and webcams seamlessly integrated into the tops of their lids. They all have multiformat card readers for easy management of your digital photos, and wireless networking to access your broadband connection anywhere in your home.

Bare necessities

Snazzy features are all well and good, but they need to be built on a strong foundation. As such, there are certain standards we expect a laptop to meet for it to deserve an award. If its screen, keyboard or touch pad is below par, it can ruin an otherwise excellent laptop, especially as it can't be replaced in the same way that a desktop PC's peripherals can. We've made notes on the standard of each touch pad, keyboard and screen in the individual reviews.

These laptops have two other human interfaces: speakers and a webcam. These are important features, too, but sadly you can't expect great things from either. All the webcams are fine for videoconferencing, but they won't take great photos, while the speakers vary from passable to horrible. If you want to play music, watch movies or play games, you should attach some external speakers.

The links effect

It's also important that you can connect all your other PC hardware without grappling with insufficient sockets. USB2 and 802.11g wireless are by far the most common types of connection, and it's no surprise that these are supported across the board. However, while Toshiba's laptop has six USB2 sockets, Samsung's has only two, which could be a problem, depending on what other kit you have. The Samsung Q45's Draft-N wireless support might just make up for it if you couple the laptop with a wireless router and network-attached storage.

Other connections may be vital or irrelevant, depending on the kit you already own. FireWire is essential for transferring video from older MiniDV camcorders, although most newer video cameras use USB. If you want to connect your laptop to a new flat-screen TV, you should look for an HDMI port, as present on the Asus, Mesh, PC Nextday and Toshiba laptops.

Portability will be imperative for some, but largely irrelevant for others. Decide how often you plan to take your laptop out of the house. If it's once or twice a week, we recommend that you limit your choice to the Mesh, PC Nextday and Samsung laptops, which all weigh under 3kg. If it's every day then head straight for Samsung's 1.9kg Q45.

That's entertainment

Once you've identified the laptops that meet your basic requirements, you can concentrate on the features that add fun to the proceedings. All the models here are easily powerful enough to run Windows Vista and Microsoft Office, browse media-laden websites and play DVDs and even high-definition video files. However, if you want to play around with digital photos, make your own music or edit videos, you'll appreciate the faster performers. None of the laptops is a serious gaming machine, but two models make a fair stab at running demanding 3D games.

The Acer and Toshiba laptops' DVD writers can play HD DVD discs, which means you can watch high-definition movies on their 17in widescreen displays. Sadly, HD DVD is no longer supported, so we would be hesitant to start building a disc collection. However, you can still buy some films, and normal DVDs will work, so there's still planty of fun to be had while you wait for set-top Blu-ray players to become more affordable.

A 17in screen isn't just for movies, though. Photo slideshows will benefit just as much, and these screens' high resolutions are a big asset for creative software or for viewing multiple office documents at once.

Inner space

Finally, if you're planning on having lots of fun with your laptop, then go for one with a big hard disk, such as the PC Nextday's 320GB model or Acer's Aspire, which has twin 160GB disks. The finer things in computing life tend to gobble up disk space at an alarming rate.