digital

Buyer's guide to computing

Powered by T3

Computing news:

Just back from holiday and want to edit your camcorder footage into the longest, most drug-addled epic since Apocalypse Now? Sony's Vaio VGC-RM1N is for you.
Designed for video editing, it comes with a jog controller, so cutting to the precise moment you surfed onto the beach, pursued by helicopter gunships, is a cinch. Throw in ten USB ports and two i-LINKs and a terabyte of storage and you’re pretty much sorted. It's £2,500, screen not included. Buy it here.

 TOP TIPS:

1/ Shield your laptop from knocks with an (www.knomobags.com) executive-style laptop bag. For more fashionable laptop bags, especially for women, check out www.21stcenturydiva.co.uk. For a more rough and ready look, check out Pakum's range of urban laptop bags.

2/ If you're not sure whether your laptop has Wi-Fi, just look for the Intel Centrino badge – all laptops must have wireless capabilities if they want to sport it.

3/ Make sure your hard drive size reflects what you'll use your laptop for. 40GB will suffice for word processing and spreadsheet jobs, but if you want a stack of music and movies, then you’ll need at least 100GB.

4/ Western Digital (www.wdmybook. com) make external hard drives up to 1TB in size, so you can back up your data, in case your hard drive crashes.
Ultra Mobile PCs

SONY VGN UX-50

PERFORMANCE: With a slide-out keyboard, a superb screen, and
a handy fingerprint scanner for protection from spies, this has
“quality” (metaphorically) and “Sony” (literally) written all over it.
LOVE: Crisp screen. Powerful processor. Tasty looks.
HATE: The 4.5-inch screen is less than ideal for prolonged use.

Search for one here.
SAMSUNG Q1

PERFORMANCE: The seven-inch screen is great for watching
films, and the processor’s kick-arse. Unfortunately, Samsung blot their machine’s copybook with an extremely fiddly interface.
LOVE: Pretty good for multimedia gubbins.
HATE: Underpowered. Poor virtual keyboard.

Buy one here.
TABLET KIOSK EO V7110

PERFORMANCE: Affordable, intuitive, and packing a seven-inch screen, the Kiosk is grossly underpowered. Watching HD movies on it is about as much fun as an elastic band in the eyes.
LOVE: Decent sized screen. Good interface.
HATE: Ugly. Multimedia is decidedly lacking. Underpowered.

Search for one here.
Mini PCs

Evesham Mini PC Plus

PERFORMANCE: Performance Includes Windows Media Centre, a digital TV tuner and can output HD content.
Love: Compact size. TV tuner.
Hate: Graphics card stuggles with games.

Search for one here.
Shuttle mini X100

PERFORMANCE: Great for gaming, this mini PC also outputs HD content. No TV tuner, though.
Love: Quiet operation. Great graphics.
Hate: No TV tuner. Bigger than most mini PCs.

Search for one here.
Laptops

Sony Vaio VGN-TX5N

PERFORMANCE: Amazing looks, screen, keyboard and DVD rewriter make this an outstanding laptop.
Love:Excellent battery life. Delightful screen.
Hate: It’s pretty expensive. Not dual core.

Search for one here.
Dell XPS M1710

PERFORMANCE: With screen-frying graphics and a dual core processor, this is a treat for gamers.
Love: Stunning gaming. Impressive power.
Hate: Price is mildly painful.

Search for one here.
Apple MacBook

PERFORMANCE: Stunning design make this highly desirable.
Love: Excellent battery. Compact design.
Hate: Having to pay extra for the black paint.

Buy one here.
Media PCs

Sony VGX-XL302

PERFORMANCE: A 500GB hard drive, twin Freeview tuners and a Blu-Ray recorder? We’re there.
Love: Quiet. Powerful. Plays Blu-Ray discs.
Hate: Expensive and chunkmungous.

Search for one here.
HP Touchsmart PC IQ770

PERFORMANCE: Vista-equipped, stunning specs, decent graphics and a user-friendly touchscreen.
Love: Wonderful touchy-feely screen.
Hate: Only a single, solitary TV tuner.

Search for one here.
Apple iMAC

PERFORMANCE: Plenty of power for multimedia use, an outstanding screen, user-friendly OS plus excellent iChat and iPhoto software.
Love: User-friendly. Great software. Looks lush.
Hate: Where’s the TV tuner, eh?

Buy one here.

Virgin Media links

Related links

Search for PC services

21-07-2008