Toshiba Satellite Pro L40

I bought this laptop four months ago and have been impressed so far. It was very easy to set up and came with all the relevant software to get you started (including Vista). The most important thing for me was the processor speed and battery life - both of which are very good for the price. I can usually get about two hours of battery before it needs recharging (on Powersave mode).

For day-to-day word processing, internet surfing and photoshopping, the laptop delivers very well. A few times it has struggled playing streamed video, but you can usually get round this by reducing the quality of the playback. The keyboard is comfortable and the screen quality is very sharp. I would definitely recommend this as a reliable basic computer.

A few cons:

It's quite heavy (compared to Sony's VAIO range) so maybe not the best laptop to carry around all day.

The internal speakers don't go very loud (and are often get covered when I'm typing). As I use the laptop for music/films, this is a bit fustrating.

The DVD drive is very loud for the first few minutes of playing a DVD (sounds like an aeroplane taking off).