Sitting at the lower end of the sub-notebook price range, the AJP M722 may lack a little in build quality, but makes up for it with its performance and, in particular, its battery life. Fitted with a Mobile Pentium III 750MHz chip and 128MB of main memory, the M722 is no slouch in the performance stakes.

Despite the price, the M772 has an excellent, crystal clear 12.1-inch TFT screen, powered by a 4MB ATI Rage Mobility chip, which gives the display a native resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels. You also get a 12GB hard disk; a 56Kbps modem and Ethernet adapter built in, while proprietary and USB connectors are used for the 24-speed CD-ROM drive and the floppy drive respectively.

But what lets the M722 down is its keyboard. It doesn't seem to be particularly well built; the whole of the keyboard deck has a lot of flex and isn't particularly responsive. On the plus side, the backspace key is a decent size, and there are five programmable 'Easy Start' keys placed above the keyboard. Windows 2000 Professional is installed by default, and you also get a copy of Microsoft Works 2000 pre-installed.

The AJP M722 comes with a high-capacity battery, which gives it a very respectable working time of nearly three and a half hours. This larger battery does, however, increase the weight of the system, taking it up to the 2kg mark. This is a small sacrifice compared to the gain in battery life, though.

Despite its poor keyboard, the M722's processing power and battery life make it worthy of serious consideration at this price.