Power Laptops

We didn't want run-of-the-mill laptops for this group test. We wanted gun-toting, games-busting, ass-kicking monstrosities. We wanted laptops that would set your lap on fire they were that damn hot.

Then we realised that gun-toting, games-busting, ass-kicking monstrosities would set you back three grand, if not more, while fiery laps might sound good on paper but could land us in serious legal trouble when half the Custom PC readership lost its power to procreate. So we settled for games-busting as a minimum, reluctantly set a price limit of £1,500 and sat back to see what the manufacturers could rustle up.

Suffice to say, they did us proud. It may be no match for an overclocked Voodoo PC, but how does a 3GHz Pentium 4 processor, Radeon 9600 Pro graphics, 512MB of RAM and an 80GB hard disk sound? And all in a small, square box that you can sling into a bag.

With this much power inside, there's little these machines can't do. Take video encoding, that most demanding of tasks. All these laptops include FireWire ports ready and waiting to grab the data from a DV camcorder, and even the slowest laptop on test coped with our video compression benchmark better than expected. Add DVD writers, and six of the machines here can also create the end product to distribute to friends and family.

They're pretty skilled when it comes to games too, as most of the laptops managed to average 20fps in Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, at 1,280 x 1,024 with 2x anti-aliasing and 4x anisotropic filtering no less. We think most people will be satisfied with that. And if you think real life is in fact Half-Life, take a look at the Dell Inspiron 8600 - not only is it quick, it includes a TFT that makes games look damn good too.

So it's an impressive collection of laptops assembled before you, but we're not suggesting that everyone abandons their desktop PC. None of these machines feature upgradable graphics, their hard disks are no match for a desktop's, whether for speed or capacity, while the Meccano factor - being able to take a machine apart and put it back together again - is entirely lacking. But if you want a powerful computer that will draw envious looks from people on the train, and can even cope with LAN parties, then this group test holds the answer.

There are four main areas we were interested in when testing these laptops. First and foremost: speed in 2D tasks. Although most desktop PCs are now so quick at manipulating video, audio and photos that a few per cent here and there doesn't really matter, if you need to push your PC to its limit then you'll really notice the difference between these machines.

Naturally, we were interested in 3D gaming speed as well. Following our usual principle of using real world rather than synthetic benchmarks, we put these laptops to the test at 1,280 x 1,024 in Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. As with desktop PCs, we pushed anti-aliasing to 2x and anisotropic filtering to 4x. The Advent and Sony laptops, which use a TFT with a maximum resolution of 1,024 x 768, were tested with an external monitor plugged in and running at 1,280 x 1,024.

We assumed that most people will use these powerhouses plugged in to the mains most of the time rather than on the move, but there will be times when battery life matters - using the laptop on the train, in the garden or just on the sofa when you can't be bothered to take the power supply with you. To give you an idea of the absolute most you can expect, we set a timer running (writing to the hard disk every minute), shoved the backlight down to its lowest readable-yet-comfortable level and left it idling until the battery gave out.

Our last test was the most subjective - what these machines are actually like in general use. Does the screen smear when playing games? What's it like when watching a DVD? Are the speakers any good? Is the screen a joy to read when browsing the Web, or has the manufacturer opted for big numbers over usability and quality? Is the keyboard enjoyable to type on or a nightmare?

The 2D and 3D scores were combined to create the Speed rating you see at the bottom of each review. The Features rating takes into account battery life and our general usage tests, plus all the extras that each laptop includes, such as hard disk capacity, the size of the TFT and the number of ports. The Value score gives you an idea of how much bang per buck is in each machine. And, as always, the Overall score is a total of the three other scores.