MSI Wind laptop

It's clearly silly season on laptops at the moment, with this being the latest in a long, alarmingly cheap line of bargains. Like its competitors from Asus, Acer and others, it's very small and, like them, its battery life isn't exactly brilliant (about 150 minutes). But the Wind does get the basics spot-on. The combination of comfortable keyboard, crisp, decently sized screen, and a good-sized touchpad means that despite its titchiness, you won't be tearing off your sausage fingers in frustration. And, as it uses Windows XP rather than Linux, it'll be far more familiar to most. The downside is that this pushes the cost up - albeit to only just over £300. But its tactile charms makes this the loveliest lap-tapper yet, and one we would seriously consider using. ·