The latest in HP's series of business laptops, the HP EliteBook 2530p gets a lot of things right. It has a trackpad, not in the same class as the thinkpad X300, but sets it apart from the others with better navigation. Its 12.1-inch non-glossy screen is good (but not as good as the Dell Latitude E4200), the notebook is rugged, and HP manages to squeeze in a DVD writer despite its small form factor.

The EliteBook 2530p comes with a 1.86Ghz Core 2 Duo ULV sL9400 processor, 2GB of Ram and 120GB hard drive. It is based on the Intel Centrino 2 mobile Platform, with GMA X4500 for onboard graphics. The EliteBook also incorporates Intel's VPro technology, a unique feature in this comparison. It is especially useful for system administrators to deploy hardware-assisted security and remote system diagnostic tools. As far as performance benchmarks are concerned, the EliteBook 2530p scored 77 on WorldBench 6, our in-house realworld benchmarking suite, and the sixcell battery life was similar to the Dell Latitude E4200. It doesn't miss out on standard connectivity ports, and there's a nifty battery indicator to indicate how much charge is left.

However, there are a few niggling issues. The EliteBook 2530p is bulkier than the Latitude E4200, it weighs 500g more and feels too heavy. Where the Latitude E4200's keyboard is fine, the EliteBook's keyboard comes across as cramped and uneasy to work with. It doesn't have an external Bluetooth or Wi-Fi switch like the E4200. Despite having a larger screen bezel than the Latitude E4200, the elite- Book doesn't come with a webcam, which is disappointing. Instead, it has a fancy flashlight recessed where the webcam should have been. Why? Overall, we felt the EliteBook 2530p was as good as the Dell Latitude E4200 with respect to features and performance, but it scored poorly on portability and design, one of the most important considerations in this comparison.

LG XNOTE P300-S.AP66A2

LG's XNOTE series of notebooks is a good value for money 13.3-inch ultraportable notebook. The P300 has a stylish striped lid, with black screen bezel, and a silver chassis. Features to watch out for include a fast Core 2 Duo t8100, 2Ghz processor, 3GB of Ram, and a GeForce 8400m Gs graphics card. It also has HDMI and FireWire apart from the standard ports, an external DVD writer, locking port, and a handy external volume switch.