Lab

£650 laptops

Although prices of laptops have dropped considerably in the past few years, you could be forgiven for thinking that a modest budget will get you only a modest laptop.

This month's Labs shows that this doesn't have to be the case. We've gathered together six of the latest laptops, none of which costs more than £656 including VAT. Our round-up includes models equipped with Intel's latest Core 2 Duo processors, large hard disks, long-lasting batteries and plenty of RAM. There's even a lightweight ultra-portable and a couple of laptops that are powerful enough to play 3D games.

All of these options might sound complicated and make the prospect of choosing the right laptop a little daunting. Fortunately, our comprehensive reviews and straightforward advice will help you buy a laptop to suit your needs.

There are numerous specifications and factors to consider when choosing a £650 laptop, some of which will be more important than others depending on your needs. Our buying guide highlights the most important ones you should think about before parting with your hard-earned cash.

Key issues

Since you can't replace a laptop's keyboard and touch pad, it's important to choose one with good input devices. Keyboards should have large and responsive keys that give just the right amount of feedback when pressed. Touch-pad buttons should also give a positive response when pressed, neither too soft nor too stiff. The touch pad itself should accurately translate your finger movements into onscreen movement.

Displays of affection

A laptop's display is another component you can't upgrade, so it's important to get a good one. Five of the six laptops in our group have 15.4in displays. Of these five, four have a resolution of 1,280x800 pixels, while the Inspiron 1525 has a resolution of 1,440x900 pixels, which gives you a larger desktop. As the name of PC Nextday's LogiQ 12.1" Blue Laptop suggests, it has a smaller 12.1in screen. It has the same 1,280x800 pixel resolution as most of the larger 15.4in laptops, so it can display the same amount of information. Text, however, will appear smaller and could be harder to read.

All six laptops have displays with glossy finishes, so images and video look brighter, with better contrast. However, glossy finishes also reflect light from overhead sources, which can make them hard to see under bright lights or sunlight.

We've cast a critical eye over each laptop's display. Our individual reviews note which screens are pleasing to the eye and which make a hash of images.

Heavy lifting

A laptop's weight and battery life aren't serious concerns if your laptop will spend most of its time at home, but they are important if you plan to travel with it. All five of the 15.4in laptops in the group weigh between 2.7kg and 3kg, which can strain your shoulders if you frequently need to carry your laptop, accessories and other items around with you. PCNextday's LogiQ is much lighter at 1.9kg.

We'd expect a £650 laptop to last at least two-and-a-half hours in our battery test. Only three of the six laptops here managed to meet and exceed this milestone. Dell's Inspiron 1525 lasted nearly four hours, while at the other extreme PC Nextday's LogiQ didn't even last an hour and a half.

Power to the people

All six of the laptops here have 2GB of RAM, which is plenty for running Windows and several programs simultaneously. Five of the six laptops in our group have Intel Core 2 Duo processors, and Dell's Inspiron, Eclipse's Zeus, Hi-Grade's Notino and PC Nextday's LogiQ have one of Intel's latest T8000 or T9000-series Core 2 Duo processors. These were all noticeably faster than the older T7000-series Core 2 Duo processor in Asus's F3SG-AP015C.

The only laptop in our group with an AMD processor is MSI's GX610. Its Turion 64 X2 TL-60 is more than fast enough for everyday tasks such as office work and web browsing, but it isn't as fast as the Core 2 Duo-equipped laptops in more demanding tasks.

The six laptops in the Labs are evenly divided between those that have integrated graphics and those with dedicated graphics chips. Integrated graphics chips share system memory, leaving less for running Windows and your applications. They're no good for running the latest 3D games, but should be able to play older titles. Dedicated graphics chips have their own memory and are more powerful than integrated chips, so are better suited to playing 3D games.

Vault of ages

A large hard disk is essential for storing any sizable collection of photos, videos and music, especially since fitting a new hard disk in a laptop is trickier than on a desktop PC. Storage space is less important if your files will mainly consist of emails and office documents. Two of the laptops in our group have 160GB hard disks, while two have 250GB disks. PC Nextday's LogiQ has an especially large 320GB disk, while Hi-Grade's Notino has only 120GB of storage.

Networking sans frontiéres

Three of the laptops in the group have built-in Bluetooth. This wireless technology is useful for connecting to mobile phones, so you can use an internet connection when travelling or synchronise contact details and files. Bluetooth can easily be added to a laptop that doesn't have it using a USB Bluetooth adaptor, which costs as little as £5 from www.play.com.

As expected, all the laptops here shave integrated wireless networking. Only Dell's Inspiron and Asus' F3SG-AP015C have built-in support for Draft 802.11n. You'll only benefit from the extra speed and range of Draft 802.11n if you also have a Draft-N router and you regularly transfer large files over your local network. It's unlikely to make any difference to the speed of your internet connection, though. If your laptop doesn't have Draft 802.11n, an ExpressCard adaptor costs around £35 online.