Pioneer has definitely aimed for the performance market with its DreamBook Light 822 notebook, which is the most powerful notebook we looked at recently. Running an Intel Core Duo T2500 (2GHz) processor and 1GB (2x 512MB) of DDR2 533MHz RAM, the 14in DreamBook pulled off an impressive score of 97 in PC WorldBench 5 and 17,469 in 3DMark 2001 SE. These results place the DreamBook above other notebooks in its price range.

However, all this muscle sucks up a lot of juice. The battery lasted only one hour and 29 minutes in our worst-case scenario battery test and only one hour and forty eight minutes in MobileMark 2002. Not a good result if you want to use it while out and about.

Physically, its chassis is sturdy and the lid is latch-less, but that still doesn't make it easy to open with one hand. The keyboard has a very clean-slate look and felt good to the touch during our tests.

The 14in screen delivers a reasonable image from off-centre angles. Audio output through the speakers was not impressive, but a hybrid 3.5mm jack/optical audio output is available.

A built-in digital TV-tuner accompanies the Windows XP MCE operating system, making this notebook a suitable media centre solution. The ATI Radeon X1600 256MB graphics adapter means it can also be used as a gaming machine. It reached a score of 1921 in 3DMark 2006 and was able to run F.E.A.R. comfortably with optimised settings.