Bigger isn't always better. Just consider ENIAC, the first general purpose computer. Containing five million hand-soldered joints, 70 000 resistors, 17 468 vacuum tubes and 10 000 capacitors, it weighed close on 30 tons, occupied 63m² and ran on 150kW of power.

It could add and subtract.

Within 60 years we've reached the other extreme — like LG's forthcoming GD910 phone with 7.2 Mbps 3G HSDPA compatibility, built-in camera, touch screen and Bluetooth… packed into a watch.

But for all their whiz-bang functionality, fit-in-your-pocket mobility and must-have desirability, even current smart devices like the iPhone have a drawback: they're a bitch for typing anything longer than an SMS or Twitter update. So until those geniuses at Apple come up with a way to fold up a full-size keyboard onto a postage stamp, laptops are here to stay.

Enter Toshiba's A300. It's not the smallest. It's not the prettiest. But, all glossy black sleekness once you've opened that faux titanium lid, it gets the job done with just a little flash. If laptops were cars, it would be a VW Golf GTI.

But it's not a car. It's a laptop, and one that's a viable alternative to a desktop unit. With a sharp, bright 15.4-inch display you can use it all day without going cross-eyed. And with the whole unit measuring 36cm by 28cm, the keyboard is anything but cramped, with intuitive multi-function keys.

So it's the kind of laptop you'd use at the office during the day and then take home during the week, to finish off your work; during weekends to watch the movies you downloaded. Or to listen to the music, for that matter — with built-in Harman Kardon speakers, the sound's certainly clearer (and louder) than you'd expect from any portable device.

Then again this Windows Vista-powered Toshiba seems to have been designed with entertainment in mind.

Exhibit A: that dazzling screen. Exhibit B: across the top of the keyboard is a touch-sensitive "multimedia bar" featuring white LED-illuminated "easy keys" to control the playback of video and audio files as well as launch the CD/DVD super multi drive.

But it's not all fun and games. Fitted with a 2Ghz Intel Centrino chip and 2GB of RAM it's certainly powered to do more than add and subtract (sorry ENIAC). And even though portability isn't this Toshiba's strongest suit — weighing in at close on 3kg it's also big enough to stretch onto the lap of the guy sitting next to you on the 1Time flight — the computer's got all the expected mobility features. Bluetooth? Yup. Wireless LAN 802.11? Yup. Integrated 1.3 megapixels webcam to check in with the wife and kids at home? You betcha.

Battery power's not bad either (on average 90 minutes, unless you're really cranking up those DVDs) but truthfully you'll probably spend more time using the Toshiba directly off the mains as you sit at a desk.

The MacBook Air is still the lightest. Sony Vaio is still the sexiest — as is anything by Apple for that matter. But the A300 gets the job done. And well.