It's a truism that the essentials in life are not glamorous. If you want a dependable runabout, you don't buy Ferrari, and for practical purposes a Timex will do just as well as a Rolex. This combat boots vs Jimmy Choo's philosophy applies equally well to notebooks. A slice of carbon-fibre techno-flash no thicker than the morning's toast will turn heads in business class, but how practical is it for the daily grind?

This no-nonsense focus on the things that matter seems to underpin the NEC Versa M340 at every level. Right away, you look at it and think "dull but workmanlike." It's an off-the-peg suit; dark, unshowy and capable of fitting in anywhere.

The Versa isn't a small machine. You are looking at 32.9cm x 26.8cm x 3.6cm (W x D x H), in part to accommodate the 15-inch diagonal of the screen. It weighs 2.8kg, which isn't punitive, but neither is it one for the long march. The general standard of construction is good, resulting in a reasonably solid overall feel. The lid is plastic rather than alloy, which will afford less protection to the screen when the notebook is closed for transport, but there's a limit to what you can get for £799.

The core spec is fair for the price: 1.5GHz Pentium M (not the new Dothan, although a 1.7GHz Dothan model is available); 256MB of PC2700 DDR SDRAM, and a 4,200rpm, 60GB Hitachi hard disk.

Legacy ports - PS/2, parallel, serial - have been ditched in favour of three USB 2.0 connectors and Firewire (IEEE1394), and you get a single Type II PC Card slot for expansion. This is a Centrino system, so wireless networking (the newer, faster 54Mbps 802.11b/g standard) is part of the package too. The floppy drive has also gone (add £64 for an external USB option), leaving only an optical drive. On the review model this was a straightforward combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW (Matsushita UJDA 760e), capable of 8x/24x play (DVD/CD-ROM) and 24x/16x CD-R/RW.

To keep costs down - and because business machines don't need souped-up 3D acceleration - NEC has gone for a motherboard based on Intel's 855GME chipset, which includes a graphics processor. This does the job just fine where 2D Windows applications are concerned, but it isn't designed for high-end stuff like video editing or 3D gaming.

The screen itself is a reasonably bright 15-inch panel with a good, open range of viewing angles. It runs in XGA (1024 x 768) which looks good on the large diagonal - very readable and easy on the eye.

We were also quite happy with the keyboard. It's not an out-and-out classic like, say, a good IBM Thinkpad keyboard, but it was still usable and comfortable enough for prolonged typing. Tilt feet under the base provide a blissfully simple and very effective improvement to the typing angle when you're working at a desk.

Performance was as we'd expected; plenty fast enough for office applications, but with the limitations of the i855GME graphics component becoming increasingly evident if tasked with strenuous 2D or 3D operations. This is perfectly acceptable in a relatively affordable business notebook.

What we weren't anticipating was the startlingly long battery life. NEC quotes up to 5.3 hours, which we assumed to be wildly optimistic, but testing with the MobileMark 2002 benchmark got us an impressive 5 hours 43 minutes. This is without optical drive activity, but gives a fair idea of what's possible in terms of light but continuous use on DC power. Be cautious and call it five hours, and it's still a very good result.

Overall then, a gratifyingly unpretentious and capable notebook, which is just what you need for a business workhorse. NEC provides a 1 year collect and return warranty, which is fair enough, and the Heathrow-to-JFK battery life is an unexpected but very welcome bonus.

This is a practical business notebook, both well designed and affordable. Performance is sufficient for typical office applications, but battery life is exceptional, indicating quality engineering at the system level.