Top 10 notebooks of February

There were no surprises in February as value-for-money portables gained the most market and readership share versus exciting but expensive notebooks. Despite having the same design for over a year, the Compaq Presario V3000 series continued to be one of the most popular chart-toppers as a cheap and good laptop. Acer, well-known for offering high-end configurations at budget prices, hit the sweet spot with several models in last month's ranking as well.

For the gaming community, the Dell XPS M1530 was popular not only because it offered exceptional power in an affordable package, but also for having a unique chassis that was instantly recognizable. The Eee PC, which falls into the other end of the scale for being a pure productivity tool, was still one the cheapest full-featured mobiles in the market and sold out almost everywhere, last month.

We polled what readers searched for on our site, as well as sales figures from Singapore stores AAAs Com Solution and MC2 for our latest chart-busters.

	1.	Compaq Presario V3700 series (Core 2 Duo T7500 Processor 2.2GHz, 2GB RAM)   Outlook The HP Compaq Presario V3000 delivers a strong set of components and decent basic features for a competitive price. Optional addons like the HP XB 3000 expansion base further expand the functionality of this series with more connectivity ports and better speaker setup. See full specs | Rate this
	2.	Acer Aspire 2920Z (Pentium Dual-Core T2330 Processor 1.6GHz, 2GB RAM)   CNET Asia rating: 8 out of 10 The good: Good connectivity options; reasonable performance for the size. The bad: Speakers aren't great; no digital video-out. The bottom line: The Aspire 2920 should suit most people who are on a budget and like to stay portable, but still need a bit of grunt. If it had an HDMI port, it'd almost be the perfect solution. Review | See full specs | Rate this
	3.	Acer Extensa 4620Z (Pentium Dual-Core T2330 Processor 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM)   Outlook Sure, the processor is last generation and it's also missing Bluetooth connectivity. However, the Extensa 4620Z hits pay dirt with its wallet-friendly price tag and enough features to satisfy most consumers. It doesn't even stinge on the operating system by going with Linux, and you'll be getting the midrange Windows Vista Home Premium software with this system. See full specs | Rate this
	4.	Apple MacBook-Core 2 Duo (Core 2 Duo T7500 processor 2.2GHz, 1GB, 13.3-inch TFT, black chassis)       CNET Asia rating: 8.3 out of 10 The good: Upgraded CPU for the same price; same great design; Leopard operating system. The bad: Still no ExpressCard or SD card slot; only more expensive models are available in black. The bottom line: Apple has been content to issue minor periodic hardware updates to the 13-inch MacBook, but the modest performance gains and new Leopard OS keep it in our top tier of laptop recommendations. Review | See full specs | Rate this
	5.	Acer Aspire 4520 (AMD Turion 64 MK-38 Processor 2.2GHz, 512MB RAM)   Outlook Don't look down on this laptop just because it's not a Centrino machine. Despite holding an AMD dual-core processor and a discrete Nvidia graphics card, this Aspire chalks up a low S$1,298 (US$955.66) selling price. We admit it is still not fast enough for hardcore gamers, but casual titles and MMPOG players will certainly appreciate this value-for-money offering. See full specs | Rate this