The clue is in the name. This laptop, perhaps against the current trend, is not designed to be an alternative desktop but rather a lightweight travelling companion that will have just enough power under the bonnet to perform the work you need to do in transit - and without breaking the bank.

It looks sleek and chic with its silver magnesium alloy casing (which is both stylish and designed for durability) and it's surprisingly light at a mere 2.1kg. The only design anomaly is the battery, which protrudes rather incongruously out of the back of the computer, but as you are officially getting four hours of life (and unofficially a still-impressive three) out of it, one can't be too churlish.

In terms of the technical specs, it runs on an Intel Celeron M 1.5GHz processor (upgradeable to Pentium M 2.0GHz) with 256MB DDR RAM (upgradeable to 1GB) and with a 40GB hard drive which could be doubled in capacity on request. That is more than sufficient for most needs and there is the additional bonus of a built-in 1.3-megapixel camera that can be swivelled 180-degrees to show what's on the other side of the room. The quality of the image is more than adequate and it's a pleasure to find a camera that's almost on your eye-line rather than above it.

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It's also one of the quietest and coolest operating laptops available, making it even more ideal for using on the move and on your lap. Although the screen is relatively small at 12.1 inches, it is widescreen which is perfect for playing DVDs via the supplied DVD/CD-RW player. The DVD playback on the test movie was bright and the colours vibrant, although there was a slight deterioration on the darkest colours.

Bearing in mind there's no 3D graphics card (there's 64MB of shared VRAM) and therefore this is not a machine to recommend to gamers, there was still sufficient power to make a first-person shooter like Star Wars Battlefront fit to play. Of much more practical use is the 4-in-1 card reader that will handily transfer SD, SDIO, MS or MS Pro cards from your digital camera or PDA to the computer.

The 802.11g Wi-Fi antenna (which is a total must these days) gives instant access to the Internet and there are no fewer than three USB 2.0 ports for any peripherals. A FireWire port and a PC Card (PCMCIA) slot complete the package and the bundled software includes Nero Suite 3 for CD/DVD burning and the lesser known PANDA anti-virus protection.

The G220 Traveller is in many ways the ideal travelling companion for business people on the move. It has a long battery life, it's quiet, it has a handy camera plus sufficient power and ports to do the job, all at a friendly price.