As with the rest of the HP EliteBook range, the HP EliteBook 2740p is a rugged machine, meeting US military standard MIL STD 810G. As such, it’s capable of working in the harshest environments, and is tested to withstand water and dust ingress, vibrations and even knocks and drops.

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The HP EliteBook 2740P is therefore well worth a look for field workers that have to work in more extreme conditions, although is just as well suited to clumsy users who want a tablet for more regular use.

Internally, you’ll find a choice of either Intel Core i5 or Intel Core i7 processors, both promising outstanding performance. The HP EliteBook 2740P is also available with up to 8GB of memory, making it the perfect tablet for even the most demanding of applications.

With a 12.1-inch screen, the HP EliteBook 2740P is a compact and attractive device, but the sturdy build quality has a negative effect when it comes to weight, with the 1.7kg weight likely to prove heavier than ideal during one handed use.

The Acer Aspire 1825PT and Acer Aspire 1825PTZ follow hot on the heels of the similarly sized Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830T. Both of the newer machines feature a capacitive touchscreen, that can be swivelled and folded flat for use as a tablet.

Internally, the Acer Aspire 1825PT and Acer aspire 1825PTZ both feature more powerful components than the netbooks they look similar in form to – such as the MSI Wind U135 – making them better suited to everyday use.

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Both laptops feature low-voltage 1.3GHz processors, but you’ll find a more powerful Intel Core 2 Duo chip in the Acer Aspire 1835PT, while the Acer Aspire 1835PTZ packs in a more affordable Intel Pentium unit. Performance should be fairly impressive on both machines, however, with 3072MB of memory on board to help with multi-tasking.

It’s tablet use that these two machines should excel, however, with the 11.6-inch screen giving incredibly small dimensions, which should also lead to a low weight that’s easy to hold with one hand while you write. With capacitive technology also in place, they should both be among the more responsive tablets on the market.

At present, there’s no word on pricing.

Via Netbook Reviews

The Dell Studio 1558 is a great looking laptop that has a hint of the Apple Macbook Pro about it. The flat base and low profile of this laptop gives it an appealing look. A black keyboard and glossy black trim that is understated but sophisticated highlight the silver body.

Dell has built the Studio 1558 around a sharp and impressive 15.6-inch screen. It comes with a native resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, making it ideal for HD Ready movies. We found the screen on our review unit to be sharp and bright with a wide viewing angle, which is something you don’t find on all laptops of this size. This viewing angle makes it perfect for two people to sit and watch movies together and still get a perfect image.

If you’re looking for a little more than just movies, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 graphics card will allow you, or the kids, to achieve some decent frame rates in most mainstream games.

We often see manufacturers adding a numeric keypad alongside the standard keyboard in laptops of this size. Fortunately, Dell has stuck to just the main keyboard on the Dell Studio 1558, so you’ll find plenty of space around the keys. The keyboard is backlit, so not only looks funky, but also means you can also use it in dark conditions. We found the keys to have a fair degree of travel and an extremely comfortable keystroke, making typing smooth.

In terms of performance, this is a powerful and highly usable laptop. Powered by the latest Intel Core i5-430M and backed by 4GB of memory, we found the Dell Studio 1558 loaded up smoothly and ran multiple tasks with ease. What’s more, with 500GB of hard drive space, you’ll be able to store the whole family’s music and movies with ease.

When it comes to connectivity you’ll find the Studio 1558 is a fairly typical laptop, packing in a DVD rewriter, three USB ports, 802.11n Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet port.

If you’re looking for the Dell Studio 1558 at the cheapest place online, we’d suggest Dixons but if you want to reserve it and pick it up in store, PC World has doing some amazing deals, including a laptop starter kit.

Verdict
The Dell Studio 1558 is a pleasing and comfortable laptop to use. The big screen is sharp, the keyboard smooth and all-round usability on par with anything else in this price bracket, making it a highly recommended laptop.

Best features
Great screen
Well-spaced keyboard
Future-proof spec

Not so good
No Blu-ray drive
Average battery life
Closest Rivals
Toshiba L450D-113 Laptop
This 15.6-inch laptop offers an amazing entry-level point into mobile computing, shipping with an AMD processor, plenty of storage and sufficient memory to handle the Windows 7 OS with ease.

Compaq Presario CQ61-320SA
This cheap laptop delivers a great 15.6-inch screen and big keyboard, while the pleasing design of the CQ61 is also solid enough to cope with use by the whole family.

