MSI’s PR600 notebook is based around a 15.4in widescreen and Intel’s Core 2 Duo T7250 processor, which is clocked at 2GHz.

The latter might not be the fastest model on the block, but it’s certainly not a bad inclusion at this price.

There’s 2GB of memory, but the notebook doesn’t include a dedicated graphics card, relying instead on an Intel 965 chipset for its video performance.

A score of 4,092 in PCmark05 is reasonable, but by no means spectacular, while the 3Dmark05 and 3Dmark06 scores of 878 and 598 respectively again bear out the paucity of the onboard graphics, which will be unable to deal with new games in anything but the very lowest resolution and detail settings.

The screen has a resolution of 1,280x800 pixels, which is a little low for our liking on a screen of this size, but it’s still perfectly sharp and clear. Brightness levels are also good. It’s not an anti-glare screen, which helps increase the contrast, but this does mean that in environments with lots of bright light sources it’s susceptible to reflections.

The chassis is quite boxy and not particularly inspiring, but on the plus side it’s reasonably portable. There’s enough room on the right of the main keyboard for a numeric keypad, and the keys are reasonably pleasant to type on. There’s also a special function key for switching off the trackpad, which will come in handy if you find that it interferes with your typing.

The 160GB hard disk is complemented by the multiformat DVD writer and it includes an eSata port, which can be used for attaching extra storage. Also present are four USB2 ports and a single mini-Firewire socket.

Network and modem connections sit on one side of the chassis, while on the other you’ll find the VGA socket for monitor connections and an S-video output.

There’s no TV tuner included to take advantage of Vista Home Premium’s Media Center application, so if you want to watch and record live TV you’ll need to purchase a tuner separately. A small 1.3-megapixel webcam is mounted into the top of the screen’s bezel, and a pair of tiny, and indeed tinny, speakers sits just above the keyboard. While these speakers are perfectly adequate for the likes of Youtube videos, they don’t sound great during gaming or movies. As you might expect, though, it comes with a headphone output as well as a microphone socket and a digital audio output in the form of optical S/PDIF.

With a weight of only 2.5kg it’s fairly portable for a notebook with a relatively large screen, and its decent battery life of four hours and 44 minutes in our Mobilemark Reader test shows it will happily stray from the mains for extended periods, making it ideal for those who need to work while out and about (or for watching DVDs while travelling). Of course, like all modern notebooks it comes with Wifi (802.11a, b, and g) and Bluetooth.

The PR600 includes a carry case, two-year warranty that covers parts and labour around the world (if you’re on the UK mainland, it also offers a collect-and-return service). At £699, it’s a fairly reasonable deal - you do get a powerful workhorse computer and the battery life is good. But you’re not really getting anything spectacular for the money, and if you are partial to playing the occasional game you should look for a laptop with a dedicated graphics card.