The pencil-thin bezel around the 14-inch widescreen helps make the Gateway ID47H07u one of the most portable mainstream laptops around; it weighs only 4.4 pounds. It’s also well-equipped with everything from a USB 3.0 port to Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) technology for cloning the PC’s screen on an HDTV.

The ID47H07u flaunts a handsome aluminum alloy lid and keyboard deck, the latter setting off the metallic chiclet-style keys. You won’t find the backlit keyboard seen on our Editors’ Choice Dell Inspiron 14z (Core i5), but you’ll appreciate the smooth, precise typing feel. A plus-size touchpad has integrated—rather than dedicated—mouse buttons. They work well enough, but the pad’s plastic surface puts up a little more friction or resistance than I’m used to.

The laptop’s 14-inch display offers the 1,366-by-768 resolution that’s familiar in this size and price class; it’s not dazzlingly bright but delivers crisp text and vivid colors.

The optical drive on the ID47H07u’s right side is a dual-layer DVD burner, not the Blu-ray drive found in the pricier $780 Sony VAIO VPC-EG27FM/W or $870 Toshiba Satellite P745-S4320. In addition to the Wi twins (WiFi and WiDi), the ID47H07u offers Bluetooth, but not the Wi triplet WiM AX— as seen in the Toshiba P745-S4320, Sony VPC-EG27FM/W, and Asus U46E-BAL5— or other mobile broadband.

The ID47H07u’s times in our Handbrake video encoding (1 minute 50 seconds) and Adobe Photoshop image-editing (4:01) tests were each precisely one second slower than the Sony EG27FM/W, but it beat the Sony by a hundredth of a point with a Cinebench score of 2.70. Like its fellows, the ID47H07u will leave avid gamers searching for systems with something other than Intel integrated graphics.

At 7 hours 32 minutes, our ID47H07u fell short of the magic eight-hour mark but still showed impressive unplugged life for a compact laptop without a bulky battery pack.

Unless WiMAX is a must for you, the Gateway ID47H07u offers a ton of features in a handsome, highly portable chassis for a pleasingly low price. Its bid to topple the Dell Inspiron 14z (Core i5) for Editors’ Choice honors is thwarted only by its touchpad, plus Dell’s backlit keyboard and removable battery.

These days, when people think laptops and notebooks, they want something they can literally put on their laps without causing any actual stress on their thigh bones. But of course there also exist users who are much more particular about the performance of their machine. When we talk about performance however, it usually isn’t about having multiple spreadsheets open at the same time, but rather, the ability of that machine to play games. Traveling gamer, introducing your new best friend, the 17.3-inch Toshiba Qosmio X770.

By relying on its high-end discrete graphics card, the Nvidia GTX560M, of course. 3DMark06 benchmark scores were a stunning 16,153 3DMarks. And if you’re wondering why it comes with a pair of Nvidia 3D glasses, that’s because the Qosmio X770 has stereoscopic 3D capabilities (even the webcam is 3D). Your favorite games that only come with 2D flavors will also be converted into 3D by the display card, and the same technique is applied to movies as well.

Now that you’ve got the visuals covered, how about sound? No problem, say the Harmon / Kardon speakers with built-in subwoofer. These speakers allow the machine to be loud and clear enough that you don’t need extra speakers to enjoy gaming or movies.

The downside is that having such a powerful graphics card, a big screen and powerful speakers, is that the X770 must be near a power socket most of the time. So gaming and movies off the grid is not a very wise choice, as it can only stay wall-free for about 82 minutes.

The question then, is it really worth spending $3,799 on the Qosmio X770? Seeing that this is easily one of our top performers in terms of specifications and performance, it would be too easy to say yes. Except the Qosmio X770 isn’t the holy grail of mobile gaming, because there are alternatives on the market that give you more performance for less money. And as the Grail Knight told Indy in the Last Crusade, “you must choose, but choose wisely”.

