The Panasonic Toughbook CF-52 is a semi-ruggedised desktop replacement for use in the field. Its keyboard is splash resistant and it has a solid outer shell with a built-in carrying handle. Plus, the laptop should survive a 76cm drop, if you happen to knock it off your desk

Panasonic's Toughbook range covers a spectrum of toughness, from military-grade fully ruggedised laptops to drop- and spill-resistant business ruggedised systems. In the middle sit a number of semi-ruggedised laptops, including the wide-screened CF-52, available for around £1,350.

Design Despite its 'semi-ruggedised' classification, the Toughbook CF-52 is a seriously solid-looking laptop. When closed it looks more like a slim briefcase than a portable computer, thanks to its hard outer shell and built-in carrying handle. » Read the rest of the entry..

Who'd have thought super-small, super-cheap laptops would be the hottest property in the world of computing? Asus certainly did and its success with the Eee PC has led to other manufacturers competing for a slice of its pie.

MSI -- peddlers of graphics cards, motherboards and the occasional overclockable laptop -- is the latest to try its hand in this area. Its effort, dubbed the MSI Wind, isn't just here to make up the numbers. It's stylish, has a strong enough specification to give its rivals a scare and is cheap -- just £320 from online retailers.

Design The Wind is very pretty. MSI will sell it in a variety of colours, but we're very happy with the white review sample we were sent. It's the sort of thing the Sex and The City characters would love to show off in a trendy NY coffee shop. The curved corners and pearlescent white finish give it a very contemporary look and although the MSI logo on the lid might spoil it for Carrie and company, the rest of us will adore it. » Read the rest of the entry..

Dell has bided its time before entering the Tablet PC arena, producing its Latitude XT. The result is impressive to look at and is a very usable PC, thanks to its excellent dual-mode touchscreen and keyboard. As usual with Dell products, it has loads of customisation options, too.

Dell, characteristically, has bided its time before entering the Tablet PC arena. Tablet PCs have been around for several years, but have struggled to become mainstream despite support from top-tier manufacturers such as HP and Fujitsu Siemens.

Dell has been circumspect about the format, but saw the building of Tablet PC functionality into Windows Vista and Intel's low-power Santa Rosa platform as key features in prompting entry to the market. The result is the Latitude XT, available for around £1,129. » Read the rest of the entry..

Centrino is dead -- it's official. But don't worry. On 14 July, Intel will launch Centrino 2 -- codenamed 'Montevina' -- to stave off competition from AMD, and to cement its place as the world's number one choice for laptops.

But before we go any further, we can't help but wonder -- what's with the name? Until now, all the updates to the original Centrino brand weren't deemed worthy of a new public-facing name. Instead, they were given internal codenames: 'Carmel' (2003), 'Sonoma' (2005), 'Napa' (2006) and 'Santa Rosa', all of which were different, but still sold to the public as merely Centrino. » Read the rest of the entry..

Sitting beween the budget Inspiron and high-end XPS, Dell's new Studio line is personified by the Dell Studio 15. This desktop replacement is a colourful and customisable option for those looking for a good mix of features and reasonable performance without paying the Earth.

Parsing the intended markets for Dell's ever-shifting in-house brand names requires some tea-leaf reading. It's been easier lately, with the company stripping down its consumer brands to just the Inspiron and XPS lines.

Now the company is adding a new line between the budget Inspiron and the high-end XPS. The new Studio line, as personified by the 15.4-inch Studio 15, has the same tapered shape, slot-loading optical drive and rounded hinge as the Dell XPS M1530, but a similarly configured Studio system costs roughly £350 less than a similarly outfitted XPS.

The base model of the Studio 15 costs around £479. We've reviewed a model that includes an upgraded CPU, which costs around £540 from Dell. All prices were correct at the time of writing. » Read the rest of the entry..

Panasonic is the latest player to join the Mobile Internet Device (MID) market with something that looks like a giant PDA.

The ToughBook CF-U1, as it is to be known, is a handheld unit with a 5.6-inch, 1,024x600-pixel touchscreen. Below that, there's a full Qwerty keyboard, which looks like it will be difficult to type on while holding the device in your hands.

The face is littered with shortcut buttons and status LEDs, the most important of which are the zoom buttons -- given how high the screen resolution is compared to the size of the screen, we think you'll be getting plenty of use from these. » Read the rest of the entry..

The Samsung R410 desktop replacement could be an excellent choice for anyone on a budget looking for a second laptop or even a student with shallow pockets. Kitted out with a good core specification that rivals more expensive machines, the R410 is great value for money.

The Samsung R410 -- not to be confused with the r410 mobile phone -- is a budget all-round laptop with a 14.1-inch display. It's the smallest in Samsung's R series, so in theory, it's ideal for anyone that wants solid performance in a chassis that doesn't weigh the Earth. More importantly, however, it's dirt cheap at around £499. Let's see what you get for your dough.

Design The R410 is very ordinary in its design. We've lost count of the number of times we've seen laptops with glossy black lids and matte black interiors -- particularly from Samsung -- so forgive us if we yawn momentarily. As with all laptops with this sort of design, the lid is prone to collecting smudges, so unless you're willing to carry the bundled felt cloth everywhere you go, it'll be permanently dirty. » Read the rest of the entry..

It certainly is hard to keep a secret in this industry. After leaks, leaks and more leaks, Dell has officially announced the new Studio line of laptops, sitting somewhere between the budget Inspiron line and high-end XPS line.

The two new models are the Studio 15 and Studio 17, which as you might expect, have 15- and 17-inch screens. They have a tapered design and large side hinge that's similar to the XPS M1530, although the Studio models curve the screen down at a sharper angle, while the XPS has a more rounded look (see pic below). » Read the rest of the entry..

Everybody knows Apple laptops are pricey. You know it, Crave knows it, Steve Jobs knows it. We also have a fair idea that its PC-selling counterpart, Dell, is relatively cheap. But have you ever stopped to examine just how much more you pay for Apple upgrades than you do for Dell? We have.

Having trawled the online configurator tools of both laptop makers, we've detailed just how much Apple takes the biscuit with its pricing. Base configurations look pretty similar on the surface, but when you start upgrading with faster internal components, Apple charges through the nose. » Read the rest of the entry..

While everyone and his dog is releasing tiny laptops, Samsung is still pouring its heart into mid-sized machines. One such device is the R410, which we first had a look at back in May at Samsung's Korean headquarters.

Back then, we said it was an "absolute steal", thanks to its £499 price tag and generous specification. Today, little's changed apart from a slight design tweak. It still packs a 14.1-inch screen, a 1.83GHz CPU, 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, a DVD rewriter, a 1.3-megapixel webcam and Vista Home Premium. » Read the rest of the entry..