We saw some very decent 13.3in notebooks this year. A form factor made popular by the Apple MacBook rather hairy, the Dell XPS M1330, Sony SZ6 are also very good examples of this sector, both in providing excellent performance in a relatively portable chassis. However, if you have been tempted by those found but they sit a little outside your budget, the Toshiba Satellite U300 series may be worth a look.

Our model is the sample U300-134, retail price, which is generally a little less than £ 700, but is currently available for the extremely low price of £ 650 inc. VAT. For that, you get a system powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo T7250, which runs at a healthy with a 2.0GHz FSB 800 MHz and 2 MB L2 cache. This is twinned with 2GBs worth 667 DRR2 RAM and a hard disk SATA 160GB 5400rpm, with integrated graphics chipset provided by the Intel GMA X3100. Fine, none of this is particularly remarkable in itself, but it was perfectly acceptable for the price and you could certainly do worse.

Indeed, it sums up the entire base rather well. There is nothing remarkable about that, but there is nothing inherently bad, either: it is acceptable, and mostly without incident ordinary. You get 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, with the obligation 10/100 Ethernet and a 56K modem too present. A Super Multi 8x DVD + /-RW rounded ticking, as the 13.3in screen 1280 x 800 with a 1.3 Megapixel camera, integrated into the bezel. Although not particularly bright or colorful, it has good lighting, and even stronger, and is pleasant to use, while performing everyday tasks. It is also quite decent to watch on video content, while viewing angles are not a strong point.

This theme is pursued when it comes to connectivity. Three USB is an improvement over the Dell XPS M1330, but also in all other departments is fully below, while remaining perfectly acceptable - there’s that word! For video, you get a single D-Sub, unadorned such as HDMI or S-Video. This is joined on the left edge of those two USB ports, taken headphone and microphone and a control knob control the volume at hand.

Meanwhile, on the home front, there is a FireWire port and the memory card reader, with the support of the SD, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, MMC and xD card format. Finally, on the right side, there is a 54mm ExpressCard slot, another USB port, an Ethernet port and a modem port, all of which are organized around the optical drive. Also worth noting are the shortcut buttons above the keyboard, providing quick access to your browser and media player, as well as playback controls.

So far, the Satellite U300-134 has done a good account of itself. He had merely solid features and components, but for the price, everything is fine with the machine lacks nothing in fact most people need laptop. Fortunately, it is also a predominantly well-designed and attractive looking machine too.