This 13in screen Vaio Is very much the money-no-object suggestion in our round up of portables to which you might consider treating yourself this Yule, Far from a run-of-the-mill model, the Z is thinner and tighter than a MacBook Air. It’s also the first laptop to have its own dedicated multimedia dock that contains a dedicated graphics card. DVD drive and LightPeak optical connector. The Sony’s carbon-fiber frame is both incredibly strong and very light – a fact helped by the inclusion of a 256GB solid-state disk (SSD) rather than a plain old hard disk.

The laptop is powered by a Core i7 processor, paired with 4GB of RAM, Ergonomics and typing comfort are marginally compromised, but the Vaio bristles with ports and connectors. It also has a webcam and Skype support, plus a fingerprint reader to control access.

If you’re after an inexpensive laptop and are more interested in performance than a fancy name, the Packard Bell EasyNote TS1IHR039 is well worth a look. It ran away with the crown in our most recent group test of budget laptops, outshining every other contender in terms of speed. It achieves this by packing in an Intel Core i5 processor; although this is twinned with a modest 3GB of RAM, music and video plays well, although gaming isn’t great. Connections include 802.l1b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HDMI and a trio of USB 2.0 ports. There’s a dual-layer DVD-R/RW drive and a media-card slot that takes Memory Stick and xD-Picture Cards as well as the more common SO Card format. Slight compromises in the form of integrated Intel graphics and a 500GB hard drive are our sole criticisms of this excellent and very well-priced I5.6in-screen laptop.

Toshiba’s Satellite L755D is the only laptop here powered by one of AMD’s Llano processors. In some respects, the Toshiba lags behind the Intel-powered opposition. A result of 0.45 in our Real World Benchmarks is a little off the pace, and battery life leaves the Toshiba bringing up the rear.

When it comes to gaming, however, AMD’s Llano takes on models with dedicated graphics. It wasn’t until we pushed up our Crysis test to Medium detail that the Toshiba slowed to an average of 25fps. It’s mightily impressive.

Elsewhere, the Toshiba puts in a solid effort. The keyboard and touchpad throw up no nasty surprises, and the display delivers lively colour reproduction. Connectivity is good, too, although USB 3 is entirely absent.

It isn’t perfect, but those looking for good gaming ability on the cheap won’t be disappointed.

The Toshiba Portege Z835-P330 is the newest member of the Portege line, and it’s Toshiba’s first ultrabook. Available exclusively through Best Buy, the Portege Z835-P330 is currently the cheapest of the new slim-laptop category of ultrabooks, selling for just under $800. It also has a featherweight chassis, an unusually full feature set, and a long-lasting battery that will take you through an entire workday. Whether or not those highlights are enough to make you overlook its middling performance and mediocre graphics capability is up to you.

The Z835-P330’s solid feel is especially surprising given its size (0.6 by 12.4 by 8.9 inches, HWD) and weight—just 2.4 pounds.

The Z835-P330 sports a 13.3-inch widescreen display, with 1,366-by-768 resolution. The screen is backlit (400 nits) for visibility in environments with lots of ambient light. It also offers fairly wide viewing angles, providing clear visibility for yourself and anyone else you want to share the screen with.

There’s very little room for air flow in this slim chassis, and during testing, the Toshiba got very hot—up to 102-degrees Fahrenheit on the keyboard and 110-degrees on the underside. Granted, our testing process may push the components a bit harder than the average user would, but you still might want to watch out for a possible case of toasted leg syndrome.

The Z835-P330 has a 128GB solid-state dive (SSD), which is large enough to accommodate the operating system, a healthy number of programs, and a modest selection of media.

The Z835-P330 is equipped with a low-voltage dual-core Intel Core i3-2367M processor paired with 4GB of RAM. It’s a significant step up from the AMD and Intel Atom CPUs found in traditional netbooks, but it’s not as powerful as the Core i5s that have appeared in the Macbook Air 13-inch, the Asus UX31, or the Acer S3. The battery lasted 7 hours 35 minutes in our tests—a full hour longer than the 6:32 offered by the Asus UX31 (with a 50Wh battery), and an additional 2 hours longer than either the MacBook Air or Acer S3.