Hewlett Packard Pavilion DV6-1330SA
Digital entertainment in the home is now affordable with this great looking and versatile 15.6-inch laptop. The powerful spec it matched by an energy efficient processor, making it one of the best all-round laptops on offer.

The MSI Wind U135 sticks to its guns in terms of basic design, being a netbook with a 10.1-inch screen that delivers a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. The design is compact and the black high-gloss look certainly gives it a high quality look.

It’s striking how similar the MSI Wind U135 looks to Asus Eee PC ‘Seashell’ netbooks, with a good sized ‘chiclet’ keyboard that pushes through the main body of the netbook. The keys have a great feel to them and we’re looking forward to using this netbook. The touchpad is a great size too and the mouse buttons have a good feel to them.

Read our Asus Eee PC Seashell 1005PE review

With an overall weight of 1.2kg and a large 6-cell battery supplied as standard, this could well be the perfect device for Mobile Broadband.

Inside you’ll find an Intel Atom N450 processor, 2GB of memory and a 250GB hard drive, which certainly ups the usability stake for this device. Ports around the sides offer up the standard array of VGA-out, Ethernet,  4-in-1 card reader and three USB ports.

We’re pleased with the look and feel of the MSI Wind U135 and it’s shaping up to be a great netbook for those on a budget. We’ll be putting it through its paces over the next few days to bring you a full review. In the meantime, check out our MSI Wind U135 unboxing.

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Nearly every netbook we’ve seen with an Intel Atom processor has featured a screen size of 11.6 inches or under, with the odd machine boasting a 12-inch display. The Archos 13 features a 13.3-inch display, however, so is closer to a laptop in form factor.

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We’re not sure whether to class the Archos 13 as a netbook or a laptop, but the use of an Intel Atom processor does mean that it’ll be a cool running machine, so may be able to manage without bulky ventilation fans, helping to keep the weight down.

Unlike the current crop of netbooks - such as the Dell Mini 10v, the Archos 13 will feature Intel’s latest Intel Atom D510 processor, which is a dual-core chip. So, although performance on a daily basis won’t be significantly better than most netbooks, you will be able to multi-task with greater ease.

According to Engadget, the Archos 13 will be available in April, although the website doesn’t specify a price.

Via Engadget

The Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830T sits between netbooks and laptops, with a spec, expected price and size that blurs the line between them. The 11.6-inch screen is easily small for the daily commute, yet it also features a sharp 1366 x 768-pixel resolution, so you won’t lose out on functionality.

The design of the Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830T is similar to existing Acer Timeline models, with a great keyboard and neat detailing. It’s a very thin laptop, at under an inch in depth, and the keyboard features a distinctive style. With raised keys, it promises to be comfortable over longer periods of use.

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It’s the use of an Intel Core i5 processor that really impresses in a machine of this size, however. Providing a great mix of power and efficiency when you need it most, it should make the Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830T a great choice for frequent travellers.

Prices for the Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830T have yet to be confirmed, but we’ll keep you posted when we know more. If it’s anything like the outgoing Acer Aspire 1810, you can expect it to be around the £499-£599 price range, however.

Via Engadget

Style wise, the Sony VAIO M-series looks near identical to the Sony VAIO W-series – which sits towards the top of the netbook world. This means you’ll get the same distinctive and attractive styling, with a design that looks like a mini version of Sony’s regular VAIO laptops, and rounded corners that allow it to easily slip into your bag.

Check out our Sony VAIO Mini W Eco Edition Review

The keyboard features an isolated design – again just like Sony’s regular laptops – and provides excellent usability. With plenty of space between each of the keys, it’s easy to type at speed despite the compact 10.1-inch chassis.

The screen is an area where Sony has cut back to lower the costs of the Sony VAIO M, with a low 1024 x 600-pixel resolution, rather than the 1366 x 768 pixels found on the Sony VAIO W. As a result, there’s less space onscreen, and it’s not so good for browsing the internet, and it lets the Sony VAIO M down slightly at a time when rival products are offering higher resolutions.

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However, the Sony VAIO M packs in plenty when it comes to features, despite its lower aspirations. You’ll find the latest Intel Atom N450 processor in place, offering a good mix between performance and battery life.

The Sony VAIO M also provides speedy 802.11n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth is built-in as standard. The three USB ports are expected in the netbook market, and offer reasonable connectivity.

