The Lenovo 3000 Y500, whose six models have been launched with price tags between Rs 31,490 and Rs 69,990, features a 15.4-inch screen and slot-loading DVD burner.

The machine, which weighs almost 2.5 kg, has washed its hands off the traditional fingerprint reader that most of contemporary laptops sport. Y500 has put its 1.3 MP integrated camera to good use -- as a face-recognition tool.

Essentially it captures the facial image of an user, maps the distance between the user's eyes, nose and other distinguishing facial features and build a facial database for authorised users so that they can automatically log in.

Lenovo would do well to launch laptops with similar security features, albeit with a face-recognition software, that would work even in dimly lit conditions and takes the biometric security standards to new echelons.

Two processors: A Centrino Core 2 Duo, coupled with 512 MB RAM (memory) and an 80 GB hard disk (storage) makes the Y500 a nimble machine. The machine delivers a playable Quake 4 session at approx. 40 frames per second, courtesy a dedicated GeForce Go 7400 GPU (for gaming) that handles graphics duties.

The Lenovo's Y500 might be compared with Apple's MacBook Pro that comes in two 15-inch versions that use either a 2.16GHz or a 2.33GHz CPU (processor power), starting with 2GB of RAM and a 120GB hard drive. (There is a MacBook 17-inch version with the 2.33GHz chip too).

Lenovo has integrated a Dolby home theatre system and TV tuner card, a subwoofer that definitely establishes an enriching multimedia proposition. The bundled Shuttle Centre, a media centre like application, allows direct access to the TV tuner and other digital media such as movies, pictures and songs.

Here too, the Dell Inspiron e1505 gives Lenovo a run for its money. Dell Inspiron e1505 bundles in Media Direct, a software that can be accessed without booting into Windows. It's good because this means a quick start up, in case you don't need full-fledged Windows.

Again, the Y500 fails to steal thunder from Toshiba's Qosmio series. Qosmio, a 17-inch widescreen with an internal TV tuner allows one to record television (analog only) to its 160GB hard drive and then make hard copies with its dual-layer multi-format DVD burner.

For the power user: If you are going to utilise the dual core capabilities of a notebook for applications such as Photoshop and other rendering software, or if you do lots of multitasking and gaming, then the Core 2 Duo machines like the Lenovo Y500 offer a big advantage.

If your only concern is how fast the internet explorer opens then you will notice little if at all any, performance advantage in such machines.