The Toshiba Portege Z835-P330 may not be the best ultrabook on the market, but it does stand out due to its light weight, exceptional feature set, and category-leading battery life. The Editors’ Choice Asus Zenbook UX31 still reigns supreme among ultrabooks because of its solid construction, stellar audio, and better performance, but it’s $300 more. If you favor portability over performance, the Z835-P330 is a solid choice.

Lenovo’s staggeringly powerful and well-equipped B570 easily asserts itself as one of the best laptops in this group test.

The plain black chassis design puts function firmly before form. The tough, ridged plastics easily withstand scuffs and scratches and the firm lid capably protects the screen from damage.

Although this is not the heaviest laptop we’ve seen, at 2.4kg it’s also not ideal for regularly working on the move. The 157-minute battery life is average and can keep you working on short journeys, but falls far short of the four-hour mobility of the compact Alienware in this group test.

Lenovo’s ThinkPad laptops are known for their fantastic keyboards and some of this quality has trickled down to its budget range. The B570’s excellent, isolated-style keyboard’s well-spaced buttons move smoothly, quietly and accurately at all times. Even speed typing is a pleasure.

The huge touchpad and mouse buttons are just as pleasing to use and the pad’s textured finish makes it easy to find when typing. The wide design perfectly suits the screen’s dimensions and enables you to scroll from one side of the screen to the other without removing your finger from the touchpad.

The screen is gorgeous and renders photos and videos beautifully. While the glossy Super-TFT coating is very reflective and not suitable for outdoor use, it delivers strong color reproduction, sharp contrast and strikingly detailed images.

Toshiba’s Satellite Pro range is designed for business use, but solid build quality, strong usability and decent specifications make the C660-1UX suitable for home use. Its sturdy plastic chassis has all the resilience you’d expect from a business machine. The textured, matt finish feels great and protects well against scuffs and scratches. Build quality is impressive throughout, with no flex in evidence on any of the panels. Even the thick screen is well put together and sure to withstand frequent family use.

The keyboard is fixed well to the chassis and there’s almost no sign of flex when typing. The keys respond accurately, although e a long range of motion can cause occasional errors when typing at speed. However, by striking the keys firmly, it’s easy to avoid such problems.

The touchpad is small and narrow, making it awkward to navigate onscreen at times. It is far wider than it is deep, so it takes a few swipes to get from one side of the screen to the other. In contrast, the mouse buttons are huge but arc recessed too far, so they too can be awkward to operate.

At 2.5kg this is not a laptop built for travel use, but it is light enough to be carried occasionally without too much discomfort. While the 159-minute battery life is average, it betters the Advent, Lenovo and Samsung in this group.

The X53E is a seriously smart laptop. Brushed metal surrounds the keyboard with a striking red finish, and even the red lid looks the part. The Core i3 CPU is sufficient, and the 640GB hard disk provides ample storage.

It gets off to a great start: build quality is good and sturdy, and the display delivers ample brightness. This, however, is tempered by ergonomic issues. A slight bounce in the keyboard’s base and an irritating half-length Shift key drag it down, and the Altec Lansing speakers ate among the worst on test. Good looks simply aren’t enough to mask these flaws.

You wouldn’t know to look at it, bill Dell’s diminutive Latitude E6220 is this month’s second-priciest machine. It will set you back £1,751, only £50 less than Sony’s VAIO Z.

It lacks the looks and lightness of the Sony, but the Dell gets straight down to business. The build quality is superb, with no give at all in the base or lid and the no-nonsense keyboard eschews Scrabble riles for solid keys that are comfortable to type on.

The Dell has integrated 3G and dual-band 802.1 In Wi-Fi; there’s a fingerprint reader alongside the two responsive track pad buttons; and you get a generous three-year, next-business-day warranty. The only compromises arc the lack of an optical drive and USB 3 ports.

The 12.5in 1,366 x 768 screen is matte, and image quality is reasonable, with accurate colors. It isn’t the most eye-catching panel thanks to low measured contrast and brightness figures of 207:1 and 220cd7nr, but for documents and web browsing its fine. Far better are the integrated speakers, filled with top-end detail and booming with the bass of a larger laptop. They’re the best here.

It’s all underpinned by line internals. With Intel’s 2.5GHz Core i7-2620M and 4GB of RAM, the Dell sauntered through our benchmarks to a score of 0.67, and there’s a 320GB hard disk. Intel’s integrated graphics were reasonable; too, managing 3.Sfps in our Low quality Grysis test. It’s impressive all-round power for such a small laptop.

Dell’s XPS logo has adorned sonic fine laptops over the years, and its XPS 15 is no exception. Visually, it isn’t the most stunning addition to the range. A sea of silver and grey stretches around its portly, thick-set curves, and a huge nine-cell hatter; juts out of the underside, propping up the laptop’s rear.

Instead, the XPS 15 has it where it counts. The hacklit keyboard feels great to type on and the wide-gamut display pampers your eyes with a Full HD resolution and eye-popping visuals. If anything, it’s too vibrant; the wide gamut panel regularly veers into oversaw ration.

Pop a Blu-ray movie into the XPS I5՝s drive and any qualms about its colour reproduction rapidly evaporate. The sheer detail and depth of the images on offer are something to behold, and the JBL-branded speakers make their mark. Using Waves’ Man Audio technology – a cut-down version of the Waves sound-enhancing tools more often found in music studios – music and movies sound lull and clear, leaching startling: volumes for mere laptop speakers.

Acer describes its Aspire Ethos range as designed for “discriminating” users – and with a quad-tore Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM and a Blu-ray drive as standard

Part of the Acer’s considerable weight is due to the battery. It’s a sealed unit that Acer claims will manage three times as many recharge cycles as a conventional battery. It lasts a fair while in day-to-day use, too: in our light-use test, it powered the Acer to a table-topping 7hrs 46mins, Thai stamina is matched by performance. A benchmark score of 0.83 puts the Acer at the front of the pack, and the GeForce GT SSSM graphics chip earns it third place – 44fps. But the Acer’s real party trick is its removable touchpad. A latch along the front edge releases it.

Dab a button on the touchpad and playback controls glow into view, alongside buttons for Acer’s Clear.fi media-center software.

It’s a nifty idea, but the concept isn’t quite matched by the execution: whether docked or handheld, the laggy cursor control is aggravating, and the button below is stiff. It’s a shame, since the keyboard is pleasant to use, with a trouble-free layout and responsive keys.

Despite blinding performance and a great specification, the Acer is too uneven. It has innovations, but they’re not implemented well enough to truly appeal.

Easily the most gorgeous machine on test, with a curved chassis that weighs in at just 1.3kg and measures just 19mm at its thickest. The Series 9 is made of the same material – duralumin – used in tighter jets, but while the frame is impressively strong, the lid bends far too easily for our liking. However, despite frantic twisting, the 13.3-inch screen remained stoically in one piece and delivered bright. 1366×768 HD playback.

A Sandy Bridge Intel Core i5 processor provides the grunt and performance is top-notch, multitasking like a dream and browsing the web in double-quick time. As with the MacBook Air there’s no dedicated graphics, so you’re confined to playing older games -Theme Park Incis a classic – and running only the most basic of editing software. You can still enjoy hi-def films though, and they play smoothly enough.

There’s no space in the slender chassis for a DVD drive and the built-in solid state drive provides just 128GB of storage – again. MacBook Air owners will find this a familiar situation. That space will fill up quickly if you carry around a sizeable movie collection.

However, it does provide fast access to your data and. with no moving parts, is less susceptible to damage caused by movement than a standard hard drive. The keyboard is backlit, but the keys are slightly too shallow and not the most comfortable to type on.

The battery lasted long enough for us to watch Apocalypse Now, but not long enough for the Redux version. You can browse the web for a perfectly reasonable amount of time. The Series 9 is an excellent ultra-portable that will draw admiring glances. If pushed to choose, we’d pick the MacBook Air over this, but for slim line looks it’s by far the closest Windows 7 rival.

The Asus U36J is built for travel slender and light enough to slip into your carry-on, but tough enough to survive a battering from airport baggage handlers and regular forays on to public transport.

The bright and vibrant 13.3-inch display is easy to view from most angles, meaning more than one person can watch movies on the 1366×768 pixel WXGA screen, should you choose to allow them. There’s no built-in DVD drive, so you’ll have to load up the 500GB hard drive with flicks before you set off. The basic integrated graphics struggle with HD video, so you’re stuck with standard-def movies.

The U36J easily handles anything less taxing than gaming and HD video. With a 2.53GHz Intel Core i5 processor on board, apps start up immediately and you can multitask to your heart’s content, while the 4GB of onboard memory keeps everything nice n’ smooth.

The keyboard is shallow but firmly constructed and the touchpad is easy to use with a smooth and generously-sized surface and two mouse buttons.

A full range of connections round off a very competent, nicely designed, if graphically underpowered notebook. Oh, and finally, there’s also a fingerprint scanner. Does anyone in the world actually consider that a useful feature or assume it makes their laptop super-secure? Maybe not, but it’ll appeal to your inner James Bond.

The Lenovo G770 packs fantastic power and good graphical performance into a solid big-screen laptop which is great for the home. We’d recommend it to anyone looking for a desktop replacement, but movie buffs will be disappointed about the lack of a 1080p screen.

The first think that strikes yon when opening the G770 is the fantastic build quality. There’s an expanse of brushed metal, in which sits a generous isolation-style keyboard with well-cushioned keys. It took us a while to get used to the travel between the keys, but it was comfortable to use for long periods.

Under the hood is a generous amount of power, and enough for anyone who’s looking for a few years of good use. The processor is a Sandy Bridge Intel Core 17 2620M 2.7GHz, which is the same found in the MacBook Pro, which costs £1000 more. Elsewhere, the AMD Radeon HD 6650M is nearly identical to the MacBook Pro, and there’s more RAM with 6GB packed in. This simply shows that the Lenovo is able to handle anything that’s thrown at it for a few years to come. Editing photos using Photoshop, creating home videos, and dealing with demanding video content are all easily within the G770s capabilities.

If you crave a MacBook Air for the design, but don’t want to stop using Windows and your favorite programs, then the Samsung 900X3A (£1100 inc. VAT) is the best alternative you can find. The 9 Series is only 12mm thick at its widest point and the brushed-metal exterior gives the build quality a premium look.

The quality extends to the specifications with a Sand} bridge processor capable of handling demands as well as its Apple rival. In short, if you need a stylish ultra-thin Windows machine for travelling, this is as good as they come.

Anyone moving with a device needs it to fit easily in a backpack or briefcase, and the 900X3A takes up such little spare; you’ll barely notice it’s there. The only bulky thing about this laptop is its charger – and even that comes apart to make it easier to pack.

The connectivity ports, which usually require extra space, are built into the curved chassis and can be flipped down with a fingernail when required. Due to the design of the laptop, there’s no optical drive. We’re not too fussed though, because optical storage is a lot less important than it was five years ago.

Due to the design, the depth on the keyboard keys is non-existent and they feel very light when typing. The isolation-style on the 9 Series is our preferred style of keyboard for long typing sessions and the included backlighting is another example of premium build quality.

Toshiba has a good record when it comes to laptops you can peak into a hag and take away with yon. The high-end Portege range has been finding favor with business users for a while now. But Toshiba is offering a more affordable alternative with the 13.3-inch Satellite LV30-10V (£479 inc. VAT). Although the Satellite would serve as a good travelling companion, there are some underlying issues which prevent it being a great laptop.

The smaller size and 13.3-inch screen instant make this laptop more favorable to carrying around than a 15.6-inch or 17-inch machine. The chassis itself is a little on the pudgy side, particularly as Toshiba hat! the good sense to include an optical drive. The added weight also serves to reinforce the body and when we started jabbing around the keyboard and speakers, we only found a minimum of flex.

The screen is sharp and you get plenty of light out of it when you put the brightness up to maximum. It has a Super-TFT coating, so movies and pictures will all look good, although you’ll have to contend with the reflections in bright light.

The latest release from Dell-owned Alienware, the M18X (£1699 inc. VAT), is a behemoth with enough power to run any game under the sun without as much as a flicker. But you’ll have to have deep pockets to get your hands on one.

Even getting the M18X out of the box is a challenge, thanks to its 438 x 311 x 52mm dimensions and a backbreaking weight of 5.7kg. This machine was designed to dominate your desk. As expected, it sticks to the Alienware design, which we love, but probably won’t be to everyone’s taste. The entire machine is a slab of moulded rubber and brushed metal, and that ever-present Tron-style neon backlight.

Unsurprisingly, the focus of the Alienware is gaming. Our review sample came with an AMD Radeon HD 6900M and scored a mind-blowing 19,056 during our intensive gaming benchmark test. While the sheet power of the machine keeps games running perfectly, it is the 18.4-inch screen that made playing on the M18X a truly immersive experience.

The Super-TFT screen is like a window into your games. It’s extremely bright and the 1920 x 1080-pixel resolution keeps the most complex graphics razor sharp. But it’s the sheer size that is the winner here and you really notice the difference between this and a standard 15.6-inch machine.

This mainstream laptop has a boatload of features, sports a thin, attractive chassis, and breezes through any task. The eight hours of battery life only add to the allure. Aside from some minor annoyances—the stiff-clicking mouse and irksome port covers—it should be at the top of your list of laptops to consider and is our new Editors’ Choice for mainstream laptops.

Like other 14-inch laptops, the 14z (Core i5) integrates a DVD burner, yet kept its dimensions as svelte as those of the Asus U46E-BAL5 and Gateway ID47H02U. It’s the only one that omitted a VGA port—a forward-thinking move—and instead opted to have both HDMI and mini-DisplayPort technologies. Both connectors can transmit digital audio and video to an external display.

The 14z (Core i5) is a lot speedier than the original Dell 14z in terms of CPU architecture. Gigahertz rating and wattage. It tackled Handbrake (1:58) and Cinebench R11.5 (2.56) as ferociously as the Asus U46E-BAL5 and Samsung QX411.

When you look at the key components of a mainstream laptop, the Dell Inspiron 14z (Core i5) excels at every single one of them. All this earns this mainstream laptop our Editors’ Choice nod.

TOSHIBA docs a wide range of Satellite laptops from no-frills budget models to high-powered multimedia machines. The Satellite C670D-108 (£349 inc. VAT) is one of its entry-level models, a machine that provides basic home entertainment.

Featuring a large 17.3֊inch display this is the biggest laptop in the group test. That extra bulk means it’s heavier and more cumbersome to carry around, but the C670D wasn’t designed to be lugged about every day. This is a desktop replacement machine, which is best led at home and carried between rooms if needed. Despite this, the battery survived for almost two and a half hours when watching movies.

This is a good option if all you’re after is a home entertainment device for enjoying films, browsing die web and running basic software. We put our feel up and relaxed with some DVDs, which looked great on the glossy Super-TFT widescreen display. However, the Satellite comes crashing back to Earth when you try to run two or more tasks simultaneously. This is down the budget AMD fusion processor, which scored die lowest in the group in our benchmarking tests. Browsing the web becomes a slow, clunky affair when you’re playing music or copying files at the same time.