Samsung NC10

The best-performing laptop is also the most expensive – you'll have to do the maths on whether it's worth it. But this model from Samsung blitzed both our battery life and general performance tests, winning by some margin. Battery life is obviously something Samsung's worked hard on, because not only is it sturdy (the battery itself has six cells – most of its rivals come with just three), it comes with a sophisticated software-based battery manager, which can be used above and beyond Windows' own settings to fine tune the balance between performance and life.

The battery makes it a bit heavier at 1.3Kg and also a little larger (261 x 186 x 30mm) than the other networks, which means that there's still only space for a 10in (1,024 x 600 pixel) screen but a little bit more room on the keyboard.

As with all the devices on test, it's loaded with Intel's 1.6GHz N270 Atom processor, but has a generous 1GB of memory, which no doubt boosted the performance.

It's got a built-in webcam (1.3 megapixels), three USB slots, a memory card slot (SD-type cards only) and a few other bits and bobs to recommend it. But it all plays second fiddle to the performance which, for a netbook of this type, is second to none.

Features table: