Back-to-college 15in Notebooks

Group Test So the kids are off to university and you want to pack junior off with a decent machine for his or her studies - not to mention all the social facetweeting stuff the young uns like to do these days.

Or maybe you've got your loan through and you want to splash out on the machine Dad didn't buy you.

What better then than a mid-price Intel Core i - or AMD's equivalent, Phenom II - based 15.6in machine hardy enough to withstand the rigours of student life and still be up for a spot of gaming?

We asked six of the major notebook suppliers - Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Sony and Toshiba - to submit a machine for testing.

Here are the six 15in notebooks we have on test.

• Acer Aspire 5471
• Dell Inspiron 15R
• HP Pavilion dv6
• Lenovo ThinkPad Edge
• Sony Vaio EB2
• Toshiba Satellite Pro C650

But before we get down to each machine individually, take a look at our Buyer's Guide, which will steer you through the choices and factors you'll need to consider when selecting a desktop-replacement notebook, whether it's one of those reviewed here or any of the many other such laptops on sale. ®