The year's best... laptops

Older netbooks still cut it

As such, older netbooks become something of a bargain. You don't need a dual-core CPU for typical netbook tasks - better to invest the price difference in a memory upgrade.

Of the previous generation, Reg Hardware chose Acer's £249 thin-yet-functional Aspire One D260 as our pick of the crop. The Samsung N230 is a good machine, but, at £350, a lot more expensive than the Acer. Despite that, we'd recommend it too, for its long battery life and rare non-glossy screen.

Acer Aspire One D260

Netbooks remain a largely Intel-only part of the market, but rather a lot of the latest 11-inchers use AMD Athlon Neo chips. Case in point: Dell's rather good Inspiron M101z. Like the 1215N it has a 1366 x 768 screen and runs a full version of Windows. But it has a dual-core CPU - cheaper, single-core models are available, but you should pay the extra. £429 gets you a good, fast yet very portable M101z. It has graphics that outstrip any netbook other than the aforementioned 1215N, which it nonetheless licks in PCMark Vantage tests.

Dell Inspiron M101z

True notebooks - 13.3in, 15.6in and 17.3in machines - all gained Intel's Core i3, i5 and i7 CPUs in 2010, though later in the year than anyone thought when the chips were launched back in January.

You can find all three classes of processor in machines with each of those screens sizes. You certainly pay for portability - for example, Reg Hardware's favourite budget 15-incher, Acer's Aspire 5741, can be had for as little as £370. That buys you a dual-core Core i3-330M running at 2.13GHz, 3GB of memory, a 320GB hard drive and 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium.

Acer Aspire 5741

The graphics core is the one Intel built into the CPU rather that a heavy duty discrete chip from AMD or Nvidia, but it'll do for mainstream tasks. And you can't argue with the price.