Labs

We thought it might be unfair to pick a single winner from such a diverse group, but the HP Compaq fitted the bill: not only is it a great laptop, but it successfully fuses the two aspects of PC use that we were looking at. The words 'business computer' conjure up images of a grey box fit only for spreadsheets; but the 6820s, while certainly capable of tearing through any number-crunching task, also has the makings of a fine personal or family machine.

OK, so its styling does little to shake the image of an office-based bore, but the crisp silver-grey lines are elegant and uncluttered. The only buttons breaking up the keyboard surround are the power switch and a button to turn WiFi on. The case is a little bulky, but that's mostly because it has something you don't often see in a brand name laptop at this price: a 17 inch widescreen.

And it's a cracker. Text was nice and sharp, and the screen was evenly illuminated all the way to the edges. With a business audience in mind, HP has opted for a matt screen rather than the glossy coatings that are now often used to improve laptops' bling factor and maximise the vibrancy of movie playback. We didn't miss it, and the non-reflective finish makes life a lot easier when you're trying to see the fine detail of serious applications under harsh lighting or in sunshine.

Keys to success

The keyboard continued our positive first impressions. It's about as good as you'll find, with just enough travel and a satisfying 'clicky' action as you press each key. Because of the extra space created by allowing for a screen with a 17 inch diagonal, the keyboard also has a full 101-key desktop-style layout, including the numeric keypad to the right - so if spreadsheets are indeed your thing, you won't have to change your usual data entry methods. All the essential extra keys - Enter, Shift, Backspace

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and so on - are in their usual places, reducing the number of characters we mistyped.

Given the big screen, you'd hardly expect the HP to be lightweight, but at 2.95kg it's within the limits of what we'd feel comfortable carrying about, and lighter than the 15 inch Dell. Battery life is another big factor in portability, and here the HP, like many 17-inchers, blotted its copybook a little. At two hours and 49 minutes, it gave up quicker than the other systems in our light use test, and when playing a DVD it lasted less than two hours, so fans of Peter Jackson's movies will need to bring a spare battery.

Of course, not every laptop is destined to be used on the move; you may be more interested in having a capable PC that can be moved around when necessary. In that case you won't want to compromise on performance, and what the HP it lacks in battery life it makes up for in processing power. It uses the same Intel chip as the pricier Dell 1520s: an Intel Core 2 Duo T7250. Like all the others in this group, it's a dual-core chip - essentially two processors in one. With each of those cores turning over two billion times a second (2GHz), and assisted by a sensible 2GB of memory, it scored a very creditable 168% in our genral (2D) benchmark, nudging just ahead of the Dell. Performance-wise, there's little to choose between the two - but when you consider that the HP costs over £100 less, that's a pretty impressive showing.

Mission critical

Even better, while most 'business' laptops get by with basic integrated graphics, HP has equipped the 6820s with a dedicated 3D chipset. The Mobility Radeon X1350 is one of the least capable models in ATI's range, but it managed to run Call Of Duty 2 at 7.4 frames per second in our gaming test. That's not fast enough to actually play the game, or any similarly demanding title, but if you turn down the video settings you'll get away with many 3D titles. It's another feature that makes the HP Compaq a credible all-rounder.

True, you don't get many luxury extras. The 6820s isn't festooned with media buttons and gizmos like HP's own-brand consumer laptops; there's no webcam, the memory card reader can only handle SD and MMC cards, and this model ships with Vista Business, which lacks Home Premium's Media Center and free games. But with performance and build quality like this, who's complaining? A quality 17 inch screen and a solid spec at a great price earn our recommendation.