Compaq Nx6320 (RM714PA)

This compact business notebook has all the essential connectivity features, and its Core 2 Duo CPU makes sure that it keeps up with the best, despite its affordable price tag. It did especially well in our battery tests, which is a valuable bonus if you're on the road a lot.

With 1GB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM and a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, it scored well in our performance benchmarks, scoring 94 in World Bench 5. This result indicates that this notebook should have no problems running the most common office related software and will handle multi-tasking of normal applications easily.

In MobileMark 2005's productivity test, which runs multiple applications to simulate normal usage, it ran for 275 minutes before the battery was completely drained.

Like many business notebooks, the Compaq nx6320 uses an integrated Intel 945GM Express graphics chip that draws on the systems main 1GB memory and is not suitable for any taxing rendering or high-end gaming. However, this graphics chip is still quite a capable piece of hardware for everyday needs and will even handle some older games, as shown by the score of 6261 that it achieved in 3DMark 2001 SE.

The 15in screen has a maximum resolution of 1400x1050 pixels and is nice and bright. While the contrast is lacking a little, the vertical viewing angles are good at 130 degrees, making the screen generally comfortable to look at from outside the optimum centre position.

The Compaq nx6320 performed as we expected in our tests, encoding 53 minutes of WAV files to 192kbps MP3 files in a speedy one minute 59 seconds.

At 2.7kg it is light enough to carry around and would be suitable for use on the road. The one small drawback of this particular lightweight build is the less sturdy chassis, which bent and flexed when held by the front edge. The outer casing of the screen was also more flexible than we would have liked, but as long as you're not rough when handling it then this shouldn't be a problem.

It comes with a 100GB (5400rpm) hard drive and an internal dual layer DVD re-writer. You also get a 7-in-1 Media Reader (SD (Secure Digital), MMC (MultiMedia Card), Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Duo*, Smart Media, xD-Picture card) and a PC card slot for type I/II PC cards.Wireless connectivity is supported with WiFi 802.11 a/b/g as well as Bluetooth 2.0. For wired networking the Compaq has a 10/100/1000 LAN port and a 56kbps modem. Both VGA and S-Video ports are available to connect an external display device, together with four USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire port and standard parallel and serial ports. A biometric fingerprint scanner is also built-in for added login security.