If you find that the price is right and you are only planning on doing menial tasks, you could do a lot worse than the HP ProBook.
The K50AB is a typical mid-range laptop that looks good, but the in-built GPU-switching feature doesn't save on battery at all. We'd suggest looking elsewhere for your mid-range needs.
At first glance, the Vostro 1220 looks like an ultraportable notebook that was born from Dell's consumer range. But instead Dell has created its own little niche, targeting the more fashion-conscious business user on a budget.
The Booktop may be on the costly side, thanks to the bundled docking station, but it still falls below "premium" netbook costs. Plus the excellent battery life and ability to switch from a desk-bound PC to a portable mini-laptop captured our attention.
It lacks some basic features you may require — touch pad, optical drive — but the 12.1-inch ThinkPad X200 offers strong performance and the longest battery life we've seen.
Asus' Lamborghini VX5 is a luxury laptop, with a luxury price to match — thankfully justified by the quality of the laptop and package. If you've got a wad of cash burning in your pocket, and don't mind a little luxury, the VX5 might be for you.
The Extensa is a business laptop with no particular frills. That's not a bad thing per se, but it's tough to get too excited about it, either.
An easy-to-use netbook with a long battery life, but there are cheaper options.
Attempting to create a premium-priced version of a netbook, Sony has added an HD display to the Vaio W. It's an attractive step-up package, but the internal components are the same as are in cheaper models.
Dell's Mini 10v keeps a lot of the features of the more expensive Mini 10, while dropping the price to AU$549. It's one of only a handful of AU$600 netbooks that doesn't look and feel especially cheap.
Core i7 is here in mobile form. Some vendors will be attempting to rush these laptops out as close to the Windows 7 launch as possible. Keep an eye out — looks like the season to upgrade is well and truly upon us.
The NC10 betters previous Samsung netbooks with a built-in HSDPA SIM card reader and the portability this provides. Optus wireless broadband bundles seem like excellent value.
The Acer Aspire 5536 is a little light on battery, but it's a good all-rounder for anyone seeking an affordable laptop with a big screen and keyboard.
Swelling the ranks of 11.6-inch netbooks, the Asus Eee PC 1101HA impresses with its design and battery, but having to overclock a slower version of Intel's Atom CPU is a dodgy workaround.
The netbook market is so tight, you need some sort of competitive advantage to stand above the crowd. ViewSonic brings a standard netbook with two negatives instead — poor battery life and a bad touchpad.
The UX30 gets oh so close to what it strives to achieve, but small design choices like the stippled touchpad and port covers, and large issues like the low battery life prevent it from achieving greatness.
The MSI Wind12 U200 sits in that comfortable space between netbook and laptop — if you have modest needs, but still want a decent screen size and a bit more power than Intel's Atom offers, the U200 might be the laptop you're looking for.
With "Eco" and "Lite" in its name does that mean the U121 is a product with fewer features with a high price for the sake of being branded as environmentally friendly?
HP's biz-minded Mini 5101 is a successor to the Mini 2140 (one of our all-time favourite netbooks). It looks and feels great, but for a premium-price netbook, we expect to get more features, not fewer.
The T400s is the lightest 14-inch ThinkPad yet from Lenovo — just be ready to pay for the convenience.
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What do Telstra shareholders think of the telco's new CEO David Thodey? And would they support the government'… Watch it now
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