The good Sophisticated new design Plenty of configuration options Good battery life The bad Low-resolution display Options can quickly drive up price Small keyboard and touch pad With a slightly revamped design and a new Intel Atom CPU, Dell's popular Inspiron Mini 10 netbook continues to be a strong player in this crowded field, thanks in part to Dell's name-brand ubiquity, as well as to the company's capability to offer a reasonable level of configuration options.

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Dell Inspiron Mini 10 (Intel Atom N450)

The good Nvidia Ion graphics adds HD video and basic gaming functionality Reasonably priced High-def display The bad Annoying touch pad The netbook wars have heated up, with PC makers adding upscale features such as larger HD displays and faster low-voltage CPUs to systems in an effort to push prices up past the usual AU$599-$699 range. HP's Mini 311 packs in an 11.6-inch, 1366x768 screen, as well as Nvidia's Ion graphics chip, all at AU$899.

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HP Mini 311

The good Excellent keyboard and touch pad Compact body Bright display The bad No optical drive Limited configuration options Do looks matter in a budget business notebook? Budget laptops are necessary for the self-employed and those without lots of money to burn, but those same users might also be entrepreneurs who prefer affordable, nicely designed machines that do double-duty as personal laptops rather than boxy generic systems. Lenovo clearly felt the same way: the uptight ThinkPad image has been taken in a relatively bold new direction in the new Edge line.

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Lenovo ThinkPad Edge (13-inch)

The good Matte screen eliminates annoying reflections Long battery life The bad Cramped keyboard Relatively small hard drive Samsung, buoyed by the success of its first wave of netbooks, has wasted no time in releasing a second-generation device. The N150, rather excitingly, ditches the stalwart Intel Atom N270 CPU for a newer, faster, more efficient processor known as the Atom N450.

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Samsung N150

The good Amazingly powerful for a 15-inch laptop Highly configurable Adds 16:9 display The bad Configuration options can get expensive Far from portable Keeping the same look and feel as the recent 17-inch M17x version , the Alienware M15x is an imposing black slab of computing power that's thicker and heavier than most 17-inch laptops. We love having high-end options such as Intel's uber-powerful Core i7-920XM CPU, and it's a plus that Alienware has finally gotten on-board the 16:9 display bandwagon; but if you want serious gamer options such as dual video cards or two hard drives, you'll have to trade up the bigger 17-inch model. While it starts at a deceptively promising AU$2399, our review unit clocked in at AU$4113.90, which is a steep premium for a system with a single GPU and hard drive (not even a solid state one, at that)

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Alienware M15x

The good Slim for a powerhouse 15-inch laptop 1080p screen Solid construction. The bad No internal optical drive Some Blu-ray playback issues Very expensive Editor's note: while our review sample shipped with 6GB RAM, final retail models ship with either 4GB or 8GB in Australia. A big brother to HP's 13-inch Envy 13, this upscale 15-inch model crams more computing power into a mid-size laptop than anyone outside of Alienware's m15x

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HP Envy 15 (1015TX)

The good Instant boot Includes number pad on keyboard Good battery life The bad Cheap plastic finish Low screen resolution Cramped keyboard Design When closed, the Asus UL50Vt looks very impressive, with a brushed aluminium lid and a relatively subtle (for Asus) logo embedded in it. It's an illusion that's a little shattered when you open it up and realise that the rest of the bodywork is a cheap glossy plastic

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Asus UL50Vt

The good Slimmer design Lighter chassis The bad Ugly, protruding battery pack No ExpressCard slot Lenovo's IdeaPad S10 netbook was one of the most popular budget mini-notebooks for good reasons: its business-friendly tools, ExpressCard slot and reasonable price all made it a great option for consumers or corporate users. When we last visited the S10 in May, the addition of a six-cell battery fixed our gripe about the short battery life of the previous version

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Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2

The good Bigger 11-inch, high-resolution screen Overclockable CPU Great battery life The bad Slightly slower and more expensive than standard netbooks Asus is perhaps best known for virtually creating the netbook phenomenon with its line of inexpensive Eee PCs.

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Asus Eee PC 1101HA Seashell

The good Svelte and light Multi-touch touchpad Nice screen The bad 32-bit Vista Business can't see the full 4GB RAM Stippled touchpad isn't pleasant to use Battery life isn't great Covers over ports are inconvenient Design and features Asus' slim, 13-inch laptop does quite a few things right. The brushed aluminium lid is stylish, and the edge to edge, 1366x768 screen is great. It's slim, it's reasonably lightweight, and yet it still manages to pack in three USB ports, a headphone out jack, gigabit Ethernet, SD/MMC card reader, HDMI out and through a mini-adapter, VGA out.

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Asus UX30