The screen is held in place by a pair of serious looking hinges

Backing this up as standard is 1GB of PC2-5300 667MHz memory, but the review system had 2GB of memory - an additional £111.62 on the standard price. The motherboard comes with two SO-DIMM slots supporting up to a total of 4GB of memory. All this gives the 1720 plenty of performance, as indicated by the PCM05 score of 4710, so all your everyday applications should run without too many mishaps.

Handling the graphics is a 256MB nVidia GeForce GO 8600M GT card, which again is a deviation from the standard 128MB GO 8400M GS. While the games performance isn't going to give a hard core gamer any sleepless nights, it does give a fair degree of games play - as shown by the average frame rate of 90fps using FEAR's built-in benchmark. This was at a resolution of 1,024 by 768 pixels with all the game details set to maximum. Even at the screen's native resolution (1,440 x 900) it still managed 78fps. To enhance your games play, the 1720 comes with integrated 7.1 audio courtesy of a SigmaTel chip.

Output from the GO 8600M GT powers a 17in WXGA+ LCD widescreen, which with its 1,440 x 900 pixel native resolution gives a good deal of working space. However, if your budget will flex to another £105.75, the UltraSharp WUXGA widescreen option is a no-brainer, especially as this has an amazing 1,920 x 1,200 pixel native resolution. Built into the top of the screen is a 2 megapixel webcam. Theres plenty of protection for the screen, as it doesnt show any sign of flexing and its held in place by a pair of serious looking hinges.