Stylish, practical and hopefully affordable, the Sony VAIO M should fit in well below the Sony VAIO W – if the higher screen resolution makes a difference to you, then you can opt for the more expensive choice, but otherwise this offers a reasonable way into VAIO ownership.

It’s getting tricky with the sheer amount of Android handsets that have appeared recently, so we’ve put together this guide of the HTC Incredible’s 5 most important features, helping you to decide where it fits in the range alongside models such as the HTC Desire and HTC Legend. Read on to find out more.

8-Megapixel Camera
When we first saw details of the HTC Incredible, it was widely assumed that this handset would feature a 5-Megapixel camera, in line with most of the other high-end Android handsets such as the Google Nexus One. Instead, it’ll feature a snapper with a higher resolution, at 8 Megapixels, letting you take images that can be viewed at larger sizes, or cropped in closer.

Memory
As with the other leading contenders in the Android market, built-in memory for the HTC Incredible is less than impressive, at just 512MB of ROM and 512MB of RAM. This is enough to result in speedy performance, but if you want to store your files (with 320MB RAM free for storage) you’ll have to invest in a microSD card.

Screen
The touchscreen looks like being one the HTC Incredible’s best features, measuring in at a large 3.7 inches. It features a pin-sharp 800 x 480-pixel resolution, and uses AMOLED backlighting to offer better colour reproduction and to deliver a better battery life.

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Sense UI
We’ve seen loads of Android-based handsets over the past two months, from nearly all the major phone manufacturers. HTC does Android better than most, however, as it also features the excellent Sense user interface. This means you’ll find additional home pages on the HTC Incredible, along with extra functionality, features and an incredibly intuitive and easy to use UI.

Snapdragon processor
The Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU seems to be the processor of choice in current high-end smartphones, and the HTC Incredible delivers on this point. Oddly, it’s been underclocked to 768MHz in the HTC Incredible – rather than the 1GHz CPU found in rivals such as the Google Nexus One – but according to witnesses it still manages to deliver “fast, really fast” performance

Via Mobile Crunch

The tablet market looks like it could get a little more crowded later this year, has Samsung is the latest manufacturer,alongside MSI and Asus, to throw its virtual hat in the ring and announce that it is prepping its own iPad rival.

Samsung is no stranger to the tablet market, having launched the Samsung Q1 slate, which was a device many thought ahead of its time. With the re-invention of the tablet this year, Samsung is thought to once again be targeting home users looking to have a small and light device around the house. Emmanuele Silanesu, Samsung IT product and marketing manager, has reportedly been speaking to APC magazine and stated that a slate tablet will ship “in the second half of the year”.

The tech spec for the Samsung iPad rival are still to be firmed up, Samsung IT division director Philip Newton commented that the company was tempted to opt for Intel Atom chips as seen in its hugely successful line of Samsung netbooks. “An Atom-based product…has far greater flexibility, not to mention inputs and outputs. This has more potential than an iPad,” he said.

Could Samsung make as big an impact in the tablet market as it did in the netbook market and with this device aimed at home use, is it something you’ll want to replace your Samsung netbook with? Let us know what you think in the Comments below.

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Via: APC

The Nokia 7230 is an entry-level handset, with a sliding keypad to keep dimensions small without impacting on usability. It targets those that simply want to talk, text and carry out other simple tasks, eschewing the high-end features found on other mobile phones such as the HTC Legend.

The design of the Nokia 7230 is attractive and compact. It features a 2.4-inch screen, which is big, bright and easy to view, and below that you’ll find a group of buttons for navigation. These allow you to use the handset without sliding out the main keypad – there are call and end keys, along menu, confirm and back buttons, and there’s also a five-way directional pad.

The sliding action of the main keypad is robust and smooth, and provides decent quality. Because it’s separate from the top half of the phone, when open it means there’s plenty of space for a set of very large buttons, making it particularly comfortable for texting.

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On the back, you’ll find a 3.2-Megapixel camera, which comes with a single flash. In-keeping with this handset’s entry-level aspirations, there’s no auto-focus, helping to keep the costs down.

Underneath the battery there’s the usual SIM card slot, and a microSD card reader. There’s even a 2GB microSD card that comes with the Nokia 7230 as standard, providing storage space for your photographs, or even music if you decide to transfer it to your handset.

What the Nokia 7230 is like during longer term use remains to be seen, but we’ll be bringing you a more in depth review in the next week or so, also letting you know exactly what this phone is like to use, and the results from the camera.

In the meantime, check out our first impressions gallary below: