With a strong focus on family use, entertainment and media management, the HP Pavilion M9190a is a good choice for homes with plenty of digital media. The combination of its Blu-ray/HD-DVD player with LightScribe DVD functionality, 15-in-1 media card reader, TV-tuner and its easy to use Media Drives make this PC very handy to have for the media-oriented household.
Named after a Japanese sword, the "Kodachi", Lenovo's new ThinkPad X300 is indeed both slim and sharp, and offers some of the latest in notebook technology with one of the smallest chassis available on the market. It's not fair to call it a competitor for the MacBook Air, but the X300 is a very attractive alternative if you're more concerned with function than you are with style.
Filling the mid-range gap
Despite its poorly chosen name (more on that later), the MSI GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB is a very nice card that will suit gamers looking for an affordable interim card with some punch. On this iteration of the 8800 GTS 512MB, the NX8800GTS-T2D512E-OC, MSI has chosen to overclock the core and shader frequencies for a little extra kick.
Acer's tiny Veriton L460 business PC is one of the best options for businesses with cramped working environments, or those looking for a PC with lower power consumption and will run quietly, too.
Ruggedised notebooks were once the domain of just a handful of specialised manufacturers, but recently they've become more popular. Today it's not uncommon for long-time manufacturers of business and consumer-style notebooks to produce toughened notebook models, as well as other devices and peripherals.
Fujitsu has released yet another ultraportable business notebook, this time it's the LifeBook P8010, a small, stylish ultraportable weighing just 1.35kg. Although it launched together with the tiny Fujitsu LifeBook U1010 (see the video review here), it's a slightly larger product that competes with notebooks like the Toshiba Portege R500 and to a lesser extent the MacBook Air.
Design and hardware-wise the Sony VAIO VGC-M18G is a stone's throw from the Sony VAIO VGO-LA38G, but there are a few significant differences. Although it aims to be a desktop PC, the VAIO LM18G hints at its notebooks roots, making for a stylish and functional PC with a unique form-factor named the "Panel PC".
The Lenovo ThinkCentre M57 (6072-ADM) uses Lenovo's standard form factor chassis, and dons the tried and tested black and red colour scheme. It isn't a great performer, but it does offer some extra connectivity, such as e-SATA, making it a good choice for users with large local backup needs.
Maxtor's OneTouch 4 Mini is a simple device that's made quite useful with some basic but helpful software. This small, dare we say, funky looking portable hard drive is a great option and a must have for regular users of multiple PCs or those wishing to share their data wealth with friends and colleagues. The OneTouch name comes from a single button on the enclosure, which instantly performs a task you've allocated, such as a backup or synchronisation, but more on that later.
Trend Micro's latest security and antivirus release, Internet Security Pro 2008, offers a clean interface that's simple to navigate and fairly straightforward to set up.
Larger than the Acer Veriton 1000, but smaller than the Lenovo ThinkCentre A61e, HP's new small business, small form factor PC does a good job of mixing form with function.
The HP Pavilion Elite m9090a PC is the second PC we've tested that includes a combination HD-DVD and Blu-ray drive, allowing users to play movies from either format.
Lenovo's A61e is not only the smallest form factor we've seen from the ThinkCentre range, but it's also the greenest product available from Lenovo. Built on AMD's 45Watt Athlon 64 X2 BE 2350 CPU, the Lenovo A61e is designed for low power and noise. Although we are unable to determine how energy efficient it really is, it is certainly quiet and takes up very little working space on the desk.
USB hubs are not exactly life changing technology. Their sole aim, generally, is to create more USB ports, and that's about it. However, Belkin has managed to take an otherwise plain and simple product and make it more interesting and useful. Surely when you gaze up at the bland, piano black image you balk at the idea that this product can be useful, but pay attention.
