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Lexibook 
Laptop Master
£199.99 Lexibook

Designed for kids, this laptop caters for all their personal computing needs in a user-friendly manner. 

Coming in a garish shade of orange, the laptop is robust and light too — just 0.8 kg — so easy enough to lug around. 

Featuring 533 MHz CPU, 128MB memory and 4GB storage (expandable to 16GB), just push the On button and Windows boots up automatically. 

Windows CE v.5 is the operating system on offer — it looks pretty dated but it’s a doddle to use.

The icons for all the applications you need are displayed on the desktop so there’s no need to wade through menus. 

Windows applications

It comes with Softmaker Office 2008, which includes versions of familiar looking Windows applications — the Text Maker word processor, Presentation (like PowerPoint), while Table is like Excel. 

You can enjoy songs and videos with the inbuilt Window Media Player and transform your laptop into a media centre, storing audio, video, pictures and sound. 

Fifty games are included and there’s a neat translator allowing you to interpret six languages (French, Italian, English, German, Spanish and Portuguese). 

The My Homework section features tips and activities, covering several topics. 

You can hook the laptop up to the Internet using an Ethernet cable (not included) and there’s even Wi-Fi capability, though you have to fork out for a USB key to set this up. 

You have email software called Inbox, a type of instant messenger and Internet Explorer which lets you surf the ’Net (although within some pretty strict parameters). Parents can add to the banned list and restrict the amount of time spent online.

There’s no disk drive but there are two USB ports and an SD card reader which is cool. 

This is a plucky attempt to produce a child-friendly laptop — it’s easy to use and comes with heaps of useful applications and content. 

Sport Relief — A team of seven celebrities (Fearne Cotton, Davina McCall, David Walliams, Jimmy Carr, Miranda Hart, Patrick Kielty and Russell Howard) have completed a 1000-mile cycle ride. The group crossed the finish line in Cornwall after four days of cycling. Find out how you can get involved at www.sportrelief.com 
Harry Potter — J.K. Rowling’s wizarding stories have topped a list of books people would like to pass on to their children to read. 

Simon Cowell — The X Factor supremo reckons he’s too harsh on the reality TV contestants he thinks are rubbish! Sometimes he even makes unlucky wannabes cry.

Hilary Heath

By Kevin Sculley